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"Do You Want To Know a Secret?"- M.B. Mayfield and Ethical Questions in Public History
Abstract:
The M.B. Mayfield Foundation works to preserve the legacy and story of African-American Mississippi Folk artist M.B. Mayfield. Although not officially enrolled, M.B. Mayfield studied art secretly at The University of Mississippi in 1949. During his life, Mayfield achieved moderate success as a commissioned folk artist, but race, class, and economic disadvantage affected his ability to reach a mainstream place in the art world. In 2022, a nonprofit foundation was created to preserve and restore M.B. Mayfield’s home and archives for a museum in his hometown of Ecru, Mississippi.In the summer of 2021, graduate student interns and the foundation’s archivist and curatorial director faced questions about the sexual identity of M.B. Mayfield. Questions about the ethics of “outing” an individual, the interpretation of materials, the preservation of pornographic material, and questions about the presentation of gender and race in the conservative South dominated discussion during the early stages of the project. Using the oral histories found in Queer Mississippi Oral History Project and M.B. Mayfield Collection, along with the interviews conducted by E. Patrick Johnson found in the Southern Oral History Collection, our poster presentation seeks to answer the ethical questions about gender and race that were raised while processing the M.B. Mayfield Collection. Scholarship on interpreting LGBT history at museums and historic sites by Susan Feneros, along with scholarship on archival practice and oral histories by Gvgk Tang and Ellen D. Swain, will be used as guides to answer the questions raised during the summer internship program.As this research answers the questions raised during the project’s early stages, the foundation can envision partnerships with local LGBTQ+ artists and businesses, develop new approaches to education materials, and accurately present Mayfield as a trailblazer in art and Mississippi.