Social Stratification in the Deep South

I enjoyed our “laid back” day of strolling through Clarksdale. We explored the Sunflower River Front, did a bit of shopping at the Cat’s Head and other shops along the main street, toured the Delta Blues Museum, and ate lunch at Ground Zero Blues Club.

During my shopping (and I finally was able to find a few nice gifts to take back home), I couldn’t help but think about stratification. I started out in Cat’s Head where they have a plethora of blues-related merchandise, along with local folk art. Next door was another higher-end gift type store that screamed “white people’s store”. The sales counter was plastered with pictures of white brides and grooms, the sale personnel were all very gracious white southern ladies. The contrast between the two environments was striking.

Lynn and I checked out both restaurants Dr. Hattery talked about: Delta Amusement Cafe and Ground Zero. Well, we started to walk in to Delta Amusement and when everyone turned and looked at us, we turned tail and left. The folks in there didn’t look very friendly. On the other hand, we felt very comfortable in Ground Zero. As far as authenticity, it looked authentic to me, but I would have to research it to draw a conclusion!

The Delta Blues Museum was a pleasant surprise. They had two excellent photo exhibits, one by David Turnley called “Under the Roof of a Tin Top Shack“. It is a group of striking images of the Delta, including our favorite Po’ Monkey’s. The second was Delta Dogs, images of dogs in different Delta settings. The photographer is Maude Schuyler Clay. And I discovered that one of the musicians that had been with a (the now defunct Squirrel Nut Zippers) band I like is with a new group and grew up in Clarksdale. His name is Jimbo Mathus. I’ll hit Amazon when I get home and see if I can get some of his music.

Our final destination today is the Shack Up Inn. What can I say but that it is everything Dr. Hattery promised it would be and more. Lynn and I are sitting in the office kitchen to get strong wireless and the owner, Bill Talbot, told us just to stay as long as we like. We’ve met Guy, who gave us the grand tour of their current renovations of the “bin” building where we are staying.

While we’ve been sitting here in the kitchen, we met Randall Andrews, who is with the Delta Film Commission, as yet mostly unknown, but with grand plans. He asked me to research a question he has had for some time. Is there a relation between the name “Po’ Monkey” and the town of Pomonkey, Md? He is curious because a man named Johnny Dorr came from there in the 1940’s. He’s the guy who operated the agriculture flying school near Merigold (I remember Luther Brown pointing that out to us I think). What are the odds that the two same names are a coincidence? But he hasn’t been able to confirm his suspicions. He interviewed Dorr’s widow but she had no idea. We also met a new summer intern, Eric, for the Delta Blues Museum who is a student from Catawba College. He’s been on the job for 3 days now, but will be here a month and will get 6 credits for his efforts.

Once I finish this (in just a few minutes!) I’ll head back to my bin for the night. Lynn and I have separate bins tonight because each one has only one bed. We’ve been compatible travel companions and roommates, but we both agreed we don’t need to know each other that well!

Tomorrow, we start our journey home - the travel plan is 10 hours and stop overnight in Knoxville

Goodnight.

After a weekend in New Orleans and an evening at a Jook Joint, today’s destination was sobering. Parchman is one of the most notorious prisons in the United States and is the maximum security prison for the state of Mississippi. We had to stow and lock away all of our electronic equipment and money and the get patted down by a guard before we were allowed to tour the grounds. I knew the statistics about the size of Parchman which is a operating farm with 18,000 acres. But to actually see it was amazing. The property went on for as far as we could see. Its size and the fact it is all crop fields make it difficult for escape as inmates have few landmarks to help them guide their way out. There was an escape last month, but the escapee got lost and stopped to ask directions to Memphis. Since he was in a uniform and state car (both stolen during the escape), people knew something was fishy as any state official knows how to get to Memphis. So they caught up with him in short order…..

linked from: http://www.thebluehighway.com/parchman.jpg

It also turns out there was a killing at the prison last week, so we were fortunate to not have our tour canceled. It was a prisoner on prisoner killing using a handmade spear. Very chilling.

