The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public works program for single, unemployed men, between the ages 18 and 25, during the Great Depression.
In 1936, Taylor Howard of Gulfport, dropped out of school to help support his family. He recalls his decision to join the CCC and describes the work he performed in the Desoto National Forrest and elsewhere as a member of the CCC.
L.T. Martin of Smithdale, grew up on his family’s farm in Franklin County. In this episode, he shares the history of the “old home place”.
Martin recalls how his father would grow cotton each year with the help of tenant families and how his role in the family business evolved over time.
In addition to being a farmer, Jeremiah Barnett was also a traveling minister. Laurel native, Lounett Gore describes her father’s ministry and his style of preaching.
After WWI, Barnett helped establish churches across Mississippi. Gore recalls her father’s skills as an orator and organizer and how as she got older, she would travel with her father and help out by teaching hymns to the new congregation.
Ruthie Mae Shelton grew up on her family’s farm in Marshall County. At the age of nine, she began helping tend their cotton crop. Shelton recalls how her uncle would plant the cotton seeds.
Picking cotton by hand is physically demanding. Shelton remembers how the cotton bolls would sometimes prick her fingers and how “stinging worms” would cause welts.
Through trial and error, Shelton learned not to pack too much cotton into her sack before emptying it. And by the time she was 18, Shelton could pick 200 lbs. per day.
Born in 1885, Charlie Ainsworth of Hattiesburg began cutting trees as a teenager in the Piney Woods. Despite the long hours of difficult labor, he recalls that the logging crew would sing while they worked.
Logging was dangerous work and many men lost their lives. Ainsworth remembers how his last saw partner was killed by a falling tree.
Cut logs were hauled to the sawmills by train. Ainsworth details how he helped lay the tracks for several of the logging companies in South Mississippi.
Tom Brumfield and M.R. Reeves of McComb began working for the railroad in 1941. They explain how their family and friends influenced thir decision to become firemen shoveling coal into the massive steam locomotives.
Railroading has always been a dangerous business. Reeves recalls the time a locomotive he was on hit a car and went off an embankment.
With no work and no prospects at home, many men decided to travel for free by freight train looking for work during the Great Depression. Jim Kelly was a railroad telegraph operator in the 1930s. He recalls the large number of migratory workers or hobos that passed through English Lookout.
Hobos were always looking for their next meal. Kelly remembers how one made off with a prized watermelon.
Life on the road was especially tough during the winter. Kelly explains how he used to help the hobos when the temperatures dropped.
Easter Weekend of 1979, the Pearl River flooded, displacing some 17,000 families in the Jackson area alone. Ray Pope was the Jackson Police Chief at that time. He recalls the tireless efforts of his officers to warn those in the path of the flood.
With so many driven from their homes, there were concerns that widespread looting would take place.
Pope expresses his opinion of why looting wasn’t a big problem. Pope also remembers how police officers used their own personal boats as well as those loaned to them by private citizens to patrol and protect the flooded streets of the city.
Elbert Seal was born in 1892 in Harrison County. He recounts how his mother began homesteading land in Carnes, Mississippi after the death of his father. After serving in World War I, Seal felt restless back on the family farm. He recalls how he and his cousin went to Kansas for a while to help harvest wheat.
In the early 1900s, several Southern states made it illegal to transport cattle across state lines in an effort to eradicate cow ticks. Seal describes how they would purchase herds of cattle in Alabama and “bootleg” them across the state to sell in New Orleans.
Elbert Seal passed away in August of 1974.
Charles Grant began his career teaching in a one room school house in Basin, Mississippi during the Great Depression. He recalls what it was like to be a “faculty-of-one” at White’s Creek African-American school.
Grant remembers the effort that went into improving and expanding the tiny school. The school’s success was not without growing pains. Grant details the reluctance of some school supervisors to provide supplies and transportation for black students.
Larry Dykes was sheriff of Jones County in 2006. He describes a mysterious phone call he received in May of that year that led to a meeting with then President George W. Bush aboard Air Force One.
In this episode,
In 1968, Tom Johnson of Memphis became a corporate trainer for Holiday Inn. He remembers the company’s commitment to quality training at all levels and the decision to locate their new state-of-the-art training facility, Holiday Inn University, in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
By the late 70’s it was clear that the Olive Branch facility was larger than necessary. Johnson details how that extra space was used to generate money for the company.
In 1910, O’Neal Chambers was born in Lorman, Mississippi. The son of a farmer, he recalls helping his father clear the land with a cross-cut saw.
Growing up on a farm meant that there was always work to be done. Chambers remembers Sunday as the one day to relax and play. He also talked about how he used to accompany his father to Cohn Brothers’ cotton gin and general store in Lorman and describes a suit his father bought for him there.
Created in 1956, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was a state agency set up to hinder the progress of the civil rights movement through public relations and intelligence gathering.
Erle Johnston of Forrest was promoted to director of the Sovereignty Commission in 1963. In this frank and detailed interview he describes how he used informants to spy of various civil rights groups. Johnston claims as desegregation became unavoidable, his role shifted from investigator to mediator.
The Sovereignty Commission, a sad chapter in our state's history, was disbanded in 1977 and its files ordered sealed for fifty years. Johnston explains why he feels that the files should have been destroyed.
In 1989 the Sovereignty Commission files were ordered unsealed and can be viewed online through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Wirt Yerger of Jackson is considered to be the founder of the modern day Republican Party in Mississippi. Swan Yerger recalls how his brother became the state party chairman in 1956.
In this extended version of the original episode, Yerger explains how the party gained a foothold in the formerly Democratic state and why it took so many years for the Republican Party to become accepted at state and local levels.
Senator Theodore Smith of Corinth was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1936. He recalls the push to establish a state highway program and marvels at the number of highways that the state managed to pave for $40 million.
According to Smith, many backroom deals were struck at the King Edward Hotel. He reflects on how the center of power shifted from the Governor’s Office to the Legislature during his political career.
Gulf Coast resident Hunter S. Kimbrough met many important Mississippians during his lifetime. He recalls his family’s long association with Mrs. Jefferson Davis
Kimbrough also met Judge Hardy and Captain Jones, the founders of Hattiesburg and Gulfport.
He describes Mississippi Governor and Senator Theodore Bilbo as a political opponent and family friend.