Ellington

Four years ago this week I was languishing at a picnic table in front of tent No. 11 in an area called Boy's Town in the majestic Yosemite Valley. I was working as a waitress in a hotel bar and living a life of hippie-like ease. I've called the two years I lived there the happiest of my life. So why am I back here now?

Like many people, I know the strong maternal pull of Mississippi, of the South, was just too strong. People I knew and loved in Mississippi were dying off. I could never afford to live outside the "valley" in a real town; rent in California is exorbitant. They don't know how to cook out there (they'd never heard of boiled peanuts or had fried green tomatoes before my mama cooked them in the small community kitchen). I missed my friends. I missed my family. Perversely, I missed the ridiculously hot summers and mosquitoes the size of my hand. I missed B.C. powder. And most of all I missed the feeling of being connected to a place. I discovered my southernness by moving 3,000 miles away. So, what exactly is it about Mississippi that not only tugs at our hearts, but almost demands that we do what we have to do out there, and then come on home?

Loved Ones

When I was young, I couldn't wait to get away from my family. "They don't understand me," I lamented. As I grow older I'm beginning to realize that they may be the only ones who ever will. Willie Morris said, "The older I am, the more [the South] means to me, the closer the ties." Overwhelmingly, the people who have returned say one word immediately when asked why they came home: family. It's like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the prodigal child returning home. And there seems to be no other way to explain the draw. It's just family. Roots. Place. Belonging.

And these roots are strong and deep, even for those of us the state hasn't always been kind to. According to a 1997 Newsweek article, in the 20th century more than 5 million African Americans migrated from a dangerous, unfair South where Jim Crow laws restricted their freedom and mechanical cotton pickers had taken many jobs from them. They were the largest internal ethnic migration in American history. Yet, today young African Americans are returning from where their parents moved (Chicago, Detroit, Harlem, and St. Louis) to attend the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and to be near their grandparents. They may never have lived here in the first place, but their family roots are too strong to ignore.

Census data show a reverse migration of middle-class African Americans back home to the South, a region that, paradoxically, enslaved them even as it developed its unique flavor—music, language, food, culture—because of their presence. "If the demographers are right and the pace keeps up past the millennium, a net tide of 2.7 million—more than half of the great post-1940 migration—will have headed South between 1975 and 2010," Newsweek reported.

Mississippi is our extended family. With all of our problems, resolved or otherwise, it is distinctly ours. Rapper David Banner told the Jackson Free Press last issue that he loves the state with painful passion, even as he loathes the state flag. Why? His people helped build the state, and died for him to live here: "I deserve Mississippi; Mississippi deserves me." This is a message that can be hard for white traditionalists to grasp: How many times have you read a letter to the editor that said people, black or white, who complain about the flag or other problems here should just leave? Those letter writers miss the point—many of us love our home, for better or for worse, and want to contribute to the former, not the latter.

It's as if we are bound to this city and this state with invisible kudzu. "I don't think you can be from Mississippi and leave it. It stays with you no matter where you go," said Lea Barton, an artist who returned to live and paint in Flora after getting an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. And she, like many emigrants says that it's easy to, as T.S. Eliot said, come back and then "know the place for the first time"—especially after you've gone out into the world and learned that Mississippi doesn't have a lock on bigotry and stupidity (although we can certainly claim our share).

Money Talk

The reverse African American migration is happening for the "same reasons it happened in the first place," said black musician Maurice Turner, who returned to Mississippi in 1993 when his father passed away. People are looking for work and safety. And, interestingly, many creative natives find that the state can be surprisingly welcome to what they have to offer—especially after they've gone out and polished up their skills in other places. Stories abound about artists, musicians and filmmakers whose careers take off after they return South armed with contacts, new ideas and experiences—particularly if they choose to document the culture, problems and quirks unique to, or at least pronounced in, this state. It doesn't hurt that the rest of the country has an untiring obsession with the South.

"Mississippi has unlimited resources, unlimited opportunities," said Carlton Turner, Maurice's brother (the two were "Jacksonian" in the last issue of the JFP). People are searching for a better lifestyle, a better life for themselves and their families. If you choose to, you can often better afford to pursue your dreams here and pay the rent at the same time (or even own a house, perhaps one your family helped build). Poet Jolivette Anderson, who came here in 1996 and now is moving on to Ohio, says, "When [Southern migrants] went to the steel mills, the meat factories, the car factories, they wanted to work, to have money, to feel safe. It's still what they want."