We heard talks from three different inmates who told us their individual stories. Two were in for selling drugs, one for murder (in relation to drugs). Evidently drug convictions account for a large percentage of the incarcerations. The sentences for dealing drugs are very severe in Mississippi, longer than for many violent crimes. It made me start to recall my long held belief that there is something to be said for the decriminalization of drugs. But that’s a discussion for another time.

The tour was very educational. Reading about prison conditions and watching dramatizations on TV/movies is much different from walking into one of the units for real. Talk about leaving your comfort zone…..Probably the thing that was most jarring to me was seeing the exercise cages that the maximum security prisoners use. They have access to these for 1 hour per day. The cages are 6′ x 9′ and have concrete floors and no shading. Today was supposed to run up to the 90’s and we saw many men in the cages around 2:30 pm. They looked miserable. How can a person exercise in that environment? I guess it struck me because I’m such an exercise addict and think it might help things if they could wear out the prisoners with some strenuous exercise!

The other highlight of the tour for me was the technology (surprise). We were able to see the surveillance system they have put in place to watch the maximum security unit. It was quite high tech, they have over 300 cameras in place and observe from a facility 3 miles away from the building. We were able to watch the live action on the screens. One disturbing scene was a guard mopping up a huge pool of blood on the floor outside a cell. We were told the prisoner sliced his arm and had been taken to the hospital. We were told this is often done in order to get out of the building to the hospital where the prisoner can get attention, rather than an attempt to really harm himself.

They say they do tours for many school aged groups from middle school on up. I hope it makes the kids think hard about how to live their lives, and not just give them nightmares.

Monday marked the day I count as the most itinerary intensive one of the trip. We met up with Dr. Luther Brown at Delta State University and he spent the day (and evening) escorting us all over the region. Dr. Brown is with the Delta Center for Culture and Learning. I agree with Kendra, the farmland is endless. The little towns, for me, were most easily recognized by the water towers that proclaimed their name.

Over the course of the day, we went to so many different destinations, each with its own unique story, that I felt like we had created the squares for a patchwork quilt. Lots of pieces, not yet sewn together in my mind - Mound Bayou, Po’ Monkey, Shaw, catfish farms, Charley Patton, Blues Heritage Trail, Indianola, Cleveland, Greenwood, Baptist Town, Yazoo River, Viking, Emmet Till, Robert Johnson, and on…..It was too much for me to assimilate all in one day. I hope to be able to go back after I get home and research many of the towns, topics and people more so that I can gain a better understanding of how it all fits together.

The most striking contrast for me today was the one between Baptist Town and the Viking Range Corporation’s vision for Greenwood. Two worlds at the opposite ends of the spectrum, only a short distance away from each other. It’s hard to fathom how the town can reconcile having a corporation build an opulent tourist/business destination while there is such poverty a stone’s throw away. That’s not to say I think it’s a bad idea to try to create a new image to bring people back to downtown Greenwood, but surely that could be accomplished in a less ostentatious way that would include a plan to address the poverty? It couldn’t be that Baptist Town prefers to remain in its current state?

Alluvian Hotel

Hoover’s Grocery in Baptist Town

We got a full dose of southern country cooking today with the highlights being Kool Aid Pickles (not as good as they look) at Hoover’s and fried catfish at The Senator’s Place.

By the time we finished dinner, we had 45 minutes to go back to the hotel and get “all gussied up” to go to the famous Jook Joint, Po’ Monkey’s. We had been treated to meeting Mr. Monkey earlier in the day when we drove by his place. I know others will give better accounts of the evening than I can. But for those who know me, I’ll just say I never imagined this picture: Two librarians (Lynn and me), listening to great live blues music, sipping beer in a Mississippi Jook Joint on a Monday evening.

An event filled day, to say the least.

We’ve been busy over the weekend, so I’ll catch up with two days of reports in this posting.

