Customer Reviews

Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

The genesis of Sons of Mississippi is a photograph taken in 1962 on the campus of Ole Miss. A group of sheriffs gathered below a tree. They came to stop the registration of James Meredith, the first black student at the university. The sheriff in the middle of the photograph is swinging a bat. The others are standing in support. One sheriff on the left side of the photo is smiling in glee. He looks like the archetype redneck.

Hendricks seeks out the men in the photos and their descendants in order to find out "what has come down" from what that photograph represents. What is the legacy of race in Mississippi and for these men and their families? Is their any redemption, any guilt, or are has nothing changed?

Only two men in the photograph were still alive for Hendrickson to talk with, and despite hours of interviews they didn't say much about the big questions. No sign of regret. Too, polite he doesn't ask these men if they are still the people in the photograph - or their children for that matter. We are told that they weren't in the Klan. But then maybe they were.

The truth is that the men in the photograph probably never wrestled with these questions - or the past - like Hendrickson does - and takes his readers do on the trip that he takes them. Most people are content to live the lives that they want to lead and if that means seeing other people suffer they learn to accept and live with that. That's just the way it is. When Hendrickson goes to the store that Emmit Till was murdered at he bumps into a man who says "the past is the pay and why stir it up and get folks thinking about things that can't be undone?"

That is the attitude that most white southerners have about the history of race relations. In the town that I live in there were Civil Rights demonstrations and marches that were akin to what happened in Birmingham. There was a day called "bloody Sunday" and Martin Luther King came to town. He left in defeat so the story isn't told in most narrative histories of the Civil Rights movement. We are approaching the 40th anniversary of that summer. There is no marker to the marches or the beatings. In a poll our newspaper did last week they asked what should the city do for the 40th anniversary of the local civil rights demonstrations. 63% of the respondents said nothing.

Hendrickon's book shows how in many ways attitudes have not changed since then. The times have changed. But the deep South isn't much different than anywhere else. There is always something somewhere that people find that they need to look away from. But by looking you learn something about the human condition. Suffering builds perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. One person in the book makes the comment that the racists of Mississippi hated as a way to focus on something other than their own suffering. That meant turning away from their own humanity and becoming depraved. That is why this is a book worth reading.

Author Paul Hendrickson has written a very well researched book on racism in Mississippi while concentrating on seven Mississippi sheriffs photographed on the campus of the University of Mississippi during the fall of 1962 when James Meredith was to be enrolled at the University. The author spends Part One of the book painting very unflattering portraits of the bigoted men in the picture. Part Two emphasizes the past and present life of James Meredith who appears to be somewhat difficult to understand. As one of Meredith's sons says in Part Three, "My father has an overwhelming need to be famous and so will do whatever he thinks will provide that and get him attention--Jesse Helms, David Duke, you name it, even if it's only for a day...I'll call it his eccentric philosophy. This is my theory. He does these things--almost as a kind of offensive strike to throw you off...For instance, supporting David Duke. Why in hell would you even support a racist like David Duke if you're James Meredith? Well, maybe he knows he's going to get all these articles and letters about that, condemning him. And that somehow gives him the energy to do what he wants to do next."
In addition to speaking to Meredith's children in Part Three, the author also visits two of the sheriffs in the picture that were alive at the time (one died shortly after) in addition to some of their children and grandchildren. A number of these offspring are working in law enforcement or in other jobs in which they must relate with fellow workers who are African Americans.
The book is slightly more than 300 pages long. Part Three may have told me a little more than I cared to know about the lives of the descendants of the bigoted sheriffs pictured on the cover of the book. I guess we can say these men were a product of their time, and their descendants have become more enlightened through the passage of time. Bigotry is a learned behavior and through the passage of the generations progress can continue to be made.

I am a fifth generation Mississippian, still residing in Mississippi. My grandfather was a klansman. I remember as a little boy sneaking into his study to read with fascination his books on holocaust denial, books linking Meredith et al. to Marxist subsersive groups, books decrying the destruction of Anglo-Saxon society by the mud peoples and the Jews. I was the first generation of my family to be educated in a public school, and the striking contrast between the familiarity I had with Americans of African origin and the images portrayed in these books touched me to the core. Unfortunately, in Mississippi, one does not gain this familiarity without reaching out. Mississippi is two distinct societies living side-by-side, in constant contact with each other, but seldom interacting socially, and never mixing.

This book strikes right into the heart of Mississippi, a land only one generation removed from the epic civil rights battles of the 1960's, a land of people who can tell you where their grandfathers were in 1860 but are quick to forget what their fathers were doing in 1960.

One chapter ends with two truths coalesced into one sentence, both of which may seem trite to someone who has never come to understand Mississippi:

"In Mississippi, nothing ever changes, and everything always changes, and sometimes it seems God put Mississippi on earth purely for our moral and confounding contemplation."

