Mississippi Today
What is Bob Hickingbottom up to?
What is Bob Hickingbottom up to?
Bob Hickingbottom, a little-known Democrat running for governor in 2023, posted a soon-to-be viral message to his campaign Facebook page on Feb. 17 around 3 p.m.
“… I hope you will join me and vote for the Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ticket. With the exception of my good friend Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who has to run as a Republican to win. Delbert is really a Democrat and has been our friend through the years. We all need to do everything we can for him,” Hickingbottom wrote to his 400 or so page followers.
A few minutes later, at 3:34 p.m., Hosemann’s GOP opponent in the August primary for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, posted a screenshot of that Hickingbottom post onto his own page with the post: “There you have it. Democrats Love Delbert! #DelbertTheDemocrat.”
McDaniel is the far-right conservative who developed a national brand and following in 2014 when he nearly defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In that 2014 race, McDaniel ran what is considered the first Mississippi campaign to realize the full political power of social media. He has since sharpened that skillset and has hundreds of thousands of followers of like-minded, fired-up conservatives across the state and nation.
After McDaniel posted the Hickingbottom screenshot, his social media machine got to work. Several right-leaning and pro-McDaniel Facebook groups and users begin reposting it with the hashtag #DelbertTheDemocrat. Many of these other accounts have ridden McDaniel’s coattails in the development of their own brands and social media followings.
That evening, though, several Facebook users posted a different version of the Hickingbottom screenshot that spread quickly through Mississippi’s far-right conservative online spaces. This separate version of the Hickingbottom screenshot clearly showed something peculiar under the post: “Posted by Ashley Rae Bright.”
Social media savants know that those words being listed there indicates that a woman named Ashley Rae Bright is the “Elect Bob Hickingbottom” Facebook page administrator. In political campaigns, Facebook administrator duties are typically reserved for staffers of a campaign. It’s a delicate and important power to wield, and campaigns, in particular, are very careful about who gets granted that access.
A quick Google search of Ashley Rae Bright shows that she is a consultant for The Allain Group, a Jackson-based political consulting company “offering strong strategic and creative expertise to political campaigns and business clients.”
The president of The Allain Group is Lane “L.C.” Murray, a longtime Mississippi political operative. Murray, a self-admitted former member of the Ku Klux Klan, became a controversial player in the 2014 Senate race between McDaniel and Cochran.
Murray told Breitbart News during the 2014 race that he was a McDaniel supporter after Murray threatened a Republican state senator by phone. His former membership to the KKK was a focus of the Breitbart piece.
Mississippi Today contacted Murray last week to ask if The Allain Group was working for Hickingbottom’s campaign in any way.
“The Allain Group hasn’t been hired by him,” Murray told Mississippi Today in a phone interview. “I do know Mr. Hickingbottom, he’s a better friend than anything else. I haven’t talked to him in a while. I know he’s had COVID and he recently got kicked off the Democratic ballot. But no, Hickingbottom has not contacted The Allain Group, and we are not doing anything for him.”
Asked why Bright, an employee of The Allain Group, appeared to be an administrator of the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page, Murray deflected.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Murray said. “She works some part time for us, uh, back and forth. I remember her saying something about her computer being hacked or something like that. She was raising hell one day about her Facebook had been hacked. But I’m going to talk to her in the next hour or so, and I’ll call you back and tell you what I find out.”
Murray hung up and called back later that day with an update.
“She does not know Bob Hickingbottom,” Murray said of Bright. “She said somebody hacked her computer, something about someone posting something to his campaign page. She reported it. A day or two later somebody hacked it with something else. I don’t know too much about computers. But like I said, I do know him, but we’re not doing any work for him at all.”
Mississippi Today reached out to Bright directly on Facebook and asked if she was working for the Hickingbottom campaign.
“Sir, I do not know the gentleman,” Bright wrote in a message. “My Facebook was hacked a couple times several weeks ago.”
When Mississippi Today sent Bright a screenshot that showed her as the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page administrator, Bright replied: “I seen that post as well, changed password and all. I don’t know him so therefore I can’t help you.”
When Mississippi Today then asked why a hacker would make her an administrator of Hickingbottom campaign’s Facebook page to post a political message, she doubled down on her denial of any work with Hickingbottom.
