Social Stratification in the Deep South

We visited the state penitentiary today and it was a sight that I never imagined. When watching movies and television shows about prisons it gives you a different prospective then what I experienced today at Parchman prison. When we arrived to the prison we were told to hide all electronic devises and money wallets and all under the bus and when we got into the visitation area we were full body searched my guards. While in the visitation area one of the prisoners spoke to us. He told us his crime and basically what he regretted doing. His story was appealing but it didn’t really strike me until he told me that he had a son that plays football and is doing great but he never seen him play a down. I felt sorry in a way but in other ways it was kind of hard to have simply for someone that committed a crime. I think that he has learned his lesson but who am I to say so. His whole speech he was telling us the reasons why you do not want to come to prison but it was one reason that I experienced for myself made me want not to ever come to prison. The heat made me make up mind to never come to prison. In the prison sell the inmates have no air condition and it’s like 80 or more people in one big hot room in the heart of the summer with no air conditioning. I found parchman to be an interesting experience but I left there with a lot of questions marks about how the prison was ran and why there were so many women and the construction of the prison.

Today had to be the longest day but I think that it was worth it in the end. We took a tour of the delta. First we went to the Delta University where we introduced to a resident and also a professor of the town. He took us on a guided tour of the city and the whole time we were on the tour I was looking out the window and thinking to myself that the state of Mississippi looks just like it looked in the 1940s. I understand that the people of Mississippi are trying to hold to the tradition of the state and or maybe even trying to find their identity because has been betrayed as share cropping and agriculture. Clearly that is not what the people of Mississippi think they are all about. Everybody we encountered today talked about the finding and the home land of the Blue’s. The people of Mississippi feel like there finding of the blues was mistaken not to be the homeland of the blues. The people in Chicago think they are the finders of the blues but the people in delta Mississippi think other wise and they had evidence that supported they were the homeland of the blues. While that was interesting to me, the highlight of my day was when we went to the senator’s restaurant and ate farmed raised cat fish.

We checked out today and went to church and unlike the church on 16^th street Baptist in Birmingham Alabama I really think that if was living in New Orleans I would attend that church. We arrived into the Delta of Mississippi

We went to the 9^th ward today and the 9^th ward is like the poverty of New Orleans. It was striking to see the debris that was still left from the hurricane years later and everything just looked like  hell had ran through the city. I was touched by what I still seen and I feel like there is not enough help in New Orleans for the kind of population that they have. I feel like more people can reach out besides the people of ACORN.

Today had to be a different encounter to what really happened to the people of New Orleans and to what is really going on. I was not aware of the great devastation that the people of New Orleans went through and is still suffering from today. It is a person that really needs help there and it is a lot of people that died. It is sad and mind bothering to see that the government is not helping the people to feel like citizens and to let them know that it is ok and New Orleans is a great place to live. I left today with a lot of questions as to where who were the people that is and has reached out to the people of New Orleans because they really do need the help

Today was a wrap up day from Bay St. Louis and I was not involved in the wrap up but from what my classmates told me I wish I was their. We did laundry today and took an hour in a half ride to New Orleans. Today is like a cool down day for us because we have been working real hard. We arrived to New Orleans and while on the way to New Orleans we had to cross this long bridge which was the main cause of the flooding in New Orleans. While crossing the bridge I think that everybody on the bus was aware of the after affects of hurricane Katrina which took place almost 2 years ago.

As soon as you crossed that bridge and entered into the town you could still see the devastation that the hurricane had done and all the rumors that you about how the people of New Orleans has no help and that Busch is not doing anything for them, you could see that once you crossed that bridge. We checked into the hotel room and roamed around town a little bit in small groups but today for the most part was a rest day.

Today was a real challenge for me. Today was the first day for me to be a sociologist and I must say that I think that I did a great job. We gave a help in hand to the community today. We interviewed people to hear their stories about what happened during the hurricane and after the hurricane. I think we gave an opportunity to the people that had no voice a chance to speak up. I think they really appreciated us for giving them that opportunity. Even though most of the stories were compelling we as being sociologist had show and almost feel as if we really knew what disaster was and that was the hardest part for me today. We went at library from 8 that morning to almost 8 that night. I think the people of Bay St. Louis will never forget us and they will always thank us for that.

