Day 11 (4/5/23): New Albany to Memphis

 Peter's Post. 

A big day today with places to go, things to see, people to meet and logistics to take care of. We picked up our 2nd rent-a-car in New Albany after staying at a Best Western in a shopping mall off the highway on the edge of town. After 4 days of riding on the Trace Parkway and then the Tanglefoot trail, we were suddenly negotiating rush hour traffic headed to the Walmart. It made us even more appreciative of the route we’d just traveled. In addition to offering peaceful cycling, Trace took us through towns too small to attract the big box stores and still had some semblance of locally owned commerce, which we found charming. New Albany has an old town too with a brand new coffee shop trying to make a go of it. 

Laura and I have hardly called out the music that’s come from the Mississippi Delta but Blues aficionados could cite a litany of famous artists whose inspiration came from  here and found expression in Memphis. Elvis himself was inspired by that tradition and in some circles has been criticized for expropriating it. I’m unqualified to comment but realize many people travel much the same route we have done solely in honor of the music it birthed. History and art are, of course, inseparable. Gospel and Blues find their way into the protest songs that inspired the Civil Rights movement and send chills up my spine and tears to my eyes after this trip.      

A little off beaten music path, this is a picture of the Tallahatchie bridge ... well ... OK ... it’s a little bridge over the Little Tallahatchie but I couldn’t help but recall “Ode to Billy Joe” which was #1 on the pop charts in the summer of 1967 and made a young woman from the Delta famous. Remember this? It touched the heart of the nation in turmoil at the time.  

Bobby Gentry - "An Ode to Billy Joe"

On our way to Memphis we stopped in Holly Springs, the birthplace of Ida B. Wells to see the her childhood home which is now a museum. I confess I knew nothing about her but am blown away by what we’re learning. She basically started the whole anti-lynching movement in the 1890s (OBTW also the NAACP before she was excluded by W.E.B Dubois) and thereby became a force in the early Civil Rights movement. We had the good fortune to meet the director of the Ida. B Wells-Barnett museum, Rev. Leona Harris, who regaled us with stories of Wells-Barnett and her own journey from ignorance to preserving her home and legacy. Rev. Leona Harris grew up in Holly Springs in the 50s and had no idea about this amazing person. She was away in school when someone found out she grew up in Holly Springs and let her know that was the birthplace of Ida B. Wells. Ida who? She is now working hard to raise money and preserve much of the history they’ve accumulated in the process. It’s a beautiful old home and the foundation has big plans for it. I’ve now purchased the Wells autobiography and have begin listening to it. 

Skipping ahead to Memphis, we visited the Ida B. Wells Plaza on Beale St. where there is a “The Tree of Strange Fruit” sculpture and plaque referring to a song popularized by Billie Holiday in 1939 about lynching. The plaque charts Well’s work and impact over 40 years from the People’s grocery store lynching in 1892 until her death in 1931. She must have been extraordinary!!

Then on to Memphis to have lunch with Margaret Vandiver, a retired criminal justice professor. She is also a contributor to the Lynching Sites Project (LSP) https://lynchingsitesmem.org/about in Memphis, dedicated to researching, cataloguing, and memorizing lynching sites in and around Memphis, continuing the work started by Ida B. in 1890! She introduced us to Wayne Dowdy, Senior Manager at the History Department of the Memphis Public Library where we learned and talked about what makes Memphis unique.  Wow ... riveting. The sound bite I took away was: retaken by the Union relatively early in the Civil War (1862), Memphis became a magnet for enslaved people fleeing the Confederacy that gave them a critical mass that allowed more political freedom and economic power than was possible in Alabama, Mississippi, or even other parts of Tennessee, even through the repression of the Jim Crow era. A legacy that informs modern day Memphis. We could have listened for hours but we had promises to keep and miles to go before we could sleep. We’re so grateful to our friends Randall and Sharon for introducing us to their Memphis friends and to their friends for taking us under their wings. What a day!!

Day 10 (4/4/23): Houston to New Albany

 Laura’s Post. Biked 45 miles.

Wonderful morning today, waking up at Daisy’s on the Square, run by Mike and Carol. Incredible hospitality and a beautiful renovated little hotel. 

