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January 1939. "Beer hall. Mound Bayou, Mississippi." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.
My grandparents lived not far from Mound Bayou and I visited them often, in the 60s and 70s. Most little Delta towns in those days were controlled by the whites, no matter what the population ratio was, but Mound Bayou was known as the town of, by, and for African-Americans, according to the white talk of the day. I drove through a number of times, but don't recall it looking significantly different from Drew or Ruleville or any of the other towns in that area.
The first one is a doozy, building on the right.
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Jeffery Wright
planetfallstudios.com
Small 19th-century wood-frame buildings still stand in the poorer districts of Mississippi's cities, towns, and wide spots in the road. The most comprehensive example of this that I have found is the western neighborhoods Jackson, the state capital. The divide between the haves and have-nots never really disappeared here.
Mississippi did not end statewide prohibition until 1962; however, each county had its own saloons and bootleggers who operated with the complicity of the police.
After 1962, there was the "local option," in which a town could be dry and the county wet, or vice versa. Lauderdale County was dry in 1979; Meridian, the county seat, was wet.
Until 1984 when national drinking age was raised to 21, MS was 18 for beer and 21 for everything else. So some towns were wet for liquor and dry for beer ... Starkville, home of MSU, was one.
When my family moved to the South in the 60's you could easily still find places like this even in larger cities - even into the early 80s. Too poor to tear them down, too poor to build new - ancient structures abided in many forms from homes, factories, and juke joints like these.
I've passed through the town at least once. Mound Bayou was founded by two former slaves of Joe Davis, the older brother of Jefferson Davis:
From http://www.moundbayou.org/
Shortly after the war in 1867, the Montgomery’s entered an agreement with Joe Davis for the purchase of the plantations, consisting of four thousand acres, for $300,000 at 6% per annum. Joe Davis wished that the plantations would be managed by the Montgomery’s as a home and for the benefit of their former slaves.
I love the stark frontality of this view. It also looks like the sign-painter who did the "Royal Club" sign was influenced by the lettering style of the famous Coca-Cola logo, as seen next door.
[Note that the sign painter signed his work. - Dave]
I guess Mississippi wasn't dry in 1939. It was when I was at Biloxi in 1958 and 59, except for Harrison County of course.
"Juking? Oh! Well, that's when you get in a car, which is preferably open in any kind of weather. And then you drink a little bit and you drive a little bit, and then you stop and you dance a little bit with a jukebox. And then you drink a little bit more and you drive a little bit more, you stop and you dance a little bit more to another juke box! And then you stop dancing and you just drink and you drive. And then, you stop driving."
-- Tennessee Williams, "Orpheus Descending"
I worked around Mound Bayou and the surrounding communities from 1985 until 1990.
This is what most of the small Delta town main streets still looked like even then. Little had changed between 1850, 1939 and 1990. Most of the little Delta towns were time capsules.
I don't know if anything has changed since, but I see highway 61 is at least now 4 lane.
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