The Lynching of L.Q. Ivy

Seventy-five years ago, a 17-year-old was lynched in Union County. If L.Q. Ivy had lived; today, he would be 94 years old – the same age as his sister-in-law, Mattie Ivy Bruce, who clearly remembers his murder. 

In the Mississippi Delta of the 1940s, it was customary for black drivers to pull over, surrendering rural, unpaved roads to vehicles driven by whites because “The black man might stir up dust that would get on the white folks.”

This, according to an African-American resident quoted in the book Dark Journey, who survived the muddy and bloody era. But dust rises on the convoluted gravel road just past the green Lafayette County marker on the way to Mattie Ivy Bruce’s home, and when it settles, what has been left behind is visible.

Born of Conviction statement ‘an atomic bomb’: Methodist ministers fought racism in the 1960s

As a student at Millsaps in the 1970s, Joseph T. Reiff found his heroes in a group of ministers who forged “a crack in the armor of the closed society” that existed in Mississippi in the 1960s. 

In the fall of 1962, James Meredith had become the first black student at the University of Mississippi. The event sparked riots on campus that left two dead, 48 soldiers injured and 28 U.S. marshals wounded by gunfire. 

Another 28 people would face injury the following January when they united to sign a document opposing discrimination, communism and the closing of public schools to establish private academies using state funds.

Mississippi pastors influenced by legacy of ‘Born of Conviction’ signers

It’s not like the 1960s, but Mississippi pastors today are sometimes forced to take stands on controversial topics – issues such as immigrant rights, health-care reform and the death penalty. 

The Rev. Chris Cumbest, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Ocean Springs, was influenced by the legacy left by Born of Conviction ministers. 

“I was born in 1962, so I wasn’t here long before it happened,” he said. “A part of my life has certainly been shaped by the fact that my parents were aware of what was going on.”  

Beth Israel in Mississippi to celebrate 150th anniversary

Beatrice Lehman Gotthelf, 91, is a third-generation member of Beth Israel Congregation who fondly remembers good times on the grounds, like her wedding day, Hanukkah dinners, outdoor picnics and the annual Sisterhood bazaar. 

She also recalls dark moments, like the year 1967 when the congregation moved into its present home on Old Canton Road, and local Ku Klux Klan members bombed the synagogue. 

“That was a very frightening experience, but thank goodness, we weren’t in the temple when it was bombed,” she said. 

A Lesson in Civil Rights: Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s role in 1960s Mississippi examined

He was both admired and resented during Mississippi’s volatile civil rights era. Rabbi Perry Nussbaum became an outspoken voice against racism and segregation in Jackson during his 19 years as rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation, and his life was the topic of the first of 13 Jewish literacy classes that began Tuesday at the synagogue. 

Rabbi Allen Krause, a former assistant professor in the comparative religions department at California State University, Fullerton, led the event. 

“He’s working on a book about the role of Southern rabbis during the civil rights movement,” Stuart Rockoff, director of the history department at Jackson’s Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, said. “It will be based on interviews he did with many of these rabbis back in the 1960s.” 

The Elaine Lynchings: A Visit to Elaine, Arkansas, 100 years after America’s deadliest race riot

Birdhouses hang everywhere in the dying Delta town of Elaine, Arkansas—a distraction from the blight, neglect and century-old history of a county where hundreds of Black men were lynched in 1919.

On Lee Street, a diner has “Open” and “For Sale” signs in a window, but no one is there. 

The Elaine Fire Department is also empty, and the Elaine Public Library is closed. There are ruins of historic buildings – shells of brick and wood with empty window frames – on the town’s main street.

Despite the decay, someone is trying to enliven the town. Birdhouses  with different shapes and designs hang from some of Elaine’s most dilapidated structures, bringing attention to neglect. They are evidence that someone cares about Elaine. Former teacher Pat Kienzle is trying to save it one birdhouse at a time. 

Festival of Faiths: Groups building on MLK’s legacy

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lives on, but some say his vision of peace and equality has not been fully realized. 

That’s why a group of Jackson residents representing an array of religious beliefs has united to promote the ideals that King envisioned. 

“His vision of the world has not yet been achieved, and we have an obligation to work together to achieve that,” said Michael Steiner, a member of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation. 

Steiner helped organize the annual Festival of Faiths celebration that honors King’s life and legacy. It will be held from 5-7 tonight at Jackson’s Ascension Lutheran Church. The public is invited.   

Freedom Riders inspire playwright: Latest work to tour Mississippi as part of 50th anniversary

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders – civil rights activists who traveled to the South in 1961, risking their lives to desegregate interstate bus travel. 

Many were arrested in Mississippi and jailed at the state penitentiary. One such individual was Mimi Real, a sophomore at Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College, who inspired Virginia native Mike Wiley, an actor and playwright, to pen “The Parchman Hour.”

In commemoration of the anniversary, the Mississippi United Methodist Conference’s Commission on Religion and Race, or CORR, will host a week-long Mississippi tour of the play that will begin in Jackson on Sunday.