Of course Peter couldn’t wait until Mike opened up the downstairs community coffee house hub, aptly named “Gather,” and so had to wander to McDonald’s when it opened at 5 AM to get his fix. (He was apparently the first person who had ordered a latte there in a while …) 

We sat there for at more than an hour with cup after cup of coffee and good local conversation. Best breakfast we’ve had on the road. Finally time to saddle up for our last day of biking. Our final stretch was on 40 miles of paved Tanglefoot rail trail from Houston to New Albany, cruising through old industrial areas, small farm towns and pasture land.

We changed our first and only flat tire today. Well, let’s call it what it was, I assisted the expert Peter in changing my flat tire. We saw (and nearly ran over) 4 separate species of snake, turns out there are a LOT of snakes in Mississippi. Of course the one we benevolently stopped to try and sweep off the trail with a stick kept striking at us. Turns out that little dickhead was a Cottonmouth, one of Mississippi’s venomous snakes. Whoopsie. Joe says that rules out a move to Mississippi for us. (Big snake lover that guy). 

We ended our day with a moment of reverence. Today is 4/4/23. On this day 55 years ago, at 6:01 PM, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. We are headed up there tomorrow, but we were able to participate virtually in some of the incredible speeches and music that were happening at that location today. You can check them out on the National Civil Rights Museum website. 

Peace until tomorrow. Two more days of our adventure. 

Day 9 (4/3/23): French Camp to Houston

 Laura’s Post. Biked 55 miles. 

Caffeinate. Meditate. Defecate. Consolidate. Evacuate (aka: roll out).  

We’re in our rhythm now. Third day traveling consecutively along the remote and scenic Trace Natchez Parkway. Rising in a new place each day, the adventure of planning the food stops, combing over the route maps over morning coffee. The thunder was so loud early this morning it shook the corrugated metals walls of our cabin and for a moment I thought a tornado was upon us. We talked to our waitress today at the Trace-Way diner, who experienced the F4 tornado personally 2 weeks ago, a tornado which absolutely obliterated 2 towns in this part of Mississippi. She described lying in her bed with “a freight train” rolling over her trailer, with no where to hide as she lay there and prepared to die, “I said God if you’re going to take me now, I’m ready.” The Midwest and the South are experiencing an unprecedented tornado season. She took good care of us at the diner though, we stayed for almost 2 happy hours sipping coffee and mixing it up with a very local scene.

One happy guy in his kind of place

Mississippi, we’re about to leave you. In another era people said the eyes of the world were watching Mississippi. And it’s true, this state was the crux of the Civil Rights movement. In many ways the resistance to Black freedom was so fierce, it’s “Citizen’s Councils” (think Gestapo for US Southern White Supremacy) were so relentless, that it seemed even the Federal Government couldn’t pierce that shield. Nina Simone sang in 1964, “Mississippi God Damn.” There’s also Phil Ochs’ “Here’s to Mississippi” and Dylan’s “Oxford Town.” (Let me also call out the incredible musicians who originated from this state including Muddy Waters, BB King, Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley! Sam Cooke, whose song “A Change is Gonna Come” moves me deeply). 

In some ways what we call the modern Civil Rights movement all started here. Although many credit the disparities that were brought into the light when Black service members fought in integrated WWII units and then returned to a deeply segregated South as laying important groundwork, the world was shocked by the 1955 kidnapping, torture and eventual death of Emmett Till, all because he whistled at a White store owners’ wife. I can’t tell you how many of the leaders of this era reference the shock of this loss as motivation for them to take a stand. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley forced the world to see what had been done to her son by having an open casket showing his mutilated body, images of which made it into Jet Magazine and circulated the nation. His death triggered a chain reaction that in many ways hastened the passage of the 1957 and 1964 Civil Rights legislation and in even now in 2022, the passage of a bill making lynching a federal crime. Emmett Till’s name is still invoked today. 

