Where is mound bayou mississippi

In the past, that meant fighting for autonomy, excellence and a peaceful existence. Recently that has meant a legal battle to keep its iconic high school open.

To the people who live there, the pursuit of settling the post-slavery settlement and the pursuit of saving the high school are inextricably linked. Without the high school, that history may be lost. After paying the down payment for acres of land in Bolivar County during July , Montgomery and Green began recruiting settlers.

In the coming years, early settlers built a supply store, a saw mill, a post office, obtained a cotton gin, established a school and a church. While Mound Bayou was looked to during the post-antebellum era as a haven from white autonomy, Peterson grew up there during the Civil Rights era, when it was a haven from racially motivated violence and oppression.

Shops and businesses lined the streets. Excellence in education was emphasized. A hospital in town employed black surgeons, doctors and nurses. There were no dehumanizing separate water fountains or bathrooms or schools.

No need to look down when a white person crosses your path for fear of losing your life. In the early days, white people stole mules from the settlers and poisoned their wells. Around the turn of the century, white people made a point to boycott the oil mill in Mound Bayou. At the same time, it was instilled in the Mound Bayou community to not let fear from the outside disrupt their sense of worth. Peterson tells stories like this to illustrate what that sometimes looked like in Mound Bayou during the Civil Rights Era:.

Peterson went across the street. It was instilled in us by those who were around us. Current students at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School say these are lessons that are still emphasized today. The value of independence, grit and knowing your worth are lessons that are still passed down from Isaiah T. In October , an analysis by The Hechinger Report showed most public schools use outdated textbooks to teach Mississippi history. These textbooks downplay the Civil Rights Movement and barely mention Mississippians who were pivotal in that era.

All industry is gone. Few stores remain. Even fewer jobs. The town has become a noble and historic community effort that is weakening but not surrendering. Its like you read my mind! You appear to understand a lot approximately this, such as you wrote the e book in it or something. I believe that you simply could do with a few to power the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is wonderful blog.

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Great read! Does your blog have a contact page? Either way, great blog and I look forward to seeing it grow over time. I was born in mound bayou in taborian hospital, my family nane through my father was Jones, and my mother Taylor. You could say the movement for civil rights for African Americans was born in Mound Bayou , and it was delivered —along with several people I met — by Dr.

Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard , successful surgeon and entrepreneur, and civil rights advocate. Before Dr. Davis had educated these two cousins and made them the managers of five successful plantations that belonged to him and his brother. Isaiah T. Montgomery and his cousin, Benjamin T. Green , had decided that Black people needed to learn to become successful plantation owners themselves. They founded Mound Bayou near arable land and negotiated with the new railroad for a stop at their town.

In , when Mount Bayou was incorporated and Montgomery became the first mayor, the Confederacy was done but cotton was still king. According to T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, Dr. He took over where the founders had left off, and built the town to survive past the looming slump in the cotton market.

Reena Evers-Everette, in black at left in front, attends the ribbon cutting July 10, Somehow, Dr. Howard found the time between operations to start a large farm, a restaurant, a hospital, a home construction company, and an insurance firm, Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Co. In , Howard left the Knights and Daughters and founded another clinic.