The Cleveland-based Delta Center for Culture and Learning in Cleveland plays a major part in drawing tourists to Vicksburg, but funding shortfalls has the center in danger of shuttering its doors.

To help

Contact Luther Brown at the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, 662-846-4312.

Operating from Delta State University, the center works to promote Delta heritage and history from Memphis to Port Gibson. Funding cuts might force the 8-year-old center to close its doors on Sept. 30 if a total of $130,000 is not raised. That’s the figure needed to keep the Delta Center’s staff of three, not including Luther Brown, the center’s director who’s employed during the upcoming fiscal year.

Many Vicksburg residents don’t “consider themselves as being part of the Delta,” Brown said. “But (author) David Cohn often stated in his works that the Delta begins in the lobby of The Peabody hotel in Memphis and runs to Catfish Row in Vicksburg.”

A fundraising effort is underway and, so far, about $50,000 has been raised.

“The DSU Foundation is also helping to seek additional funding,” said Brown.

“The Delta Center for Culture and Learning is a wonderful partner in bringing in business to the area,” said Bill Seratt, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau and secretary of the Mississippi Blues Commission.

The commission’s main project is the Mississippi Blues Trail, which, when complete, will include more than 120 blues markers throughout the state. Two are in Vicksburg — one on Clay Street honoring the Red Tops and one at Willie Dixon Way, honoring Willie Dixon.

The Delta Center organizes tours of sites, such as the Blues Markers, that are historically and culturally significant to the Delta.

When asked about the cuts, Delta State University President John Hilpert said in an e-mail, “Funding reductions for all state universities have resulted in cutbacks. Notices went to the individuals involved that their contracts would not be renewed after July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.”

Hilpert also said some of the projects and services offered through the center “may have to be accomplished in slightly different ways, and the intention is to offer the same benefits the Delta Center has always provided to visitors and area communities.”

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Contact Matthew Breazeale at mbreazeale@vicksburgpost.com