Uncle Charlie

On page 275 of "Weary Feet Rested Souls" I found the following sentence: "The first black sherriff's deputy in Leflore County, Charles Cooley, was hired in 1971 and he went on to a twenty-five year career in law enforcement". Uncle Charlie was my mother's uncle. I remember him being mentioned many times when I was young. He and Doris, my grandmother, were incredibly close. My grandmother died in late November of 2002. That December I traveled to Greenwood with my mother to attend the funeral. I can't recall exactly how long it was after the funeral, but I think it was only a matter of days, when the following events occurred. One afternoon Uncle Charlie was at home with his children, his wife and his grandchildren. He got up off the couch, went into the bathroom and shot himself in the head. He died instantly.

Week of March 10 – March 16

Here’s how things shook out this week and the outlook for the week to come:

As far as the African American National Biography goes, I went to the website and read some sample entries. From what I know so far of Booker, I do think that his story would be compelling enough to include in their listing. So, basically I need to get some solid sources and I would like to have the major pieces of the story relayed to me by more than one person. To that end I have been working on some leads that might be able to provide these different perspectives.

There is a book called “Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement”. The book focuses on people and places that were important during the Civil Rights Movement and that were still around when the book was written in 1995. It mentions Booker’s Place and refers to it as a “Movement joint”. About a month ago I tried to reach the author of the book, Townsend Davis, by contacting the publisher, but I never heard back. I spoke with someone in the marketing department, but as I was flipping through the book today I noticed that Davis names his editor at Norton in the acknowledgements, so I may try him as well and possibly Davis’ agent if he mentions him. I am basically trying to reach Davis to see if he can recommend other sources to me.

There are a few people listed in the Greenwood section of “Weary Feet” who I am hoping may still be around. One of them is Reverend Aaron Johnson. He worked at the East Percy Street Christian Church. I have a phone number but there has not been any answer so far. I will try again tomorrow. Maybe they will answer on Sunday. I am also trying to reach Simon Garrett. He worked at the Century Funeral Home and handled the body of Emmitt Till. I am wondering if he knew of Booker or if he frequented the establishment when Booker owned it.
I also sent an email to Amy Evans; she interviewed Karen Pinkston the owner of Lusco’s. She was out of the office for Spring Break.

I contacted the Greenwood Library; they pointed me in the direction of a man named Donny Whitehead. They said that he has studied Greenwood history extensively. They also said that they have all of their newspapers on microfilm, but I would have to know what I was looking for – which of course I don’t. But hopefully I can use that resource when the time comes.

Lastly, I am still trying to hunt down someone from Endesha Mae Holland’s family. She wrote a book called “From the Mississippi Delta” about growing up in Greenwood and her involvement in the civil rights movement. She wrote a play that was performed Off Broadway, it was partially financed by Oprah Winfrey and it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Her son lives in Buffalo, NY. His number isn’t listed. I may be able to get his address and mail a letter to him; I just need to think it through a little more. Endesha Holland frequented Booker’s Place with friends and I would love to hear from one of them what they remember about Booker and his restaurant.

I am also going to be interviewing my “unofficial” aunt this coming week. Her name is Nadeen Cooley, she is my mother’s cousin but they grew up like sisters, living in the same house. In our short conversation the other day it was clear that she remembers Booker fondly and that she is eager to share interesting information. One of the things she shared that I found fascinating is that they could not afford dolls so they made their own out of old soda bottles and caps. They used sea grass for the hair and hammered the lids back on to make the hair stay in its place. The hair was always “blond”. It was long and they would comb it and style it. Interesting.

I am doing two interviews with Nadeen, the first will be Monday night and the second will be later in the week. Hopefully, she will also be able to provide some leads for sources outside of the family. I also put in a call to my aunt Vera asking her to be thinking of people who are still living that may have known Booker or went to his establishment. I will also try to find some sort of historical society that may be useful. Lastly, I have yet another aunt named Dani who still lives in Greenwood. She may have a better knowledge of older people in the community who may remember Booker.

It’s going to be a busy week.

March 3 - March 9

It is the middle of the semester and I am picking up where I left off towards the end of the fall. I have been doing some research on how whites viewed blacks, how whites felt about race relations and what life was like for blacks in Greenwood before and during the civil rights movement.