A decade after his death, in 1964, groups of White and Black students banded together to do mass voter registration in rural Mississippi. Black voter registration was as low as 1% in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in this state, despite having some counties where 60-70% of the population was Black. At the beginning of this “Freedom Summer” (1964), 3 of these freedom fighters were murdered for investigating a fire at a church where one of these Freedom Schools was to be held. James Chaney was one of those who died. His friend Dave Denis gave his eulogy. He tried to give the mild-mannered eulogy that as expected of him, but upon seeing Chaney’s younger brother Ben crying in the front row, he lost it and made a passionate call for action that resonated throughout the community. 

I think the world is still watching Mississippi. In one of the Blackest cities in America, the White Supermajority in the Legislature is currently working to take away Jackson’s power to control its own legal system. This is happening NOW, in 2023. Will Mississippi continue to fight off the legacy of Jim Crow, or will it institute a whole modern version of it? The sentiments of grief, anger and weariness of Dave Denis’ euology are still heard in our news on a near daily basis in reaction to the ongoing disproportionate violent deaths of Black citizens.

I hope for Mississippi. Today I am also filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the beautiful place, for these resilient people. For a body that can carry me through it to witness some stories first hand and to pay homage to many sites of this struggle, past and present. Gratitude for that spunky old guy who I’m traveling with, with his most innovative bike-mounting maneuver. I am overwhelmed by joy today. 

PODCASTS & STORIES:

• First hand testimony from a cousin who was with Emmet Till the night he died - https://www.npr.org/2023/03/12/1162677900/emmett-till-wheeler-parker

MOVIE:

• Till - https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiDlNWrwZD-AhXvMzQIHUpaBMoQ3yx6BAgLEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrkQi6GBwmSA&usg=AOvVaw1MkUz9w3do9jw6_O0jXiOU

Peter’s Thoughts on History

In reading Laura’s posts, I’m struck by her insight and courage to delve into very challenging topics. As we tour through the South and delve into some of the more painful chapters of history, we confront our own legacy and the part that our ancestors played in creating the present and how we personally have benefited materially to the detriment of many others. As Laura asked… “what do we do with that?” I don’t know the answer to the “do” part but feel that whatever action we choose, it should come from a place of understand and appreciation. There is so much we don’t know or understand and, at a minimum, we should be humble and profoundly curious about so much of what we see that seems wrong. A few examples: 

 

On 9/11/2001, as the nation reacted with disbelief and anger I was struck by the fact that nobody asked “why would a group of people hate America so much as to do something like this”? In his book,  Blowback, Chalmers Johnson highlighted the term used in the CIA to refer to the unintended consequences of US actions overseas, often covert and unknown to the public. While our government and press spread the narrative of the U.S. using its influence to bring peace, democracy and prosperity around the world, people in countries like Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam,  Indonesia, the Congo, or Chile … and on and on … would tell you something different.  We should not have been so surprised by the Iranian hostage crisis or 9/11.    

 

Similarly, when a black community explodes in anger and frustration at … you name it … the assassination of Medgar Evers or MLK to beating of Rodney King to the killing of Michael Brown and George Floyd, those of us who have not lived the legacy of 400 years of disrespect and marginalization would be tempted to focus on the “what” of the violence and not the “why.” Listen to Kimberly Jones powerful articulation of this in wake of George Floyd’s murder and subsequent protests.

 

Laura and I think a lot about the question of what we “do” and whether what we are doing is enough or appropriate. This trip has been about learning and understanding to better inform decisions about action. While I have been accused of being indecisive in my life, I prefer to ponder important decisions that involve radical action before moving on them. Responding to anger and violence with actions motivated by similar emotions usually doesn’t improve things. Just doing something in order to be relevant, important, or involved may stroke the ego more than actually furthering the cause. Great leaders who led without any official power (Gandhi, King, Mandela, Havel) acted very deliberately and peacefully to achieve unimaginable outcomes without retribution and violence. I’m not advocating inaction, only wise action motivated by love. 

 

A final thought about the past vs. the present. As we look to the past, it’s easy to judge our ancestors by the values and mores of the present. Yet, they were products of their time and reflected vey different ways of thinking about human society and nature. “How could they do such things”, we ask. It’s good to understand the past, yet perhaps we should be concerned more about how future generations will judge us our current actions by their future values. How will they remember us when it comes to environmental stewardship and social justice? Ponder that one.

