Our history

Walk Through The Halls.

Delta Foundation was founded in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1969 by 14 civil rights and community leaders whose work grew out of the Delta Ministry. Eleven exhibits hold what they built, and what we are still building.

Scroll to walk the galleries

Exhibit 01 · 1960s

Before The Foundation

In dozens of Delta towns with unforgettable names, Sledge, Alligator, Beulah, Nitta Yuma, Darling, Bobo, Midnight, the Depression never seemed to end: tarpaper shanties, no indoor plumbing, no paved roads. Through the 1960s the Delta Ministry organized alongside those families for the vote, for food, and for shelter, and Freedom Village outside Greenville rose as a refuge for displaced farmworkers. Out of that work came the leaders who would start Delta Foundation.

Exhibit 02 · 1969

Fourteen Founders

On the strength of that movement, 14 civil rights and community leaders founded Delta Foundation in Greenville in 1969. They pooled the resources of their organizations to overcome three obstacles: no way to build investment capital, no financial institutions sympathetic to the Delta's poor, mostly Black communities, and too few trained professionals. Their objective was permanent, income-producing businesses owned by the people who live here.

Exhibit 03 · 1970s

Industry Comes Home

Through its holding company, Delta Enterprises, the Foundation launched and acquired manufacturers whose products sold nationally: the Fine Vines jeans plant in downtown Greenville, Mid-South Stamping in Sardis, Century Industries, and a Canton switch and relay maker that still operates today as Electro National. The Foundation also helped put WBAD radio on the air and secured funds for decent, affordable housing.

Exhibit 04 · 1980

Lending Where Banks Would Not

In 1980 the Foundation opened its first revolving loan funds for rural projects that created income, jobs, and ownership for low-income residents, and later added urban, minority-business, and Empowerment Zone funds.

Exhibit 05 · First 25 years

Six Thousand Jobs

6,000+

jobs created in our first 25 years

By its 25th year, the Foundation's businesses and programs had created more than 6,000 jobs for Delta families, replacing hopelessness with hope and welfare checks with paychecks. We believe the true number is larger. This is the figure we can stand behind.

Exhibit 06 · 2006

E-Delta Learning Institute

In 2006 the Foundation opened the E-Delta Learning Institute at 819 Main Street, a state-licensed school offering adult and youth education, job preparation, and computer certificates, from office skills to network security, as a bridge into the modern workforce. Its classrooms later became the home of the Foundation's after-school and summer programs.

Exhibit 07 · 2008

A New Generation

Mashondia S. Redmond-Wells joined in 2008 to lead community development and has led the Foundation's education programs ever since: Freedom Schools each summer, the SMILE literacy program, 21st Century after-school learning that grew into Full STEAM Ahead, and now the upcoming Restart program.

A Delta Summit at Mississippi Valley State

Exhibit 08 · 2009

The Delta Consortium For Positive Change

In 2009 the Foundation convened the Delta Consortium for Positive Change, a network of citizens working to give every child and parent equal access to community resources. Its annual Delta Summit at Mississippi Valley State University drew 500 students and parents its first year and, by 2011, more than 750 young people from all 18 Delta counties to talk leadership, education, and the road out of the cradle-to-prison pipeline.

Exhibit 09 · 2010

A Founder Leads

A board member since 1969, Spencer M. Nash became President and CEO after a 2010 restructuring, guiding the Foundation back to the course its creators envisioned. A teacher, community organizer, health care administrator, and Justice Court judge, he leads the Foundation and its affiliate Electro National today.

Exhibit 10 · 2011

Delta Sounds And Voices

In March 2011 the Foundation signed on WDSV 91.9 FM, Delta Sounds and Voices, the first non-commercial radio station in Greenville: local news, public discourse, youth programs, and the Delta's own music, run with a volunteer Station Advisory Board. The station has since gone silent, but the voice it gave the city belongs in this building.

Exhibit 11 · Today

Still Building

Four programs carry the mission today: Full STEAM Ahead after school, Freedom Schools each summer, a drone program that puts flight in students' hands, and Restart, launching soon for young adults touched by the justice system. Helping People, Because It Works!

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The next hall

Help Build What Comes Next.

Every gift, hour, and partnership adds an exhibit to this story for a Delta family.

Stand with the Delta Back to the timeline

Photos: Freedom Village marker, Chillin662, CC BY-SA 4.0. Spencer M. Nash portrait and leadership composite, Delta Foundation. Exhibits captioned Illustration are AI-generated scenes made for this gallery; they depict no real people or events. WDSV logo animation adapted from the station's mark.