Turkey Creek Project
Student Coordinator:
Heather Dickerson,
Graduate Student
School of Social Work
Faculty Sponsor:
Susan Hrostowski
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
Project Summary:
Recognized in 2001 as one of Mississippi's Ten Most Endangered Historical Places, the Turkey Creek estuary was settled following the Civil War by African-American freedmen whose twenty-first century descendants now find themselves besieged near the geographic and commercial epicenter of Mississippi's second largest and fastest growing city (Gulfport).
Facing urban sprawl, environmental racism, and political-economic isolation since the arrival of casinos, airport expansion, and municipal annexation in the 1990s - community members organized TCCI in 2003 to conserve, restore and utilize for education and other socially beneficial purposes the unique cultural, historical and ecological assets of their irreplaceable community, creek and coastal stream basin.
Project Objectives:
1. To evaluate the needs of the Turkey Creek Community
2.
To develop a student project(s) to address identified needs
3. To create a project infrastructure that insures that students are available to support the project on a continuing (semester to semester) basis.
4. To create/improve the awareness among USM students (with a focus on those attending the Gulf Coast campus) of the Turkey Creek Community situation and human rights & civil liberties issues in general.
5. To encourage the participation of USM students in the Turkey Creek Project and human rights & civil liberties in general.
6. To establish an ongoing (weekly or biweekly meetings) dialogue among interested students on the Coast regarding Turkey Creek, human rights, and civil liberties.
The focus this semester is on developing a curriculum about the
history of Turkey Creek that can be incorporated into a field trip experience
for public and private school students in the local community and throughout
Mississippi.
Photo Gallery:
See a collection of photos from Turkey Creek here.
Video:
Bill Moyers Journal, a PBS news television series, has posted an excerpt from filmmaker Leah Mahan's upcoming documentary about Turkey Creek. To watch the video, click here.
Web Site References:
www.turkey-creek.org
Contact Email Address:
hgdickerson@gmail.com