A pondering on family history

 Laura’s Post. 

Turns out, if you go back far enough, my family came from Alabama. Or came to Northern Alabama to co-found a town named Trinity rather, in ~ 1810 when Alabama was still a territory. Descendants of the earliest colonizers in the 1600’s, someone broke off from the more heavily populated North Carolina as land was being taken from the Cherokee tribes in Alabama and turned into land to cultivate agriculture, namely cotton. This meant bringing enslaved Africans with them, and my ancestors were not except from this practice. 

This is not the version of this narrative I was told growing up. Highlighted have been my Great-Great Grandfather’s involvement with the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville, the medical degree obtained by my Great Grandfather, who moved to Seattle to found Virginia Mason Hospital. And honestly it’s a history I don’t quite know how to hold now. In recent years, I am coming into deeper levels of understanding of the one-sided narrative that is my historical point of reference. For the past 2–3 years, I’ve mostly avoided it, maybe bringing it up in hushed tones. When a place of employment or my daughters’ schools encourage us to share a piece of our “cultural history,” I have to pause. Are there history or traditions (or wealth) that have not been passed down in my family built on stollen lives on one side or on the other side of the family (Hawaii), culturally appropriated from a Native tradition? These are hard questions to ask and I do not bring them up to harm, but to sincerely ask, how do we grapple with this? 

Graves of my ancestors

What I feel walking through some of sacred Civil Rights places dedicated to the struggle for freedom is a message I’d like to pass down to my own daughters: the way forward, a way that hopefully will continue to slog towards healing and justice, cannot be built on shame, but must be built on truth. Because in reality, though I’m sure many of my White peers may feel they have more “noble” ancestors than mine, if you have white skin in this country, whether your family arrived 400 or 50 years ago, you have been able to step into a privileged class and benefit from this misappropriation of land, wealth and access to power. And Northerns are not exempt. Just as Boston, the “liberal” Northern city who is credited with banning slavery before it’s Souther neighbors, was built on the backs of enslaved people and continued to economically fuel the transatlantic slave trade with ships, rum, etc., long after it allowed trafficked humans into it’s port. 

I’m understanding in new ways on this trip how badly we need a new narrative. I’m sure there are some among those I love who will find some disagreement or offense with this. I’m sorry. It is not intended to harm. But if I can’t raise these tough questions with those who I know and love, what chance do these conversations have in the world at large? And I do have a deep love and gratitude for the two self-appointed family historians of both the Lile and Morgan lineages: knowing where we come from is so important, and I have learned so much from you both about where I come from. And if the wise man I’m traveling with is correct, perhaps only when we show ourselves love for the whole picture for our messy selves and lineages can we be our authentic selves in the world. 

A pearl of wisdom from Jo Ann Bland of Selma. She was discussing the irony of the Selma Civil Rights March of “Bloody Sunday” struggling to get over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for one of the grand wizards of the modern Klan. Someone in the audience suggested we should change the name. And she said, “No, keep the name. People should know the truth. Keep the name. Change the narrative.” And that is exactly what Jo Ann Bland and other Marchers of Bloody Sunday did on March 7, 1965. Because in our generation, Edmund Pettus is now synonymous with Black liberation rather than the staunch defender of White supremacy it was named for. 

Someone asked Jo Ann, “where do we go from here?” She said, “every mighty river starts with a single raindrop.” 

View from the Edmund Pettus Bridge overlooking Alabama River

Day 8 (4/2/23): Kosciusko to French Camp

 Peter’s Post. Biked: 21 miles 

The sweet spot in daily biking distance is 40-50 miles given our current conditioning and loaded bikes. We can knock that off in 5-6 hours including stops and that keeps it fun. However, when riding on “the Trace” as they call it, lodging is not evenly spaced and we’ve had to plan accordingly. The 63 miles Jackson to Kosciusko yesterday was a little more than we wished in miles and it would have been another 73 to Houston today so we opted to split it into a 21 mile day today and a 52 mile ride tomorrow. We were both pretty whipped yesterday so it was a bit of a relief to get a late start, big breakfast and have a short day today. This is not a race or an endurance contest. It was enough to get the legs turning but not enough to get really tired. The riding on the Trace is so lovely with very little traffic and great scenery.    

