The Man Segregation Built

7/31/2019 The Man Segregation Built

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Story byINGRID NORTON

Illustrations byALEX LUKAS FOREFRONT

The ManSegregation Built

ISSUE

015

The Fall and Rise o a New BlackLeadership in Jackson


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Volume 1, Issue 15.

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The Man Segregation Built / Ingrid Norton

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It wa a ht night in 2006 whn Frank mtn, thn ayr f Jackn, mi.,

dirctd hi bdygard and a grp f yng n t dghar a dpx

h in a rn-dwn ctin f th city h gvrnd. With his posse, Melton, who

had reportedly been drinking scotch rom a 16-ounce water bottle that night, tore

holes in the walls o what he would label a crack house. Te group broke windows,

destroyed urniture and a V, and poured paint over the kitchen sink. Tey handcuedEvans Welch, the unemployed, schizophrenic black man who lived there, and aer a

ailed search or drugs charged him with possession o an illegal pipe.

Welchs apartment lay in Virden Addition, a dilapidated residential section o West

Jackson bordered by railroad tracks and deunct actories. Welchs elderly mother

paid his $160 rent. She said drug dealers sometimes took advantage o her mentally

ill son. Within days o his arrest, Welch was released or lack o evidence.

Te trouble, however, was just beginning or Frank Melton. Te state charged the

mayor with ve elony counts including burglary, directing a minor to commit

a elony and malicious mischie. Federal agents began investigating him or civilrights violations.

Melton, a millionaire Arican-American V executive and gun-strapped ormer

head o the Mississippi Bureau o Narcotics, had won election the previous year by

capitalizing on the deep inequalities that permeate Mississippis capitol, which is 80

percent Arican-American. Te state as a whole has a higher proportion o Arican

Americans than any other in the nation and is also Americas poorest, with a23 percent

poverty rate. By promising to take aggressive action against blight and criminals,

and making bombastic promises o interracial and metropolitan cooperation, Melton

was able to attract a wide gamut o support anchored by unding rom the citysentrenched white economic elite and the votes o Jacksons black majority. His tough-

cop act appealed to both whites uncomortable with black poverty and to the poor

themselves. His rhetoric also appealed to divisions within the Arican-American

community to members o the black middle class who associate social problems

with the hip-hop generation and to inner-city residents ed up with crime.

But once elected in 2005, Melton, the citys second black mayor, ailed his supporters

in every way. Grandstanding, bizarre crusades, continual lawsuits, cronyism and all-

around administrative incompetence characterized his troubled term. In 2009, he lost

reelection days beore he was scheduled to be ederally tried or charges stemming

rom the botched raid. As the polls closed, Melton who had just turned 60

suered a atal heart attack.
http://mepconline.com/blog/poverty/mississippi%E2%80%99s-lost-decadenew-census-data-show-increases-in-poverty-decreases-in-incomes-over-the-last-ten-years/http://mepconline.com/blog/poverty/mississippi%E2%80%99s-lost-decadenew-census-data-show-increases-in-poverty-decreases-in-incomes-over-the-last-ten-years/http://mepconline.com/blog/poverty/mississippi%E2%80%99s-lost-decadenew-census-data-show-increases-in-poverty-decreases-in-incomes-over-the-last-ten-years/http://mepconline.com/blog/poverty/mississippi%E2%80%99s-lost-decadenew-census-data-show-increases-in-poverty-decreases-in-incomes-over-the-last-ten-years/


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His disastrous mayorship and dramatic death proved a strange and painul detour

in Jacksons path rom white majority rule to black political enranchisement. Like

many cities in the U.S. and especially the Deep South Jackson has struggled

in its transition rom a segregation-era, white-dominated power structure to a more

equitable and representative system. Named aer Southern, slave-owning PresidentAndrew Jackson, the Mississippi capital lags a decade or two behind larger cities in

the region like Atlanta, New Orleans and Memphis. White ight and the transer o

political power to black leaders happened later in Jackson than in those peer cities, as

did cycles o suburban growth and downtown reinvestment.

Jacksons story is unusually dramatic and troubling. But cities nationwide struggle

with black political and economic enranchisement: Te story o Frank Meltons rise

and all illuminates subtle crosscurrents in Americas urban race politics that hold

implications or cities rom Oakland to Newark, N.J.

Jacksons recent mayoral politics also have a circular quality: Meltons predecessorwas Harvey Johnson, Jr., a details-obsessed city planner who became the citys rst

black mayor in 1997, a ull 30 years aer Cleveland voters elected the rst black

mayor in the country and 24 years aer Atlantas Maynard Jackson became the rst

Arican American to lead a large southern city. When Johnson was rst elected, the


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appointment o black department heads was still controversial and the transer o

power is widely considered to have quickened the departure o whites to the suburbs.

By the time Melton deeated Johnson in 2005, City Hall had become a ar more

integrated place, with blacks holding key positions and beneting rom contracts that

previously had been the domain o the white business class.

