January 8th, 2019
By Velma Benson-Wilson, Quitman County Administrator and Kevin Dayhoff, former Mayor of Westminster MD.

Civil Rights Tour Article 2019 PDF

Marks, Miss. – On January 4, 2019, a nationwide delegation visited Marks, Miss. The 51-member delegation, from as far away as New England, Chicago, Connecticut, Seattle, Baltimore, and Westminster, MD. were part of an educational tour of historic civil rights sites in Atlanta, GA., Tuskegee, AL, Montgomery, AL, Ruleville, MS, and Birmingham, AL. (more…)

This project has been in the making for nearly three decades, and finally, in less than a month, the City of New Orleans Northbound Amtrak Train #58 will sound its whistle at a distance and slowly bring its engine to a stop on the tracks at the new Northwest Regional Amtrak Station at 285 Cherry Street in Marks, Mississippi.

Read More

Interior and National Park Service Announces $12.6 Million in Grants
to Preserve African American Civil Rights History

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service today announced $12.6 million in grants for 51 projects in 24 states that preserve sites and highlight stories related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century.

The Marks Mule Train and MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign Interpretive Trail received $50,000.

Learn More: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/03-12-2018-aacr-grants.htm

On February 27, 2016, Quitman County held a workshop to interpret and commemorate the “Mule Train”, Marks’ contribution to the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968.

The workshop, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and organized by Mississippi State University’s Carl Small Town Center and Department of History, featured interactive centers and exhibits on the Mule Train and Marks.

The goal of the workshop was for the community to tell the MSU team what they wanted to see happen in Marks to mark the Mule Train.

View our Photo Gallery to learn more about this workshop.

Amtrak service will stop in Delta town as early as spring 2016

The announcement that Amtrak will add a flag stop at Marks in the heart of the Delta is already generating quite a buzz in the Delta and beyond. Marks Mayor Joe Shegog recently did an interview with CNN about the stop in the middle of the Delta for people to hop off to visit Blues Trail sites and other attractions in the area.

Read full article: MS Business Journal