We’re staying in a little B&B cottage called the Southern Grace Cottage which is lovely and fits the bill.  

There is a lot of civil rights history is not in the immediate vicinity but it’s all around. Bryant’s Grocery (Where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955) is 60 miles to the east and Philadelphia (where Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were killed in 1964, is 40 to the West. Laura, our ace researcher found this map showing some of the most famous (notorious) sites of the civil rights movement if you are not that familiar with the geography of the state.  Laura and I keep bringing up these tragic events and heroic struggles from the past to remind ourselves why it’s important not to forget them. As Medgar Evers said: “Freedom has never been free.” Perhaps it’s particularly important at this time in our history to not be complacent. 

Mississippi Civil Rights Trail 

The history that is in the immediate area is the history of the 5 “Civilized Tribes” Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and particularly the Choctaw who lived here. They were called “civilized” because they had agreed to adopt western ways, became Christian, literate, farmed and some even owned slaves. Of course, this was not enough to protect them or their land. The bargain at the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (see monument) in 1830 involved the Choctaw trading their land in Mississippi for new land out west (Oklahoma) in return for a right of sovereignty as a tribe. Like a lot of treaties between the Native Americans and the U.S. Government, things didn’t turn out as advertised. The removal of the Native Americans paved the way for the introduction of many more African slaves to work the land. The rapid expansion of slavery came late in Mississippi relative to southern states to the east because it required the removal of tribes from the land on the trail of tears. My pithy descriptions of events belie the suffering inherent in all these events (the brutal evacuation of the Native Americans and cruel importation of enslaved Africans) that has been borne by generations of descendants of those affected. A stone monument blithely honors an act of genocide.   

Thanks for your encouragement and for traveling with us. 

Day 7 (4/1/23): Jackson to Kosciusko

 Laura’s Post. Biked 65 miles.

This is is an Ode to Mississippi. You have made us feel so welcome! This Southern Hospitality permeates this place. From an impromptu introduction to Hezekiah Watkins in the Jackson Civil Rights Museum, to local BBQ secrets like Bully’s. We’d heard about Bully’s through a little word of mouth, but apparently it is a famous local spot. It’s unassuming, far down a street surrounded by abandoned industry and overgrown weeds. Hard to even see the front sign well. Inside are old paintings of Malcom X, Dr. King and Medgar Evers intermixed with family photos. We walk through the doors and we are swept up in this awesome family business, where we are pampered and fawned over while being served up a heaping plate of fried chicken, fried ocra and collard greens. And I look up on the wall and I see “James Beard Award 2016.” (One of the most prestigious food awards in the US). I’ll be damned. The love of this place is evident even in those Civil Rights leaders who suffered so greatly at the hands of its unjust laws. It seems like Medgar Evers knew the end was coming in 1963 due to growing threats, but he refused to leave. He loved Mississippi, and he was determined to leave it a better place for his children. He stated, “I may be going to Heaven or Hell, but I’ll be going from Jackson.” 

Today we ditch the car and we are back on the road. Four days along the Natchez-Trace Parkway, weaving through land that was originally Choctaw, Chickasaws and Creek territory, before settlers wrested it away following the Indian Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830. Now this is a preserved parkway that goes through Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. Almost not a car and certainly no services for 65 miles of unbelievable beauty, with winds and critters making noises around us under bluebird skies. We were BEAT by the time we finished. 7 hours is in the sun and humidity without real places to replenish us was a thing. And the swamps didn’t look like an ideal place to try out my new water filtration system. (Lots of SNAKES here Joe!). 