In 2009, aer years o seeing these gains threatened by Meltons antics, a chastenedelectorate put Johnson back in oce. Picking up the pieces o those lost years has

orced dierent actions o the citys polity to work together: Slowly, Jacksons city

government, and investors and contractors o both races, are gaining traction or

projects that hold the potential to reinvigorate the city, rom downtown to Virden

Addition. Population loss is slowing. Te suburbs continue to grow and remain the

rst choice o amilies and proessionals. But young artists, amilies and proessionals

o both races are more willing to move to Jackson itsel than they would have been in

the 90s and critically, the trend appears likely to endure.

More importantly, a new generation o black leaders is coming o age. BradKamikaze Franklin, a hip-hop artist and entrepreneur now in his late-30s, was

drawn to Frank Melton because the mayor claimed he would improve opportunities

or young black men rom troubled backgrounds. In a recent interview, Franklin

called his support or Melton a colossal mistake o Godzilla-like proportions.

But thanks to Meltons administration, Franklin got access to powerul people he

might not have otherwise encountered. David Watkins, a white real estate developer,

made a point o mentoring Franklin and seeking his advice about plans to redevelop

Farish Street, the citys historic black shopping corridor. Tese are the kind

o connections that have to be made to build up the younger generation, Franklin said.Not that building those connections are easy Franklin recounts incidents wherein

older leaders have condescended to him and peers criticized him or working with

a developer. Yet he considers the distrust natural, even healthy, as dierent classes, races

and generations in Jackson learn how to share power. Indeed, or all o its persistent

problems, Jackson may provide a vision o an inclusive, sound and progressive

urban uture.

ThE hUb of MISSISSIppIJackson, the largest city in Mississippi, is a long, narrow, sprawling state capitol

built along the movement o the Pearl River, railroad lines and interstates. Historic

neighborhoods bear the marks o segregation. Posh, sleepy and historically white


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Belhaven (setting oTe Help) sits near the river,

the capitol and two colleges one Presbyterian,

the other Methodist. Farish Street, the historic

black main street during segregation, lies west o

the white marble rotunda o the state capital, and

abuts the rough industrial land near the railroadtracks.

Te neighborhoods o West Jackson grew

in the 1940s and 50s as the countrys wartime

economic boom created jobs at actories,

warehouses and an Air Force base, attracting new

migrants that needed aordable housing close

to their industrial workplaces. For instance, in

the 1900s Virden Addition (home to the duplex

besieged by Melton and his ollowers) was arural settlement populated by the descendants

o ormer slaves. It was developed with housing

or blacks, who worked at the areas urniture and

ertilizer actories, and annexed by the city in the

mid-20th century.

Yet the post-war boom that began to drag rural Mississippis economy into an

urban and industrialized 20th century also made segregation harder to maintain.

Whites became more militant in their subjugation o the citys increasing black

population. o this day, Jacksons past is never ar o a ew blocks rom the duplexthat Melton sledge-hammered, children play at a rundown community center named

or Medgar Evers, the prominent NAACP Field Secretary assassinated in 1963 by a

white supremacist.

Mississippi remains prooundly rural and segregated. At an April reception or

the Hinds County Black Legislators at the Penguin, a swank, newish restaurant near

Jackson State, middle-aged black leaders and proessionals swapped stories about the

terrible agricultural jobs they worked as young people. Kenneth Jones, a 46-year-old

state senator, reminisced about being his towns slop boy, charged with collecting

table scraps to eed hogs.

Te economic exclusion o Arican Americans lives on in Jacksons wealth gap:

More than hal o all black households in Jackson make less than $30,000 a year,

2007 American Community Survey data shows. Meanwhile, ewer than 10 percent o

Instead o usinghis oce at CityHall, Melton

worked out o hismansion where hekept a red phonein his bedroom.In homage tothe mayor in theBatman TV series,

Melton called it hismurder hotline.
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Arican-American households make more than $75,000, while nearly a third o white

households do. And according to 2010 Census data, though whites make up less than

a h o the citys population, they own almost two thirds o its businesses. Wealth in

the city today is synonymous less with Belhaven than Northeast Jackson, a stronghold

o Republicanism, private religious high schools and gated subdivisions on the ringe

o the city, east o I-55.Tough segregation in Mississippi was the most virulent in the South and racism

remains a palpable part o Jacksons recent history, the orces that continue to shape

inequality bear a distinctly post-Civil Rights Act eel. Like virtually all American cities

with large black populations, Jackson remains caught in a eedback loop: Massive

suburban ight drains urban jobs, depletes the tax base and reinorces housing and

employment discrimination, thus perpetuating the diminished opportunities and

lack o capital which lock many blacks into poverty, and urther incentivizing those

with resources to quit the city or the suburbs. Jackson is distinctive or going through

this process late: Population loss to the suburbs was not a major orce until the 1980sand 90s, decades aer the trend hollowed urban cores in other parts o the country.