“Sir, I told you I do not know the gentleman,” Bright replied. “I do not know how that showed up on my Facebook. I’ve answered your questions. Now please leave me alone!”
Bright and Hickingbottom are friends on Facebook. Mississippi Today did not get the chance to ask Bright about why she is Facebook friends with someone she purportedly does not know before she declined to speak further.
Hickingbottom, 75, has been involved in Mississippi politics for decades. He broke through working as a political operative for scandal-ridden former Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. Speaking on popular conservative radio host Kim Wade’s show in 2007, Hickingbottom put his career this way: “I’ve been at the forefront of every dirty deal that was cut in politics.”
In 2019, Hickingbottom ran for governor as a Constitution Party candidate, using his limited platform to blister Democratic nominee Jim Hood, who came within six points of defeating now-Gov. Tate Reeves. In public Facebook posts during that race, Hickingbottom rarely turned his ire toward Reeves.
And most recently, Hickingbottom has been the subject of broad statewide news coverage after he and another candidate for governor were disqualified from the 2023 Democratic ballot. State Democratic Party officials say he was disqualified for not filing a statement of economic interest, a required form where candidates publicly disclose their personal business interests, and required campaign finance reports when he ran for governor in 2019. Since his disqualification, Hickingbottom has publicly panned Democratic Party leadership and has even threatened a lawsuit.
In a Mississippi Today interview with Hickingbottom last week, he said he thought it was “unconscionable” that the Democratic Party would disqualify two Black men in a primary against Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is white and widely regarded as the party’s frontrunner.
But later in the interview, talking about his political background, Hickingbottom said: “I’m pretty conservative myself, to tell you the truth. I’m honestly too conservative for the Democrats probably.”
“I’ll put it to you this way, I’m a political operative,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ll work with whoever hires me, Democrat or Republican or whoever.”
Mississippi Today asked Hickingbottom in the interview about the controversial Facebook post about Hosemann and the apparent ties to The Allain Group.
Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today that he published the Facebook post himself. Asked why Bright was listed as his Facebook page administrator who posted it, he got weird.
“I don’t, well, I don’t know an Ashley Bright. I don’t know who she is” Hickingbottom said before abruptly changing the subject.
When Mississippi Today circled back about why Bright showed up as the administrator of his campaign Facebook page, Hickingbottom paused.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m an old guy and I didn’t even know anything about computers,” he said. “… I know how to do email and put stuff on Facebook, and I learned that basically through my telephone. All I can tell you is I don’t know her, I’ve never met her. Maybe she got hacked. All I use Facebook on is my phone. My phone has been hacked many times. I’ve had a reputation — let’s just put it like this, I was a flamethrower … I have a lot of enemies.”
He said several times during the interview that he believes Hosemann, a successful politician who has won four statewide elections as a Republican, is a Democrat. Hickingbottom said that he did not intend to hurt Hosemann nor help McDaniel.
“In 2014, I was on the air with other people talking against Chris McDaniel,” Hickingbottom said. “He was Tea Party, trying to do Thad (Cochran) in. We were talking about him real bad. A lot of people asked us to rip Chris McDaniel and get people to vote for Thad Cochran.”
Asked if he’d in any way solicited the help of The Allain Group to work on his campaign, Hickingbottom said he hadn’t. But he did acknowledge he knew Murray, the president of the consulting firm.
“I’ve known Lane Murray, he’s a fixture in politics,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ve been an operative myself for years and years. I know Lane Murray, Greg Brand, and to some extent they know me. But I haven’t seen him in two or three years at least. Since probably the end of 2020. I know him, but that’s the extent of it.”
Greg Brand, whom Hickingbottom mentioned unprompted, is another Mississippi political operative with a troubled past.
In 2016, then-Secretary of State Hosemann pushed then-Attorney General Jim Hood to pursue charges against Brand for violating election law — specifically for mailing attack ads without identifying the group or individual who sent it. Brand and another operative were sentenced to six months probation and a $500 fine. Brand briefly tried to sue Hosemann in federal court over the episode, but that lawsuit was dismissed.
There’s yet another strange tie between Hickingbottom and The Allain Group: they are immediate neighbors in the same Jackson office building, according to Mississippi Secretary of State records.