 

Since we’re pedaling right near Winona, MS, I’d be remiss not to mention one of my favorite lesser known heroes of the Mississippi Civil Rights movement. Fannie Lou Hamer was born the 20th child of a poor sharecropping family deep in the Mississippi Delta. She did learn to read and write and had an affinity for poetry, though had to drop out of school early to take care of her aging parents. She too married eventually and moved to work another plantation farm as a sharecropper. But literacy helped to awaken her to the budding Civil Rights movement around her, and in 1962 she led a group to register to vote. This got her fired and evicted from her property. Not long after, she tried to integrate a lunch counter at the bus station in Winona, and was beaten nearly to death. But this woman wasn’t stopping. After engaging in the Freedom Summer of 1964, a summer that would be marked as one of the deadliest with regard to murders and bombings in a state that was already the lynching capitol of the country, she took on the political infrastructure. When Black people were denied access to the local Democratic primaries, she and others developed their own caucus (the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party), hosted a mock election which drew 60,000 black votes. She used this power to eventually get herself a seat at the bargaining table. See her testify. And sing!

“If I fall, I’ll fall 5 feet, 4 inches forward in the fight for freedom. I’m not backing off.” - Fannie Lou Hamer

At 6 PM we dragged our weary sweaty bodies into the town of Kosciusko, MS, a town originally founded by a Choctaw woman and her trader husband. We’re staying in an antebellum era B&B that almost has the civil war portraits on the mantel. Our real grand finale of the night was walking into Jason’s Southern Table on a rocking Saturday night. A wedding reception was happening in one room, the bar on the second floor was bumping, and we just got to watch the whole scene play out from the main dining room. Country music blasting, sequin tassels and cowboy boots on full display, large chain crosses adorning all the necks. The owner even came and sat with us for a few minutes. We are sampling from all the flavors of Mississippi now!

Ok, one more amazing Mississippi Civil rights hero who was born right here in Kosciusko, (besides Oprah! Truth!). James Meredith was the first student (Law student) to integrate Ole’ Miss (aka: University of Mississippi in Oxford). Though the courts demanded it happen the Governor of Mississippi himself showed up to try and block the door to prevent him from registering. He persisted. Years later he decided to march from Memphis to Jackson, through the Delta, (and we thought we were adventurous for trying to bike it!), in his “March Against Fear” to protest segregation and promote voting. He was shot in the legs on the second day and hospitalized. Other Civil Rights leaders including Dr. King picked up his march and he was able to complete it with them. 

PODCASTS:

• Mississippi Civil Rights: Champions in the Fight for Voting Rights - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mississippi-champions-in-the-fight-for-voting-rights/id1603645728?i=1000549778680
• Mississippi Civil Rights: All Eyes on Mississippi -  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mississippi-all-eyes-on-mississippi/id1603645728?i=1000549777644

Day 6 (3/31/23): Jackson

 Peter’s Post

Laura and I made it to Jackson on Thursday night after a full day in Birmingham which Laura covered.  We both realize by unearthing the painful past and reminding ourselves of the work yet to be done on equity and justice, we’re not giving credit for the progress that has been made.  Laura and I have talked a lot about how congenial people seem, how races mix comfortably, and how some black friends we know who’ve moved to Seattle really miss the south and can’t wait to get back.  More on that perhaps later. 

Meanwhile, our tour guide in Birmingham did keep us focused on how racism doesn’t go away, it goes underground and sprouts in new forms more subtle, insidious, and perhaps more pervasive than before.  Kinda like new strains of bacteria impervious to old treatments.  He rained heavily on any notion that we’ve made real progress on this front. 

Consequently, crossing the border into Mississippi gave me a tingling, apprehensive feeling.  As our Birmingham guide said, something like:  “Alabama likes Mississippi because they make us look good” or “the 50 bombings Birmingham did over 15 years, Mississippi did in one summer.”  In spite of its smaller population, Mississippi was the lynching capital of the country and you can see how that played out by county.  Emmit Till in 1955 and and the Goodman, Schwerner, & Chaney murders in 1964 made the national news but so many more were under the radar except to black people in Mississippi.  

Our first stop today was the Civil Rights Museum in downtown Jackson.  This is another “must see” experience.  Perhaps not on the same plane as the Legacy Museum in Montgomery as a “gut punch” but there is plenty of that too and perhaps more historical and informational content.  It’s incredibly well designed and full of amazing displays.  This is the mural across the street.   I confess, not being from Jackson, I only recognized Megan Evers on the mural and didn’t know the names of the other 3 hero’s of Jackson and had to look them up. 

