Leaving Mississippi

In a time of continued turmoil and angst about relationships between white and black Americans, here is another story that offers important insight as to why we are still today wrestling with a dilemma that began when the first slaves were offloaded from a ship and sold to white landowners. Even the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t enough to quell the hate. It just added to it. In 1951, in a small south Mississippi town, Martha Lee, a Negro woman, was with her husband, Jim Brent Durr, when he shot and killed a white law enforcement officer, a constable. She was charged with accessory to murder and spent six months in jail. Eight-and-a-half-months pregnant, she was beaten and lost the baby. Her husband was found guilty of murder and died in a portable electric chair in 1952. Martha left Mississippi after the charges against her were dropped and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she lives today surrounded by her children.