Violins, music: Remembering the Holocaust

In 1996, Israeli master violinmaker Amnon Weinstein embarked on a spiritual journey to collect and restore musical artifacts that once belonged to Jewish musicians killed by Nazis. 

He put out a call asking for violins with histories, some of which had been played by concentration camp prisoners. 

His mission was to restore the violins in his Tel Aviv workshop, as well as the memory of the victims. 

Weinstein’s efforts will be shown during a Holocaust Remembrance event at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson. 

Holy Ghost Milestone: 100 years later, Catholic church still on a mission

Father Aloysius Heick, a 41-year-old German missionary, put his life on the line in 1905 when he attempted to establish a mission school in the Delta town of Merigold for poor African Americans. To avoid being lynched, he was placed in a piano box coffin and rolled out of town by a horse-drawn wagon. 

The experience did not detour Heick’s mission. Vicksburg, a city with a larger Catholic population, was more welcoming, and in 1906, he founded St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the Divine Word Missionaries’ first foundation in the South. In the next decade, the group would open African-American parishes in Jackson, Meridian, Little Rock, Ark., and Greenville. 

Jackson Jewish Film Festival returns: Terrorism explored in several contemporary productions

The Jackson Jewish Film Festival returns to the area for the ninth time, bringing four films that will be shown Jan. 22-25 at the Millsaps College Recital Hall and the Historic Fairview Inn. 

The four contemporary Israeli and Jewish films include stories about the collision of different worlds, the life of newspaperman and Las Vegas icon Hank Greenspun, a nontraditional love story, and a man caught in a life-and-death situation. 

“Several of the films deal with terrorism,” said Marcy Nessel, who co-chairs the film festival committee. “It really forces you to take a look and see what life is like in other countries.”  

Churches honor Medgar Evers: Evers-Williams will speak at Sunday program

Medgar Evers’ life and legacy are an important part of Mississippi’s historic struggle for equal rights. 

That is why four Jackson Episcopal churches are coming together to hold an annual “Liturgy of Racial Reconciliation Commemorating the Life and Legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers” at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral. 

Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers, will be the guest speaker. The noted civil rights activist and former NAACP president currently lives on the campus of Alcorn State University, where she is a distinguished scholar-in-residence. 

Showing support for marriage equality

Tina Frizzell and the love of her life spent 15 years together before they were married last January in California. 

This month marks their first wedding anniversary, and January could be a game-changer in the lives of gay Mississippians like Frizzell and her partner. 

On Friday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments that could lift a ban on same-sex marriage in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. That would mean Frizzell’s California marriage license is valid in Mississippi.

Anniversary calls for recommitment: The Right Rev. Duncan Gray III to lead walk commemorating riot

As an eighth-grader at University High School in Oxford in 1962, Duncan Gray III was well aware of what was happening with the civil rights movement. 

On the evening of the riot at the University of Mississippi protesting James Meredith’s admission, Gray’s father, an Episcopal priest, went on campus to calm the swelling crowd and try to get students to go back to their dorms. 

“For his efforts, he was roughed up pretty good by the crowd,” Gray said. “The night and its aftermath are seared in my own consciousness.” 

No chance that the imminent change would happen peacefully

Change was happening in Mississippi, and it couldn’t be stopped by tear gas or bullets. 

That’s how Hattiesburg resident Bryant Myatt remembers the events surrounding the integration of the University of Mississippi. Myatt was a National Guardsman from Tupelo sent to the University of Mississippi in 1962, the day of the riot. 

“Everyone knew that (Gov. Ross) Barnett was going to fight it, and everyone knew it was a losing proposition,” he said. “The news coming out of Jackson had nothing to do with what was going on. 

“I felt that integration was needed, and this attitude was not uncommon in my part of the state.”   

A pastor’s civil rights journey: From silence to activism

In 1964, Shaw native William McAtee, 77, became the minister at the Columbia Presbyterian Church in south Mississippi. Soon after, three young civil rights workers were killed outside Philadelphia, 100 miles away. 

McAtee suddenly found himself working with other community leaders, trying to calm the volatile climate and improve race relations. 

He chronicles those days in “Transformed: A White Mississippi Pastor’s Journey into Civil Rights and Beyond” ($35, University Press of Mississippi). It’s a clergyman’s story of resistance in the face of oppression. 

A brotherly understanding: Service to honor Medgar Evers’ legacy

The virulent visitors did not dissuade her. When they dropped by to see her father, Judy Barnes clung to her faith. 

“As far back as I can remember, I questioned a lot of the racial slurs and remarks that I heard,” she said, “and I believed, as part of my Christian faith, that everyone truly is my brother and sister.” 

Barnes maintained those beliefs in the presence of white supremacists Sam Bowers and Byron De La Beckwith, who she said sometimes visited her father, an officer of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, at their Jackson home. 

Segregated Services: Hands still not joined on Sunday

Mary E. Gilbert often drove right by the large, intimidating church buildings in her community, never stopping to go inside because she feared she would not be accepted or welcomed. God would invite her in, if He were there, but would the all-white congregation be as hospitable? The thought kept her away. 