Te late urban exodus can be explained in part because aer public school

desegregation, many white parents sent their children to private (yet tax-subsidized)

academies instead o eeing to suburban school districts, and in part because annexation

enabled the city to absorb potential suburbs and thus osmosize the surrounding white

population to stave o a black population majority, a trend common in the South. But

by the 1980s, actors such as rampant ear o urban crime and the tense transer o

power to black leadership drew many wealthy and middle-class amilies, particularly

whites, to the suburbs. Te drain happened relatively quickly: Between 1980 and thepresent, Jacksons overall population shrank rom 202,893 to 173,514, and whites went

rom making up 52 percent o the citys population to less than 20 percent. During

the 1990s alone, nearly 35,000 white residents moved out o the city an average

o almost 100 a day over the 10-year span (by contrast, the city lost hal as many in

the 2000s). But while Arican Americans made up more than hal o the voting age

population by 1990, City Hall remained disproportionately white despite civil rights

lawsuits and widespread discontent in the black community. Between the late 80s

and the mid-90s, the citys majority-white police department was shaken by a spate

o police brutality lawsuits. Crime reached an all-time high in 1995.

Jacksons decline ed the expanding metro area, where population has swelled rom

320,425 in 1980 to 589,600 today, nearly a quarter o the states overall population

o 2.4 million. Te metro areas population remains almost evenly split between
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whites and blacks. (One o the reasons questions o social segregation and economic

inclusion remain so salient in Mississippi is that, at 37 percent o the state population,

a proportion that is rising, Arican Americans are barely a minority.) Tough

Jacksons economy remains bulwarked by the state capitol, six colleges and several

hospitals including University Medical Center, the states second largest employer,

Jackson has increasingly become a commuter city. A large number o businesses andeven some state agencies have pivoted away rom Jackson to surrounding bedroom

communities which, alongside loss o middle- and upper middle-class residents, has

caused homeownership to plummet, eroded the citys tax base and accelerated crime

and blight. Tough Jackson has lost Arican-American proessionals to suburbs such

as blue-collar Byram, middle-class Clinton and posh Madison, the lions share o

suburban ight has been white. Unlike rust belt cities such as Cleveland and Detroit,

which at this point are losing net population o all races, Jacksons number o Arican-

American residents has leveled o but is still rising.

ThE VIgIlanTE MayorFrank Melton arrived in Jackson in 1984. He built his career and persona around the

anxieties and pain that attended Jacksons troubled demographic shi. Melton had

moved rom exas to become CEO o WLB, then the nations largest black-owned

V station though aer union-busting, Melton would sell it to a publically traded

company in 2000.

He ast became known or his criticisms o black social dysunction, which

alternately took the orm o demagoguery, eusive philanthropy and tough-copposturing. He solidied connections to inuential Jacksonians o both races through

personal notes and needy late-night phone calls. Trough his own brand o television

editorials called Te Bottom Line, he became a visible public gure, railing against

prisons, the Jackson Police Department, welare and what he called the black

entitlement mentality. Melton also paid or inner-city billboards plastered with the

mug shots o purported drug dealers and gang leaders. His rants about crime spoke

directly to the pain and helplessness o the many Jackson residents who live in ear o it.

(Troughout all this, Meltons wie, a well-regarded pediatrician, and his two biological

children lived in East exas, where he sometimes commuted on his private jet.)

Te most prominent thing about Frank Melton was his desire to act as sel-styled

guardian o the citys troubled young men and the way his eusive charisma inspired

powerul people to abet him. Dale Danks, mayor o Jackson rom 1977 to 1989, recalls


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Melton showing up at City Hall in the late 80s. Nationwide crime rates were spiking,

and Melton oered Danks his assistance in catching gang leaders. At Meltons oce

in the WLB headquarters, Danks, the police and Melton held a meeting with a

dozen young men who had been pegged as drug dealers, oering them jobs. Youth

court judges began appointing Melton custody o troubled young men. Melton took a

renzied interest in their lives, riding along with police so he could reach out to youngdrug dealers, and buying a double-gated estate with a swimming pool and shing

hole or his sons.

uxedo-clad, his young, street-wise charges sometimes accompanied him to

upscale gatherings. Rumors about Meltons relationships with these young men

circulated throughout his time in Jackson but equally powerul was the praise

lavished on his advocacy o a group everyone else seemed to wish would go away.

With the philanthropic oundation he set up through his V station, he paid or

college scholarships or his mentees and or the unerals o shooting victims. His

bravado got him appointed to the State Board o Education in 1992 he promisedto sweepingly reorm education but didnt show up to many meetings and then as

head o the Mississippi Bureau o Narcotics rom 2002 to 2004. During his 14-month

stint he set up unconstitutional roadblocks near the State Capitol to search cars or

drugs. Meanwhile, the agencys actual drug arrests languished.

While Melton harshly criticized the citys problems and brandished swashbuckling

solutions, complex shis occurred in Jacksons public lie, including the turbulence

that accompanied the election o Harvey Johnson, Jr. as its rst black mayor. In a

cruel irony, the massive departure o whites and black proessionals that decimated

Jacksons tax base and drained the citys economic opportunities also gave blacks apolitical majority or the rst time. Aer a 1997 election starkly drawn on racial lines,

Johnson a taciturn, stubborn urban planner presided over a contentious shi

in power, increasing black leadership in city agencies and hiring black contractors.