Hickingbottom, who owns a company called “Blackstone Distributors LLC,” lists his business address at 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 232, Jackson, MS 39216. The office for The Allain Group is 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 222, Jackson, MS 39216. The suites are directly next to one another on the second floor of the office building.
Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today he had a small office space at that address “a couple years ago, but I was wasting money by paying for it so I moved out.”
Murray repeated something similar.
“I’ve been in that office for four or five years,” Murray said of the office. “He had an office close to mine, a little one room thing. I might have seen him once or twice, but I don’t think he’s been in there for two or three years.”
Both Murray and Hickingbottom denied any coordinated effort to help McDaniel’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Hickingbottom continues posting incendiary Facebook posts about Hosemann. And McDaniel and his far-right social media circles keep using Hickingbottom’s posts to campaign directly against Hosemann. The strategy appears thorough and coordinated, and it has continued for weeks.
Radio host Kim Wade, a longtime and active public supporter of McDaniel, again had Hickingbottom on his show on Feb. 21 — just four days after Hickingbottom’s controversial Facebook post.
When Hickingbottom reiterated on the show that Hosemann was a Democrat, Wade replied: “Wow. There is some validity to what you’re saying given how he treated President Trump and how he treats conservatives. We can ignore it at our own peril.”
A clip of that radio show made its rounds on McDaniel’s social media.
“A MUST LISTEN,” McDaniel’s 2014 campaign manager and current state Sen. Melanie Sojourner posted to her Facebook page with a clip to the Wade interview.
McDaniel posted the same radio clip to his own Facebook page with similar language to Sojourner’s post: “BREAKING: This is a MUST LISTEN. Democrat candidate for Governor discusses Delbert Hosemann: ‘He’s a Democrat.’”
Others in right-wing media have been singing the same tune. Jim Cegielski, publisher of the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper and a longtime McDaniel lackey, wrote a column about Hickingbottom’s shock claim with the headline: “Delbert’s a Democrat … Bet your Hickingbottom dollar on it.”
McDaniel posted that column to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers multiple times. In all, McDaniel has posted at least 10 separate posts to his social media pages boosting Hickingbottom’s words and using them to paint Hosemann as a Democrat.
“BREAKING NEWS: Delbert Hosemann gets a huge endorsement this week,” McDaniel posted on Feb. 23. “You are not going to believe it! We’ve always known Democrats love Delbert Hosemann behind the scenes, but now they are becoming public in their support. A Democrat candidate for Governor, Bob Hickingbottom, publicly endorsed Delbert Hosemann this week!”
That long post from McDaniel went on to mention the Kim Wade radio interview, closing the post by writing: “Perhaps Bob Hickingbottom did say it best — Delbert is the best Lt. Governor that Democrats could possibly have in Mississippi. It’s time for a change, Mississippi.”
Hickingbottom, for his part, keeps on posting, even after Mississippi Today questioned him about his posts.
On March 7, Hickingbottom posted a letter he says he sent to Hosemann.
“To my fellow Mississippian and friend Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann,” Hickingbottom’s letter begins, “I have been told that I may have hurt you and your re-election campaign for Lt. Governor. I sincerely hope that is not true because that was not my intention. If you recall, I first met you many years ago when I was introduced to you by our mutual friend Louis Armstrong. In those days we were all proud Democrats like most of Mississippi at the time.”
On March 9, Hickingbottom posted a rambling, all-caps post that reiterates he never meant to hurt “Lt. Gov. Delbert Horseman (sic).”
On March 12, Hickingbottom posted a criticism of Hosemann for his work to change the Mississippi state flag in 2020, retiring the state’s last-in-American Confederate battle emblem design to a museum. That is a pirated talking point from many of McDaniel’s supporters.
Asked for comment, the Hosemann campaign appeared to be following the sequence of Hickingbottom events closely.
“This scheme was concocted to create a false narrative to support a losing campaign,” said Casey Phillips, senior adviser for the Delbert Hosemann campaign. “Why else would a former Klansman and known McDaniel supporter be running this person’s Facebook page? Before we know it, they will all be locked up in a courthouse again.”
