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The 21st Annual John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Program celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

Published in 1971, Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a fictional autobiography that tells a story of race in America through the eyes of one woman whose life spans the end of slavery and into the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The publication of the book (as well as the acclaimed 1974 TV-film adaptation starring Cicely Tyson) was an important cultural moment for further understanding the human side of the African-American experience in the United States. 

A digital exhibition, prepared in collaboration with Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, explores Gaines and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman through an archival look at early manuscripts, images, interviews, reviews, and other related items.

The digital exhibition can be accessed .