HAMBLIN GETS HALSELL PRIZE FOR ARTICLE

Robert W. Hamblin, professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, is the 1992 recipient of the Willie D. Halsell Prize awarded by the Mississippi Historical Society.

The Halsell Prize, established to memorialize the longtime biographical editor of The Journal of Mississippi History, is awarded annually to the author of the best article published in that journal during the previous calendar year. The prize will be presented to Hamblin this month in Natchez during the annual meeting of the Mississippi Historical Society.

Hamblin's prize-winning essay, "The 1965 Southern Literary Festival: A Microcosm of the Civil Rights Movement," appeared in the May 1991 issue. The article recounts the efforts of University of Mississippi English professor Evans Harrington and a biracial delegation from Tougaloo College to integrate the previously all-white Southern Literary Festival.

The presence of the Tougaloo delegation on the University of Mississippi campus in April 1965 precipitated a violent demonstration but subsequently proved to be one of the principal events that led to the desegregation of the University of Mississippi campus.

In researching the story, Hamblin was granted access to the relevant administrative files of the University of Mississippi. He also interviewed several of the major participants in the event.