2013 Lincoln County, MS Schools 9th Reunion Registration Forms may be found at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1htpn8iByvUZHY3MlZJVzdVZnc/edit?usp=sharing
Costella Black Williams
Funeral services for Costella Black Williams, of Brookhaven, are 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 18, at Greater Mt. Olive M.B. Church, with burial in the church cemetery. R.E. Tyler Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Visitation is Tuesday from noon until 6 p.m. at the funeral home.
Mrs. Williams, 92, died July 11, 2012, at Silver Cross Home. She was born in Little Rock, Ark. on July 27, 1919, to Willard and Aldenia Smith Black.
She was a retired cook for Silver Cross Home in Brookhaven and a member of New Jerusalem M.B. Church.
Preceding her in death were her parents; husband, Othe Williams; brothers, Eulis, Marvin and Wilis Black and Ivey James Ford; and sister, Lucille Cooper.
Survivors are her sons, Edward Williams and wife, Sallie, the Rev. Jessie Williams and wife, Ella, of Springfield, Mass., O.C. Williams and wife, Sylvia, Leander Williams and Wendell Williams, of Brookhaven; daughters, Jeanette Dixon and husband, L.C., of Lansing, Mich., Patricia Hughes and husband, the Rev. William, Irma Smith, both of Brookhaven, and LeEdna Smith, of Meridian; and a host of grandchildren.
Ms. Costella Black Williams is the mother of the Rev. Jessie Williams of Springfield, MA. Jessie is a 1964 graduate of Eva H Harris High School, Brookhaven, MS.
Our 48th Eva Harris High School reunion took place 6/22/2012 – 6/24/2012 in Brookhaven, MS. We could not find a few classmates, however, most of those who registered showed up. The events were more enjoyable than I had expected. Classmate, Mary Francis Lyons was the MC for all events and she did a great job of it. Classmate, Johnny Hall and wife prepared the food for the Meet and Greet event Friday evening fish fry. Got many comments that the food was great and I agree. Another classmate, Robert Wilson and wife catered the Banquet dinner on Saturday night and I enjoyed some of the best-catered food I have had in a long time. They even rearranged the Banquet room to accommodate their special food display tables and fixtures. Two of our classmates, Jesse E. Williams Sr. and W P Robinson are ministers. They volunteered to do the invocation, blessing of the food and the benediction at the reunion Banquet on Saturday night. Pastor Jesse E. Williams, Sr. and wife Ella is at New Life Calvary Baptist Church, in Springfield, MA, http://newlifecalvarybaptistchurch.com/. W P Robinson lives in Alexandria, LA. Betty Tillman volunteered to recite the history of the Eva H Harris School whose history was very short-lived (1960 – 1970) due to school integration. Reunion President, Leon Whitfield recited the life of Mrs. Eva H Harris for whom the school was named. He also honored one of the teachers and coach, Mr. Milton McMorris who lives in Bogue Chitto, MS.
I had a great time and hope our 50th reunion will be even better.
Our 50th reunion is going to be a very special reunion. Fifty years out of High School… seems like only yesterday. At our Sunday Farewell, it was suggested and agreed upon that we have our 50th reunion in Las Vegas. Plans for our 50th reunion in Las Vegas are forthcoming.
Click the link below to view the 2012 Class of 1964 Eva H Harris Reunion Photo Slide show:
Version 1 with music:
http://www.photoshow.com/watch/wW6we2Wr
Version 2: http://www.flickr.com//photos/58203518@N04/sets/72157630504160272/show/
Click the link below to view then & some then & now classmate photos:
http://www.photoshow.com/watch/Rw2sV6TS
Bertha Mae Adams #
Leroy Allen
Lawrence Beard #
Tyrethis Beard
Irene Bowman
Betty Jean Bracey – Valedictorian #
Janice Loraine Brown – Secretary
Willie Earl Brown
L. C. Butler #
Jeanette Byrd
Bennie C. Carter
Leroy Clark *
J. W. Clark *
Dorothy Nell Coleman
Ida Nell Dillon – Asst. Secretary
Lawrence E. Dixon – President/Salutatorian
Bertha Mae Edwards
Dorothy Ree Fairman
Velma Lee Fairman #
Robert Earl Franklin *
Willie Lee Freeman *
Johnnie Wesley Hall #
Dorrene Jones #
Dorothy Louise Leggett *
Mary Frances Lyons – Chaplain #
Eugene McGee
Evelene McGee #
Letha Mae McGee *
Ernest Milton - Sgt. at Arms *
Ethel Marie Patterson #
Thelma Jean Price
Howard Lee Ratcliff *
Ada Red #
Earnestine Richardson #
Doris Roberts
Florine Robinson #
W. P. Robinson #
Odell Sanders – Business Mgr. *
Charles E. Smith
Joe Willie Smith
Robert Lee Smith -Treasurer #
Thomas E. Smith
Charles H. Stovall *
Betty E. Tillman – Honor Essayist #
John Turner #
Theresa Wall
Jessie Lee Washington #
Annie Pearl Watson *
Willie T. Watson
Lessie Violet Williams *
Leon Whitfield – Vice President #
Minor Lee Wilcher
Bobby Williams
Jesse E. Williams #
Robert J. Wilson #
Ethel G. Wiseman #
Mrs. C.D. Rance
Mr. C.B. Johnson *
*Deceased
#Attended 2012 reunion
Gone but not forgotten. The following is a list of classmates no longer with us… but are left forever in our memories, thoughts, and hearts. Our reunion Secretary, Florine Robinson and classmate, Velma Fairman performed a ceremony in memory of our classmates who have passed-on. A candle was lite for each classmate after their name was recited.