The 26-year-old Jackson State University student recently shared her feelings with a diverse congregation at Central United Methodist Church.

Sunday Morning Segregation: How much has changed since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the latest topic of The Medgar Evers/Ella Baker Civil Rights Lecture Series.

Mississippi native battles sex trafficking

In 2006, while working in an impoverished area in the South African country of Swaziland, Clinton native Alli Mellon met a little girl who had been sold for sex.

“I was working in a slum area where young children and their mothers sold their bodies for something so small as a loaf of bread,” she said. “I held a 5-year-old girl on my lap, who regularly was sent by her mother to have sex with a grown man. The little girl would be sent to one abandoned car in the city dump, while the mother went to another car or behind a pile of trash with another man.” 

Today, the Mississippi State University graduate, who later moved to Nashville and earned a master’s degree in human development counseling, is working in Cambodia to fight sex trafficking, a crime that Mississippi officials say is happening here and abroad.  

Stereotyping on group’s agenda for open discussion

All Asians are smart and good at math. All Irish are alcoholics, and all African-Americans are on welfare.

Italians are connected with the mob. Most Hispanics are illegal immigrants. All Muslims are terrorists. And Southerners are racists.

Stereotypes — It’s a topic Mississippians are discussing this week during an ongoing Sunday school class at Jackson’s Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church and a University of Southern Mississippi program.

“We are getting rid of stereotypes because they have held us down so long,” said Jeremy Hosey, president of USM’s Future Black Law Students Association. “They have trampled on our laws, and we are taking them to court and sentencing them to death.”

Stewpot: Group that feeds the hungry expands services: Helping poor, disenfranchised in the community

With $2 million in pledges already committed, Stewpot Community Services is moving into the public phase of its fundraising campaign. The goal is $4 million. 

The Rev. Frank Spencer, chief executive officer of Stewpot, said the three-year Capital Campaign began in 2008 as an effort to renovate the organization’s facility.

“We were advised by our architect to repurpose the old sanctuary for the kitchen and make the eating space useful as a place where community events can be held,” he said. 

A Sunday in September: Near the 40th anniversary of James Meredith’s 1962 Ole Miss entrance, a former student recalls events witnessed that day

In Billy Joel’s historical ballad “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” a song about significant events that became turning points and catalysts in American history, the University of Mississippi’s nickname falls between “Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania” and “John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson.” 

The lyrics are listed year-by-year, and those four references were all part of 1962. 

That’s the year the widely-publicized admission of James Meredith, 29 – the University of Mississippi’s first African American student – resulted in violent riots, multiple injuries and two deaths. 

Switchfoot to the rescue: Mississippi concert to help restore civil rights leader’s music studio

His life as a civil rights leader and advocate of racial reconciliation inspired a 2009 rock song. 

Switchfoot – a nationally known, Dove Award-winning rock band — released a track called “The Sound” (John M. Perkins Blues) last October on its latest album “Hello Hurricane.” It is about Perkins, the founder of Jackson’s John M. Perkins Foundation, who also appears in the video. 

The spiritual rock group from San Diego will perform at 7 p.m. today on the Belhaven University campus during an event called “An Evening with Switchfoot and Dr. John M. Perkins.” 

Ubuntu: Showing humanity towards others

Michelle Shrader decided to transition from speech therapist to pastor when she became aware of the class and racial divides in her Florida town. 

“I was really involved in leadership at an affluent, all-white church,” Shrader said, “and I was working in the school just across the tracks that had no resources and was primarily attended by children from low-income African-American families. 

“As my faith and leadership began to grow, I realized there was something that was not congruent with this, and I began to understand that my calling was bridging the divides in the world where we are separated from one another.” 

Wings of Song: Pocahontas native tours Ghana with renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers

Overcome with emotion, tears streamed down her face as she stood in front of Elmina Castle. Built by the Portuguese in 1482, the Ghana landmark once held thousands of Africans who were imprisoned in its dungeon and later sold as slaves. 

And there she was, centuries later, standing in the courtyard where men and women had been exchanged as merchandise, belting out black spirituals that doubled as freedom codes – songs written years later by American slaves using the Underground Railroad to seek independence in free states. 

12,000 Miss. children said to be homeless

Around 12,000 Mississippi children and youth are homeless, the National Center on Family Homelessness reports.

“The numbers have increased as the economy has been hurting more and more over the past few years,” Christina Murphy, director of the center’s Campaign to End Child Homeless, said.

The group will offer recommendations today on ways to combat homelessness among children.

About 1.5 million U.S. children are homeless, according to a 2009 report by the group.

Mississippi prison graduates first class in theatrical arts

Upon entering the Marshall County Correctional Facility just outside Holly Springs, Mississippi, visitors were scanned, patted down and led through several locked doors to the gym.

Inside, inmates wearing white and black striped pants with “MDOC Corrections” written on the back in block letters waited inside the building that featured icons of sports teams on the walls, from the Chicago Bulls to the Miami Heat.

Two barber chairs were positioned on the floor of the basketball court. A sign on the wall read: “It’s simple. Learn from yesterday. Live in today. Hope for tomorrow.”

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