MS HR102

Commends Bill Ferris, a Vicksburg native and folklore archivist, for winning two Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019, for "Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris"

Ferris won Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for a compilation of three decades of field recordings of gospel singers, blues singers, and storytellers, and a second Grammy for Best Album Notes for the accompanying 120-page hardback book and four-disc box set

Ferris began recording local gospel music as a teenager in the 1950s and dedicated his career to preserving Southern folklore, music, and stories from the Mississippi Delta that would otherwise be lost

Ferris' work is archived at the University of North Carolina's Southern Folklife Collection and has been used as a teaching tool for over 50 years at institutions including Yale University, University of Mississippi, and Jackson State University, where he founded the Center for the Study of Southern Culture in 1978

Directs distribution of copies of the resolution to Bill Ferris and members of the Capitol Press Corps