HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda 05-21-19 4-a - Proclamation Recognizing Professor Bill Ferris 1
ORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: May 21, 2019
Action Agenda
Item No. 4-a
SUBJECT: Proclamation Recognizing Professor William (Bill) R. Ferris
DEPARTMENT: BOCC
ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT:
Proclamation Donna Baker, Clerk to the Orange
County Board of Commissioners,
919-245-2130
PURPOSE: To consider approval of a proclamation recognizing Professor William (Bill) R.
Ferris for his contributions to the local and worldwide arts and history community.
BACKGROUND: William (Bill) R. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History
Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Ferris is also a former
chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1997-2001), and has written or
edited ten books and created 15 documentary films. His work has included co-editing
the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Professor Ferris' books include: Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues
(2009) which was translated into French as Les Voix du Mississippi (2013); The Storied South:
Voices of Writers and Artists, and The South in Color: A Visual Journal (2016). Professor Ferris
also curated "I Am a Man": Civil Rights Photographs in the American South — 1960-1970, which
opened in the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier, France in October, 2018.
Professor Ferris' most recent publication, Voices of Mississippi, is a 2018 box set published by
Dust to Digital containing three CDs of his recordings of blues, gospel and stories, a DVD of his
documentary films, and a book. In 2019, Voices of Mississippi received two Grammy Awards
for Best Liner Notes and Best Historical Album.
Professor Ferris' honors include the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities, the American
Library Association's Dartmouth Medal, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, and
the W.C. Handy Blues Award. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine named him among the Top Ten
Professors in the United States. He is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, and received
the B. L. C. Wailes Award, given to a Mississippian who has achieved national recognition in the
field of history by the Mississippi Historical Society. In 2017, Ferris received the Mississippi
Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.
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Professor Ferris also co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee,
serving as its director from 1972 to 1984, and was the founding director of the Center for the
Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
The William R. Ferris Collection is located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson
Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with consideration of the
proclamation.
SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: There is no Orange County Social Justice Goal impact associated
with this item.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board approve the attached
proclamation recognizing Professor Bill Ferris for his contributions to the local and worldwide
arts and history community, and authorize the Chair to sign the proclamation on behalf of the
Board.
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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING
PROFESSOR WILLIAM (BILL) R. FERRIS
WHEREAS, William (Bill) R. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of
History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and
WHEREAS, Professor Ferris is a former chairman of the National Endowment for the
Humanities (1997-2001), and has written or edited ten books and created 15
documentary films; and
WHEREAS, his work has included co-editing the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
(1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and
WHEREAS, Professor Ferris' books include Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the
Mississippi Blues (2009) which was translated into French as Les Voix du Mississippi
(2013); The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists, and The South in Color: A
Visual Journal (2016); and
WHEREAS, Professor Ferris' most recent publication, Voices of Mississippi received
two Grammy Awards in 2019 for Best Liner Notes and Best Historical Album; and
WHEREAS, Professor Ferris has been recognized with numerous honors, including the
Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities, the American Library Association's Dartmouth
Medal, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the W.C. Handy Blues Award,
the B. L. C. Wailes Award, which is given to a Mississippian who has achieved national
recognition in the field of history by the Mississippi Historical Society, and the 2017
Mississippi Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement; and
WHEREAS, the William R. Ferris Collection is located in the Southern Folklife
Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
NOW THEREFORE we, the Orange County Board of Commissioners, do hereby
recognize Professor William (Bill) R. Ferris for his contributions to the local and
worldwide arts and history community.
This the 21 S` day of May 2019.
Penny Rich, Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners