Mississippi Civil Rights Project

John Jordan Mitchell, son of Mose Duncan Mitchell, became the first and only black electrician with the Tishomingo County Electric Power Association.

Ford taught from the 1910s at a black elementary school up until school integration. After integration, she became the first black teacher at Iuka Elementary School.

She taught at Burnsville, MS, at the Iuka Colored School and taught the first black graduating class in Tishomingo County.

After stepping down as principal of the black school, he studied electricity on his own and later ran the power plant in Iuka, the W.J. Brinkley House.