#356 3 nights at the Emmett Till Museum

I was looking for places so I could totally explore the Mississippi Delta Blues Country. I just had been nosing around on Harvest Hosts and saw something called Emmett Till Museum. I had never heard the story but it is beyond sad. They could have mentioned it in junior high or high school but never did. I was raised in Greensboro NC but in school, they never brought up Woolworth's downtown or the young people sitting in from A&T university. The bio talked about how he was tortured and murdered back in the ’50s for whistling at a white girl. Back when we were at the casino I contacted the museum and they said it would probably be okay to stay a night or something. I told them that I was an electrician and after reading the story about Emmett Till on their website I kind of wanted to volunteer a little bit if they could use some help. I didn't know it then but I was talking to a guy named Mayor Johnny and he said well come on up and we'll look around. I told him we'll be by that afternoon to look around. We pulled up at the center we met Johnny. He walked around a little bit and I just made a list of things that might be useful to work on like the fluorescents in the office and some other and some lighting in their main dance/ multi-purpose room. I told him I would be by in a few days and he said that be fine. Now it’s a few days later and I have all my lighting supplies.

As we arrived with RV this time we passed through Glendora itself. It's probably not too much more than 3 to 4 stores and maybe a juke joint but not much else there. There's not a lot of people that live there probably a hundred fifty people but not a whole lot going on financially. If you need to go to Lowe's it's about a 1-hour drive one way and hardware stores are probably 30 minutes and a real restaurant probably 20 or 30 minutes.

I guess I might copy-paste the Emmett Till story here.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till

It made me feel just terrible about humans. I felt like if there's anything I can do to help African-Americans while passing through Mississippi I sure would like to help.

As we pulled into the Museum area Mayor Johnny came out to meet me and we just hit it off really well. He helped me get the rig parked and showed me a water connection and a power outlet. I kind of had the place to myself for the most part as they left it unlocked so I could do the work at my own pace. The next morning I began with the replacement of the internals of the fluorescent lights in the office with LED tubes. I brought some new timers and motion detectors for the main museum. I added new LED fixtures to improve the lighting in the dance, multi-purpose room next door. For my benefit, I created an electrical hook-up directly to a panel on the inside wall near where the RV was parked. I used some 14 3 wire for a 50 amp service but I wasn’t planning on using 50 amps. It was really more like 15 amps on each phase but it was just enough to run two air conditioners.

It was kind of nice hanging out at the Museum doing what it wanted and enjoying some sunrises.

Bert liked exploring an old piece of farm equipment.

India and I went into the museum and Johnny gave us an official tour and we watched a film like anyone who comes to visit. Listening to the Emmett Till story I just have to tell you it broke my heart and it changed me. I mean I was already in the black lives matter conversation but Emmet Tills' life didn't matter, it just messed me up.

The horrible people that did it were tried and found innocent and literally got away with murder. They later confessed but it didn't matter because that had already been tried. I found out that the news of Emmett Till murder helped stir the country up to realize that we have a civil rights problem.

What a sacrifice what a pity.

I left having been a quick friend to Mayor Johnny and a couple of young people. One evening I could hear young people laughing and playing in the night air from somewhere across the way that was a pleasant sound.

I suggested to Mayor Johnny all kinds of ideas about solar and community gardens and he wanted to know if I could stay longer which was kind to hear. I said I had to keep moving but I would come back someday when I could. As I left I ordered some LED bulbs for the track lights in the museum. I ordered them a ladder because they didn’t have anything tall enough to reach up that high. The museum subject was sad but getting to know Mayor Johnny was a real pleasure.