Everything costs more in other places, not just housing—cars, gas, food, entertainment, health care and transportation. And the trade-offs can be worth it: no, the bagels aren't as good here as in New York but, as my editor likes to say, all you have to do here to make a difference in someone's life is to be willing. The flip side of being No. 50 (give or take) on about every economic indicator is that the opportunities for meaningful work and community volunteerism are everywhere. And the gratification is immediate in a culture where people express themselves—and hug—so freely.

Then again, deciding to come home can be as simple as square footage. Friends of mine in California could not believe that I had lived in a three-bedroom house with a fenced-in yard for $650 a month here. One-room apartments go for $900 a month out there. "We have the opportunity to live well here on a professor's salary; the same was not true up north," said Matthew Dalbey, a PhD who teaches graduate courses in urban planning at Jackson State University and is originally from New York.

In an online cost-of-living calculator, I figured out that if you make $34,545 in Jackson, you'd have to make $60,000 in Chicago to have the same quality of life. $33,324 here is the same as $60,000 in New York City; the $35,055 in Jackson is the same as $60,000 in San Francisco.

It's About Y'all

"It may sound trite, but it's the people that make me love Mississippi," said JoAnne Prichard Morris, a Yazoo City native and the widow of Willie Morris. Trite? Maybe, but true. Mississippians are amazing: generally good-hearted, often open-minded and mostly kind, when taken one-on-one. (Groupthink has been known, however, to get us in trouble, and has led to the love-hate many of us can feel here.) I've heard a friend say upon moving away that he had never left a place missing the people. Jolivette Anderson, whose poetry often documents the hardships of black people in Mississippi, acknowledges the family feeling here. "There's an extended family vibe" to Mississippi, she said.

While it is true that we have still not mended all racial wounds, there have been strides toward a joined Mississippi culture or, more correctly, toward acknowledging that Mississippi culture is a fusion of black, white, Native American and other cultures. We are inextricably intertwined. Admittedly, we have a long way to close old wounds and make the state a strong place for all of us to co-exist. But if you turn and look at the path behind us you'll see that we are past the halfway mark and steadily making progress. Everyone I talked to lamented the still-wide divide between black and white, especially in social and political arenas. At the same time, again paradoxically, most southerners will acknowledge that race relations can often seem more advanced here than in most of the country.

We are the Hospitality State. Graciousness is a high commodity. Manners are demanded.

Culture and Tradition

As Mississippians we are steeped in our collective history like so many tea bags. It is inescapable. It's in the music that we hear, the food we eat, the flags that continue to wave. Being from Mississippi defines who we are whether we like it or not; it's an unavoidable fact. If you have traveled outside the state you know that there are negative stereotypes attached to your native land—and your accent.

"In Brooklyn people expected me to be either Scarlett O'Hara or Tallulah Bankhead," Barton said. Although this stereotypical response bothered her in the beginning, she learned to use it to her advantage, that there is a flirtatious way to use her southernness as strength. There are elements of the Southern stereotypes within all of us, and whenever we leave the state we do so as an unwitting spokesperson of our home. We go into the world and often find that we are not expected to be the intelligent, creative, well-spoken people that many of us are. It becomes our duty to change people's view of Mississippi and her inhabitants. So not only are we saddled with the charge to improve our home and our legacy; we've got to change all them, too.

Prichard Morris, an editor of this magazine, said that fans of history love to come here because everything's right out there on the surface. A lifelong Mississippian who's traveled extensively, she's always found enough in the people and culture here to keep her coming back and stimulated. "I've spent my life peeling off the layers of Mississippi history, culture and tradition and trying to figure it out," she said. Of course, a buoyant Prichard Morris sense of humor—which is common among southerners—doesn't hurt anything.

Our past defines our present and creates our future. We rely on what we have to season what we can grow. Poor whites made cornbread because cornmeal was often all there was. Slaves created hush puppies out of left-over cornmeal batter (according to legend, escaped slaves then threw them at barking dogs to shut them up). Southern blacks created the Blues to remove themselves emotionally from where they were during slavery and then dark Jim Crow days when they were called free but weren't. Our writers write to help the world better understand us, and us to better understand ourselves. We are determined to do things our own way. "Damn them all!" we like to say, especially if they happen to be Yankees.

