The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

by Wright Thompson

Myrlie Evers-Williams said once that yes, Mississippi was, but Mississippi is. The state deserved a chance to break free from its history. We spend so much time in the past here and yet so little time learning who we are and how we got here. These memorials offered a fresh start. A way to go into the past, to finally confront, to address, to apologize and make amends, and then to walk into the future together. It is not in vogue right now to talk of racial reconciliation, and that kind of hard line might work in some places but not in a place as broken as Mississippi. Writing this book taught me clearly that our only hope is to create a new, unified tribe—all of us Mississippians, who share the history and future of our home—and no matter what we all might think about each other, or what scars or grudges we hold, we need to lay down those grievances and engage in a united act of defiant survival. Either that or generation by generation watch nature take this Delta back and hold it safe until the next group of people come to try to extract its bounty.