And I Said No Lord: A Twenty-One-Year-Old in Mississippi in 1964

Notes on the Photographs

160 notes on the photographs 161 29 US 51, north of Jackson 30 MS 8, east of Ruleville 31–35 MS 8, east of Rosedale Section 2 47–55 Streamline Cafe, Lynch Street, Jackson 56–57 Pool hall, Lynch Street, Jackson 58–61 Barber shops, Lynch Street, Jackson 62–69 CME Church, Lynch Street, Jackson Section 3 82–83 Mobile Street, Hattiesburg 84 Jackson 85 Vicksburg 86 Secretary, special assistant to the governor’s office, Jackson A rally for Alabama governor George C. Wallace for president at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, 25 June 1964: 87 Selling None Dare Call It Treason, an antiCommunist tract that sold seven million copies 88 Unidentified spectators 89 The Hinds Junior College Hi-Steppers, the first event of the evening 90 Mississippi governor Paul B. Johnson Jr., The photographs were taken with a Honeywell Pentax camera with 28, 55, and 135 mm lenses, on Kodak Panatomic-X, Plus-X, and Tri-X film, and processed in Microdol-X, UFG, Acufine, and Diafine developers. The images were scanned from the negatives. Opening US 80, near Vicksburg MS 49, between Jackson and Yazoo City Section 1 14 Ray’s mother’s house, Jackson 15 Day care center, Jackson 16 Miss America, State Capitol, Jackson 17 Special assistant to the governor’s office, Jackson 18 Storefront, Vicksburg 19 State capitol, Jackson 20–21 Kenneth Ray Carter, Jackson 22 Unemployed, Mobile Street, Hattiesburg 23 Fourth of July, Jackson 24 Washington Street, Vicksburg 25 Jackson 26 Mobile Street, Hattiesburg 27 Vicksburg 162 108 Hossley Street, Vicksburg 109–112 Lane Street, Vicksburg; the inside walls of the front room are papered with cardboard cartons 114–117 Letitia Street, Vicksburg 118–120 Ruleville “And I dreamed I saw armies and planes and tanks coming towards me across the field back there where I planted the corn and tomatoes last spring, and the planes were flying low over the field and they dropped their bombs and the army exploded and the tanks exploded, and the corn and tomatoes I planted last year weren’t there any more, just the blowed-up tanks and the dead men that were in the army, and then I saw floating across the field the Lord Jesus Christ all dressed in white with his arms open calling me, and with him was a whole army of saved black men all in robes but they didn’t have no heads at all, and I screamed I know because my man shook me and woke me up and said, ‘Woman, what you screaming about?’ and I said, ‘I just seen the Lord Jesus Christ coming across the field out in back and he was all dressed in white and his eyes were saying to me, “Sister, you are saved, you are saved,” and all us black folk were with him floating across the field with no heads and below them were all the tanks that Mrs. Wallace, and George Wallace 91 Unidentified spectators 93 Governor Wallace, at the beginning of his speech 94–95 Unidentified spectators Section 4 105 MS 8, outside Cleveland 107 Hossley Street, Vicksburg “It’s not going to stop,” she said to me. “They killed President Kennedy, and they killed Medgar Evers, and it didn’t stop, they just got to realize it ain’t going to stop. I’ll tell you plain, I don’t want to go where I’m not wanted, among whites or even among most of my own colored people, if they don’t like me I don’t want to be around them. But what I want is to be treated like a human being, that’s all, why do you know most white folks don’t treat a colored person as good as they treat their dog. I want justice for myself, and more important for my children, I want them to be treated like a human being.” She sat with her hands folded quietly in her lap, her laugh childlike and infectious, wholly sincere and small, an undercurrent of her thoughts, half to herself , filled with the wonder and the joy of being able to talk and feel and think such thoughts. 163 trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you get beyond sin, trust in the Lord and through salvation you can get beyond sin. I’m not afraid, you know why? Because I never done nothing to hurt no one, so why should...