What's Missing

Upon returning home, our expatriates admit missing the artistic culture and international diversity and political open-mindedness of other places. And we all agree there could be more independent movies, better Asian cuisine and a proper falafel. "The main thing I'll miss are the film choices. In California there are always 30 or 40 to choose from," said Laurel Isbister, a Californian singer/songwriter who spent her childhood summers with her grandmother in Inverness and is planning to move to Mississippi. But many of us who are disappointed in what Mississippi doesn't have to offer have made a silent (sometimes loud) pledge to take Ghandi's advice: "Be the change you want to see in the world." People like my editor Donna, restaurateur (and my boss) Malcolm White, attorney and businessman Isaac Byrd, Maurice and Carlton Turner, Camp Best of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation, and even me in my own small way, are actively trying to make their home a better place, choosing not to believe that racial and other divides have to exist if we don't want them to.

Most returning expatriates seem to agree that this change starts with a moratorium on denying the truth about our own past. Yes, racism and stupidity exist in other places, but it in no way negates the work we have to do on the home front. After all, if sweeping our painful memories under a rug has left us squarely at No. 50, or 49 in a good year, clearly it's the wrong approach. It's time for a new generation of hope, and work, and change—and natives, with our weird mix of loyalty and shame, are the ones to spur that growth. It starts with brutal honesty.

Call to Action

The Turner brothers are taking over the My Mississippi Eyes project at Lanier High School begun by Jolivette Anderson in 1999. It is a program that uses project-based learning through writing, reading and critical thinking. My Mississippi Eyes begins with a workshop that builds the knowledge base of students and then moves them toward action. The students physically trace the African American migration with a bus ride to Chicago and New York. The students are then asked to tell stories using the information they've gathered through their own eyes and ears.

Like the courageous volunteers in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement knew, if you wait for something to change, it could take forever. But, if you participate in the change, the time will fly by. Personally, and I've said this before, I'm tired of Mississippi always being on the bottom and idly agreeing with the justice of this. Through grassroots efforts—by those who left and returned working with those who never left—a change is happening. The Montessori program, a hands-on teaching program for 3- to 9-year olds at McWillie and Van Winkle elementary schools, was begun in response to a dissatisfied group of parents who wanted better public education for their children. Both racially and economically diverse, this program had 150 applications for the 32 positions opening this year. The Fondren Renaissance Foundation has seen an 8.6-percent increase in residents in Fondren since 1990 and has near-magically created a funky shopping district cooler than you'll find in many larger cities. These examples show how a few determined people can change their environments.

A study called "Mississippi Economic Review and Outlook," published by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning in December 2002, and guest-authored by Kenneth Chilton and Matthew Dalbey, states: "The City of Jackson is on the right track in its efforts to further reduce the crime rate, improve infrastructure, and build its urban diversity into a creative center that attracts more professionals." The authors predict that the city has about seen the end of its out-migration and is ripe to rebuild its inner core for creatives and others who want to live in a diverse, urban environment. They say that if we want a better Mississippi we must improve what they call the core city, while forging alliances with suburban entities to facilitate smart regional planning (which is not a local strength, yet). They write: "Experience has shown that cities and suburbs can both prosper when political leadership, corporate citizens and grassroots organizations work together cohesively and cooperatively for the benefit of the entire region." That is, life in the entire "metro" area is affected by the condition of the city and its residents. "[Q]uality of life is inextricably tied to the health of the core city," the report warns.

Dalbey told me the city of Jackson is at a very hopeful place: "There are a lot of reasons Jackson is on the upswing." Many people agree and are doing their part to make the "upswing" go higher and higher. We're not there, yet. But, if we are consistently moving forward with unflinching devotion toward the goal it will one day be attained. And, then, we'll see even more of our loved ones coming on home to be a part of something very special.

Jackson native J. Bingo Holman is the assistant editor of the Jackson Free Press.

Previous Comments

ID

77053

Comment

I enjoyed reading this article and this website. I lived in Jackson from 2000-02 and was excited about the potential of the city. Unfortunately, I was exasperated by the many qualities that make Jackson quaint. People were friendly and they did seem concerned about their community. Yet, I was never able to reconcile the divisions that shattered the community. For instance, the influx of affluent whites attending church at downtown's First Baptist in the shadow of dire poverty was quite ironic. My greatest frustration with Jackson was the "like it or leave it" mentality coupled with a willingness to accept mediocrity. Throw in a healthy dose of old-boyism and machine politics and you have a recipe for political, social and economic stagnation. Intolerance for new ideas was also troublesome (tolerance is a cornerstone of Richard Florida's strategy). In the Mississippi Economic Review article cited by Ms. Holman, Jackson is shown to be a laggard in regards to in-migration. That is, few people from outside MS are coming to Jackson. Without an influx of new residents, new ideas and innovative solutions to community problems tend to be dismissed by care-taker politicians interested in exploiting the status quo. My problem with Jackson was the stubborn resistance to change a "status quo" that didn't work for a large segment of the community. If disfunction is the norm, over time we adapt our systems of governance and economics to fit the disfunction. As such, vacant buildings like the King Edward become normal and life goes on without questioning the conditions that led to its demise (and most of downtown). It never ceases to amaze me that leaders would not "pull the trigger" on redevelopment projects. When you're ranked number 50 or the system is broken, what is there to lose? Any decision is superior to non-action when you are dealing with the types of problems affecting Jackson and Mississippi--in my opinion.

