Heather's Thesis Proposal

IML 346 Thesis Proposal Outline

I. Title: Who Killed Little Joe Owen? Mississippi and Moonshine

II. Abstract: This project will be an effort to research the circumstances and events leading up to the death of Joseph Percy Owen, Jr., a federal agent for the United States government, who was shot in a standoff between government officials and moonshiners in 1922. This will include an abbreviated family history, the history of Prohibition, and the general conditions of the United States (and particularly Mississippi) at the time of “Little Joe” Owen’s death. Sections will also focus on moonshine in mainstream media, from the time of Prohibition to the present, in news, art, and culture. This project will be intended primarily for laymen, but a majority of the information may appeal to a scholar or historian.

III. Description:
1. The genre of this project will be essayistic and taken from both original research and the synthesis of pre-existing theories concerning a culture of moonshine in the South. It will be formatted as a website, including a visualization of data and collection of photographic evidence.

2. This project must be realized in multimedia because the synthesis of varying elements would not be possible in a traditional essay or book form of historical research. Also, it will attract those who may not have been interested in knowing the history of a revenuer in 1920s Mississippi, but to see it visualized, attractive, and applied to their own context will hopefully drawn an audience. The viewer should take away a knowledge of not only the personal story of Little Joe, but a sense of his community and the circumstances of the time. Also, it will serve to shed a bit more light on the culture of moonshining, which is still popular in the South today. This study is valuable in an academic context because this particular story has never before been researched, or weighed against the state of the nation at that point in time. It has also not been inspected for truths that hold fast over 80 years later. History teaches where one comes from and also helps to explain one’s present surroundings—both of which this project will be able to tackle.

3. This project could, depending on findings, be applied to moral political debates which are currently under scrutiny within American politics, although it does not necessarily introduce any issues (known of as yet) into contemporary historical scholarship. The story of Little Joe is an example of government tightening restrictions on production and sale and policing based on morality, which are issues of states rights versus federal rights and who truly has control to govern. It will add to the scholarship which is already in existence on the South, tying violence to alcohol and the law. The format does not necessarily create a forum for investigation or discussion, but that could be amended in the future (visualization of alcohol-related deaths by state and year, death of IRS agents on the job by state and year, etc.). It would certainly create a resource for further research, both by sifting through the histories of Little Joe’s town and last days, and also by compiling research and expression of this moonshine culture as it has progressed. It will be a tremendous resource to anyone wanting to further pursue the topic of alcohol and Southern culture, prohibition, the Owen family tree, or moonshine in media. It also has the capacity to reach audiences outside of a university, scholarly setting, and to encourage them in pursuing history.

IV. Timeline:
- April-May 08: propose film to contacts, begin making connections with research liaisons
- May-June 08: begin research in Mississippi, compile according to website design structures
- July-August 08: finish research in Mississippi, begin in-depth work on website, oversee film production in Texas
- August-November 08: polish website, work on code for visualization graphs (if pursued), prepare for History Dept. showcase
- April 09: prepare for and present in senior showcase

V. Budget: n/a

VI. Confirmed advisors: Terry Seip (HIST), IML advisor yet unknown

VII. Presentation and/or distribution plans/venues: website, USC History Department Fall ’08 Open House, IML Student Showcase Spring ‘09

VIII. Production resources: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, maybe Final Cut Pro; filming equipment; a film student (and actors) interested in constructing a 1920s-esque film on the last day(s) of Little Joe; a website

IX. Prior related work: none on Little Joe, unknown on alcohol and violence trends in the South

X. Research bibliography: n/a for now