As you know, RDLN Graduate Meredith McGee is now a free lance writer for the Jackson Advocate newspaper in Mississippi, in addition to her book writing, publishing and entrepreneurship. During March, she wrote seven articles for a special Women’s History Month edition of the paper. Attached are digital copies of three of these articles. Two relate to RDLN, including one about RDLN graduate and Board member Mily Treviño-Sauveda and one focusing on RDLN’s president. The third is a full-page article concerning southern women authors, including RDLN Board members Billie Jean Young, Unita Blackwell and Shirley Sherrod.
In April, Meredith provided eight articles to the Advocate on black businesses in the Jackson area. She expects to have an ongoing relationship with the paper. Meredith is the author of James Meredith: Warrior and the America that Created Him (Praeger Publishing, 2013), a biography of her uncle, James Meredith, who integrated the University of Mississippi; Odyssey, a book of poems and other writings (Meredith, Etc., 2013); and Married to Sin, an oral history of a dysfunctional family (Mose Dantzler, 2012). Meredith, Etc. and Mose Dantzler are publishing companies that Meredith founded. She also owns Typing Solutions, Resumes, Etc., a typing, writing, editing and business consulting service in Jackson. Meredith hosted RDLN’s Mississippi convening at her home office in February. Her mother Hazel Hall is also an author who has participated in RDLN events. Meredith and her husband Will assisted RDLN Board member The Honorable Unita Blackwell, the first female black mayor in Mississippi, in traveling to two RDLN gatherings. Meredith earned her master’s degree from Antioch through RDLN as a “Billie Jean Young Scholar.”
The Jackson Advocate, “the Voice of Black Mississippians,” was founded in 1938 by Percy Greene, a “veteran of World War II and a Civil Rights leader in the 1940s and 1950s.” In 1940, he “and 30 other publishers formed a consortium of African-American newspapers to bring relevant information to black readers in the USA. That association led to the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association, which promoted coverage of injustices against and accomplishments by African Americans. In 1978, Charles Tisdale became the owner and publisher of the Jackson Advocate, positions which he held until his death aged 80 in 2007.” (Wikipedia)
We are proud that RDLN founding Board member John Zippert of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives is also an co-owner, publisher and editor of a black-owned newspaper, The Greene County Democrat in Alabama.
Congratulations to Meredith for this new work and thanks for using the platform to bring visibility to RDLN and the Network members involved.
Starry
Starry Krueger
Rural Development Leadership Network
P.O. Box 98 Prince St. Station
New York, NY 10012
(212)777-9137/(212)477-0367 (Fax)
rdln@ruraldevelopment.org
Meredith Etc 