Mississippi Burning was a movie produced about a tumultuous summer in Mississippi when three Civil Rights workers were killed and buried under an earthen dam outside of Philadelphia in Neshoba County. Some of the events in the movie were fictionalized or based on things that happened in other counties like the one in which I grew up – Pike County.
That summer was bizarre and frightening for a ten year old kid like me. Lying in bed at night I could hear explosions that sounded like thunder but would turn out to be a “Colored Church” hit with a Coke bottle filled with gasoline, it’s “wick” made from a torn cloth inserted in the bottle neck ignited just before being thrown through a church window. A couple of nights Daddy asked me if I wanted to go see the fire and I would ride with him to sit and watch a church burn down to its foundation. Even though he was a product of his upbringing and held racist views himself he would shake his head and say, “This is not right – the Klan has gone too far.”
Mississippi was struggling, indeed had been struggling since the end of the Civil War with race relations. Many White people talked about “uppidity niggers” referring to a Black man or woman who wouldn’t step off the sidewalk into the street when a white person walked on it. "Uppidity" referred to any Black man or woman who didn’t avert their eyes and answer, “yes suh” or “no suh” or “yes um” or “no mam” whenever a White person decided to talk to them. It actually was considered “enlightened” for a White person to speak about Blacks as “Colored” especially when no Black people were present. Total racists would use “Nigger” or “Nigah” to other Whites as well as to Blacks!
Into the struggle in Mississippi came hundreds of college kids from Northern states to help voter registration and to try to address the open bigotry and racism in Mississippi. Numerous organizations had recruited students for Freedom Summer and they banded together under the name, "Congress of Federated Organizations" or "COFO' for short. Mississippians felt under siege from these “Yankees” or as they were often called, “outside agitators.” Many Mississippians were convinced that “good Colored people” didn’t want these outsiders around anymore than the Whites who were seeing their way of life challenged. In Pike County, Blacks considerably outnumbered Whites and White people knew that if all the Blacks registered to vote and voted that would be the end of White domination. The Klan had been used in the past to keep fear in the Black population so it rose again as an answer.
One day in 1962, four men walked into Gardner Brothers (my father and uncle’s business) I was sitting behind the cash register and they asked, “Where’s Maurice, we need to talk to him.” I told them that he was in the office and they should just go on back and knock on his door but they insisted that I get him so they could say “their piece” in the open. I got him to come out and told him who was there (Magnolia is a small town so everyone knew everyone – or actually, every White person knew every White person). He swore under his breath and walked out to the counter, reached under and pulled out a shotgun! The spokesman for the four (happened to be a postal employee) said, “Maurice there’s no need for that we’re just here to talk man to man.” My father said, “If you wanted to talk man to man you should have come alone and come to the office, but you’ve brought your redneck enforcers along with you – say what you need to say, I’m busy.”
“You got a nigger works here named John, John Nunnery?”
“Dan, you know John works here, he changed your flat tire last month.”
“Did you know that John sang at a COFO rally night before last out to Mount Zion Baptist Church?”
“No – is that why y’all burned it down?”
“We ain’t burned nothing. Those Yankee Jews that come down here to stir up our Niggers are burning places down and acting like White Mississippians done it – and the stupid Niggers can’t figure that out! We’re concerned bout people like John helping the Yankee Jew bastards cause trouble.”
“Get to the point – why are you here?”
“We want you to fire John, make an example of him so other ignorant niggers won’t support COFO.”
Leveling the gun so that the barrel pointed at Dan, my father said, “Boys I run this business - you run yours – you don’t tell me who to hire and fire and I won’t tell you where to burn your crosses. Now git your assess out of here, we’re done talking.”
As they turned to walk out, my father muttered, “assholes.” Then, “Bill go git John and tell him to come to my office.” John was just around the corner, he had heard the whole thing. I have no idea what my father said to John, maybe he warned him to be careful, maybe he threatened to fire him if he sang at another COFO rally – I’ll never know but John continued to work for Gardner Brothers.
Two nights after the encounter with the Klan guys I was watching television in my room when there was a loud whoosh sound and my yellow curtains seemed to come alive as they reflected a twelve foot flame in the shape of a cross right outside my bedroom window. I jumped off the bed just in time to see my father run past my room and out the front door wearing just his underwear! He said something but I couldn’t understand, my Mother was right behind him saying, “at least put your pants on!”
In the yard was a huge burlap covered cross that had been soaked in gas and oil and ignited. My father told me to get the hose as he grabbed the spike at the bottom and upended the flaming symbol so we could extinguish the fire. Once it was out my father walked across the street to a 24 hour service station and asked who did it. The two men who sat there every night facing our house claimed that they didn’t see a thing until the fire and they "might" have seen some people running away but they "couldn’t be for sure." They also said that they didn’t see any trucks or any other vehicle that could have delivered such an item. That might not sound too believable but you have to understand that these were the same two guys who several years earlier had seen two teen aged boys climbing into my sister’s bedroom window. The teenagers were wearing dark clothes yet the service station guys were able to not only call my father with the number but also the names! The night of the cross burning my sister was in college and that window was now my window but at least two men unloading a huge cross, soaking it in fuel and lighting it was not seen! That says more about the fear and divisiveness of the time than about anyone’s vision!