1. Leroy Clark
2. J. W. Clark
3. Robert Earl Franklin
4. Willie Lee Freeman
5. Dorothy Louise Leggett
6. Letha Mae McGee
7. Ernest Milton
8. Howard Lee Ratcliff
9. Odell Sanders
10. Charles H. Stovall
11. Annie Pearl Watson
12. Lessie Violet Williams
May they all “Rest In Peace”
SANDERS , Odell On May 4, 2012, Odell “Jimmy” Sanders, survived by family and friends. Memorial Service will be held Thursday, 11 AM at Transformation Church of Jesus Christ, 5150 Baltimore National Pike. Services entrusted to Redd Funeral Service.
Odell is a 1964 Graduate of Eva Harris High School, Brookhaven, MS.
I have researched the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and found documents that show all African-American Teachers, Preachers and many African-American people in Mississippi were investigated and/or recruited during the 1960′s by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission.
Mrs. Ruby Larkin, Lincoln County Superintendent of Education in the 1960’s was a Sovereignty Commission contact in Brookhaven, MS and in one of the documents I’ve found, she recommended Mrs. Eva H Harris, the Principal of Eva H Harris, as a good prospective informant. She also requested that a confidential check be made of T. J. Rance who was a teacher at the Lincoln County Training Center in Bogue Chitto, MS in 1960. However, we must understand that during the civil rights struggle, you obeyed or pretended to obey the requests made by the people in control or suffer job lose, beatings, intimidation, false imprisonment, or death. I can remember instances where my parents would pretend to cooperate with authorities, but in fact, they were playing a game. My father taught me, to stay out of trouble; you must sometimes play games with “Mr. Charlie”. I have no idea if Mrs. Harris was actually contacted by the Sovereignty Commission to become an informant. I knew Mrs. Harris very well and I think that if she were contacted by the Sovereignty Commission, she would have accepted the request to become an informant but would have played the game my father talked about. Neither Mrs. Harris nor Mr. Rance earned their highly decorated careers in education by being unwise.
Other Sovereignty Commission contacts in Lincoln County, MS that were found in the documents were:
Sheriff Earl Smith
Royce R Hart, Chancery Clerk
Clark Earl H Burns, Circuit Clerk
Hugh T. Mitchell, Chairman of the White Citizens’ Council of Brookhaven, MS
S. E. Babbington, President of the Brookhaven, MS Chamber of Commerce
Judge Tom E. Brady
Senator W. M. Jones of Brookhaven, MS
Representative C. B. Holmes of Brookhaven, MS
The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission investigator was A. L. Hopkins
After watching a TV show last night about the shooting death of the unarmed Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, I was stunned at hearing some of the comments made by the commentator and his guests. After playing a recording made during the incident of a young voice screaming for help, the commentator said that it might have been Mr. Zimmerman screaming. When a shot was heard on one of the recordings while a homeowner was on the phone with a 911 operator, the commentator suggested that maybe Mr. Zimmerman saw the kid pull something from his pockets. The 911 operator suggested to Zimmerman that he not follow the young man and he continued to pursue the teenager. One of the guests on the show said that this incident could not be called a hate crime because both parties are minority.
I remember seeing an article on Wikipedia in the past on Racism subtitled Inter-minority variants. The Wikipedia article talks about racism among minorities. Racism is widespread within all races of people. In some societies, you are too tall, short, black, brown, yellow, white, pretty or whatever.