Just being here in Bay St. Louis I learned that this is the place where hurricane Katrina really hit and New Orleans. I did not know this but I felt as if the people felt like they were being over shadowed by New Orleans because New Orleans is a big city. In almost every interview the speaker was bound to say that New Orleans dodged a bullet. I will take my experiences that I learned today and hopefully use it farther more as I continue to go deep into my major and my career.

Today I must say it a drastic change from the civil rights and racial tension of Alabama to the sight of hurricane Katrina that happened in this small place name Bay St. Louis in Mississippi. We had a three hour conference during the day where we got a chance to here a couple of stories from people that witness the devastation of the hurricane. After the conference we took a tour of the city and got a chance to see the actual damages that hurricane Katrina caused in the town. The damage was real serve and the people of Bay St. Louis will never forget that. It has been almost two years later and the people and the community is not where they need to be but they have made progress from the initial day of the hurricane. The houses were swept away and there is still a great amount of people staying in FEMA trailers. The fortunate people are rebuilding their houses and the ones that did not have any damage are already back in their house. During the tour what struck me the most was the poor and poverty part of the town. These people were basically forced to move because the apartment complexes were not being rebuild and if it was rebuild the cost of living was too much for the people.

Today is our last and final day in Montgomery and we went to the bridge that the black people tried to cross to get there voting rights and they were attacked by the police. The tradition name for that day is “Bloody Sunday.” We crossed that bridge and went into the town of Selma Alabama and it is a predominately black town.

Most of the people that were involved in the march that was from Carver housing and we went there today to find that they had historical things that Martin Luther King spoke on and the churches that he spoke at all on the same street. The people of Selma are low income

Today opened my eyes to a lot of things that I take for granted or the things that I am just naive to. What I did not know was that a lot of people lost their life to grant me the voting privilege. From here on I vow to myself to vote and not just to vote for the justice of myself but because of the people that sacrificed their life to give me that privilege to vote. I was down most of the day but I still seemed to mingle with my peers.

 The first full day in Montgomery I learned about the walk for voting privileges. The walk was from Selma Alabama to Montgomery but first we learned about the racial tension that was occurring in Montgomery and the whole time I was thinking how could white people do or treat other human beings like they did, how could they not acknowledge the fact that black people breathe the same air they breathe. I had built up a lot of animosity in heart towards white people during that time and at times I know that it probably showed on my face to my peers that I was anger, upset and mad. I was really bothered by things that happened to my people during that time of history. I just could not understand how a human being can treat another human being like trash. But when professor Hattery and Smith put in document about this white man that basically gave up his life to help the black the people, it total changed my views from seeing all white people as the same during that time.

Today we celebrated Memorial Day and had a cookout. We had a lot of bounding times as a group. It seemed as if we got lost for a second but our SUPER bus driver Ronnie got us back on the right track. We stop to a local store and got hamburger patties, hot dogs, chips, water and soda for cookout. The food was great and I have to give it up for SUPER Ronnie for making it happen.

While we were waiting on the food to get done cooking we started to explore the historical sight that they had there. The historical place was mainly about the walk from Selma to Montgomery. While in the historical place we tent that people lived in because they had lost their jobs because they wanted to vote. We watched a document that basically explained everything that we saw and after our exploring we had a great cookout.

Today I have learned alot about prison that I did not know. The first shocking news of the day for me was that 85 percent of prisoners are in prison for drug charges. That was interesting news to me when I first heard that. I guess that news was suprising to me becuase when I think about prison I think about murders, robberys and drugs may come to my mind time to time but I always thought that majority of people in prison were there for murder charges. I never imagined the day that I would visit a prison and all the reasons that I hear why I wouldn’t want to go to prison but today the heat of the prison solidified why I don’t want to go to prison. I learned that most of the older inmates are the least trouble makers and they want to do the rest of there time and get out. Just from going to prison just to visit I have made up my mind to never go there anymore.