Over 100 participants showed up to hear and learn about the historic figures laid to rest at Mt. Olive Cemetery. Below are the pictures and information about each person that was reenacted. JSU’s Office of Community Engagement plans to host this event annually. For more information call 601-979-5828 or email heather.a.denne@jsums.edu.

Mt. Olive Cemetery History- Mt. Olive Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi, is more than a
resting place – it is a silent chronicle of our community’s achievement and endurance.
Established in the early 1900s, it is one of the oldest African American cemeteries in
Mississippi. Over the decades, it has borne witness to the era of enslavement, the promise
of Reconstruction, the hardships of Jim Crow, and the slow march toward civil rights.

James “Jim” Hill

• Born into slavery in Marshall County, MS on the Hill Plantation
• His mother gave birth to him at the age of 14. His father was the slave master.
• The last Black Mississippian to hold statewide office in the 19th century and held
  numerous public offices, including: land registrar (1867), state legislator (1868),
  Secretary of State of Mississippi (1874–1878).

Ida Revels Redmond

• One of five daughters of Hiram R. Revels, the first African-American U.S. Senator.
• A teacher and active organizer in women’s civic and educational movements in
  Mississippi, promoting civic self-improvement for black women.
• Married Sidney Dillon Redmond, a physician-turned-lawyer and influential
  Republican civic leader in Jackson. They had two children, including Sidney
  Revels Redmond, a prominent NAACP lawyer

Virginia Scott-Ford & Henry Ford

• Virginia was daughter of Mary Green Scott, a formerly enslaved woman who
  purchased land in Jackson shortly after the Civil War.
• Virginia lived at 138 Cohea Street in the Farish Street Historic District in Jackson
  and served her community as a midwife, delivering babies and providing essential
  healthcare when Black residents had limited access to doctors and hospitals.
• John Ford ran an informal taxi service and would drive Virginia to her patients’
  homes.
  

Jennie O. Johnson

• Jennie O. Johnson was an educator and pushed for equal rights during the Jim
  Crow Era.
• Former principal of Lanier High School.
• Charter member of the Alpha Delta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. –
  chartered on October 14, 1938, here in Jackson, Mississippi at 723 Rose Street.

Jessie Chambliss

• The Chambliss Building was constructed circa 1936 for J.R. Chambliss, Sr., who
  owned and operated the Chambliss Shoe Hospital, which had previously been
  located at 119 North Farish Street.
• The Chambliss Shoe Hospital, a shoe repair shop, operated in the western half of
  the building. It was one of the first commercial buildings in the Lynch Street area
  to be built and owned by African Americans to house a black-owned business.