He acted to stabilize Jackson, slowly bringing down the crime rate, courting ederal

grant money, laying the groundwork or projects downtown and in West Jackson, and

balancing the budget without ring city employees. But he was oen cut by a double-

edged sword: White powerbrokers were vexed by his intransigence and support or

minority contracting, while Arican-American leaders were leery o his support

or downtown development projects, which had oen had an exclusionary history.

Johnson drew criticism rom all quarters or his painstaking (some would say glacial)

pace in making changes.


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Te demographic shi that swept Johnson and other black leaders into oce also

accelerated white ight and suburban growth. South Jackson, a blue-collar clutch o

suburban-style cul-de-sacs, was annexed to Jackson in the late 70s when it was 98

percent white; it gradually integrated during the 90s and tipped over into having a

black majority around 2001, when it elected its rst black city council representative.

Te departure o white residents to the suburbs accelerated. As o the most recentcensus, the area is 96 percent black.

Te ight o businesses, nance and law rms to the suburbs was also palpable.

Socrates Garrett, the ounder and head o Garrett Enterprises, is one o a number o

Arican-American business contractors who ourished ollowing Johnsons election.

Speaking in his oce on Livingston Road, an industrial part o West Jackson, he

recalls Johnsons rst two terms as a period o divide and struggle over everything .

. .Te majority community was not ready or the transition o power to the Arican-

American community, Garrett said. Tey took their business with them and tried

to create what was in Jackson in other communities. As the city became blackerand blacker, Garrett said, Jacksons traditional white powerbrokers slowly came to

terms with the act that the city would have a black mayor, but realized they needed a

dierent kind o black mayor who would listen to their needs.

By 2005, Melton had become the candidate o choice or Jacksons Republican

business establishment and the citys poor and lower middle-class black voter base.

In media editorials with racist overtones, Johnson was branded as plodding, uppity

and divisive, while Meltons urban bona des and admiration or the suburbs were

applauded. Melton is a remarkable uniter, a prominent white real estate developer,

Leland Speed, told theJackson Free Press in 2005. We havent seen anything like this

[in Jackson] . . .Tis is our moment o hope. Meltons embrace by major unders like

Speed was not surprising in the South, where electoral gains oen go to candidates

black enough to appeal to a majority-minority voter base, but pro-business enough

The leadership o the downtown banks is not gonnachange overnight so how do you fgure out a way

to work with the people who have the resources orthe olks in the community who need it?
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to appeal to the Chamber o Commerce bloc o business, nance and real estate

elites. For instance, ormer New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a wealthy ormer media

executive like Melton, won his rst election with the joint backing o the citys old-

ashioned white business elite and black voters, despite scant political experience and

policy positions that werent always in the interests o either group.

O course, most political leaders in black cities throughout the country walk asimilarly ne line in appealing to their constituents and mainstream, moneyed

suburban whites: Cory Booker, the charismatic, crusading and prooundly competent

black mayor o Newark lived in the citys projects to combat the notion that he was too

white and suburban to understand black Newark but he recently drew criticism

over his ties to white-collar private equity rms or campaign unding. Te appeal

o Meltons mix o sel-made wealth and his sheri act were amplied in Mississippi,

where support or ree enterprise and guns is deeply woven into the culture. (A recent

discussion o the rayvon Martin shooting on a black, progressive radio show in

Jackson revolved around proper use o rearms.)

Indeed, by emphasizing blight and crime ghting, Melton discovered a lingua

ranca that spoke to conservative blacks and upper middle-class whites uneasy

with inner-city poverty as well as to the poor themselves. At a breakast undraiser


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attended by wealthy white emale philanthropists in Northeast Jackson, including

Leland Speeds wie, Melton blamed the citys tense relationship with the suburbs on

Johnsons separatism. When a woman said Meltons ideas sounded like a liesaver

but asked where he would get the unding, he brandished non-existent promises rom

Republican senators rent Lott and Tad Cochran to give Jackson a multi-million

dollar ederal grant. He described his work with young men in the inner city asrewarding and painul, promising that as mayor he would corral young people into

church and volunteer programs and lamenting the kids Ive had to bury. (Tese

quotes and descriptions come rom 2005 coverage by the Jackson Free Press.) A

month later, he echoed the line to hip-hop artists at a orum at a club on Farish Street,

organized by Brad Kamikaze Franklin: Im not going to bury any more kidsIm

going to send them to college, Melton said, according to theJackson Free Press. When

a rapper asked Melton what he would do to bring businesses back to West Jackson

and Metrocenter, a huge semi-abandoned shopping mall oen treated as a totem o

the citys loss o retail, Melton brushed it o: Ive been in business or 35 yearsI canconnect you with the people who can help you as long as you will do the right thing.

Meltons wealth, tough talk and street credibility earned his mayoral campaign an

unusually varied coalition o supporters: Members o Jacksons black establishment

dissatised with Johnson; white downtown developers whod elt their hands tied by

Johnsons micro-management; community members who admired Meltons straight

talk and philanthropy; Reaganite suburban whites attracted by Meltons bootstraps

rhetoric; white progressives enamored o his proessed awareness o inner-city

problems and promises o interracial and metropolitan cooperation.