Saturday, I saw a different New Orleans than my previous pre-Katrina visit. The first stop of the day was at ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the “nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.” Beth spent an hour with our group discussing the myriad of problems that exist post-Katrina. This organization is a national one and has existed for 29 years. But with the magnitude of Katrina issues, it appears their main focus is on attacking the problems that have worsened since the flooding. It was interesting that she made a point of saying that everything that was bad pre-Katrina only has worsened since. Even though I’ve read regularly about all the issues that have been in the news concerning the recovery efforts, Beth gave it a much more personal picture of how poorly the recovery is coming along for the citizens of the Ninth Ward.

Our next stop was a bus and walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. All the photos and video that have saturated the media paled compared to seeing the area in person. It was desolate and had a very hopeless look to it. It was inspiring to see two new houses that have families who have returned to the area, but at the same time, they were sad because they were the only two after almost two years.

Saturday evening Lynn and I had another delicious dinner in the French Quarter at the Red Fish Grill. I walked off the double chocolate bread pudding before heading back to the hotel. We had a much earlier evening than did the students. I heard them around midnight, but understand they were heading out then, not coming in! Must be nice to be young and still have that much energy late at night.

This morning we attended another Baptist church service, this one at the Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. This one was more elaborate than last week: more people (with a wider range of ages, young to old), bigger choir, full immersion baptism of 14 youths, a woman preacher plus screen projection that included what was happening up front, words to the songs and Bible passages, and what I would call advertisements. The collection process was much more elaborate with the tithers (is that a word?) lining up to walk their donation to the front. One collection request was made to buy the preacher a birthday present! Many people went up to be saved at the end of the service. I have a question about this part of the service that I should ask Marcus or one of the others who are familiar with this. Is the call to be saved a weekly occurrence, and if so, what happens if nobody goes up to be saved? Do they hang in there until someone finally goes forth, or do they have a standby person who is planted in the congregation just in case? My very favorite part of this ministry was the fact that they have coupled religion with technology: church members can receive inspirational text or voice message on their cell phones!

After the 2 hour 10 minute church service, we hit the road for Cleveland, MS. The five hour drive (with one stop for lunch, one to wash the bus and a dinner stop) turned in to over 6 I think. But we made it here to Cleveland safely and I think most of us are blogging or working on assignments. Tomorrow is a long day, according to Dr. Hattery, so look for the next update sometime Tuesday.

One week into the trip already! This morning we checked out of the casino, where I managed to avoid the temptation to play the slots. We had one last interview to conduct at the library, this one with our hostess, Prima Plauche. She told her story eloquently and the 5 students who participated in the interview were all affected by the power of what she told them.

Before we could leave Bay St. Louis, a laundromat stop was in order. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve frequented one of them, but it was an enjoyable experience (beyond my pleasure of having clean underwear again) as we got a chance to meet more Bay St. Louis folks and talk with them. One lady turned out to be Patrick’s wife - he was one of our interviewees for the oral histories.

Jill and Margaret do their laundry

After the laundromat, we stopped for another fast food lunch and visited KMart to buy some dvd+r’s to back up the oral histories. I’d hate to lose them, so I want to burn them to disc and give to Lynn so they all aren’t solely in my possession.

The hour ride to New Orleans was used to have class discussion about their experiences of the past few days. As usual, upon reaching our destination we descended upon the poor hotel clerk (at the Royal St. Charles Hotel), hauled our stuff to the room, to find extremely tiny accommodations, to say the least. I’m not sure how the students, who are 3 or 4 to a room can even manuever. But, who stays in a hotel room when in New Orleans and the French Quarter?

We all got the afternoon and evening off and I’d bet everyone strolled to the French Quarter to take in the tourist view of New Orleans. I know Lynn and I did. We found a nice restaurant where we could eat on a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street - the best way to view the sights IMHO.

