Historian Dennis Mitchell. Photo used by permission.
Major Works
- A New History of Mississippi (2014)
- A Rich Past, A Vibrant Future: The History & Renovation of the Marks Rothenberg and Grand Opera House Buildings (2006)
- Mississippi Liberal: A Biography of Frank E. Smith (2001)
- Cross and Tory Democracy: A Political Biography of Richard Asheton Cross (1991)
Biography of Dennis J. Mitchell
Dennis J. Mitchell was born in 1947. He attended Florence State University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1971. He earned his master’s degree at the University of Mississippi in 1973. He went on to earn his doctoral degree at the University of Mississippi in 1976. He lives in Lauderdale, Mississippi.
From 1977 to 1980, Mitchell was assistant director of the Mississippi Humanities Council and did some part time teaching at Hinds Junior College. In 1980, he began teaching at Jackson State University where he remained for almost two decades; he was acting history department chair in 1997 to 1999.
Today Mitchell is professor and head of the division of Arts and Science at Mississippi State University’s Meridian campus. He served as Interim Dean at MSU-Meridian from 2001-2002 and 2011.
While his degree is in British and modern European History, Mitchell began to take an interest in Mississippi as a result of his work with the Mississippi Humanities Council where he met many of the state’s writers and artists. His first book, Cross and Tory Democracy: A Political Biography of Richard Asheton Cross is the history the British peer and civil servant. However, his other books all have to do with the state of Mississippi. His second book is a biography of Frank E. Smith, an amazing “white Democratic congressman whose liberal stand on race ended his political career in Mississippi.” Mitchell has also written the history of the Grand Opera House and the adjacent Marks-Rothenberg Department store built in 1889 and now known as the Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts. It is now owned and operated by Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. Mitchell’s latest book, A New History of Mississippi, published in 2014, is a comprehensive history of the state with 672 pages of narrative and photos.
Related Websites
- Book by MSU-Meridian professor explores state history, 2014
- Passbooks Online’s Historian Dennis Mitchell Signs A New History of Mississippi.
- Dennis J. Mitchell talks about his book, A New History of Mississippi, at History is Lunch
- Q and A with Author Dennis Mitchell by Jana Hoops, The Clarion-Ledger, 2014.
- Book by MSU-Meridian professor explores state history. Press Release