I really don't remember us even discussing the incident afterwards - I'm sure the adults had many conversations about it but no one thought that as a 10 year old I needed any further information. Those two or three summers seem like a movie to me but one that was more frightening than Mississippi Burning!
That summer was bizarre and frightening for a ten year old kid like me. Lying in bed at night I could hear explosions that sounded like thunder but would turn out to be a “Colored Church” hit with a Coke bottle filled with gasoline, it’s “wick” made from a torn cloth inserted in the bottle neck ignited just before being thrown through a church window. A couple of nights Daddy asked me if I wanted to go see the fire and I would ride with him to sit and watch a church burn down to its foundation. Even though he was a product of his upbringing and held racist views himself he would shake his head and say, “This is not right – the Klan has gone too far.”
Mississippi was struggling, indeed had been struggling since the end of the Civil War with race relations. Many White people talked about “uppidity niggers” referring to a Black man or woman who wouldn’t step off the sidewalk into the street when a white person walked on it. "Uppidity" referred to any Black man or woman who didn’t avert their eyes and answer, “yes suh” or “no suh” or “yes um” or “no mam” whenever a White person decided to talk to them. It actually was considered “enlightened” for a White person to speak about Blacks as “Colored” especially when no Black people were present. Total racists would use “Nigger” or “Nigah” to other Whites as well as to Blacks!
Into the struggle in Mississippi came hundreds of college kids from Northern states to help voter registration and to try to address the open bigotry and racism in Mississippi. Numerous organizations had recruited students for Freedom Summer and they banded together under the name, "Congress of Federated Organizations" or "COFO' for short. Mississippians felt under siege from these “Yankees” or as they were often called, “outside agitators.” Many Mississippians were convinced that “good Colored people” didn’t want these outsiders around anymore than the Whites who were seeing their way of life challenged. In Pike County, Blacks considerably outnumbered Whites and White people knew that if all the Blacks registered to vote and voted that would be the end of White domination. The Klan had been used in the past to keep fear in the Black population so it rose again as an answer.
One day in 1962, four men walked into Gardner Brothers (my father and uncle’s business) I was sitting behind the cash register and they asked, “Where’s Maurice, we need to talk to him.” I told them that he was in the office and they should just go on back and knock on his door but they insisted that I get him so they could say “their piece” in the open. I got him to come out and told him who was there (Magnolia is a small town so everyone knew everyone – or actually, every White person knew every White person). He swore under his breath and walked out to the counter, reached under and pulled out a shotgun! The spokesman for the four (happened to be a postal employee) said, “Maurice there’s no need for that we’re just here to talk man to man.” My father said, “If you wanted to talk man to man you should have come alone and come to the office, but you’ve brought your redneck enforcers along with you – say what you need to say, I’m busy.”
“You got a nigger works here named John, John Nunnery?”
“Dan, you know John works here, he changed your flat tire last month.”
“Did you know that John sang at a COFO rally night before last out to Mount Zion Baptist Church?”
“No – is that why y’all burned it down?”
“We ain’t burned nothing. Those Yankee Jews that come down here to stir up our Niggers are burning places down and acting like White Mississippians done it – and the stupid Niggers can’t figure that out! We’re concerned bout people like John helping the Yankee Jew bastards cause trouble.”
“Get to the point – why are you here?”
“We want you to fire John, make an example of him so other ignorant niggers won’t support COFO.”
Leveling the gun so that the barrel pointed at Dan, my father said, “Boys I run this business - you run yours – you don’t tell me who to hire and fire and I won’t tell you where to burn your crosses. Now git your assess out of here, we’re done talking.”
As they turned to walk out, my father muttered, “assholes.” Then, “Bill go git John and tell him to come to my office.” John was just around the corner, he had heard the whole thing. I have no idea what my father said to John, maybe he warned him to be careful, maybe he threatened to fire him if he sang at another COFO rally – I’ll never know but John continued to work for Gardner Brothers.
Two nights after the encounter with the Klan guys I was watching television in my room when there was a loud whoosh sound and my yellow curtains seemed to come alive as they reflected a twelve foot flame in the shape of a cross right outside my bedroom window. I jumped off the bed just in time to see my father run past my room and out the front door wearing just his underwear! He said something but I couldn’t understand, my Mother was right behind him saying, “at least put your pants on!”
In the yard was a huge burlap covered cross that had been soaked in gas and oil and ignited. My father told me to get the hose as he grabbed the spike at the bottom and upended the flaming symbol so we could extinguish the fire. Once it was out my father walked across the street to a 24 hour service station and asked who did it. The two men who sat there every night facing our house claimed that they didn’t see a thing until the fire and they "might" have seen some people running away but they "couldn’t be for sure." They also said that they didn’t see any trucks or any other vehicle that could have delivered such an item. That might not sound too believable but you have to understand that these were the same two guys who several years earlier had seen two teen aged boys climbing into my sister’s bedroom window. The teenagers were wearing dark clothes yet the service station guys were able to not only call my father with the number but also the names! The night of the cross burning my sister was in college and that window was now my window but at least two men unloading a huge cross, soaking it in fuel and lighting it was not seen! That says more about the fear and divisiveness of the time than about anyone’s vision!
I really don't remember us even discussing the incident afterwards - I'm sure the adults had many conversations about it but no one thought that as a 10 year old I needed any further information. Those two or three summers seem like a movie to me but one that was more frightening than Mississippi Burning!
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