Posted on 09/08/2014 7:44:52 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Because of my heritage as a descendant of Southern Unionist Republicans, I used to really admire Black Americans and their culture, going all the way back to the works of Joel Chandler Harris and B.A. Botkin. Because of this I've long been a fan of traditional acoustic country blues, especially from the Mississippi Delta (Charlie Patton!).
I've been longing for years to visit the Dockery Plantation between Ruleville and Cleveland, which is where the blues was allegedly born and where so many of the great Delta bluesmen played and/or worked as farm hands. Several years ago I actually took a trip down there but missed the plantation because I didn't know where it was located. (I did see Yazoo City and Rolling Fork, however.) I was planning on attempting a trip last year, but the Trayvon Martin mess made me think it was best to let things settle down first.
Well . . . I'm thinking once again about going in the very near future, only now we've got the Ferguson issue. Furthermore, I am aware that one white man was beaten into a coma in rural Northern Mississippi a while back and now read that white employees and customers have been attacked at a Kroger's in Memphis.
I am asking all Mississippi FReepers (especially any who might live in or near the Delta) if a trip to visit the Dockery Plantation would be a dangerous undertaking at this time. Please note that I am not going to or through any large cities but am wanting to take a trip through the rural Delta. The only two "sure things" on the itinerary are Tutwiler and Dockery.
::Sigh:: It's such a shame what has become of us and what I've come to feel toward the dominant Black American community.
My grandmother was a cousin of Joel Chandler Harris, and we are also somehow related to Stephen Foster.
Good luck with your trip planning!
The Mississippi delta is in Louisiana.
I would recommend you call the local Sheriff and discuss your concerns with him. They are usually candid and honest.
Depends on your training and what you’re packin’.
Mississippi Delta has several meanings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Delta_(disambiguation)
>> The Mississippi delta is in Louisiana. <<
Part of it, yes. The other parts are in Mississippi and Arkansas.
Birmingham and Jackson, after dark, are body-armor and CCW zones IMHO....especially Jackson.
That's so great! As you may know, as an illegitimate child Harris was no friend of the Old South and wished to see it buried . . . though he inexplicably described Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin as defenses of slavery.
Stephen Collins Foster (a native of Pittsburgh) was a great supporter of Black American culture, as apparently was Ohio native Daniel Decatur Emmett, the writer of the song Dixie. When his song became the unofficial "national anthem" of the Confederacy he actually said he regretted writing it because it had become the anthem of treason.
Isn't it amazing that a Black minstrel song was adopted by "racist rednecks" as "their" anthem while Blacks and their "supporters" hate it?
Good luck with your trip planning!
Thank you.
Excuse me. I meant the "Mississippi Alluvial Plain."
My heritage is Scots-Irish and I’m from Memphis. I used to live near that Kroger where the beating happened and I pass it all the time. In fact, I was in that lot a few hours before the incident. My cousin is a doctor who lives in a mansion mere blocks away. I don’t think of that as a particularly dangerous area, but there is a buffet pizza place that often attracts a sketchy crowd. I’ve been concerned about Memphis crime for years, so I moved my family just south of Memphis to a North Mississippi suburb. I travel throughout the Delta all the time. I just got back from a visiting the blues museum in Clarksdale. I’m much more concerned in certain parts of Memphis than I am the Delta. In my experience, rural blacks are quite different from their urban counterparts. That said, I always carry a pistol and I am careful where I stop. I’m not scared of black people. I interact with them every day. I am, however, cautious around groups of young black people.
Would it be dangerous to pull into a convenience store for dinner?
As I said, I don't plan going near a large city.
Isn't a shame what we've come to in this country?
Depends on what constitutes a large city.
The population of Ferguson Missouri, is slightly over 21,000...Just Saying!
I did not like Memphis and certainly didn't feel safe there - heck they even had guides from the Tourist Bureau who would walk with you to the next attraction.
A sharp contrast was Vicksburg where we went to blues bars frequented by the locals and were treated in a very friendly manner.
If you are driving around there, try to get to the Best Fried Chicken in the US - amazing taste -
https://plus.google.com/108531441845369876044/about?gl=us&hl=en
Mississippi ping
I have been living near Yazoo City for 64 years. I have never feared for my life outside of Jackson proper.
Follow the Blues Trail Markers during the day light hours.
I have lived in Memphis for over 40 years. It is a wonderful city. I am sick and tired of all of this paranoia being dumped on us by people who don’t have a clue. There is evil everywhere. You can’t live your life in constant fear, or you will have no life at all.
It depends.
Last month I was in Greenville ...parts are spooky
Same time at Luscos in Greenwood....no issues....but security abounds
Stopped in Tchula...very African...at night...helped with drunk black man hit by car on 49 in a crowd of several hundred blacks on a Friday eve around 10
Felt zero hostility outnumbered 200-1
The Mississippi delta now feels like Africa or Haiti....for sure darkest region of the country
Whites should be smart....it aint 1950 anymore
Its just overwhelmed....whites have left...most plantations now corporate
Still rural southern blacks are without question least threatening of any in the USA
And any gas station selling fried chicken is bound to be damn sure worth buying..
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