Hattiesburg Happens!

We had a quiet week of Feb 12.  It rained quite a bit.  Somehow, we snuck in two rounds of golf between the sprinkles.  One day, we went to see the movie Three Billboards.  At other times, I enjoyed putting my feet up, listening to the waves and rain – and reading.  While on this trip, I have read the following books and liked them all -

• A Samurai’s Garden – Gayle Tsukiyama. A Chinese teen convalesces in Japan as Japan is conquering China.
• You Before Me – Jojo Meyers.  Makes you laugh and cry.
• The Life We Bury – Allen Eskens  Great mystery; takes place in Minnesota.
• The Color of Water – A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother – James McBride. Great narrative that switches between his Jewish mother’s youth and his own.
• Without You, There is No Us – Suki Kim.  South Korean American journalist goes undercover as a teacher in North Korea, non-fiction, good.

Jim and I did go out for a really nice Valentine’s Day dinner at the Crab Trap.  I was all set to order whatever the “fresh catch of the day” was, as I love all the fish around here. But at the last minute I ordered their crab cakes.  They were absolutely filled with crab – and each one sat atop a fried green tomato which sat atop a roasted corn and sausage mix.  Good choice, Connie!  Jim gave me some beautiful glass earrings but I only had a card for him.  Bad choice, Connie! 

Valentines Dinner 2018

Then, on Friday February 16^th, we set out once again for Hattiesburg.  Jim really wanted to see where Dave had lived for several years of his life.  We punched his last known address into the GPS: 123 Stevens, Petal MS – and off we went.  This trip traversed past more of what I had imagined Alabama and Mississippi to be like: a few more mud fields, a lot more modest housing. 

Keep Out!

A typical yard on Stevens Road

The address for Dave where the GPS directed us was almost scary to me and certainly depressing.  My heart sank when I thought that Dave might have lived here for several years of his life.  It was out in the country down a small road.  The properties were unkempt.  All the yards had broken wire fences around them with big “Keep Out” signs, tons of trash and most often a large dog on a chain.  No vehicle had all four doors the same color.  It was obviously an area of high poverty.  

Jim kept saying, “This can’t be the right address.  He talked about being in a small town close to Hattiesburg.  His address says Apt 3; there’s no Apt 3 here.”  We turned off the GPS, and headed for the small town of Petal.  Sure enough, there was a Stevens Street in town. (The GPS had taken us to 123 Stevens Road.)  Whew!  His real place was small, tucked neatly and closely between two other houses.  We didn’t knock on the door nor did we see anyone with whom to talk, but it looked like a much better situation for Dave.

Dave's unit was one of these three

Dave's house sits between two others

Why did Dave pick this location in the first place?  In 2011, Hattiesburg was voted one of the Great Places to Live, but we doubted he used that criteria.  Remember, this move occurred right after Dave had lived with and cared for their Mom (my beloved mom-in-law) for 4 years.  Esther was failing fast in front of Dave's eyes, and he couldn’t watch it any longer.  Jim thinks he just picked a place off the map that “would have conservative values and would be cheap to live.”  Somehow his search fell on Hattiesburg.  Dave was employed by the Salvation Army while here.  And while he lived here, Hurricane Katrina hit and hit hard even though Hattiesburg is about 75 miles inland.  I remembered Dave talking about having no power.  And indeed, I read that eighty percent of the city’s roads were blocked by trees and power was out for fourteen days.  Around 10,000 structures in Hattiesburg received major damage, and 24 people were killed!  I had no idea it had hit his area that hard.

