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6 <br /> <br />edited ten books and created 15 documentary films. His work has included co-editing the <br />Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. <br /> <br />Professor Ferris’ books include: Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues <br />(2009) which was translated into French as Les Voix du Mississippi (2013); The Storied South: <br />Voices of Writers and Artists, and The South in Color: A Visual Journal (2016). Professor Ferris <br />also curated “I Am a Man”: Civil Rights Photographs in the American South – 1960-1970, which <br />opened in the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier, France in October, 2018. <br /> <br />Professor Ferris’ most recent publication, Voices of Mississippi, is a 2018 box set published by <br />Dust to Digital containing three CDs of his recordings of blues, gospel and stories, a DVD of his <br />documentary films, and a book. In 2019, Voices of Mississippi received two Grammy Awards for <br />Best Liner Notes and Best Historical Album. <br /> <br />Professor Ferris’ honors include the Charles Frankel Prize in the Humanities, the American <br />Library Association's Dartmouth Medal, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award, and <br />the W.C. Handy Blues Award. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine named him among the Top Ten <br />Professors in the United States. He is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, and received <br />the B. L. C. Wailes Award, given to a Mississippian who has achieved national recognition in the <br />field of history by the Mississippi Historical Society. In 2017, Ferris received the Mississippi <br />Governor’s Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. <br /> <br />Professor Ferris also co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee, <br />serving as its director from 1972 to 1984, and was the founding director of the Center for the <br />Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. <br /> <br />The William R. Ferris Collection is located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson <br />Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. <br /> <br />Chair Rich read the proclamation: <br /> <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING <br />PROFESSOR WILLIAM (BILL) R. FERRIS <br /> <br />WHEREAS, William (Bill) R. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History <br />Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Professor Ferris is a former chairman of the National Endowment for the <br />Humanities (1997-2001), and has written or edited ten books and created 15 documentary films; <br />and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, his work has included co-editing the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989), <br />which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Professor Ferris’ books include Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi <br />Blues (2009) which was translated into French as Les Voix du Mississippi (2013); The Storied <br />South: Voices of Writers and Artists, and The South in Color: A Visual Journal (2016); and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Professor Ferris’ most recent publication, Voices of Mississippi received two <br />Grammy Awards in 2019 for Best Liner Notes and Best Historical Album; and