Tere was an Emperors-New-Clothes quality to Melton, whose unlikely candidacywas woven rom the ears and needs o his varied supporters. And, as in a airy tale, the

spell quickly shattered. In 2005, he trounced Johnson in the competitive Democratic

primary and his Republican opponent Rick Whitlow in the general election (Whitlow

complained Republicans had voted or Melton over him). On his inauguration night,

Melton vowed to drive thugs out o Jackson, actually naming young, local drug

dealers in his inaugural address. Tat night, he took the stage at a victory celebration

on Farish Street and ashed an (expired) brass-colored law enorcement badge.

Batman Returns, he declared with a winsome smile to the cheering majority Arican-

American crowd (a moment caught on video by aJackson Free Press photographer).

Melton le the stage, donned black SWA-style atigues and strapped a semiautomatic

handgun to the ront holster o his bulletproo vest. Melton spent the rst night o his

mayorship on a seedy stretch o Highway 80 in West Jackson, lecturing teenagers
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out past curew at gas station convenience stores, knocking on the doors o low-rent

motels, and conducting impromptu trac stops and car searches.

Troughout the next our years, Melton continued to use his position or erratic,

highly personal crime ghting. He went on escapades that were benign stopping

a school bus in the middle o the highway, stepping inside, announcing himsel as

mayor and asking or hugs and dangerous, like the morning he climbed onto abulldozer to demolish abandoned houses that hadnt had their gas lines disconnected.

Police were expected to abet his random trac stops in West Jackson and accompany

him on continual raids o adult bookstores, bars, strip clubs and private residencies,

such as Evans Welchs duplex. Instead o using his oce at City Hall, Melton worked

out o his mansion where he kept a red phone in his bedroom. In homage to the

mayor in the Batman V series, Melton called it his murder hotline. He red the

citys eight crime prevention specialists. He promoted the two policemen who served

as his submachine-gun-toting bodyguards ahead o other department members.

Detectives were oen expected to report to Melton rather than the chie. He calledon-duty ocers to transport his young mentees to a barbeque at his estate.

Te attrition o disaected police was so severe that in 2007 Jackson lost a

Department o Justice grant contingent on maintaining a police corps o at least

450. Te overtime worked by remaining ocers strained an increasingly raught city

budget. Aer strenuously trying to avoid releasing public records, statistics showed

that despite his tough-cop posturing, crime had risen during Meltons tenure. Attorney

General Jim Hood began investigating Melton, who had no valid law enorcement

credentials, or carrying guns at a church, a public park and a college campus.

Meltons brash, mercurial personality took a toll on city government. He hiredpolitical supporters and ormer cronies rom his television station and the Mississippi

Bureau o Narcotics at exorbitant salaries, while replacing city employees with

temporary workers. He rolled back minority service contracts and red employees

who had supported Johnson. He red the citys Washington, D.C.-based lobbying

rm and hired a 28-year-old lawyer who ew between D.C. and Jackson on Meltons

private jet. Grants applications and renewals lingered on his desk, losing the city tens

o thousands, i not millions, o dollars. Te city council dipped into Jacksons reserve

und to cover growing budget shortalls.

As Melton got deeper into legal troubles the trial or the duplex raid was the

most visible in a growing list o lawsuits his support crumbled. Minnie Rhodes,

whose husband had built the duplex in 1962, conded her disillusion to theJackson

Free Press, which broke the story o the raid. When [Melton] was on [the]Bottom
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Line, Id stay up late, even i I had to get up next morning, just to hear him. I was

one o his biggest ans, and when he was elected mayor o the city o Jackson, I just

jumped up and down, she said. But Ive watched him closely, and to me hes just

getting deeper and deeper and deeper into having no respect or the law. He won his

state trial deense attorneys successully labeled the duplex a crack house and

argued or his well-intentioned crime ghting but was indicted on ederal civilrights charges or the same raid. Te city o Jacksons most visible appearance on the

national stage during that period was an interviewMelton gave on Fox News, where

he reenacted punching glass out o a window rame with a large stick.

Prominent supporters began to step back, recant or resign outright, leaving

Melton surrounded by yes-men and opportunists. Brad Kamikaze Franklin had

been appointed by the mayor to the citys historic preservation commission, but as

Meltons megalomania became more evident, he began to keep his distance rom

City Hall. Te night beore the 2009 election, Melton called Franklin, wanting to

know what had happened to his idea about redeveloping the long-underused AlamoTeatre. Te activist had the depressing eeling that Melton was making a last-ditch

eort to show ormer supporters that he was trying to improve Jackson. Franklin

recalls Election Day itsel as dark and gloomy. Melton was due to start his ederal

trial the ollowing week and one o his bodyguards had agreed to testiy against him.

