‘Behind the Big House’ focuses on how to share the difficult history of slavery in the U.S.

When Jodi Skipper, associate professor of anthropology and Southern studies, began teaching at the University of Mississippi, she noticed a few things: one, that tourist sites in Mississippi often glossed over the influence of slavery and the stories of enslaved people; and two, that the research she was doing to improve this situation — an academic process called activist scholarship — was not fully recognized by her academic institution.

In her book “Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South,” out now from the University of Iowa Press, Skipper shares her research and provides insight on how to fully tell the difficult history of slavery in the United States. She also shares guidance — and hope — for other activist scholars hoping to pursue projects of their own.

Q: You’re a public anthropologist trained by activist scholars. What does it mean to be an activist scholar?

A: Being an activist scholar means that my work should be collaborative and interdisciplinary, working with non-social scientists and non-academics. It also means that my work is about taking action to create positive change, usually as part of an organized group or community.

Q: Your discussion of tourism in Mississippi is fascinating, particularly how certain narratives — or parts of certain narratives — are explored and celebrated, while others are not. I’m thinking of the “whitewashed” histories present in the blues and civil rights tourism narratives, which largely ignore or minimize the impact of slavery. Can you tell me about how you teach your students to analyze tourism as a practice, and why this study is so important?

A: In addition to having students read articles and books on tourism from a variety of disciplines, I have them practice tourism as tourism guests and hosts. First, I have them visit sites of slavery, especially those in north Mississippi, as guests, and have them critique the tour narratives, guides and the site presentation, in general. I then have them serve as tour guides, as hosts to visitors, for those same sites, so that they can get a sense of what it’s like to be on the side of those attempting to preserve and manage sites of slavery. It’s relatively easy to critique without experience, and my hope is that the applied experience gives them a better sense of what it really takes to do slavery tourism work.

It is my philosophy that recovering hidden or vanished knowledge can help to reclaim histories for contemporary African American populations, as well as help the experiences of enslaved populations become more tangible to local and visiting communities.

Q: In 2012 you began serving as the scholar-in-collaboration with the Behind the Big House program, a community-based model that provides holistic historical narratives at local historic sites. You mention that “the reality is most historic sites of slavery don’t interpret the experiences of enslaved people and are not held accountable for not doing so.” Tell me about your work with Behind the Big House and how you and your colleagues have worked to change that.

A: Behind the Big House is a collaborative effort of several groups working to retool historic site narratives from ones which largely interpreted the lives of slave-owning families to a more comprehensive incorporation of the lives of the enslaved. My students and I work as program docents; I participate in Gracing the Table, a local racial reconciliation group which assesses the program’s impact on the local community; and help to preserve material culture through archaeological excavations at the Hugh Craft House, one of the slave dwelling sites, along with my bioarcheology colleague Dr. Carolyn Freiwald. The program founders, Jenifer Eggleston and Chelius Carter, hoped that it would be a replicable model for other places who might want to tell more complete histories of slavery, while working with less-than-ideal human and economic resources. The program was adapted by Dr. Jodi Barnes, a fellow archaeologist, who helped bring the program to the state of Arkansas. It is now spreading to other Mississippi communities.

Q: Racial reconciliation work is extremely important — and challenging. In this book you interview a number of your colleagues about their involvement and note that your book “is meant as a model not for racial reconciliation work but for how to keep it going.” Why is that so important to address?

A: Although people have been doing racial reconciliation work in the United States for many years, the more recent Movement for Black Lives resulted in a relative surge in these efforts. Although many are doing this work with good intentions, I don’t think that they realize that this work is not about checking off boxes for (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) requirements or something that can be done in a few meetings. For me, the overall goal is a healthier society. It’s long, hard, thoughtful and meticulous work with no foreseeable end. My guess is that many of the efforts started in 2020 have already come to an end, because people have unreasonable expectations. It’s important for people to know that they are working toward a goal that they might not see come to fruition, and that it should still be worth it for the sake of future generations.

Q: Certain narratives — and physical structures — have been preserved in this country for decades, and others have been neglected. While there have been many recent discussions about the removal of Confederate monuments, we have not seen the same quick call to action regarding historical preservation efforts that support Black heritage sites. How would you like to see us move forward as a nation and thoughtfully acknowledge our diverse history?

A: I would like for us, as a nation, to acknowledge that it’s very difficult to aspire to ideals of democracy, freedom, liberty, equality and justice without acknowledging that the nation was built off a faulty foundation that hasn’t been repaired. We haven’t reconciled those ideals with the history and contemporary consequences of slavery. Ideally, we would do that first; but we can’t wait on that. In the meantime, we have many sites around the country, indicative of that history, that are being lost to neglect, lack of preservation resources, and lack of knowledge about their histories. We have to help those, like my collaborators in Mississippi, trying to save these sites and tell the stories of the people who lived there.

Q: You mention that for you, academic research and service are inextricably linked. How has this been a gift — and a challenge — to your academic career?

A: Being in the position to help people serve their communities, by honoring the struggles and contributions of enslaved people, has been a real gift for someone with an interest in how African American heritage intersects with material culture. The challenge to doing this work has mainly been doing it as an academic with job expectations that don’t value service-learning and research as a way to impact local communities. My collaborative work became more of a hindrance than an advantage, in the academic sphere. My university now has a better structure in place to support people doing comparable work, but, like many other academic institutions, it still has some work to do.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: Now, I’m trying to prioritize taking care of myself as I try to help others. I am also working collaboratively to develop a nonprofit, North Mississippi Roots and Wings, whose vision is to 1) value African American historical and cultural contributions to our communities, 2) claim our shared responsibilities to preserve and promote this history and culture, and 3) achieve a more equitable and improved quality of life for current and future generations, based on this shared knowledge. You can find us on Facebook.

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

A: I would like to thank Drs. Teresa Mangum and Annie Valk, co-editors for the University of Iowa Press’s Humanities and Public Life Series, who understand the nuances of public scholarship and offered a space through which public scholars like me can write across and beyond academic boundaries.