Honorable Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker

National Congress, Washington DC

Dear Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker, 

The below-signing people support continuing funding for the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC). As our Congress representatives, we, your constituents, ask you to support the work of this valuable institution and of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in general. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation, and the Mississippi Humanities Council is a fundamental cultural force that promotes dialogue and benefits Mississippi people from all walks of life. 

We, the people signing below, ask you to reject the cuts in funding to the Mississippi Humanities Council and the National Endowments for the Humanities. 

Recently, the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) received notice that the National Endowments for the Humanities (NEH) is being drastically shrunk (even perhaps dismantled, we can assume) and that the Council is losing up all of its federal funding, which is around 70% of its budget. This was a decision made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) regarding money that Congress had already allocated to the NEH. Losing this funding will have a domino effect on the whole state of Mississippi. Since 1972, the MHC has helped build spaces of encounter, of communication among the different members of the community, and investing monetary and culturally in the past, present, and future of MS. Throughout its many programs and grants, the MHC supports museums, literacy programs, MS artists, the recovery of historical memory, and its rich and original culture. In their own words, the MHC: “in 2024, with just $1 million in federal funding, the Council presented 750 programs across 90 communities and supported 65 grants to various institutions, including colleges, historical societies, museums, and community organizations. These initiatives include traveling Smithsonian exhibits, our Speakers Bureau, the Mississippi Freedom Trail, youth reading programs, and transformative prison education courses and book clubs.” (MHC Facebook page). Many Mississippi lives have been touched by the MHC many cultural initiatives. The termination or even a drastic reduction of already granted funding by the NEH will affect the MHC and all the cultural institutions it sustains. The MHC initiatives weave this country’s threads and open us up to unexpected futures. 

As members of Mississippi’s community, we have been touched by the MHC programs, and we want to give that opportunity to many others to come. Thus, we sign this petition asking you to stop the defunding of the NEH and the MHC and to reinstate the grants and funding already approved. Please support Mississippi Humanities and the future of our communities.