A weird eeling o suspense hung in the air, Franklin remembers. Many were nervous

about what would happen i Melton won a second term; some o his unqualied

hires to city government were araid o what would happen i he lost. Melton didnt

make the run-o, however and didnt live to nd out he had lost. As the polls

closed, he went in to cardiac arrest at his Northeast Jackson mansion. He died less

than two days later.

Melton le a sense o waste in his wake. Aer his death, then-City Council

Representative Leslie McLemore served as interim mayor or the last two months

o Meltons term. McLemore, a veteran o the civil rights movement, had served on

Meltons wie, a well-regarded pediatrician, and histwo biological children lived in Tyler, Texas, where he

sometimes commuted on his private jet.
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the council or a decade and is now the director o the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute

at Jackson State. He places the rise o Frank Melton in the larger history o contested

power in Jackson. When asked about Meltons broad base o support, McLemore

becomes quiet or the rst time over the course o a two-hour interview. You see,

part o Meltons prototype is really what we need, he says. Te leadership o the

downtown banks is not gonna change overnight so how do you gure out a wayto work with the people who have the resources or the olks in the community who

need it? [Melton] had the respect amongst white people. He just didnt have sense

enough to use that leverageHe was a ailure as a mayor. And the city o Jackson

deserves better than a damn ailure.

pIckIng Up ThE pIEcESIn the autumn o 2009, Harvey Johnson, Jr. was reelected by a sobered electorate,

newly appreciative o his steadiness and competence. In his current term, Johnson hasbecome more visible in the citys poorest neighborhoods: He wears suits less requently,

makes a point o appearing at the citys rodeo and takes the parishioners o inner-city

churches on bus tours where he shows o the new development downtown. Johnson,

expected to run or a ourth term in November, is consistently tight-lipped about his

predecessor, declining to go into detail about how he reconstituted the citys shredded

budget aer Meltons disastrous term. Instead, the achievements Johnson touts

remain subtle. In a recent interview at City Hall, he stresses accomplishments such

as receiving ederal block grants, making rugal budgeting choices (in 2011 sales tax

revenue declined, but was still 4 percent higher than what the city had conservativelyplanned or), and getting the police department corps up to 500 ocers rom the 420

it had shrunk to under Meltons tenure.

Harvey Johnson remains ocused on the long-term work o stabilizing the citys

tax base through projects downtown, around Jackson State and in a development o

hospitals and clinics in West Jackson called the Medical Mall. Some o the projects he

began when he was rst mayor, such as the citys convention complex, opened their

doors during Meltons term. Others, such as a $70 million investment or a state civil

rights museum, have only recently been approved. When asked about the tension

that existed during his prior administration, he responds obliquely, conceding that

in his current term the trust level is higher than it was previously and pointing

to support rom developers or his new Jobs or Jacksonians initiative, which

incentivizes hiring city residents. During his two terms rom 1997-2005, he notes that


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FOREFRONT

1868Pierre Caliste landry

First African American

elected mayor of a U.S. town:

Donaldsonville, La.

MILESTONES fOR BLACKAMERICAN MAyORS

1967Carl B. stokes

First African American elected

mayor of a large U.S. city:

Cleveland, Ohio

1973Maynard JaCkson

First African American elected

mayor of a major Southern city:

Atlanta, Ga. 1997Harvey JoHnson, Jr.First African American elected

mayor of Jackson, Miss.


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there was close scrutiny by those no longer in power but said that he continues to

work to be recognized as mayor or everybodyalthough we were interrupted or

our years, were still on that road. It takes time. Tose nal three words might sum

up his attitude as a public servant.

But the city has gone through a palpable maturation process since Johnson was rst

mayor. Ben Allen, president oDowntown Jackson Partners, which manages a 66-blockBusiness Improvement District, exemplies the shi. Allen served on Jacksons city

council rom 1997 until 2007 when Melton, who he had voted or, damn near killed

me (aer a series o contentious council meetings, Allen literally suered a near-heart

attack). He represented Northeast Jackson, the citys whitest, most Republican district

which is changing too, going rom being 9 percent black in the 1990s to 40 percent

black today, though the richest parts o the ward remain predominantly white, with

most Arican Americans moving into homes under $80,000. When Allen, a white

Republican, was rst elected to council, he gained a reputation or clashing with

Johnson and black council members over matters such as a resolution condemningthe state ag o Mississippi, which includes the conederate stars and bars. But over

time, Allen says, the divisiveness o the period cooled into a realization o the necessity

o working together. Tough he used to host a conservative radio show where topics

included Jacksons rampant crime, he now regularly decries sensationalism o it. He

recalls Johnsons work to increase black participation in the leadership o city agencies

and projects as painul or many white leaders but the right thing to do. By the

end o his term on council, Allens proudest accomplishment was getting his scally

conservative ward, where there isnt a public middle or high school, to vote with

the rest o the city or a bond increase to und the Jacksons struggling public schooldistrict, which is 97 percent black.

