Grandpa Perkins showed up to the house today at about 7:30am for our morning teaching.  We knew he’d be by that early, so we started getting people up at around 6am…which I’m pretty sure is the same time the ‘guests’ are forced to wake up at Guantanamo Bay.  Even worse was that most of us were up watching a movie until 1:00.

Dr. Perkins’ son, Wayne, is our main contact while we’re down here.  He came to breakfast at the house, then took us around the greater Jackson area showing us the when’s and where’s of how John and Vera Mae Perkins got started in their struggle for civil rights.  Driving through Mendenhall, MS, about half the buildings in town had signs on them that said something about Dr. Perkins being responsible for them being there.

One of the buildings we were driving by in downtown Jackson was the King Edward Hotel.  Wayne told us that this building used to be the center of Jackson society and was once the most elegant building in downtown.  When the south got integrated, the owners said they’d close the doors forever before they’d let blacks in to their hotel, and that’s what happened.  That happened decades ago, and nothing had ever been done with the beautiful building; instead it sits in the middle of town as a “monument to bigotry”.  Just over a year ago, after probably a dozen restoration ambitions have been abandoned (over the last 40 years), the hotel is finally being remodeled by a NFL player from New Orleans.

Wayne also took us by 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Dr.  This was the house where civil rights activist, Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963, just about 2 months before Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.  The bullet went through Mr. Evers, through the living room window and through an interior wall all before it richoceted off the refigerator and came to rest on the kitchen counter.  It was weird to see the dent in the fridge.

Dr. Perkins started the week saying that he was pleased with a couple states in how they handled the issue of racism, Minnesota being one of them.  If there’s any truth to his perception of our state, that might explain how shocking some of the situations we learned about were to us.  A lot of us were asking questions we never had to think through before:
-Why does this whole town celebrate Jefferson Davis‘ birthday (he was the president of the Confederacy back in the 1800’s) on the same day the rest of the country celebrates Martin Luther King Jr’s?
-Why is there still a large divider that runs through the middle of that town that seperates where most of the white people live from where most of the black people live?
-Why are there so many confederate flags still flying in front of homes and businesses down here?  Is there something I missed or wasn’t that the flag that hundreds of thousands of soldiers followed into battle to try to keep black people as their slaves?

Through the stories and lives of some of the people we talked with, we encountered a hate as powerful as it was illogical.
But there was something Beautifully ironic about it all.  I feel like it’s safe to say that a lot of us listening and learning today were moved to anger with those who had perpetuated this ugly system that oppresses, degrades, and marginalizes our brothers and sisters.  But whenever we’d hear from Grandpa Perkins, Medgar Evers or Mrs. Skiffer, it was obvious that hate itself was their enemy, not other people.  Their example calls us to the unconditional love of Christ, which the bible says makes no sense to the foolish.  We should always pray against foolishness, ours and others.

Wayne took us to a lunch spot near Mendenhall for fried catfish, fried chicken, fried okra, mashed potatos, and all the goodness you’d expect to find at a buffet in the most obese state in the country.

Somehow, I think it was all the exact same food you’d find at Old Country Buffet, but somehow it was delicious since we were in Mississippi.  I just love the looks you get from restaurant managers when 30 high schoolers walk in to their buffet.

We went swimming tonight too.  Here’s Devin, Steven and Ryan frolicking in the local resevoir.  I doubt they would have looked this peaceful had Wayne not waited until later to tell us that he and his friend caught a 12 foot aligator in this water.  Turns out it’s pretty hard to find a large body of water that doesn’t have it’s share of gators in it in Mississippi.
(disclaimer to parents: we didn’t go here out of wreckless ignorance.  This is like the White Bear Lake of Jackson.  We shared this place with tons of swimmers, skiers, and jetskis and have been told it’s plenty safe.)