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Two Houses,
One History of Resilience
In the heart of Jackson’s Farish Street Historic District, Mary Green Scott, born enslaved and later a property owner, built two homes that sheltered her family and generations of community care.
Her daughter, Virginia Scott Ford, became a midwife whose “birth house” delivered countless children into the world. Together they represent freedom, entrepreneurship, and the sacred labor of Black women’s work.
Listening to the Women Who Brought Us Into the World
The Granny Midwives Oral History Project, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, gathers memories from Mississippi families who were delivered by or trained under midwives.
Watch interviews, hear voices of daughters and granddaughters, and rediscover the legacy of those who labored through storms, nights, and need to bring life safely home.
For six weeks after the baby were born she would always come every week and see how we were doin’
Rosie Lee Lloyd
Grandmother was well respected... She was just loved by members of the community, and that includes my family, her grandchildren, who visited her often.
Alma McPherson-Fisher
The midwife would come in sleet, rain, or snow... would always wear white aprons, and they would tell the ones at the house to get some hot water, some blankets and quilts ready.
Laverne Griffin
A Monuments Lab
Re: Generation 2026 Project
Wombs of Wisdom: The Midwives’ Archive & Equity Initiative expands the story of the Scott–Ford Houses into a statewide movement. Through restoration, oral histories, and digital archiving, the project honors the community networks of care that sustained Black mothers and families across Mississippi.