Allen is currently spearheading an initiative intended to help clear the city o

derelict properties. Tough in its early stages, the project being done in partnership

with other community groups and the city governmentis the most pragmatic blight-

ghting program Jackson has tried and could result in signicant lessening o the red

tape that slows demolition o abandoned property. In a March meeting, 15 lawyers

and leaders met in a closed conerence room at the Downtown Jackson Partners

oce to discuss the blight initiative. While six Arican Americans participated, they

mostly represented community initiatives or the city government. Te most powerul

stakeholders in attendance were white and male. Participants like Leland Speed and

Jim Rosenblatt, Dean o Mississippi College o Law, dominated the discussion

but genuinely solicited eedback rom Angela Woodard, a paralegal or the city, and
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Primus Wheeler, executive director o the Medical Mall Foundation in West Jackson,

both black. Te meeting could be taken as a depressing reminder that a white, male

old guard still disproportionately controls the citys assets or as a sign that, however

haltingly and imperectly, that old guard is working to be diverse and to nd common

solutions or problems like the omnipresence o blighted properties.

Skepticism about development remains deeply embedded in Jacksons blackcommunity, but given Mississippis substantial black population and the conscious

eorts o many local leaders, Jackson may actually succeed in revitalizing the city

in a way that helps oment the black middle class. When it was ormed in the 1990s,

Downtown Jackson Partners had a nostalgic tinge and its leadership was totally

white; now its PowerPoints proclaim Proud o Our Progress. Tough Downtown

Jackson Partners board is still dominated by the citys deep-rooted white economic

elite, the group has made conscious eorts to include black leaders and be aggressive

in its outreach and delivery o public inormation. Allen acknowledges that Jackson

is behind times when it comes to race, but says he sees signs o real change. Teburgeoning commitment o investors and retail (Whole Foods will open a store

in Northeast Jackson in 2013) is thanks in part to the nationwide trend o a new

generation o young proessionals attracted to living in cities over suburbs but

in Jackson, a third o the residents moving into new, upscale downtown residential

developments are black. State and city incentives or minority contracting are helping

local building proessionals and are attracting national Arican-American contractors

who have Mississippi ties.

Tis is part o a regional trend demographers reer to as the Reverse Great

Migration, wherein blacks are relocating to the South in the largest numbers seensince Arican-American orbearers in the last century le the region or opportunities

in industrializing north. Tough much depends on Mississippis stalled economy,

shiing demographics and increasing opportunities or the areas homegrown black

business community could ultimately mean big things or Jackson, as they have or

Atlanta, increasingly a hub or black business and entertainment.

In the meantime, Allen helps organize eld trips or Downtown Jackson Partners

board to study the successes o other cities, such as Birminghams medical district

and Little Rocks River Market. Te ormer councilman points to comparably sized

cities like Chattanooga, enn., where, aer years o losing residents to the suburbs,

population is again on the upswing. Slowly, state legislators and suburban leaders are

tuning into the need to bulwark Jackson or the good o the metro area as a whole. City

leaders o both races agree that though Jackson is struggling to shore up its economic

base, it will not become another Gary, Ind.
http://www.jacksonmedicalmall.org/http://www.downtown-jackson.com/index.php?/about/board/http://www.downtown-jackson.com/index.php?/about/board/http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2004/05/demographics-freyhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2004/05/demographics-freyhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2004/05/demographics-freyhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2004/05/demographics-freyhttp://www.downtown-jackson.com/index.php?/about/board/http://www.downtown-jackson.com/index.php?/about/board/http://www.jacksonmedicalmall.org/


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a nEw JackSonAs Jackson moves orward, it is possible that the gimcrack interracial cooperation

that surrounded Frank Melton will evolve into genuine cohesion. Donna Ladd, who

co-ounded the Jackson Free Press in 2002, covered Meltons term extensively. She

describes her coverage o Melton as years o heartache. Over time, she says, she beganto view the ormer mayor as the man segregation built a personication o all

the unaddressed, lingering problems that assail Jackson, especially the demonization

o young black men. In her view, Meltons ailure as mayor and his dramatic death

shrank the citys belie that one gure could save us all rom each other and helped

his erstwhile supporters ace the necessity o coming together or the slow, hard work

o improving Jackson.

Its work that Ladd is deeply engaged in the Free Press conducts award-

winning investigations done by a consciously interracial sta and boasts a similarly

diverse readership. Te newspaper continually advocates or a pro-Jackson, urbanistethos. Ladd also presides over BOOM Jackson, a glossy magazine that emphasizes

entrepreneurship and proles progressive, urban movers and shakers o both races.

Te Free Press is based in Fondren, an area north o downtown and the universities.

Fieen years ago, it was a raying residential neighborhood that exemplied the toll

taken on central Jackson by middle class ight. Gradually, though, the neighborhood

is regaining residents and businesses, as progressive middle-class amilies and young,

urban-minded Millennials rediscover its trees-shaded streets

Donna Ladd, who is white, grew up in rural Neshoba County. She was three

years old in 1964 when Klu Klux Klan members rom the area lynched three civilrights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner

traveling through the county. I know what my state is capable o, Ladd says. But

just as Mississippis history tells an outsize story o the racism that aficts the nation,

Ladd believes Jackson will emerge as the testing ground or a more inclusive uture.

