Days 10-13: All over the Mississippi Delta
Day 10 & 11: Cleveland, Mississippi
On the bus, we watched the Darryl Hunt video, which I have seen before but never fails to shake me every time. This case is probably one of the most horrific, modern examples of what racism can cause. Darryl had his entire life trashed, yet committed no wrongdoing whatsoever.
We also took our tour of the most rural cities we have been into on our trip. I definitely learned a lot about how important the Blues are to Mississippi in particular and how it still remains a major form of music in this area. Also, we went to Greenwood, where I fell in love with their Alluvian Hotel and the Viking Cooking Center. I definitely would like to return and spend a weekend there. It was amazing to learn how when Viking began, it revolutionized the entire city, particularly the downtown, and began more of the tourist, upper end part of the city. It was quite a weird feeling to go from the simplistic Hoover’s Grocery to the immaculate hotel and spa; it seemed as we couldn’t possibly be in the same vicinity of the country.
At night, we went to Po Monkey’s jook joint, by far one of my favorite experiences of the trip. It was amazing to experience how lively such a small place could be. I definitely found out I have a love for blues music. Po Monkey himself was astounding in all of his suit changes, and was extremely welcoming to all who came. It was a good time getting to go out and bond with the entire group. We definitely have all gotten extremely close on the trip, which is one thing I value the most and will take away from this experience.
Day 12: Parchman Penitentiary
I have been somewhat nervous though excited about this day. I made sure to not put on any makeup or do my hair because I wanted to appear as least feminine to the convicts we were about to see as possible. In reality, we were in very contained areas so this didn’t really matter. It was a good thing for me that the convicts we spoke with were not domestic abusers or rapists because due to my personal passions with these issues, I would have had an extremely hard time being in the same room with them, let alone listening to anything they had to say. I had no idea that much of our tour would actually be led by convicts, not to say that it was scary at all, I just was surprised at the levels of freedom they would give those who were close to leaving and had not committed violent crimes. It definitely made much more of an impact that we were able to talk candidly to convicts as to how their life was before and in prison. It is scary to see how normal some of these people’s lives were before they wound up getting involved with drugs to make extra money, and where they are now. It is so said to hear the people say all they want in life is to be altogether with their family for once, and be able to watch their children grow up. They will never get their children’s early years back, something that shapes both the prisones and their children’s lives forever.
There were quite a number of things that stunned me about Parchman that I feel are pretty characteristic of prisons in general. One was the obvious amount of corruption in numerous phases of the prison system, such as the lack of emotional wellness programs to get convicts recovered and in a state of consciousness that they can be readmitted into society and know how to be socially proper. Prison officials when asked note that the corruption exists, yet seemed to delay it off as the responsibility of another department to handle. In the end, the problem is too big that it simply is not handled for the most part. Also, the small metal animal cages that were considered the exercise area seem quite a joke to me. All you can really do in one of them is walk around in a four by four foot square. No person can stay fit and healthy on that minimal amount of exercise. Also, the horrible food and lack of any help for convicts during brawls within areas is appalling and inhumane in my mind. Above all, I am infuriated to meet with the convicts we did who are serving forty years, and even some who are serving life sentences for drug charges. Not to minimize the problem of the existence of drugs in society, but I don’t think anyone can argue that drugs are worse than child molesters, murders, and rapists in society. I was looking at a chart when we first walked in that showed how many years was typical for each offense. For rape, the charge was only five years. This is startling and irritating to say the least particularly being a woman, but also that there is just no comparison between drugs and rape. Rape tears apart the victim’s life, not just temporarily, but in most cases, for the rest of their life, yet we only give perpetrators five years in prison? Seriously what are we thinking?
Day 13: Clarksdale, Mississippi
I got up early this morning to finish working on my paper. I was mad again as I tried to walk to get breakfast at a place in our hotel on the other side of the casino that I got yelled at just trying to get something to eat. Like the last casino, I can’t even walk through the casino to go to the bathroom or the restaurant.
We took a short drive to the quaint little downtown of Clarksdale. It was so nice to have some free time to just look around and shop. We went in a bunch of stores, and I got a few souvenirs for some of my friends and family. We talked with a few people in the stores about how long they had lived in Clarksdale, what the rest of the town was like, and they told us a little about the hotel we are staying in for the night. The downtown was very quiet and the outside of stores and buildings appeared rundown, but inside all of the stores were very upscale. All of the stores were really neat, and their pride in blues music was evident in many of the stores. A few of us got to play with one of the store’s mascots which was a cute little pug dog. Next, we had an amazing lunch at Ground Zero Blues Club, and got to sign their wall. Now we are on the way to the much anticipated Shack Up Inn where we are staying tonight. I am very excited to see how authentic this place really is.
Shack Up Inn is awesome!! I absolutely love it! It is the coolest place I have ever stayed. I love cute little old timey places like this. It’s been nice to unwind and be able to walk from house to house to see everyone. I’m definitely glad we decided to trust that the place we were staying would be ok because it was worth it, without a doubt, in my mind.