James and Judy Wiggins are educators with over 60 years of experience in higher education. Both retired from Copiah Lincoln Community College, they’ve continued to use their talents and skill set in the community. Jim graduated from Mississippi State with a Bachelors and Master’s degree in History. Judy has a degree from Co-Lin, Bachelors from Southern Mississippi, and a Masters from Appalachian State University. Jim taught at Mississippi State before moving here in 1981 to teach. Jim taught World Civilization and American History at Co-Lin. Judy has taught at all three Natchez locations of Copiah Lincoln. Judy taught English Literature and Composition. Judy also Coordinated the Institute for Learning in Retirement and Exploritas, (ILRE) formerly Elderhostel, now Road Scholar. Jim and Judy were both involved in the Road Scholar Program until Covid in 2020. Judy now works for Viking Cruise Lines docking in Natchez. Judy says she loves our inviting city where tourists and crew feel welcome as soon as they step onto our Loess Soil.
When Jim first came to Natchez, his plans weren’t etched in stone here. Jim started sending out resumes to leave Natchez. Jim was house setting in the country, moving back to the city later. He met Judy at Co-Lin, his relationship with Judy bloomed and kept him anchored in Natchez, the resumes were put in file 13. Jim and Judy have been married 33 years and have 3 daughters, Julie, Jeri, and Janie. The empty nesters now only have Elanor Roosevelt a rescued kitty and Clementine their pup keeps them company at home.
Jim’s focus since retiring has been fundamental to History still. Jim taught a series of special interest classes for the public; the class series lasted 8 to 10 weeks on various topics. Jim says as an educator, this was an important part of his job, offering classes to the community beyond tuition paying students. The classes were reasonably priced for those interested.
The first classes were on Islam and Modern Middle East History, 2003. Jim began teaching a more relevant offering, from 2011 – 2016. One series was on Slavery and the Origins of the Civil War, then Slavery and the Civil War. These classes Jim says were important as they sat on the heels of sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Jim wanted basically to teach and affirm the true cause of the Civil War, slavery. The classes were well received and attended.
Jims classes explained in-depth knowledge of how and why slavery was the central issue and cause of the Civil War. Students asked a lot of questions Jim commented. One student asked Jim, “how could that be true if most white southern households didn’t own slaves”. The Reconstruction classes really provided him with an in-depth study of the South, slavery, and race. The Classes on slavery and Reconstruction were so well received it led him to more comparative studies on slavery. Jim studied slavery from ancient Greece to the Antebellum South, he compared and contrasted slavery in the two cultures. These classes were springboards for more to come.
Jim strives to set myths and whitewash to truths in his new book. After the 2016 presidential election Jim went into high gear preparing research for his new book. He wanted true facts, not fake news. Hard truthful research was necessary and would be well documented, “Let there be no Mistakes”. Jims’s research and memoirs in his book are a testament of how myths overshadow facts.
Jim was fueled with dedication and wrote accurately on history and the White Lie. His desire for truthful history led to his new publication being released January 2024. The book will be offered in hardcover, paperback and kindle, published by University Press of Mississippi. Enthusiastic about true history, Jim’s publication, Outliving the White Lie: A Southerner’s Historical, Genealogical, and Personal Journey reflects on his personal memoirs, describing personal application references in his life’s experiences. This book charts conflicting narratives of America and southern identity through a blend of public, family, and deeply personal history for Jim.
Jim will be speaking at the Natchez Literary & Cinema Celebration, Friday February 23rd, at 1:00 pm. “Outliving the Ritual of Race” will be the comparative he speaks on relating to his own life and Living the Lie. His new book will be available for Signing.
Jim pairs historical research with his own experiences in the memoirs. Outliving the White Lie looks squarely at misrepresentations taught today and are continually proliferated as truths. Jim Debunks the history we’ve been taught exposing the Oxymorons of those stories. The legacy of prolonged lies has set in deep indoctrinations that will and have set true history aback for decades. One example he gives is white America and the misrepresentations of Black Confederates to the myth of a “post-racial” America”.
Jim was born in the Delta, Long Shot Mississippi, a rural community near Greenville. Although a small area, Jim says it was large enough to live the lie propelled by white America. Jim focuses on his ancestry in “Outliving the White Lie” and says, “he was hardly a purist”. His memoirs reflect his thinking then and now, from Southern boy to Educator. Factual history guides his thinking now and improves how others view factual history. His life is so much better and others he has taught.
The major subtopics in Outliving the White Lie include, Biography and Memoir, Race and Ethnicity, Whiteness Studies, History, Southern History and “Mississippi’. Southern History is focused on untenable history; Outliving the White Lie will aid you in understanding why so many (Brothers against Brothers) lost their lives in the war. History is not simply a study of the past; it is an explanation of the past and how we arrived at the conclusions and lifestyles we live today. Jim’s research studies our past and speaks truthfully of how it affects our lifestyles today.
Jim says Judy was essential in editing his research and final cut. Jim says Judy is like a beacon of light and he gives her high accolades. When I wrote for the Democrat, she constantly told me “Your sentences are too long”. When I read over my former articles, I can see my style of writing has changed.
I asked Judy and Jim if you had one wish for your students, what would be the best wish you could wish for them. Jim and Judy both agree, focus and pay attention to work. The attention span of students Jim said seems to have declined the last few years he taught, “it was like talking to the air”. Students are distracted by social media with a barrage of things not class related, to which they both agreed. Jim commented, if a student(s) gets interested in a certain topic the rest of the class will chime in and it becomes interactive as they take part. Judy says as a Composition teacher she saw students turn in work they’ve copied from the internet, thinking she wouldn’t notice, it’s not their work. They only hurt their progress by using the work of others, she commented.
I asked Jim his thought on tourism and the narrative tour guides use, and these are his thoughts:
The eternal dilemma of doing history for tourists — How much focus on what the paying customer wants to hear, and how much focus on the “real” history needs to be heard no matter how unsettling? But what if the two approaches are not necessarily contradictory? I think we underestimate many if not most of our tourists. When Road Scholar was still operating, I gave four lectures on slavery and race for each group that came through Natchez. My experience tells me that most people want the real story. Maybe it is more discomforting and complex, but it’s also more interesting.
You will never satisfy everybody, no matter how carefree or somber your presentation may be. But happy-talk history is not “positive.” It is dishonest. For Antebellum Natchez, THE story is white supremacist chattel slavery. The mansions and hoop skirts are subplots within that story. If you want to leave out the meat of the issue, you want history à la Disneyland. And if that’s what you want, I’ll give you directions out of town. But Natchez is history, not fantasy. Show tourists that you respect their intelligence.
Jim continually researches history. He and Judy have a great home library, it reflects his love for research in his new book. If their knowledge was carpentry, their home would be a Castle. They have a lovely home here in Natchez.