Mississippi lags behind the rest o the U.S. on nearly every measure o quality o lie

one can name education, obesity, poverty, teen pregnancy.

But the Reverse Great Migration is likely to have proound long-term eects on

the political map in Mississippi and the South as a whole. For the rst time since

the Great Migration took the states blacks rom rural towns to Northern cities in

the 1940s, Mississippis Arican-American population began to rise in the 1980s. In

2010, Mississippis population was 37 percent Arican-American, census data shows,

and demographic trends indicate that proportion will continue to grow over the next
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FOREFRONT

ew generations. (By comparison, the U.S. as a whole was 12.6 percent black in 2010,

according to the Census.) Tough state governance in Mississippi is still dominated by

white leaders oen skeptical o Jackson, one can envision a scenario where, in coming

decades, the governorship and state legislature will have a black majority, in line with

the state population. As the largest metro area in Mississippi, Jackson is likely to be

the seedbed o these uture state and national leaders. And given the national scale o

the Reverse Great Migration and plateauing national birth rates among whites, whathappens in Mississippi matters not just or the state, but or the country.

Te rst task o a new generation o Arican-American leaders is improving civic

lie in Jackson. Brad Kamikaze Franklin is acutely aware o his status as a young

black leader conversant with the citys problems yet connected to many dierent

circles o power. Despite the disastrous course o Frank Meltons term, association

with Melton connected Franklin to powerul people such as David Watkins, the white

developer in charge o the $100 million redevelopment o Farish Street, Meltons old

stomping grounds. Watkins vision is or an entertainment district in the style o

Beale Street in Memphis.During Franklins two years working with Watkins on communications or the

project, he dealt with disparaging remarks rom older black and white leaders who

looked askance at his diamond earring and involvement in the citys hip-hop scene.

Gentrication-averse black peers accused Franklin o allowing himsel to be used as
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a token. Sitting in a coee shop in Fondren, where he lives, Franklin explains that he

views both sides o criticism as part o a healthy discomort as the citys old guard o

both races opens up to the younger generation and the younger generation learns

how to wield power.

Franklin views the ascendance o this new generation as an inevitable part o the

citys evolution as it moves past the moribund habits and racial disputes o the past.Tis November, June Hardwick, a 36-year-old lawyer and ormer public deender, is

likely to become the rst black city council representative or the ward that includes

Belhaven. Jonathan Lee, the 34-year-old head o Mississippi Products, a Jackson-based

medical supply company, and a ormer chair o the Jackson Chamber o Commerce, is

attuned to his generations responsibility or the citys uture. Lee helps host the popular

Friday salons at Koinonia, a coee shop near Jackson State, which on any given Friday

morning is packed with an interracial and intergenerational crowd o prominent

Jacksonians debating policy or the days headlines. Lee is eloquent on Mississippis

legacy o racism and on Jacksons continued problems rom black skepticism o thesuburbs and a raught relationship with the legislature to the persistent wealth gap

between blacks and whites. But since he was a teenager, Lee says, he has seen Jackson

go rom being a dying city to one that has a chance o coming back.

It is common or young black leaders to praise Harvey Johnsons competence in

stabilizing the ragile city, especially aer Melton, but to also assert that in coming

years, leaders will need a stronger vision or the city and a greater willingness to orm

creative, diverse partnerships. Developing this will take time; i there is anything to be

learned rom Jacksons rst two black mayors, it is that real change requires leadership

that is insistent and strong as well as patient. Brad Franklin oen reects on how

the city will be dierent when his two children reach adulthood. He isnt sure i his

15-year-old son will enjoy a revived Farish Street or neighborhoods where dierent

colors and creeds coexist but he is certain his 2-year-old daughter will.


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aboUT ThE aUThorIngrid Nrtn is a writer based in New Orleans

and obsessed with cities. Her work has appeared in

publications including Te Chronicle of Higher Education,

Dissent, GOOD, and Te Los Angeles Review of Books. Sheswritten on topics rom the precipitous growth o Austin to

arson and urban divestment in Detroit. Areas o interest

include cities in literature, the criminal justice system, the

developing world, immigration patterns, port cities, poverty, Americas sun and rust

belts, race, and urban history. She can be contacted at www.ingridnorton.com.

aboUT ThE IllUSTraTorAx lka was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981

and raised in nearby Cambridge. With a wide range o

artistic inuences, Lukas creates both highly detailed

drawings and intricate Xeroxed zines. His drawings

have been exhibited in New York, Boston, Philadelphia,

Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Stockholm andCopenhagen as well as in the pages o Megawords,

Swindle Quarterly, Proximity Magazine, Te San Francisco Chronicle, Te Village

Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, Dwell, Juxtapoz, Te Boston Globe, Te Boston Phoenix,

Art New England and Te New York imes Book Review. Lukas imprint, Cantab

Publishing, has released over 35 small books and zines since its inception in 2001.

He has lectured at Te Maryland Institute College o Art, Te University o Kansas

and Te Rhode Island School o Design. His work was also recently acquired by the

West Collection as part o the 2011 West Prize.

Documents

The Man Segregation Built