Today was my “big day” on the trip. Would all the equipment I planned on setting up for the oral histories work right? Even though you test everything several times before hand, there is always the great fear that technology will fail at the most important time. So, I didn’t start to relax until after the first batch of oral histories were completed. But the equipment worked great and our student cameramen/women did a stellar job of capturing what I understand were some very powerful interviews. I think I can leave discussion of them to the ones who experienced them.

So, I want to provide a bit of information on the bronze sculptures that have been one of the topics of discussion over the past day. I sensed that some of our group was a bit astounded that the library would secure a $28,000 grant to restore the 6 bronze sculptures that were damaged in the storm. Why spend that money on art when so many people needed so much for basic survival?

Inner Music by Richmond Barthe

I understand the grant came from NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities). “NEH is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities” (from the NEH website). So the money given the library system came from an organization who gives money for preservation. It didn’t take available money away from any other purpose.

The importance of restoring the sculptures was explained to Lynn by a staff member today. The sculptor was Richmond Barthe, an African American artist who was important for being one of the first to “focus thematically on the lives of blacks” (Answers.com). But more importantly to the Hancock County Public Library, he was a native of Bay St. Louis AND was the first African American to get a library card in the Hancock County library system. So it is easy to understand why returning his works to their original condition was a priority to an organization whose mission includes the collection and preservation of significant artifacts of local people and history.

Today was the start of the part of the trip that I have looked forward to because I am finally getting the opportunity to give a helping hand to my colleagues who work in a Katrina devastated library. After the disaster, our profession pulled together and did all sorts of fantastic things to help libraries who were wiped out by the hurricane. It’s one thing to assist by writing a check but quite another to be able to travel and volunteer in person.

I hope that the students came away from today with an increased awareness of the importance of the public library in most communities, and this one in particular. I think often, folks just take library services for granted and those of us who use academic libraries see them as a place to research and study….maybe not much else. But public libraries fill many important needs for their communities and today, Prima did a wonderful job of describing the essential types of services that her library (and thousands of other public libraries) provide. The fact that they could keep operating and fill such an important role to hurricane impacted citizens doesn’t surprise me. One of the reasons I was attracted to this profession was my admiration of the way libraries help shape their communities. I only have a tiny idea of how difficult it must have been for all of the staff to soldier on under such circumstances. I lived in Charlotte, NC when Hurricane Hugo hit. I worked for a home center company (like Lowe’s or Home Depot) and it was essential that we manage to get and keep the store opened so that people could get the goods required to function in a disaster. Hugo was a big mess, but nothing at all on the scale we heard about today. Hearing Prima talk about how her staff rose to the challenge and continues to do so made me proud to be associated with them all, if only by profession.

I’m looking forward to our service projects tomorrow, I think you all will find them to be rewarding.

Our student athletes and Linda McKay from the Bay St. Louis Library

Today was a busy one. After spending the holiday in a Montgomery ghost town, this morning we all trekked up to the Southern Poverty Law Center. We started out spending some time in the Civil Rights Memorial Center, reading individual stories about those who had lost their lives in relation to the Civil Rights Movement. It was sobering to see the names of over 120 people who had died as a result of hate, both directed and random. Our guide, Andrew, spent an hour with us talking about the work of the SPLC. I was not familiar with this organization prior to this trip, then assumed that they had a narrow focus on racial civil rights issues. However, they are active in several areas. Andrew told us about a current project to address the problems with immigrants who suffer abuse through the guest worker program. He told us of workers who are promised good wages only to find that to make the wage they have to plant 2000 trees per day! Of course, that doesn’t happen. They get deeper into debt that they will never be able to repay, ending up modern-day slaves. He also showed us the Hate Map that the SPLC maintains. It was disturbing to see a group based in Clemmons (not to mention 3 in good old Winston-Salem.

After saying goodby to Montgomery (after returning briefly to our hotel for a pillow retrieval mission by David, and a bank run by Antonio), we headed to Selma to walk the Edmund Pettus Bridge and visit the George Washington Carver Homes. These were both important sites/landmarks in the March. The bridge walk was great, but I admit I felt vaguely uncomfortable walking down the street in the GWC Home area. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. It’s not that I felt unsafe, just uneasy. It also was sobering to visit the interior of the only neighborhood store. The clerk and the goods were located behind metal screening.

