I took advantage of a company holiday Friday to tour Jackson. The main objectives were the Civil rights museum, where as one docent said, we tell the truth about Mississippi, and the old capital from the steps of which Mississippi seceded from the union.
The civil rights museum is excellent. It really explains how violent and strained race relations have been since emancipation. Immediately after the war ended, blacks enjoyed a brief era of freedom and held public offices. Quickly, Jim Crow laws emerged and violence was perpetrated towards blacks and whites who attempted to stand up for blacks. The history of police begins with slave patrols in the south, so it's not surprising that many in law enforcement were also members of the KKK. Thus, for blacks calling the police was no guarantee of help. Whites who attempted to help blacks were not welcome. in 1901, Teddy Roosevelt was criticized for having "n....s" in the White house.
An exhibit talked about how blacks served in WWII. They hoped that serving with valor would bring them respect when they got home. Instead, they watched as white German POWs could eat in the mess hall with white soldiers, but they still had separate easting areas. Nothing changed when they go home. Maybe that partly fueled the civil rights movement and moments like Emmett Till's murder were the tipping points. Interesting that as I am on this tour not only did a movie about Till come out but also the Tuskegee Airmen.
It was fascinating, horrifying, and exhausting to read and interact with this part of our history. A man who was the youngest Freedom Rider at age 13, was there to speak to some school children who fidgeted during most of his talk but then asked questions that showed they were at least partially listening.
His first arrest occurred when his "friend' pushed him into the white waiting room at the bus station. The police held him on death row for five days before notifying his mother and releasing. His mother overjoyed to see him at the police station. harshly beat him when they got home. He was arrested 108 more times before his "career' as a Freedom Rider was over.
An exhibit told the story of a black male accused of rape by a former white lover. she denied the affair. Twice the court acquitted him but on the third try, he was found guilty and electrocuted. How did rape become worthy of the death penalty?
The story of the three civil rights workers (two white, one black( murdered after going to investigate the burning of a church was extremely chilling. At the church, they had planned to start a freedom school for black children but it mysteriously burned before they could open the school. On the way back from the church, the police said they arrested them for speeding and let them go about 10 p.m. that night when it was very dangerous to be traveling the roads.
They never were seen again. Their burned out car was found quickly but not their bodies. A huge search ensued bringing in federal agencies. When dredging the river, they found the bodies of two black men who had been murdered, Finally, several months after the murders, an informant tipped authorities to where the bodies were buried --near a new dam. All three had been shot in the head. The wife of Michael Schwerner says on a video clip that she believes that such an intense search would not have been mounted had not her husband and Goodman been white. However, they were Jewish. Seven people were arrested on charges of impeding civil rights and only a few received light sentences. In 2005, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for manslaughter. the case was officially closed in 2016. Killen died in 2018.
The film Mississippi Burning is based on this event; I have not seen it but I suspect Hollywood took some liberties with the story, although it was certainly sensational enough on its own. I will have to watch it when I get home.
Mississippi did not ratify the 13th Amendment until 1995. Due to a paperwork snafu (?), the notification of ratification was not sent to the federal government until 2013 after a citizen saw the movie Lincoln and called on the Mississippi secretary of state to act.
Next up a few blocks away was the old capital where on the steps lawmakers in Mississippi declared that they were seceding form the union in 1861; the second state to do so. The building fell into disrepair and in typical American fashion, the decision was made to build a new capital a few blocks away in 1904. It was vacant for awhile and then changed hands and purposes several times over the years. Hurricane Katrina also spread her wrath his far north and damaged the building in
2004. Finally, in 2009 a huge restoration project restored the building to its earlier splendor and is now a museum. The same architect who planned the courthouse in Vicksburg that I toured, also designed this building.
The old chambers are gorgeous, as is the governor's office. Some other displays talk about historical restoration and trying to save buildings around the state. There is also a gallery of paintings of the first ladies of Mississippi.
My last stop in Jackson was the Medgar Evers home. A NAACP leader, he was shot at his home around midnight after returning from a meeting in 1963. The family immediately turned it over as a national historic site and moved away. Two trials in the 1960s acquitted Byron de la Beckwith. Later he was arrested and convicted in another racially motivated attempted murder. He served three years for that.
Myrlie Evers, Medgar's widow never gave up on justice and in 1994, de la Beckwith was tried again with new evidence and old. He had publicly boasted of killing Evers. This time he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died in 2001.
After that, I was on the road to Natchez via the Natchez trace an ancient highway in use it is thought for about 10,000 years. It covers 44 miles and three states. First utilized by native Americans, it was also used by whites when they arrived in the area and some portions were included in the Trail of Tears as five native nations were marched out of their homelands to Oklahoma. It was quiet and beautiful as I expected, and the terrain changes about two thirds of the way form Jackson. More cypress knees, Spanish moss clinging to trees, and more of the tall pines that I love in the south.
A bit off the beaten path is the Emerald Mound. Native Americans made burial grounds around this area, but this is the second tallest to on in southern Illinois. Eight acres of raised fill and different burial areas depending on location and height. Not quite as impressive as the pyramids, but it is still a curiosity as to how all the dirt was moved manually.
I arrived at my plantation B and B destination around dusk. An English Gothic style it is brick and only one story. Deceptively small looking on the outside, it's actually huge and has 20 foot ceilings in the "new' section built in 1845. The original section was build in spanish style --worship the sun. It only has 12 foot ceilings and faces east with doors that all opened to a brick patio.
The 90+ year old owner suggested two places for dinner, and i opted for the Magnolia Grill "under the hill". This area by the river under the bluff where most of Natchez is built, was once considered the area where all of "ill repute" could be found. I guess that is because the ships docked here which mean women and whiskey were available. Now it's a gentrified area with lots of restaurants and shops.
One of the advantages of traveling alone is that when restaurants are super busy, you can always opt to eat at the bar with no waiting. I had a yummy crawfish etouffee and buttermilk. coconut pie for dessert. Then it was off to bed!
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