Barack Obama's victory stirs Mississippi ghosts

[flashl]

In the town where three civil rights workers were slain in 1964, his candidacy uniquely resonates. The county supported him in the primary. But some say little can change here.

PHILADELPHIA, MISS. -- Some places are defined by a single event. Roswell, N.M., will always be known for space aliens, Dallas for assassination. And this little town in the Piney Woods of eastern Mississippi will forever be the site of one of the most brutal crimes of the civil rights era.

But Philadelphia -- situated in a county once dubbed Bloody Neshoba -- can now add a remarkable footnote to its most nefarious chapter: The rural county where three men were killed for trying to help black people vote has cast the majority of its ballots to put a black man in the White House.

Much has changed here since African Americans like Sylvia Campbell, now 74, were told they couldn't vote unless they correctly answered how many bubbles were in a bar of soap.

...

Obama's victory in the primaries comes just as Philadelphia prepares to mark the 44th anniversary of the killings that put it reluctantly on the map. Racial tensions are not as violently overt as they were then; today the slights are subtle, from the glance averted on the street to the job application that is never considered. With five months of fierce presidential campaigning ahead -- black against white -- there is a sense that simmering racial tensions are about to boil again.

LA Times

[ladjf]

1. As a native white Mississippian, I consider this comment'

"there is a sense that simmering racial tensions are about to boil again." to be gossip based on
assumptions that the writer hopes will come true.

Racism is everywhere. The South has made huge progress in human rights issues. To imply that the
progress is going into reverse or "..boil over again" is not only erroneous but disingenuous as well.

Who wrote this article? Where does he/she live? What is the author's agenda?

[flashl]

2. Your questions about the author is at the article's link ...

Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu weighed in on the presidential campaign Tuesday in Chicago, praising America's ability to produce the first viable African-American presidential candidate while describing the nation as haunted by a racial divide that still offers blacks what he called only "the illusion of equality."

"You are a crazy country," Tutu, 76, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, said in an interview with the Tribune. "You're a country that has I think some of the most generous people I've ever come across in the world."

But he chided Americans for getting "very, very upset" with the pastor of Sen. Barack Obama, noting that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "may have said more crudely what, actually, almost every African-American would have wanted to say. I mean that is how they feel in your country, that race ... is a very, very real issue."

"And I think on the whole you keep trying to pretend it isn't," he added, noting the issue will haunt Americans until there is a way to talk honestly about race, such as holding a reconciliation forum.

Chicago Tribune

[ladjf]

3. If I understand your post, you are under the impression that

Desmond Tutu wrote the article. Yet, the heading shows that Faye Fiore wrote it.

I noticed at the end of the article, an African American from Philadelphia, Ms. said

"She doesn't hold much hope that Obama's rise will reform old-school Southerners, but she can't help but notice the changing attitude of the next generation drawn to his candidacy.

Color is not the dividing wall it once was. While neighborhoods remain somewhat segregated, workplaces are more diverse, biracial couples more common. Children -- black and white -- play together on sports teams; they grow up not only to attend each other's weddings, but to take part as bridesmaids and groomsmen.

"One day, the old history will just die off and race will still be there, but it won't matter so much," White said, swatting away the mosquitoes as children, freed from Bible study, ran in circles around the memorial stone, oblivious to its meaning.
"

Her description is exactly as I have observed as a citizen of Mississippi for many years.

Your post was rather a "cherry pick" job, apparently designed to create an unbalanced view.

[flashl]

4. No, I did not suggest that Tutu wrote the article.

It's a two-page article, 4 paragraphs is the limit, not 'cherry picked'. The link is available to any reader wishing to read the entire article.