The kid is dead; Mr. Zimmerman shot him for reasons that cannot be explained logically. In my mind, he suffers from one of the most common racist diseases, a stereotypical view of other people. To a racist, all black men are drug-crazed, sex-crazed, unemployed, dishonest, armed, uneducated, dangerous, unmotivated and ugly.
I don’t care what race Mr. Zimmerman belongs, he shot and killed an innocent person and the incident is documented by witnesses and recordings. He should be tried and found guilty of murder.
The following article was copied from a part of a Wikipedia article on Racism.
Prejudiced thinking among and between minority groups does occur, for example conflicts between African Americans and Korean Americans (notably in the Los Angeles riots of 1992), by blacks towards Jews (such as the riots in Crown Heights in 1991), between new immigrant groups (such as Latinos), or towards whites.
There has been a long-running racial tension between African Americans and Mexican Americans. There have been several significant riots in California prisons in which Mexican American inmates and African Americans have specifically targeted each other based on racial reasons.There have been reports of racially motivated attacks against African Americans who have moved into neighborhoods occupied mostly by Mexican Americans, and vice versa. In the late 1920s in California, there was animosity between the Filipinos and the Mexicans and between European Americans and Filipino Americans since they competed for the same jobs. Recently, there has also been an increase in racial violence between African immigrants and Blacks who have already lived in the country for generations.
The Aztlan movement has been described as racist. The movement’s goal is repossession of the American southwest. It has also been called the Mexican “reconquista” (re-conquest) whose name was inspired by the Spanish reconquista, which led to the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. According to gang experts and law enforcement agents, a longstanding race war between the Mexican Mafia and the Black Guerilla family, a rival African American prison gang, has generated such intense racial hatred among Mexican Mafia leaders or shot callers, that they have issued a “green light” on all blacks. A sort of gang-life fatwa, this amounts to a standing authorization for Latino gang members to prove their mettle by terrorizing or even murdering any blacks sighted in a neighborhood claimed by a gang loyal to the Mexican Mafia.
In Britain, tensions between minority groups can be just as strong as those between minorities and the majority population. In Birmingham, there have been long-term divisions between the Black and South Asian communities, which were illustrated in the Handsworth riots and in the smaller 2005 Birmingham riots. In Dewsbury, a Yorkshire town with a relatively high Muslim population, there have been tensions and minor civil disturbances between Kurds and South Asians.
In France, home to Europe’s largest population of Muslims — about 6 million — as well as the continent’s largest community of Jews, about 600,000, anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and racist language has been increasing over the last several years. Jewish leaders perceive the Muslim population as intensifying anti-Semitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab or African heritage, but also this anti-Semitism is perceived as also growing among Caribbean islanders from former colonies.
Article Copied from Wikipedia
I have noticed that over the years the memory of the Eva H Harris School, Brookhaven, MS has slowly faded. The building in which we traveled the halls back and forth to classes each day during our school days was allowed to deteriorate and has now been sold for other use. I have searched the Internet, Lincoln County Library in Brookhaven MS, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and found very few references to the Eva H Harris School. I contacted the Lincoln County School District in Brookhaven MS to find out if any Eva Harris memorabilia was saved after the school closed. The answer was, if anything was saved, it would be found at the Lincoln County Library. After checking the library, the only items found were several documents referring to the (then current) and a future Eva H. Harris principal; Mrs. Eva H. Harris and Mr. T. J. Rance and the 1961-62 Eva H Harris teacher roster compiled by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a 1987 copy of an interview of Mrs. Eva H. Harris and a copy of the Mississippi State Senate Resolution 6, Commending the Life and Public Service of Mr T. J. Rance.
I found that to keep the memory of the school, someone must donate memorabilia from the school to the Lincoln County Library or the State Archives. Therefore, to keep the memory of the Eva H Harris High School alive, I will submit a proposal to the 1964 class reunion committee to initiate an effort to collect memorabilia that will be donated to the Lincoln County Library in Brookhaven, MS to keep the memory of the Eva H Harris School. We hope that all former Eva H Harris students and teachers will join us in an effort to keep the memory of our high school alive.
We are looking for memorabilia; Yearbooks, Class Pictures, Classmate Pictures, Teacher Pictures, News Articles, Pictures or drawings of the school, etc. We will accept any items that can be linked to the Eva H Harris School. We will donate the items collected to the Lincoln County library in Brookhaven, MS so that the memory of our school will never die.
The address to send items to be donated is coming in near future.
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