Eudora Welty, Medgar Evers, Thalia Mara and David Banner.

My first real awareness of the civil rights movement came in June, 1963 when I was 11.  As a kid growing up in rural Hawaii with no TV and close to zero black people or cultural references, I had no context for understanding what was happening when the Medgar Evers’ assassination was highlighted in Life Magazine or Time which were  available in our house.  Laura says she was about the same age when we watched the original movie on Evers that perhaps launched out shared exploration of the civil rights movement.  1963 was a heavy year of things in the national awareness with the anti-segregation movement in Birmingham, the assassination of Evers, March on Washington in August, the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing in September, and the Kennedy Assassination in November.  For people in the movement in Alabama, Mississippi and other places, these were just the headlines of intense struggles going on in many places that need to be recognized.  

In the Civil Rights museum we encountered Hezekiah Watkins, age 75 giving a talk to a group of middle school aged students about his experience getting caught up in the Freedom Ride arrests in Jackson in 1961 where Mississippi distinguished itself for not just arresting the freedom riders but sending them to prison for months, including 13 year old Hezekiah, the

youngest person imprisoned.  He would go on to be arrested over 100 times, sometimes twice in one day.  Like Jo Ann Bland, he said he was just like any kid at the time who thought everything was fine.  If you were black and stayed in your lane (water fountains, restrooms, etc.) and didn’t challenge the order of things, you were fine and life could be congenial.  It’s amazing how we can think any situation is “normal” until we realize it isn’t (e.g. It’s normal that the U.S. spends ~ $ 1 trillion/year on the military and has hundreds of bases around the world, politicians argue that teachers should be armed to protect their students, etc.).  Both of them had elders who pointed out how marginalized they were and opened their eyes to how it could/should be.  Mr. Watkins parting words to his students was: “When you turn 17, go and register to vote so when you’re 18, you can vote.  If you don’t vote, you’re nobody.”  Laura and I had a nice chance to chat with him because, when he’s not traveling, he hangs out in the reflection room of the museum to give talks and inspire people like us.  Like, our guide in Birmingham, Mr. Watkins reminds us that just because of the fact that blacks are in positions of power in places like Jackson or Birmingham doesn’t necessarily mean they’re immune from corruption action or able to be effective.  Witness Herschel Walker being put up by the power structure in Georgia …window dressing.  Mr. Watkins compared racism going underground to fire ants that can live quietly below the surface until they swarm.  Great analogy.  

https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/hezekiah-watkins/

Laura and I drove our bikes to to Vicksburg in the afternoon and cycled around the battlefield park.  For the Civil War buffs among our readers, Vicksburg was a huge strategic victory for the North that happened simultaneously with Gettysburg that gave the North control over the Mississippi River and helped to choke off supply lines to the Confederacy from the West.  Grant’s strategic genius and willingness to take risks launched him into prominence and earned him the respect of Lincoln who promoted him to head the union army.  Although it was a brutal campaign, the siege of Vicksburg starved 38,000 soldiers into surrender vs. being killed outright.  It’s a fabulous bike 16 mile bike ride around the park if you’re ever in the area.  The park has a series of monuments created by individual states to commemorate their own regiments who fought there.  These were “federated states” and “confederated states” who raised armies vs. a fully national military force that we have now.  This struggle between the power & authority of states vs. the federal government lives on.  

Civil War, Civil Rights … history all blends together to form the present.  Maybe we need a new Civil movement … perhaps something that promotes civility in general.  In the words of William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It's not even past."

We return our car today and will venture north toward Memphis on the Natchez-Trace National Parkway on our bikes.  This is a very rural part of Mississippi and we’re not sure what will have in terms of cell or internet service where we’re going.  We’re looking forward to the time on the road and a chance to emotionally digest what we’ve seen while just making the pedals go around.  I think of cycling as a contemplative practice and a good way to integrate and make meaning out of what one has taken in and is just percolating in the soul.  If you’re following on the map, we’ll be in Kosciusko, French Camp, Houston, and New Albany before arriving in Memphis on the 5th.  Inshallah.