Born under Jim Crow, educator, social activist, and Cultural Anthropologist, Ms. Terry Williams-Buffington, a sixth-generation Mississippian, shares her passion for social justice with personal stories of her own lived experiences in Mississippi's Jim Crow society and discusses her anthropological research on the lived experiences of black males who, in 1960 were high school students enrolled in the "Negro" public school system in the Ante-Bellum town of West Point, Mississippi. Professor Buffington highlights, the south’s complex cultural environment and black Mississippians’ "sense of place" in 1960, Mississippi. Attitudes towards southern whites a Jim Crow system that guided cultural norms and society movements.
Buffington became the first student of color to enroll and graduate with a Liberal Arts background in Southern Culture and History, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture under the founding director and mentorship Dr. William Ferris, University of Mississippi. Ferris, a two-time Grammy Awards winner for the multimedia set "Voices of Mississippi: Dr. Ferris, is a Professor Emeritus, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Recently, Ms. Buffington gifted her family's Civil Rights Movement collection, too, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A Master level cultural anthropologist under the academic mentorship of Dr. Charles Williams, Professor Emeritus, the University of Memphis, Tennessee. The University of Memphis ranks among the nation's top ten Anthropology departments.
With over thirty years of expertise in higher education administration, a professor of Anthropology, Southern folklorist culture, and history; will talk about how her life experiences shaped her work in higher education and the challenges of being a black staff member on predominantly white college campuses.
As an educator, her career has taken her to Monmouth College, as an assistant to the college president on minority affairs, Monmouth, Illinois, City Colleges of Chicago, Illinois, Lecturer of Anthropology; field ethnographer, Southern Mississippi University's department of history and Oral history, Hattiesburg. The University of Mississippi, instructor Project Learn Earn and Prosper (LEAP) Oxford. Mississippi State University, The Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Lecture of Anthropology, Starkville, Mississippi. Alabama Southern Community College, Director Student Support Services, Monroeville, Alabama, and Mid-South College, Director of Student Support Services West Memphis, Arkansas. A Cultural Broker, City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events and curator, the Chicago Cultural Center/Blues Exchange, Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Professor Buffington was the first black woman in Northeast Mississippi to organize a community arts center, festival (Avant Park) and present a statewide conference on Southern folklore in Northeast Mississippi Oxford. As a community activist, Ms. Buffington presented to the town of Oxford' Black Community Dr. Thea Bowman, the late Roman Catholic religious sister, teacher, and scholar. International folk singer Odetta, and the renowned Staples Singers on the University of Mississippi Campus, Fulton Chapel Oxford. In 2008 Ms. Buffington was the first black woman to register and run for city mayor of West Point.
Like many social justice activists, Professor Buffington is especially concerned about Jim Crow's rise and his ever-presence ghosts and masterful grip on America's psyche. In recent times, in the face of a global pandemic, the upcoming supreme court hearing overturned the Affordable Care Act, Wade V Roe, and ongoing efforts to filter down the 1965 voter's Rights Bill. The inexplicable continuation of a denial of and access to health care for poor people and the "shoot down" tactics used to kill black and brown people—America's ongoing saga of structural inequality, generational poverty, skin color, and gender discrimination.
Professor Buffington, a graduate of the University of Memphis in Tennessee with a Master of Arts in Anthropology, a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts, a Master of Higher education Administration/Student Personnel, the University of Mississippi (OleMiss). Professor Buffington is a resident of Washington State.
Pulman Senior Association Board Member|
Pulman Senior Association
From January 2017 to Current • 9 year(s)
Board member responsibilities for senior association organization.
Lecturer|
Mississippi State University Cobb Institute of Archology
From January 2008 to January 2020 • 12 year(s)
Delivered lectures on anthropological and archaeological topics.
Ethnographer and Independent Researcher|
Independent
From January 2008 to January 2020 • 12 year(s)
Conducted anthropological research on the 1960s Mississippi Civil Rights Movement through oral history collection.
Field Ethnographer|
University of Southern Mississippi Department of History
From January 2005 to January 2015 • 10 year(s)
Conducted field ethnographic research for the Department of History.
Lecturer|
Olive Harvey College City Colleges of Chicago
From January 2002 to January 2010 • 8 year(s)
Taught anthropology and sociology courses at the college level.