A librarian aside: Lynn and I noticed athletic shoes hanging over telephone wires in a few spots. When we pondered what the reason was, our students told us it indicates that drugs are sold there. Not doubting their explanation, but seeking more details, I Googled it this evening and found this interesting article on it from Snopes titled The Secret Language of Sneakers.

After a lovely Taco Bell lunch on the bus, we headed down into Mississippi to Bay St. Louis, where we are rooming at the Hollywood Casino. There’s fairly good Internet connectivity, tons of slot machines, no exercise room. But the good news is that Lynn and I found out we are eligible for tomorrow’s half price Senior Buffet. That’s good stuff!

After all the travel of the past few days, the holiday was a welcome change. We knew that most everything would be closed, so Dr. Hattery planned for us to visit a new facility on the Selma to Montgomery Trail, the Lowndes Interpretive Center, at the site of Tent City.

My day started out with a “touring” 5 mile run through downtown Montgomery. Because of the holiday, there was nobody in evidence. The area is mostly government buildings and so their employees had the day off. This made for a nice run, you could jog down the middle of the streets without worrying about traffic. I took my camera along and stopped to snap shots of landmarks (some are in our Flickr area).

We didn’t leave until 10:30 which made for a nice relaxing morning. The trip to the Center was classroom time with students delivering reports on Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma to Montgomery March. The highlight of the ride, however, was our visit to a truck stop to put gas in the bus. Dr. Hattery turned it into a contest to see who could come closest to guessing the cost of the gas and how many gallons it would take to fill the bus. We also had a stop in Hayneville to get groceries for our Memorial Day picnic. Hayneville is the town where Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal Seminary student, was killed in 1965 by a local storeowner after being released from jail for his part in the boycotts of segregated facilities. We were shown an excellent documentary on Daniels as we rode along.

At the Interpretive Center, we viewed another well produced film, this one on the Selma to Montgomery March. Afterward, we visited the museum that documents the March. Right as we started, a gentleman approach us to ask who we were. This has happened several times, and Drs. Hattery and Smith have told us how these encounters can turn out to be the most educational spots in a planned activity. The man who talked with us is Bob Mants, who was and SNCC member and one of the four leaders of the March. His picture was in prominence on a wall mural. He was 22 when the March took place. The picture above shows Mr. Mants pointing to his younger image. It turns out he lives in the area, was driving by the Center, saw our bus, so turned in to see what group was visiting!

The day was hot, but while there, we had a great picnic complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, lots of chips and watermelon.

Our main event today was to attend Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Since it was closed yesterday, today was the only opportunity we had to see the interior of this building. The services were quite different from anything I had experienced in the past. I was raised an Episcopalian, which had a very formal church environment. Today the music, singing, preaching and participation from the congregation kept all my senses hopping (for TWO hours). When no sermon had happened by the last third of the program (and nothing was listed on the program as a “sermon”), I mistakenly thought that maybe it was being skipped because of the holiday! Then the Rev. Arthur Price got up and launched into what I would classify a performance. It was very easy to get into the rhythm of his words and have their meaning take a back seat to how he was delivering them. However, there were things he said that jumped out. I don’t think I was the only one to be dismayed when he spoke against homosexuality. But I did agree with his take on the importance of integrity: what you do when nobody is looking. Afterwards, as we rode to Montgomery, Marcus led the daily reflections, which focused on everyone’s reactions to the church service. Some astute observations were made by all the students; it was a lively exchange of ideas. You’ll hear about these from many of the students, so I’ll leave that to them!

Here in Montgomery, we are at a lovely Embassy Suites for two nights. But it’s Memorial Day weekend. Many places are closed and there weren’t many dining options, so we all piled into the bus for a trip to the grocery store. Lynn’s post will describe that experience….