I don't consider this book a tale of Mississippi, I consider it a piece of Mississippi, and I consider the author a Mississippian. The book is a must-have for students of the struggle for civil rights, fans of Mississippi history, or people who love a riveting story artfully laid out in lyric prose.

It's at once a simple and brilliant premise: take a photo that is a literally a snapshot from our country's recent history and use it as a springboard into examining the soul of a region.
Paul Hendrickson's "Sons of Mississippi" works on many levels. It is an examination of James Meredith's integration of Ole Miss in 1962, of the state of Mississippi 40 years ago and today, it is a look at ordinary people swept up by extraordinary events. It is all that and so much more.
Hendrickson has taken a famous photo published in Life magazine of a group of Mississippi sheriffs just prior to demonstrations on the Ole Miss campus surrounding Meredith's entry and examined the lives of those in the photo and their progeny.
I was apprehensive about the book, concerned that it would be dry reading. Fortunately I couldn't have been more wrong. The author's exploration of the sheriffs, their families their communities their homes, is written in an engaging style that draws the reader into the Mississippi of yesterday and today. Much credit must go to Hendrickson for his ability to get interview subjects to speak so freely.
I'm often surprised at what books do or do not receive prestigious awards. I'd be shocked if "Sons of Mississippi" does not garner several honors.
Highly recommended for everyone, particularly those with interests in Civil Rights, race relations or Mississippi.

Lest we forget, the civil rights era and the horrors that it wrought still echoes and reverberates within us. Now comes a poignant reminder that there still are some closets that have stored secrets and are full of old ghosts. Paul Hendrickson braves the wrath and guilt of those that may want this sordid part of our history to continue to lie fallow. This is a story of Mississippi's pained past, one that is in the forefront of efforts to eradicate and ply for a new frame of reference. The author profiles seven Mississippi sheriffs photographed while one of their number showboats with a billy club in an apparent show of glee in beating a would be students' quest to integrate the University Of Mississippi. The real story about this book as more to do with telling the truth than hiding it. and the author uses the front cover picture on the book as metaphor to illustrate what transpired during this time, and the aftermath years later.

The genesis of Hendrickson's curiosity about the picture gives rise to why he felt that there's more to tell about the men that perpetuated and fueled actions extolling the indelible image of racism for the times. His question was: Is racism a genetic thing? Could it be possible that the sons of the perpetrators are just as racist? In other words, How has it changed for the families that had to witness the shock and sorrow of their loved ones. Where did the hatred and remorse go that strengthened the viewpoints of these so-called law enforcers? The compelling point of it all is what is extracted from the sons and grandsons to feed the pages of this book. He follows the careers of the proponents up to their deaths, with the quips, quotes, and anecdotes condoning violence, and the various interviews with leading subjects of the day. He begins with a wrenching retelling of the Emmett Till lynching-seven years before James Meredith fought for and finally won admission to Ole Miss, a bloody story Hendrickson also recounts (in addition to a fascinating recent interview with Meredith himself). I found this part of the book revealing, and gave credence to the depths that Hendrickson took to solidify his research methodology. The book's final third tries to get at the legacy of Mississippi's particular brand of segregation, but tells us nothing that we don't already know. He tries to rectify quality by profiling the children of the men in the photo, and of Meredith, with sad and inconclusive results.

While Hendrickson can be intrusive in telling readers how to interpret his subjects, he repeatedly comes up with issues that are repeated in previous and later sections of the book. The electric interview material, and deftly places these men did their horrors masterfully defines events of their times, and adds yet another chapter to this period that Mississippi would rather be left dead and buried. This book and story should not be looked down on, but should be placed among other books that endeavor to give some semblance of accord in understanding mindsets of a racist enclave.

As a newcomer to the US, I am perhaps more aware of the role of race here than I am in the UK. However, despite living here 2 years, was still at a loss a loss as to its' origins and why it occured here.

This book helped me see the American "South" in a new light. Gone are my perceptions that large sections of the old confederate south are your typical "KKK style bigots", but it has been replaced with a recognition that the racism that the African-American community experienced may well still be there.

Sure the burning crosses are gone but the "racism of the mind", the unspoken racism that most people are too ashamed to raise but which must still be presents among some, both in the North and in the South, is still very much alive and well in the US.

