A Stone of Hope

About the Book

Glendora is a small rural town located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Th e people of the town take pride in living in a quiet, close-knit community where everybody knows their neighbors. However, like many small rural towns in the South, Glendora inherited the eff ects of slavery, Jim Crow, and poverty, in addition to having the unfortunate experience of being the town where a fourteen-year-boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered and thrown into the Black Bayou that energized the Civil Rights Movement in America. Th is book tells a story about the struggle of this small town to rise above a “mountain of despair” that plagued the town for decades to a “stone of hope” that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned in his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, DC, in August 1963. For the past four decades, Glendora’s hope for a brighter future has rested in the hands of Johnny B. Th omas, who rose from the son of sharecroppers on a local plantation to the mayor of the town. When Th omas became mayor, he inherited a town that had been ravaged by the eff ects of poverty, neglect, isolation, a heritage of plantation sharecropping servitude, and a culture of racial suppression of the civil rights of African Americans. Th is book provides a historical account of the struggles and challenges that Mayor Th omas faced in building the Emmett Till Museum to promote education about civil rights, and to promote cultural tourism to generate much needed revenue for community development in Glendora. Th is book also includes much information about the rich history and culture of the people of Glendora as they continue their journey to become one of the stones of hope in the Mississippi Delta.

About the Author

JOHNNY B. THOMAS Johnny B. Th omas, a native of Glendora, Mississippi, grew up on a plantation in the Mississippi Delta where his parents were sharecroppers. After leaving the plantation, his fi rst job was running a local juke joint. After this harrowing experience, he shifted his focus towards entrepreneurship, owning and operating a series of businesses, and political activism. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became an active part of the civil rights movement in Glendora and Tallahatchie County. His public service career includes Constable, Alderman, and County Supervisor before being elected Mayor of Glendora in 1982. For the past 35 years, he has led his town through many trials and tribulations, before fi nally fulfi lling his dream of opening the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center in honor of Emmett Till, who was murdered just a short distance from where he lives. His entire life has been devoted to combating racial discrimination and injustice, and improving the quality of life of the people of Glendora. THOMAS J. DURANT, JR Th omas J. Durant, Jr., author, scholar, entrepreneur, speaker, and community volunteer, is Professor of Higher Education in the Executive Ph.D. Program at Jackson State University and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University. He has authored or co-authored four books: Plantation Society and Race Relations: Th e Origins of Inequality; Our Roots Run Deep: History of the River Road African American Museum; History of the Charity Hospitals of Louisiana: A Story of Poverty, Politics, Public Health, and Public Interest; and A View from the Inside…Th irty-Six Years of Desegregation. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and has traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and South America. He is a native of Mansfi eld, Louisiana. He is a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.