The quest for storytelling remains strong in the South. “People grew up with it around them,” Mr. Prunty says. “It’s handed down; it’s a tradition you grow up in. It’s a complex part of the country with many things that have gone quite well and many that have caused thoughtful people to ask questions about themselves. When you start questioning your own backyard, you’re more apt to produce good literature.”
Columbus teen actress Avani Poindexter uses career to inspire her peers. Scott Reed uses the arts to unify the West Point community. Dr. Roy Ruby retired from MSU but still comes to work every day.
Tim Brinkley fights crime in West Point with a level head, a steady hand, and a Bible. MSU super fan Ron Caulfield brings happiness to Starkville. Humane Society director Karen Johnwick continues a lifelong commitment to animal rescue.
Pastor Larnzy Carpenter Jr. inspires Starkville with love. Community activist Frances Hairston works to heal Crawford race relations. And history teacher Chuck Yarborough uses the past to improve the future in Columbus.
For most of the 20th century, blacks were buying one-way tickets out of the Jim Crow South in hopes of a better life. Nearly 6 million African-Americans followed the railroads to places like Detroit and Chicago, never dreaming that their children and grandchildren would someday lead a return migration, chasing the American dream back down the Mississippi and straight across the Mason-Dixon line.
Death did not ride in with a thundering of horses’ hooves on a cloud of gun smoke, though no doubt Heaven is a bit more lively since Macedonia native Bessie Morton’s arrival April 27. After a lifetime of adventure, it must have seemed anti-climactic, but at 87, she had slowed down a little, so perhaps death took note and crept softly, so as not to awaken Noxubee County’s self-proclaimed honky-tonk angel.