Phillips said Hosemann does not Hickingbottom, and that Hosemann has never received any letter from Hickingbottom — including that strange March 7 letter posted to Facebook.
The courthouse reference, of course, harkens back to the 2014 U.S. Senate race, when a McDaniel campaign staffer and two McDaniel supporters were found locked in the Hinds County Courthouse late on election night — one of just many shocking wrinkles of that wild race.
McDaniel’s campaign denied working with or communicating with Hickingbottom’s campaign and said that Murray is not working for the campaign.
“Unequivocally, neither Senator McDaniel nor any member of his campaign apparatus are communicating with, coordinating alongside, nor focusing on Bob Hickingbottom’s candidacy,” said Nicole Tardif, spokesperson for McDaniel’s campaign.
Murray, who told Mississippi Today last week he was not working with McDaniel, apparently fashions himself as working behind the scenes for the conservative state senator.
With the past week, Murray sent text messages to several people across the state. One person, granted anonymity over fear of retribution from the Ku Klux Klan, shared the Murray text with Mississippi Today. The message’s focus: “Delbert the Democrat.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Ties that bind, not lines that divide, at the heart of “Little Women” are what make Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel such an enduring classic. More than a century and a half since its 1868 publication, the March sisters’ coming-of-age tale continues to resonate in fresh approaches, say cast and crew in a musical version opening this week at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Little Women, The Broadway Musical” adds songs to Alcott’s story of the four distinct March sisters — traditional, lovely Meg, spirited tomboy and writer Jo, quiet and gentle Beth, and artistic, pampered Amy. They are growing into young women under the watchful eye of mother Marmee as their father serves as an Army chaplain in the Civil War. “Little Women, The Broadway Musical” performances run March 25 through April 6 at New Stage Theatre.
In a serendipitous move, the production coincides with Women’s History Month in March, and has a female director at the helm — Malaika Quarterman, in her New Stage Theatre directing debut. Logistics and scheduling preferences landed the musical in March, to catch school matinees with the American classic.
The novel has inspired myriad adaptations in film, TV, stage and opera, plus literary retellings by other authors. This musical version debuted on Broadway in 2005, with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book (script) by Allan Knee.
“The music in this show brings out the heart of the characters in a way that a movie or a straight play, or even the book, can’t do,” said Cameron Vipperman, whose play-within-a-play role helps illustrate the writer Jo’s growth in the story. She read the book at age 10, and now embraces how the musical dramatizes, speeds up and reconstructs the timeline for more interest and engagement.
“What a great way to introduce kids that haven’t read the book,” director Quarterman said, hitting the highlights and sending them to the pages for a deeper dive on characters they fell in love with over the two-and-a-half-hour run time.
Joy, familial warmth, love, courage, loss, grief and resilience are all threads in a story that has captivated generations and continues to find new audiences and fresh acclaim (the 2019 film adaptation by Greta Gerwig earned six Academy Award nominations).
In current contentious times, when diversity, equity and inclusion programs are being ripped out or rolled back, the poignant, women-centered narrative maintains a power to reach deep and unite.
“Stories where females support each other, instead of rip each other apart to get to the finish line — which would be the goal of getting the man or something — are very few and far between sometimes,” Quarterman said. “It’s so special because it was written so long ago, with the writer being such a strong dreamer, and dreaming big for women.
“For us to actualize it, where a female artistic producer chooses this show and believes in a brand new female director and then this person gets to empower these great, local, awesome artists — It’s just really been special to see this story and its impact ripple through generations of dreamers.” For Quarterman, a 14-year drama teacher with Jackson Public Schools active in community theater and professional regional theater, “To be able to tell this story here, for New Stage, is pretty epic for me.”
Alcott’s story is often a touchstone for young girls, and this cast of grown women finds much in the source material that they still hold dear, and that resonates in new ways.
“I relate to Jo more than any other fictional character that exists,” Kristina Swearingen said of her character, the central figure Jo March. “At different parts of my life, I have related to her in different parts of hers.”
The Alabama native, more recently of New York, recalled her “energetic, crazy, running-around-having-a-grand-old-time” youth in high school and college, then a career-driven purpose that led her, like Jo, to move to New York.
