Provided by the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition <http://www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html>. Phone: 773-549-2545
On August 25, 1997 President Clinton nominated Professor William R. Ferris of the University of Mississippi to head the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Ferris is Director and founder of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, the nation's first regional cultural studies center. The Center houses one the world's largest Blues archives and is the publisher of Living Blues magazine. The last two issues of Living Blues had articles about Maxwell Street. Bill Ferris is a native of Mississippi but has ties to Chicago, where he received his Masters degree from Northwestern University. His academic fields are in Anthropology and Folklore, specializing in Southern Folklore, Blues Music, Photography, and Documentary Film.
Professor Ferris was strongly endorsed for this position by Senator Trent Lott, majority leader of the Senate. Senator Thad Cochran (also of Mississippi) said, "We are proud that the White House is considering someone from Mississippi, someone well respected for his work at the University of Mississippi." * Professor Ferris succeeds Sheldon Hackney, a former president of Tulane University and the University of Pennsylvania. A White House official said, "Bill Ferris can make ideas of the humanities concrete and real to Americans everywhere." *
Professor Ferris was an early supporter of the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition. Below are some excerpts from the letter he wrote in 1996 to University of Illinois at Chicago's Chancellor David Broski appealing to him to commit to save the old Maxwell Street area as a National Historic Blues District.
It is with a sense of urgency and deep concern that I write you about the future of Maxwell Street. Our Center for the Study of Southern Culture has assisted with the production of films, books, photography, and articles that deal with this historic district of Chicago. As the heart of Chicago's black community and as a street that is forever tied to the history of the blues, Maxwell Street has an international fame that might be compared with Beale Street in Memphis and Basin Street in New Orleans.
It is unthinkable that civic, education, and business leaders in Chicago could allow the destruction of Maxwell Street. Sadly, however, such will be the fate of this historic district unless leaders like you take a firm position on behalf of the history and culture of your great city.
The full letter can be read at http://www.openair.org/maxwell/polemis.html
* Quotes taken from "Mississipian Is Chosen to Head Humanities Endowment," by Irvin Molotsky, New York Times, August 26, 1997, p. A9
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