Landmarks Fall, Memories Fade. Civil Rights Tourism May Protect Mississippi History

Glendora, Miss. - On a remote country highway that runs along the tracks of the Money Railroad, Miss. Go ahead, a historical marker standing in the corner where nature invades the building.

In 1955, Bryant's grocery store was the only store for Emmett Thiel, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who broke the Jim Crow law in 1955 when he seduced a white shopkeeper.

Days later, his mutilated body – beaten, shot, and gassed – was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. The brutal killings marked the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.

But the edifice of Emmett Till's story is crumbling.

It's in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in the northwestern part of the state – cotton and soybean fields as far as the eye can see. Area - Memphis, Tennessee. The broad, flat plain that stretches from the Mississippi River to Vicksburg, Mississippi is a major claim in the history of American civil rights.

Conservationists say now is the time to protect this endangered landmark and get a historical record before memory is lost and structures are destroyed. Civil rights activists hope the new federal investment in the area will help tourism become an economic driver in the Delta and help people escape poverty.

"Now the values of this community are changing," said Johnny Thomas, longtime mayor of the small town of Glendora.

Here, Emmett Thiel is the founder of a museum called the Historical Intrepid Center. It's located in an old cotton mill on the grounds that were once owned by Emmett Till's killer.

"He was beaten up in the barn," Thomas explained. "Then we will follow the path of terror."

The road ends at a nearby bridge, now abandoned and overgrown with grass. Thomas told local tales and pointed to the spot where the killers dumped Emmett Till in the Black Bayou with an industrial cotton jean fan on him.

"What we're saying here is that Emmett's body broke the bridge - the weight broke the bridge."

Some cool historical sites but hard to find

This is one of many sites that will make you stop when you think about Emmett Till's story. But one thing they do have in common is the historic road sign on the Mississippi Freedom Trail.

A major state-funded museum is located in the capital city of Jackson. But in small Delta towns, most local groups try to raise what they can by paying admission fees to voluntary museums or preserving important historical sites.

A recent study by the National Park Service cited the lack of tourism infrastructure in the Delta and called for more investment and better contextualization of the importance of these places in American history. In fact, many of the different sites are an hour or more away, and some appear to be half done or forgotten

Thomas hopes that as new money comes into the area, especially from federal infrastructure laws, he and others will want to make an impact and create the federally administered Emmett Till National Historic District he has long been pushing for. Original site.

He said we were behind. "We didn't treat this story the way it should have."

The US census shows that 85% of people in Glendora live below the federal poverty line. Thomas (69) admits that not much has changed since childhood. In the Delta region, land and wealth were largely in the hands of a small group of white residents.

Director of the Delta Cultural and Education Center at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mr.

"That's part of the concern now that civil rights heritage tourism is on the rise," said Hertz. “This is African-American civil rights. But who controls this story? Who benefits from the stories being told?'

Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area - Networked by the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, a National Park Service program that has generated millions in federal grants, HEARTS is working with local communities to highlight this story. He admits that this is a difficult task.

"We created a space where this community can share their stories, where there is fear, shame to tell those stories," said Hurts.

The historic Freedom House is in serious disrepair

Miss Felicia King inherited the house from her family many years ago.

"Grandpa built this house," he said, rotting on the floor. "My father's father was Estelle 'Ty' King."

He always thought it was just a rental. But later, during the Summer of Freedom Campaign in the mid-1960s, he learned that the headquarters of the SNCC—the Student Peace Coordinating Committee—was being used as the House of Freedom.

King said this was a dangerous time trying to get black people to vote in the Mississippi Delta, adding, "They killed the people behind it."

The Mississippi Heritage Trust lists the Liberty House as some of the most endangered properties in the state because many of them did not survive the civil rights era.

"They were bombed and burned to the ground," said Lolly Rush, the trust's executive director. They are no longer there, so we can use this building to tell this story.

Rush helped King obtain a federal grant in hopes of one day using the Indianola home as a community center.

"This is an important part of our cultural landscape," said Rush. "So let's keep it and use it as a great way to bring the community together."

He called the new federal resources directed at Delta a "staycation".

"There are opportunities now that weren't there a few years ago."

King wondered why, growing up, he never heard of his grandfather and the role of the house in the civil rights movement.

"And the answer is because it hurts," he says.

Not in the past, but today.

"It hurts to talk about because there were people who died then and are still alive," King said. - And it's terrible.

He hopes the next generation can take inspiration from how Mississippi changed America's democracy.

"We matter, we matter, we have value here," King said. Because what happened here basically affected the entire world.

Tell in unity

You can feel the pride in the town founded by slaves near the Bayou Mound.

"You can't tell the story of African Americans without mentioning Mound Bay," says Daryl Johnson.

She and her brother Herman used a grant from Mississippi Delta National Heritage to put together a large American women's collection at an old high school facility. It honors what their ancestors created from the desert in 1887.

"Addicts have visions," says Herman. "And with that vision, they came and founded Mound Bay -- here in the worst conditions in the country."

During the Jim Crow era, the city thrived as a center for black businesses -- with hospitals, insurance companies, credit unions and newspapers.

Like the Mississippi Delta, the Mound Bayou is not thriving today. Daryl said the new investment in civil rights tourism in the region could be a boost for the region, but more importantly, it would help heal a divided population.

"If we tell this story," he said. "We can help the nation and the world understand who the United States of America is."