BY William F. Winter

Its publication produced no great fanfare. There were no widely publicized autograph sessions for its authors. It has not been on anybody’s best-seller list. It is not prominently displayed nor even offered for sale in the leading book stores.
Yet the recently published volume with the beguiling title, Delta Autumn, may just be one of the most important books that has come out of Mississippi recently. This is a book that has the potential to set public education on a dynamic new course in the Delta.
Its authors are eight bright young men and women, who, as members of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, learned first-hand about Delta public schools by teaching in those schools over the last several years. These first-year teachers have been driven by a passion to help students to overcome the handicap of poverty and apathy that have caused so many of them to fail in years gone by.
This is all the result of the establishment of the Teacher Corps at Ole Miss in 1989 under an initial grant from the Hardin Foundation. Under the direction of Dr. Andy Mullins, it set out to infuse the faculties of some of the struggling public schools with a group of creative and dedicated graduates of some of the nation’s top universities. The initial results were so positive that the state legislature picked up the funding after the first three years. At about the same time the nationally-recognized Teach for America program began to supplement the Teacher Corps efforts by placing some twenty-five new teachers in Delta schools. Recognizing the continuing need for more teachers to work in critical areas of the state, especially the Delta, the legislature in 1995 passed the Teacher Fellowship Program, which provides added incentives for serving in depressed communities. Each year since then, the Teacher Corps, Teach for America, and the Teacher Fellowship Program have placed over sixty new teachers in the Delta. These programs have begun to have a major impact.
Now, with another grant from the Hardin Foundation, members of the tenth anniversary class of the Teacher Corps have produced this marvelous book. In addition to presenting the gripping picture of the educational challenge in the Delta, it provides a unique guide for first-year teachers on how to overcome the barriers that so frequently overwhelm them.
This book ought to be required reading not only for every first-year teacher but for so many others who are discouraged by the frequent lack of public support for their efforts. Teaching, especially in small rural schools in poor communities, can be a lonely and emotionally trying experience. This book can be a source of support as well as providing incredibly creative and perceptive ideas.
The publication of Delta Autumn is but another in an impressive array of innovative projects that have come to fruition in the last few years in Mississippi to raise the level of educational achievement. The visionary and nationally acclaimed Barksdale Reading Institute holds out new hope for breaking the age-old cycle of reading failure in many of our schools.
The Algebra Project under the leadership of Dr. Robert Moses is increasing math proficiency in the schools where it is used. The Kellogg Foundation’s Middle School initiative holds great promise as, in collaboration with the Foundation for the Mid South, it provides substantial assistance for a number of Delta schools. It is in these and other efforts outside the conventional sources of support that a new sense of optimism about education in the Delta is beginning to overcome the old naysayers. The word must continue to be spread across the Delta that the only road out of poverty runs by the schoolhouse.
Discrimination is not limited to race. The line that separates the well-educated from the poorly educated is the harshest fault line of all. This is where we must continue to concentrate our efforts. Delta Autumn represents a major contribution to that cause. DBJ

(William F. Winter is a former Governor of Mississippi and is a partner in the Jackson law firm, Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis.)