Since 1949, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has erected more than 1,000 historic markers recognizing notable people and events in the state’s history.
In 2021, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science history teacher Chuck Yarborough researched the 35 historic markers located in Lowndes County and found that only four recognized a woman.
But Thursday, Mississippi University for Women, in collaboration with MSMS, unveiled a new historical marker in front of Callaway Hall honoring the three women who founded the school.
“During the 19th century, Sallie Reneau, Olivia Hastings, Annie Coleman Peyton challenged our community, state and nation to live up to one of our most basic truths: that women and men are created equal and deserve equal opportunities,” Yarborough said during the unveiling ceremony.
The MUW founders marker is the culmination of research started in the 2021-2022 school year by MUW history students and students in Yarborough’s MoreStory Monuments project, which aims to tell a more complete history of the local community through proposals for new historic markers celebrating unsung historical figures.
“My students took MUW history student research, they explored that, read it and learned it, and then they compiled the proposal for the marker,” Yarborough told The Dispatch after the ceremony. “My students proposed the original wording, and I’m excited for them to have it actually come to fruition on the landscape.”
MUW President Nora Miller opened the unveiling ceremony, noting the importance of March being Women’s History Month as well as the anniversary of The W’s founding.
“We wanted to have a special way to honor our founding mothers here at The W,” she said. “One hundred-forty years ago this month, our charter created us as the first state-supported college for women.”
Bridget Pieschel, emerita professor of English and women studies at The W, shared remarks about the three women who founded the university. Hastings was focused on creating a women’s school with free job training, while Reneau and Coleman were determined the school should have a rigorous collegiate curriculum, Pieschel said.
The end result was the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls, the first name of the school that would eventually be known as The W.
Students used primary local history sources to research Hastings, Reneau and Coleman before proposing the text for the marker to MDAH.
Columbus-Lowndes Public Library Archivist Mona Vance-Ali, who helped the students conduct research, said working with the students on history projects like the MoreStory Monuments was rewarding.
“We work with the MSMS students on several different projects,” Vance-Ali told The Dispatch. “We just really enjoy working with them and just sort of seeing how they’re able to — sort of for the first time — see history up close.”
Yarborough said seeing the marker come to fruition is a great success for the MSMS students, and it helped them to develop a more complete understanding of the community’s history.
“I think our students benefit greatly from understanding and exploring that most complete history of any community,” he said. “This is just a local example of that.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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