From Azaleas to Zydeco: My 4,600-Mile Journey through the South

Cosmopolitan Helena

Cosmopolitan Helena In the 1930s, Jonathan Daniels had a hard time getting to Helena from Sherard. It must have taken most of a day because there were few paved roads and no bridge across the Mississippi, only two ferryboats . Today it’s a short thirty-minute drive to Helena crossing the river by way of the bridge at Lula, Mississippi. Beside the bridge is a casino. Passing it on the highway, the casino appears to be a small one. By the looks of the parking lot, it must be popular with commercial truck drivers. The Mississippi River Bridge lands in Arkansas at about the same place Hernando de Soto held the first Christian service west of the Mississippi. This is also near the site of the battle of Helena, fought on July 4, 1863, in the western theater of the Civil War. The Rebels tried to retake the high ground near Helena but were rebuffed by the Yankees. On the day that Vicksburg fell, the Rebels’ failure to retake Helena allowed the Yankees to keep the river open to traffic and gave them a base from which they could subdue the rest of the state. Helena sits at the very southeastern tip of Crowley’s Ridge, an unusual geological formation. Crowley’s Ridge begins in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and extends all the way to Helena. The only hill in these parts, the ridge rises 300–500 feet from the Delta floor and is three to twelve miles across. Evidently, it’s the remnant of a prehistoric mountain range. Some call it America’s largest prehistoric sand bar because the tops of 201 the ridges would rise occasionally above the prehistoric seas which covered the area between Memphis and modern Little Rock. With Crowley’s Ridge in the background, Helena (technically called Helena-West Helena since Helena and West Helena merged into one municipality in 2006) doesn’t look like your typical Delta town. But Helena has the problems of the typical Delta town: high unemployment , widespread poverty, and the attendant health problems that systemic poverty brings. Even though there is no question that Helena has significant problems, a sense of optimism pervades Cherry Street, the quaint main street of downtown Helena. In the battle for economic survival, Helena has the necessary elements that Delta towns like Friars Point don’t have: a hospital, an institution of higher education, broadband , viable local banks, and transportation. With these basics, good things can happen here. The KIPP Charter School is one of those things. KIPP—Knowledge Is Power Program—came to Helena in 2002. The charter school in Helena is one of ninety-nine operating in twenty states. KIPP schools are free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools. The students wear uniforms and attend school year-round. Ninety-five percent of the students are African American and eighty-five percent are eligible for free or reduced lunches. KIPP maintains a core set of operating principles known as the “Five Pillars”: High Expectations, Choice & Commitment, More Time, Power to Lead, and Focus on Results. The KIPP School has profoundly changed educational opportunities in Helena. At its first commencement, twenty-three students graduated— and twenty-three kids were slated for college. Governor Beebe, the commencement speaker, noted—with some understatement—that the graduating class “transcends the stereotype of the kids in the Delta.” The only criticism of KIPP in these parts—and I believe that it was said tongue-in-cheek—is that their school buses create a traffic jam on Cherry School when school lets out at 4:00. Helena’s access to the Mississippi River is now being exploited for recreational purposes. The Mississippi is famous for its dangers: snags, whirlpools, and eddies, to say nothing of the occasional sand boil. Those problems don’t include the challenges posed by tug boats, barges, or 202 chiggers. You know there have to be lots of mosquitoes and chiggers on the river. Take a canoe down the Big Muddy? Who in their right mind would do that? The Quapaw Canoe Company of Clarksdale, Mississippi, has opened an outpost in Helena. Quapaw Canoe offers trips down the big river. Owner John Ruskey of Clarksdale isn’t a native; he’s originally from Colorado. After high school, he came with a buddy to float the Mississippi in a wooden raft. They crashed and, clinging to the wreckage, the boys landed on a river island, built...