Having received his master’s degree in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University, DeWayne has spearheaded the renewed efforts of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund since 2010. He will complete his doctorate in History at the University of Mississippi in May 2018. His dissertation exposes the silences in historical scholarship pertaining to the black freedom struggle, the blues, and blues tourism in Greenville, Mississippi by detailing the careers of Africa American activists and cultural brokers as well as the events from which blues tourism emerged in the 1970s.