| A Mississippi Delta Girl |
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| FaithLens | |||
| Written by Bert Montgomery | |||
| Wednesday, 28 January 2009 16:58 | |||
 (Family, Friends and Race - Part Two)The experiences of my parents (Bob and Barbara Montgomery) who were born and raised in post-depression pre-Civil Rights Mississippi are far different from my own; I was born and raised in the post-Civil-Rights middle-class suburbs outside of New Orleans. Before I can share some of my experiences, I need to share my parents' stories. One of my dad's accounts is recorded in the first of this series (see Family, Friends and Race). This is a story my mother shared of being raised in Tunica County. While Bob and I are both Mississippians, raised in loving families (parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) with the same values and deeply held religious beliefs, our cultural backgrounds are vastly different. Growing up in a rural community in the southwestern part of the state, Bob can remember the first time he saw a “colored” person. I cannot. Having been born in the Delta, “colored people” were always a part of my life. In 1944 (I was 4), Daddy bought a fairly good-sized farm. On this farm there were several colored families who were known to the other farmers in the area as “Henry’s Negroes” (pronounced NIG-rah in the South). This was to distinguish them from “Mr. Boyd’s Negroes” or “Peck’s Negroes.” Most of these families lived and worked on the same farm for years. They were paid a salary, provided housing with a plot of land to raise a garden, medical care, and whatever other needs might arise. I especially remember Charlotte and Will, whose house was only a few feet from ours. While Will was older and unable to do much work, he was always around and could be depended upon to entertain a child with a good story or a game of checkers. Charlotte occasionally helped Mama, mostly with ironing and heavy house cleaning in the spring before revival when the preachers had to be fed. When Mama and Daddy would go to town (Tunica), Charlotte and Will would stay with my sister, my brother and me. Charlotte and Will moved away around the time I was in junior high. Years later, after Will died, Charlotte moved back. By this time I was away at college. After graduate school, while I was home getting ready for my wedding, my sister and I took Charlotte to Memphis several times for cancer treatments and finally admitted her to the hospital where she died shortly after I was married. I will never forget Will and Charlotte who helped raise me. NEXT: a personal reflection on how Jesus, Chevy Chase, Richard Pryor, and integrated schools shaped my perspectives on race, life, and faith. Photo Credit Listen Up! © Bert Montgomery for The Faith Lab, January 26, 2009
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