Shana Walton is professor of English, modern languages, and cultural studies at Nicholls State University. Formerly, she was director of the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi, program coordinator for the statewide Mississippi Oral History Project, and project director for the Mississippi Civil Rights Oral History Bibliography. She is coeditor of Ethnic Heritage in Mississippi: The Twentieth Century and Language in Louisiana: Community and Culture, both published by University Press of Mississippi. Barbara Carpenter, executive director emeritus of the Mississippi Humanities Council, taught college English for fifteen years at Southeastern Louisiana University, St. Joseph Seminary College, and the University of Southern Mississippi before joining the MHC. As an element of programming for the Columbus Quincentenary, she developed, secured funding, and oversaw the council’s ethnic heritage project, serving as editor for Ethnic Heritage of Mississippi and coeditor for Ethnic Heritage of Mississippi: The Twentieth Century, both published by University Press of Mississippi. She continues to research, speak, and write on the topic in her retirement.
