At a Civil War battlefield in Mississippi, there's a new effort to include more Black history

Thelma Sims Dukes grew up during the 1940s and ‘50s in a segregated Mississippi town steeped in Civil War history. As a small Black girl, she would walk to school through Vicksburg National Military Park — the hilly battlefield where Union and Confederate soldiers fought and died over whether the U.S. would continue allowing slavery in the South. Union forces won a pivotal campaign to capture the town of Vicksburg and gain control of the Mississippi River in 1863, hastening the war's end.

Related Keywords

Vicksburg , Mississippi , United States , Military Park , Florida , Ohio , Lake Village , Arkansas , Louisiana , Mississippi River , Missouri , Indiana , America , Americans , American , Brendan Wilson , Albert Dorsey Jr , Jamesh Boldin , Peter Everman , Calvin Cathron , Ron Desantis , Henry Berry , Henry Ford , Beth Kruse , Noah Powell , Tate Reeves , Thomas Ransom , Charles Farrar , Nelson Walker , Richard James , Fleming Epps , John Genefa , Isom Taylor , James Spencer , Howard Dixon , Sara Sims , Tony Mcgee , Isaac Stanton , Vicksburg National Cemetery , Us War Department , Union Army , Vicksburg National Military Park , Vicksburg Campaign , National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellows , Us Army , National Park Service , Jackson State University , Thelma Sims Dukes , Civil War , Black Union , Mississippi Infantry , African Descent , Chicot County , Gross Landing , Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellows , National Cemetery , United States Colored , Major Walker , Thaddeus Cock , Ruffian Epps , Anthony Givens , President Lincoln ,