"Sons of Mississippi" illuminates Charles Moore's photograph of a group of Mississippi sheriffs gathered at the University of Mississippi prior to the admission of its first black student James Meredith in 1962. A subtext is how the story of the murder of Emmett Till reverberates to this day in Mississippi. Hendrickson spins his narrative from interviews, research of documents from the era, and literature about the time and place. Most compelling are his interviews with the sons and grandsons of the sheriffs and with Meredith's son Joe, probing their psyches as it relates to their experiences with race and racism. Near the end of the book on page 291, the author Paul Hendrickson quotes Mark Strand on Edward Hopper's paintings: "The shadow of dark hangs over them, making whatever narratives we construct around them seem sentimental and beside the point." Here he critiques his own contribution by advising the reader that although he has spun a story around a compelling photograph, he understands that the power of the photo, the shadow of dark that hangs over it, is more profound than the fascinating narrative he has attached to it.

Hendrickson has written an outstanding book-one which does much to explain the roots and structure of racism in American society. As his starting point, Hendrickson uses a photograph of several Southern sheriffs posing with a billy club just days before the riots at the U/Mississippi in 1962. Henrickson then explores the lives of these men and their descendants in the New South.

To claim that the book is "southern bashing" is grossly inaccurate. Hendrickson explores and speaks with many Southerners-and in doing so, he points out the differences in experience (there is no one Southern experience). Hendrickson also explores the different ways in which people of similar backgrounds reacted to the Civil Rights Movement (he looks at white southerners who supported the Civil Rights Movement as well as those who disdained the movement-proving that southerners had many options and that not all white southerners are the bigots which we Northerners traditionally associate with the South).

I was especially struck by the great job he does of demonstrating the love which many African-American Mississippians have for their state (there is sometimes a tendency to see those who define themselves as Southerners or Mississippians as primarily white men-but the conflicted and tortured feelings which many African Americans have about their state, its beauty and its past are an important component of the state's history and present).

The saddest aspect of the book for me is the tendency of most Mississippians to glorify and distort their past. Mississippians have an incredible past-and one they can be proud of-if we are talking about Faulkner, Wright, Welty, the rise of the Civil Rights Movement (which consisted of blacks and whites) etc. But the tendency of many Mississippians to glorify the plantation past or even the supposedly more innocent eras of the 1930s and 1940s (when blacks were forced to step off of sidewalks when passing whites, when they lived in constant fear of lynchings etc.) is really troubling.

Southerners need to confront their past (ironically, the Germans have done a better job of doing this)-until they honestly do this, there can be little hope that they can move forward. Some of the individuals in the book seemed to be making an honest attempt to think about and confront the uglier aspects of their state's past and this was really moving. However, the tendency of many others to brush aside the past was troubling.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book-it is well-written and incredibly thought-provoking.

As a Southerner, I read with interest this account of the integration of Ole Miss University and the legacies of the man who integrated it (James Meredith) and those who tried to stop him (among them, seven white sheriffs photographed by Charles Moore for Life Magazine). Hendrickson has thoroughly researched the events leading up to Meredith's first day at Ole Miss - the lynchings, the riots and the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering - and this section makes for a compelling read.

However, the author's attempt later in the book to decipher some meaning from the lives of the sons and grandsons of a few of the participants falls short. He did not ask his subjects the right questions - he simply skimmed the surface - perhaps he was afraid to risk their anger? Likewise, he rarely interviewed any of the wives of the participants.

Others have commented on Hendrickson's "south bashing." Certainly, he is patronizing to a few of those he meets; he describes one sheriff's grandson as never having gone to a symphony or the theatre as though these things were the markers of intellect. Still, I am not sure it this is "anti-south" or just the cultural elitism of a Washington Post writer.

Hendrickson's writing is lively, but at many times sticky and way too precious. I'd recommend the first half as an interesting read on the events at Ole Miss. Skip the rest, unless you want to learn about the daily life and views of your car mechanic, bus driver, home depot salesman, grad student or next-door-neighbor. Trust me, these people exist all over the country, not just in the South, and they're just not that interesting.

I am a Son of Mississippi, and I have read a lot of books about Mississippi and the dark days of the 60's. Hendrickson's book is the best one I've read. Whoever wrote in the notes for the inside cover, " A stunning book by a masterful writer", got it exactly right.

The author uses the lives of seven MS sheriffs who were photographed in Oxford before the riots related to James Merideth's admission to the school to explore what was going on in the state. He interviews a couple of the sheriffs who are still living, and also talks with many of their descendents.

Of course, he discusses at length all that surrounded the Ole Miss riots. I had forgotten just what a person without any socially reedeming factors was the state's governor, Ross Barnett.

He also devotes space to the Emmet Till case from the 50's in which a young black kid from Chicago was killed in Tallahatchee County MS. All that arose from that tragedy is still playing out in MS.

I enjoyed ( if "enjoyed" could really be the word ) all of the book, but I think the part I got the most out of was the author's interviews with James Merideth and his son. Merideth was nothing if not a very interesting individual, and I found
Hendrickson's interviews and insights informative.

This is an extremely good book.