Other learnings from Hattiesburg:

• The Hattiesburg area was first inhabited by Choctaw Native Americans.  The Treaty of Mount Dexter, signed by President Jefferson in 1805, agreed that a large section of Mississippi would be their land “forever,” in exchange for opening other land for white settlement.  It only took 25 years for the U.S. to break that treaty.  The Choctaw was the first tribal nation forced to relocate under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 -- the first to walk the Trail of Tears to what is now Oklahoma.  I was surprised to read that after Europeans first came to Mississippi, the Choctaw started owning slaves themselves.  Their slaves were forcibly removed with them.
• I was also surprised by the number of timber trucks on the road! In fact, road signs abound, saying “Watch out for long timber-loaded trucks.”  I never dreamt that Hattiesburg was the epicenter of a timber boom at the turn of the 20^th century and that timber remains an active industry today.  Large pine stands still surround the town.  We saw many trucks, and an active sawmill or two.
• And, of course I always look up a place's place in Civil Rights history.  Three things I read struck me the hardest about Hattiesburg’s past -

o   Imprisoned for trying to go to college.  In 1959, a returning Korean War veteran named Clyde Kennard applied to attend the all-white University of Southern Mississippi.  He was denied admission based on race.  Because he persisted in objecting, it has been documented that he was framed for a crime and sentenced to prison for seven years!  For years, the NAACP fought to overturn his convection, but it never was.  (Reading this incident reminded me of a conversation I once had with several Black acquaintances where they said that most of our “universal” programs were systematically denied to Blacks.  The examples they gave: Social Security when first started was “for all,” except farm laborers and domestic help.  The GI Bill was “for all”, except Blacks could only go to Black colleges which were few and far away.  FHA was “for all”, except whole sections of cities where Blacks primarily lived were redlined from these loans.  So, when Black Americans talk about structural racism that can underlie our public programs, these are the kinds of policies or practices they are talking about.)

o   Disenfranchised.  So, way back in 1865, slaves were freed and as freed men they were able to vote, right?  In theory, yes, but in practice – very wrong.  All kinds of state laws and practices were put into place to prevent Blacks from voting.  Hattiesburg was one of the worst offenders.  Hattiesburg is the county seat of Forrest County.  Forrest County Registrar Theron Lynd prevented blacks in the area from registering to vote, based on such devices as poll taxes, literacy tests, and comprehension tests subjectively administered. By 1960, thirty percent of the county’s population was Black, but fewer than one percent had been able to register, regardless of their education level.  Meanwhile, registration of whites was close to 100%.  In 1961, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit against Lynd.  Lynd was the first registrar to be convicted under the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for systematically violating African-American voting rights.  (What an honor!)  And, remember, court juries are comprised of people who are registered to vote.  So, guess why there were always all-white juries during that time?

Even after the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, white resistance continued in Hattiesburg.  Shortly after passage, NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer announced that he would personally pay the poll tax for black voters too poor to do so themselves. On the night of Jan 10, 1966, the Ku Klux Klan attacked his Hattiesburg home.  Dahmer held off the Klan with his rifle long enough for his wife, their three children, and an elderly aunt to escape their burning home, but he died of burns the next day.  His murder sparked citywide protests and a number of Klansmen were arrested.  After four trials deadlocked, KKK Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers was finally convicted in August 1998 for ordering the assassination of Dahmer. 

o   Arrested for trying to eat.  Sandra Adickes was a white schoolteacher who was refused service by a downtown Hattiesburg department store – S. H. Kress and Co. – when she ordered food at its lunch counter in 1964.  The refusal was based on the fact that she was accompanied by six of her students, all of whom were black and who also tried to order lunch.  The group got up and left the store peacefully.  But, upon leaving, Ms. Adickes was arrested for trespassing by a police officer who had seen her trying to order lunch with her students.  She filed a lawsuit in federal court, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.  In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the trespass convictions.

Otherwise, our time in Hattiesburg was uneventful.  We ate lunch in a beautiful park, bought some boiled peanuts from a roadside stand, drove through their quaint downtown and past many restored Victorian homes. A poster announced month-long events to mark Black history month.  It really was a charming town by all appearances.  But, it was hard to look at Hattiesburg without remembering the historically uglier side to the beauty we were seeing.