Jackson Free Press

Jackson resident Delores Orey said the city's grant to restore the historic NAACP headquarters during the Civil Rights Movement may be misplaced. The administration of Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. intends to apply for a $712,500 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant for the purchase and renovation of property occupied by NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, who was murdered in his driveway by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in 1963. (A Hinds County Circuit Court jury convicted Beckwith for the murder in 1994 after two all-white juries failed to convict him in 1964.)

A 2009 budget bill from the Senate Appropriations Committee reveals that U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., earmarked a $750,000 grant for the renovation of the historic Farish Street NAACP office.

Corrine Fox, director of the city's Department of Planning and Economic Development, confirmed that the grant arose from the work of the last administration, which lobbied Cochran to add the grant to the appropriations bill in 2008.

"I would assume that was the same money, since we haven't heard anything about any additional money. HUD typically administers this kind of money," Fox said.

The city describes the building as a "historic monument," pointing out that Evers opened an office at the site on Farish Street in 1954 before moving the headquarters to the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street the following year.

But Evers' former secretary claims her boss never used it as a permanent location for NAACP.

"He didn't have a permanent NAACP office, even though he did have an office over there. He had an insurance business, and during that time they would be doing two or three things in one office," said Orey, a volunteer who worked extensively with the Civil Rights Movement. Her work includes kicking off the integration of formerly segregated public school Pointdexter Elementary on Capitol Street by enrolling her children there in the early 1960s.

Orey said the NAACP never made the location official: "He had a business there, but the NAACP never said they were going to rent that office. He just did some work for the NAACP while he was sitting at a desk there," she said, explaining that there was no permanent office for the NAACP until the organization moved to Lynch Street.

Owners of the building at 507 N. Farish St. include the descendants of prominent Farish Street community figure Sidney Redmond, a physician who served as president of the American Trust and Savings Bank. Current occupants include two businesses: Doris' Beautyrama hair salon and the historic Big Apple Inn restaurant. The city may seek to purchase the building, although Fox expressed no desire to move out the current occupants.

Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the former administration never spelled out where they got their proof of NAACP occupation, however.

"I spoke with the previous administration, and asked what was their verification that this was Evers' NAACP office, and they couldn't tell me," Johnson said. "They offered no assurance that that was his office."

Johnson said he feared the city's application for $712,500 in federal grant money could undermine the NAACP's own application for federal money for renovations.

"The city is applying to the federal government for renovation money to the old NAACP office on Farish Street, but our current district office on Lynch Street needs repairs, too, and I'm not sure whether or not one grant to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would cancel out the possibility of another grant to renovate our offices here by Jackson State," Johnson said.

"It may not neutralize our application, but you can only go to the well a certain number of times for the same thing."

Johnson said his top concern was getting the history right on Evers, however.

"History should be recorded properly," Johnson said.

"Evers was such a great individual that we should make sure we honor him with the proper historical notes. If he opened an office on Farish Street and it was an insurance office, it should be noted and marked as that.

"It if was an NAACP office, it should be noted as well. But it should not be called an NAACP office if history doesn't reflect that. Generations should have a sense of accurate history."

Previous Comments

ID

154608

Comment

Derrick Johnson is right. There was never an NAACP office on Farish Street.

Author

blkjazz

Date

2009-12-31T13:12:49-06:00