I never knew that Charles Darwin said that savage races (this was a phrase regularly used to describe blacks and other tribal based groups) would most likely be exterminated through the process of natural selection. I read it myself in The Descent of Man on page 193. I always thought that most of the ugliest racist propaganda came riding into town on a horse wearing a white hood with a plan for burning crosses and killing innocents. I did not know that the full title for Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species was actually On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. I was sick to my stomach.

Finding this thinking in the mind of a man whose work we as a society lean so heavily on is disturbing to me. I know that a lot of the heroes of the past had problems with blacks. But it seems as if Darwin had something worse than a lack of comfort with blacks or a belief that white’s were superior, he seemed to have a scientifically based belief that we were not going to last. Lucky for me he was wrong.

I have read a little about how in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s many whites suffered from Negrophobia and they believed that blacks were akin to beasts. Who would want a beast living next door? I think some of these things will get more of my attention when the semester is over. I can only take this stuff in small doses. It is interesting, eye opening, and irritating to the soul. Each time I read one of these shocking passages it is like sustaining a blow. I need some time to recover.

I am still reading about what life was like for blacks in Greenwood. I am continuing this work so that I can further document and understand what Booker was up against and what he was living through. Some of the leaders in the white community during the 1950’s actually described the relationship whites had with blacks as harmonious! Sometimes I think this was just rhetoric to keep more liberated whites at bay. But I am sure that many of these whites were blind, or allowed themselves to believe that they were blind, to the challenges and the lack of opportunities for blacks. They believed that the blacks must be happy in their rundown houses, what would a Negro do with a big house anyway? They believed that blacks must be happy using their own substandard bathrooms and ill equipped dentists, they were used to living this way.

It reminds me of Barbara Bush’s statements on Marketplace when she was speaking about Katrina victims who were living in the Houston Astrodome. She said “and so many of the people in the area here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working well for them.” Yes, they are poor anyway so they don’t mind sharing a bathroom with thousands of other people who they don’t know. This type of thinking boggles my mind.

As far as my work goes, this first week was one of assessments. I would like to present Booker as a subject for the African American National Biography. In order to do this I need to learn a little more about the project itself, I need to identify informants who can give me a clearer view of what Booker did in the early 1960’s. I also think that some of the people mentioned in Endesha Mae Holland’s book may be useful if I can figure out how to reach them. She mentioned going to Booker’s Place many times, it seems as though it was a favorite hangout spot for her and her friends. So, this week I am going to try to make calls and contacts in an effort to come up with a short list of possible informants, I am also going to read some of the bio on the African American National Biography to make sure that Booker's story would even be a good fit, then I need to find out what their timelines/deadlines are.

What's Going On

I haven't really been posting, primarily out of guilt. I started researching the place that Booker lived in: Greenwood and the time during which he lived: civil rights movement and before. The things that I have learned blow my mind away. So many people think that the vile hatred of blacks ended with slavery and that the civil rights movement was just a final correction. Blacks were murdered in the South during Booker's lifetime with the same abandon that was present during slave times. It saddens and sickens me. I actually think that I took a step back for a few weeks just to wrap my mind around it. I don't want to become someone who thinks that everyone I intereact with has a problem with me because of my skin, but reading some of this stuff can make a mind go there.

Back to the blog. I have been so focused on the South that I felt as if I was neglecting Booker. I don't feel that way anymore. What I am learning is helping to create a context for his life and his choices. He is still the portrait, I am just beginning to understand the frame.

I have also been thinking alot about race in my own life, something that I have spent the better part of 33 years trying not to do. I don't know why I try to avoid what is so prevalent in my own head, but I do. This journey is a hard one, a very hard one for me to take. There are hurts and humiliations and fears and desires that have the mark of race on them. What I have been learning has made it hard for me to just turn away.

Something else is different as well. I'm a mom of two beautiful, handsome, young black boys. I want the best world for them. It makes me ache to think of the lessons that they will have to learn about race. I don't even want to begin to think about how I will explain it to them. I want to make sure that I have convictions and ideas about race that are not centered around avoiding it. The other day my husband said something in front of my son about a "black man" and I shushed him. I didn't want him to identify someone by color. But in the big scheme of things, did my son notice my husband's comment before or after my reaction?