Author

kchilton

Date

2003-05-30T12:07:45-06:00

ID

77054

Comment

Thanks, Kenneth, for your comments. (All, note that he is one of the authors of the economic report Bingo references in the story.) Kenneth mentions Richard Florida and his "Creative Class" research, in which Jackson ranks very high. Todd wrote a very informative cover story about where Jackson fits into the "Creative Class" in our preview issue. In case you missed it, take a read: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/cover_comments.php?id=111_0_9_0_C

Author

ladd

Date

2003-05-31T10:42:28-06:00

ID

77055

Comment

In my weekend reading, I found the following passage in an essay, "Coming on Back," that Willie Morris wrote for Life magazine in 1981 after returning to Mississippi 20 years after he left the South. It seems very appropriate to post now under Bingo's article. "It was in the East that I grew to middle age. I cared for it, but it was not mine. I had lived nearly twenty years there, watching all the while from afar as my home suffered its agonies, loving and hating it across the distance, returning constantly on visits or assignments. The funerals kept apace, "Abide with Me" reverberating from the pipe organs of the churches, until one day I awoke to the comprehension that all my people were gone. As if in a dream, where every gesture is attenuated, it grew upon me that a man had best be coming on back to where his strongest feelings lay." The essay is reprinted in "Shifting Interludes," a book of Willie's short pieces edited by Jack Bales. It's just a breathtaking collection. It's available at Lemuria, of course.

Author

ladd

Date

2003-06-02T11:43:57-06:00

ID

77056

Comment

One interesting return migration phenomenon that I just heard about is folks coming to Mississippi to live after their welfare benefits run out. I was visiting with a musician from Holmes County last week, and he told me that there has been a large influx of new people into his town. As a lifelong resident, he's astounded at the number of new people, most of whom he doesn't know. He explained to me that many of them were born up north and have never lived here. However, when their benefits ran out, their only recourse was to move onto land or older homes that were owned by relatives here. For possible further reading, there was a cultural geographer based at Delta State, Rob Brown, who's dissertation was focused on return migration to Mississippi, specifically in the Delta. I don't know if he's published it yet, but I got to read his introduction that was promising.

Author

Ironsides

Date

2003-06-04T11:32:26-06:00

ID

77057

Comment

I've done a bunch of research on one particular manifestation of this--MS has one of the highest filing rates for SSA disability benefits in the country--the agency that processes those applications moves around 80,000 cases per year in MS alone--and approves 25-30% of them. And a lot of those filers are people moving back to live with family while they're laid up or because they've heard it's easier to get benefits here. (not true by the way). Very intruiging phenomenon.

Author

JW

Date

2003-06-04T13:54:24-06:00

ID

77058

Comment

Great info Ironsides and JW. I do know many people move here to save money but never really thought (probably because of my age) about retirement, SSA, etc. Always nice to learn new things, isn't it?

Author

Knol Aust

Date

2003-06-04T14:28:13-06:00

ID

77059

Comment

"Well, there was this girl," accompanied by a distant gaze and glazed eyes, starts many conversations when I ask people (men) why they moved home. There's just somethin' about us, ladies.

Author

bingo

Date

2003-06-06T12:43:37-06:00

ID

77060

Comment

Interesting article! As someone that has been away for almost 23 years, I can tell you that there's a distinct pull back to my "home". So what's stopping me? The crime, the continual stir of racism although everywhere else in the country seems to deal with it on a much more subdued level, the higher cost of living, the lack of professional jobs, the low pay, etc., etc. etc. Don't get me wrong, I think about moving back almost weekly. But it's the heart talking, and fortunately the head still controls the decision making....for now.

Author

Cecil

Date

2003-06-11T16:52:02-06:00