Description of shifting racial dynamics in Grenada, Miss., and the violence that accompanied it; Source: Delta Democrat Timeshttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/jws_clip/1275/thumbnail.jp

Neblett, Sally

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

University of Mississippi eGrove Clippings James W. Silver Collection 3-12-1967 Grenada's Saga: Feast Of Bitter Fruit Of Change Sally Neblett Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jws_clip Recommended Citation Neblett, Sally, "Grenada's Saga: Feast Of Bitter Fruit Of Change" (1967). Clippings. 276. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jws_clip/276 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the James W. Silver Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Clippings by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. sponsibilfty fot the adtnlnistra- Sunday, Mlreh 12, tM S Grenada's Saga: Feast Of 'Bitter Fruit Of Change' ~:~:f: ;;eri:~~~~ there was no body politic, no is something you have to oa~ liy SalUe Neblett . nada street, four 20-year-olds "One of them yelled out of the bad _en lot m_ration and truckload instead of orderly, large group of people Oft which for and value _ sometbina w.-J>D.T Staff Writler ' from another county beat him car window as they left town. rationaU", h& would have rational change by the 8pdOft- to pl~ce th~ blame. ~ cit Y have to participate in, be In-!&AND - A local Episco- up so badly that he lost the 'We'll be back' is what he yell- been svtrounded by a 1. r g e ful," he said. councIl dldn t know what to do volved in gIve taxes for d i. pal ,riest Friday presented his sight of one eye because of the edt" Rev. Smith said. aroup." Rev. Smith described the up- and when in the middle of the for and be vi iI~nt to ~ .. ~is of "the path which led way he was dressed. "I pleaded with the commu- "As 1 e as May, I citizen heaval as causing a "leacler- situation the city manager call· g p. to the near destruction of a "This type of incident has ruty to make some move - any told mt ov.er a cup of toffee, ship vacuum" which existed un- ed for rationality, they did the coOlmunity." happened in the Florida town move of the type which t his 'They \IIlII never be in 0 u r til the Mississippi Highway Pa- only thing they knew to do. 'fhe community WIll Grenada in which I was bortt. It hll8 hIp' area has been doing fot a long schoollll. tthey will nllver be In ttol "filled it and stabilized it they fired him." ancJ the priest was du! ltev. Co- pelled in Leland. It happens time," he said. "But I learned oUr ihe!!. They will never through the summer and fall." REV. SMITH aaid. "It was lu~bus Smith who Uv.d in the everywhere, but in Grenada ~re is nothing - absolutely be e Oyed in our business HE FURTHER stated that nobody's fault and it was ev-mmmunityfrom the fall of ~here was no investigation," he nothing ..:.. so ineffectual or In- establis ents.' he had the utmost respect for erybody's fault. Th.. lioh+., "f l~ until Au8l1st of 1966. He is said. effective as a preacher trying "11f1UIt tN J U N E, 1,200 the patrol and complimented its reason and rationality wen t low rector of St. lohn's Eptsco- 'iCrime Is going to be with to do something without the came. 'there were 2,000 new handling of the situation. out fast in Grenada and Lwy pal ChUtCh in LIlind. us and prejudice and hate," he backing of his church board or regi~ttiI votef1l; no institu- "In my opinion there was a are going out fast all over this Rev. Smith toW members of said, "but whe... a double stan- membership." tion Wd left untouched; there serious, indeed a fundamental, world . . . and it frightens me." e Leland Rotary CluD that dard of la\f anfol'cement exists He gald there was a majority was n'" leadershiJ) in the Ne- breakdown of the political As he thought about the situ-the point of fIlj talk waS Unot it has to W\dermine the mo- of citizel'lS in G r e n a d il who gro cO munity with the old stMlcture," he !laid. ICE v e r y ation, he said, he took out the to berate It downgrad& the rat. of the law enforcement es- were reasonable and rational, lines communication cut; government is theoretical until dollar bill and looked at the town of Grenada. tablishment and the morals of but the reason they wouldn't do and, to tldd injury to insult, or- it is participated In by t b 0 III e Latin mottoes on the back "This could pertain to any the community." something to ptevefit "w hat ganized labor made its first governed by it." which mean "God smiles on town anyWhere," he said. "I HE SPOKE of the 27 South· WIl8 sure it) come" was the y victory that week," he said. He described Grenada's city us" and "A new order of the only use Grettadlt as a baek· REV. SMlnt 'erft Chti8tian Leadership ,am· were afraid of what someone He explained organi2ed lao manager as being "one of the ages. drop because I lived there prior ference workers who arrived in might say. bor's vietory as the unioniza- finest city managers I h a v e He said when we fuught the to and during the summer of ganized labor and to the racial Grenada in September of 1985. ''THEIR FAMILIES, jobs, tion of t loclll industry. ever known, a good man, a Ilevolutionary War and tormed the 1966," status quo by the civil rishts i1'hey were tough but they left friends and soeial status were "Grenada WM brought to its smart man who gave his whole Constitution and the Declaration HI EXJtIAINtD that when groups. I? 38 hours when they co u I d involved," he !laid. knees arttI made to eat the bit- being to the community." of Independence, our government he moved to Grenada, he found In discussing the battle .\be- find no place to eat or sleep or "I must believe," he sa i d, ter fruit of change - disorder- But he was so good that he was and it still is a new order _ a cIty of 12,000 in a cmtnty of tweefi the town Ilnd organ~~ hOld their meetin&s. "if just one responsible citizen Iv. irraqonal c ~e - by the was given more and more re- of the age$. ; 20,000 tacially mixed abbUt 50 labor, he said. "tt was a com-per cent white and 50 per cent munity effort the likes of which Neato SUitllifled by IndUlttty, 1 ha\'e rteVl!; Wlttllthed." beef and mtton "in that or· "GltENADA in lOCU was \In det." ehllnged !lince the turn of t h i*The town philosophy a b. d centuty," he said, IIhoUsing ~ policy are made .by a fe\f nk!tl the t1OI)white ptlrtion 1'181 - atIbd men - mostly hlnklng ill bad, thert! were littlt intereets," he said; "as the town pa~ streets." phllosormy and policy are made Rev. Sfttith described, s in most towns." cident which occurre<"'8s, _. 'm"" .... that a'",- th. fim wook ~) Interstate 55, U.S. Highway 51 to the city. "A tee and the Illinois Central Rail- boy was walking t road run through Grenada, his school. He was opinion was "that world and with a coat an time had somehow passed Gre- he waS walkil'l8 do,,-_ nada by." It was a beautiful town, filled with warm, JOYing ~ople, he said, but it WIlS a • ti~ht little island, tloeelv knitted" in a II respects of life. "DIE COMMlJNlTY was so intent on maintaining the stat-us qUO and ~plng things the way they always were - so blind~ by llhott ~rm anxie-ties - that It was unable to thilik about its ex~llent oppor-tuftitles for the future." he said. d Now these oppol'tul'lities are gone fOr a Beason," he s.ld, "and my 8Ue!18 ill that they win ftdt teappear for a !fenera-tlon. "A generation which Is as 'Proud of its history as anyone, " but which will not be sbeckled t' and used by its history; a gen-eration which will use Its histo-ry as free men - unfettered mett - who rmd their way through this life on a rational basis," he said. HI! dA<>c."; r __ " .. JL. t t.... - - -- -

Grenada\u27s Saga: Feast Of Bitter Fruit Of Change

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Grenada\u27s Saga: Feast Of Bitter Fruit Of Change

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