NATCHEZ — Cora Norman, executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council from its beginning in 1972 until her retirement in 1996, will be presented the annual Thad Cochran Humanities Achievement Award at 10:30 a.m. today at the Natchez Convention Center.

Cochran (U.S. Senate — R-Miss.) will deliver remarks about the importance of the humanities before presenting the award. The ceremony is part of the 24th annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration Feb. 21-24.

The award will be given on a day the NLCC named the “Mississippi Humanities Council Day: Saluting the MHC’s 40th Anniversary.”

“The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to help sponsor the 24th Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration,” said MHC Executive Director Barbara Carpenter of Jackson. “We are proud to have been a supporter of this outstanding program for nearly a quarter century,” she said.

“We often point out that MHC was a charter funder of what has become an international event, one that provides the highest standard of scholarship with enormous public appeal for Mississippians of all ages and interests and attendees from across the country.”

The 23-member MHC board is meeting in Natchez this week to attend the conference and celebrate Cora Norman’s award.

Norman has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. She also studied at Harvard University, the University of London and Millsaps College.

With her work at MHC, Norman promoted social progress through the study of the humanities.

She was an active and influential leader of the women’s rights movement in Mississippi and known as an advocate of racial justice.

A recent endeavor is her book, “Mississippi in Transition: The Role of the Mississippi Humanities Council,” which she will autograph after the award ceremony.

Sponsors of the NLCC are Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Natchez National Historical Park and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Partial funding comes annually from the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Information about the conference is available at www.colin.edu/nlcc.