Swearingen first did this show in college, before the loss of grandparents and a major move. Now, “I know what it’s like to grieve the loss of a loved one, and to live so far away from home, and wanting to go home and be with your family but also wanting to be in a place where your career can take off. .. It hits a lot closer to home.”
As one of four sisters in real life, Frannie Dean of Flora draws on a wealth of memories in playing Beth — including her own family position as next to the youngest of the girls. She and siblings read the story together in their homeschooled childhood, assigning each other roles.
“Omigosh, this is my life,” she said, chuckling. “We would play pretend all day. … ‘Little Women’ is really sweet in that aspect, to really be able to carry my own experience with my family and bring it into the show. … It’s timeless in its nature, its warmth and what it brings to people.”
Jennifer Smith of Clinton, as March family matriarch Marmee, found her way in through a song. First introduced to Marmee’s song “Here Alone” a decade ago when starting voice lessons as an adult, she made it her own. “It became an audition piece for me. It became a dream role for me. It’s been pivotal in opening up doors for me.”
She relishes aging into this role, countering a common fear of women in the entertainment field that they may “age out” of desirable parts. “It’s just a full-circle moment for me, and I’m grateful for it.”
Quarterman fell in love with the 1969 film version she watched with her sister when they were little, adoring the family’s playfulness and stability. Amid teenage angst, she identified with the inevitable growth and change that came with siblings growing up and moving on. Being a mom brings a whole different lens.
“Seeing these little people in your life just growing up, being their own unique versions, all going through their own arc — it’s just fun, and I think that’s why you can stay connected” to the story at any life juncture, she said.
Cast member Slade Haney pointed out the rarity of a story set on a Northeastern homestead during the Civil War.
“You’re getting to see what it was like for the women whose husbands were away at war — how moms struggled, how sisters struggled. You had to make your own means. … I think both men and women can see themselves in these characters, in wanting to be independent like Jo, or like Amy wanting to have something of value that belongs to you and not just just feel like you’re passed over all the time, and Meg, to be valuable to someone else, and in Beth, for everyone to be happy and content and love each other,” Haney said.
New Stage Theatre Artistic Director Francine Reynolds drew attention, too, to the rarity of an American classic for the stage offering an abundance of women’s roles that can showcase Jackson metro’s talent pool. “We just always have so many great women,” she said, and classics — “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Death of a Salesman,” for instance — often offer fewer parts for them, though contemporary dramas are more balanced.
Reynolds sees value in the musical’s timing and storyline. “Of course, we need to celebrate the contributions of women. This was a woman who was trying to be a writer in 1865, ’66, ’67. That’s, to me, a real trailblazing thing.
“It is important to show, this was a real person — Louisa May Alcott, personified as Jo. It’s important to hold these people up as role models for other young girls, to show that you can do this, too. You can dream your dream. You can strive to break boundaries.”
It is a key reminder of advancements that may be threatened. “We’ve made such strides,” Reynolds said, “and had so many great programs to open doors for people, that I feel like those doors are going to start closing, just because of things you are allowed to say and things you aren’t allowed.”
For tickets, $50 (discounts for seniors, students, military), visit www.newstagetheatre.com or the New Stage Theatre box office, or call 601-948-3533.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Tracy Harden stood outside her Chuck’s Dairy Bar in Rolling Fork, teary eyed, remembering not the EF-4 tornado that nearly wiped the town off the map two years before. Instead, she became emotional, “even after all this time,” she said, thinking of the overwhelming help people who’d come from all over selflessly offered.
“We’re back now, she said, smiling. “People have been so kind.”
“I stepped out of that cooler two years ago and saw everything, and I mean, everything was just… gone,” she said, her voice trailing off. “My God, I thought. What are we going to do now? But people came and were so giving. It’s remarkable, and such a blessing.”
“And to have another one come on almost the exact date the first came,” she said, shaking her head. “I got word from these young storm chasers I’d met. He told me they were tracking this one, and it looked like it was coming straight for us in Rolling Fork.”
“I got up and went outside.”
“And there it was!”
“I cannot tell you what went through me seeing that tornado form in the sky.”
The tornado that touched down in Rolling Fork last Sunday did minimal damage and claimed no lives.
Horns honk as people travel along U.S. 61. Harden smiles and waves.
She heads back into her restaurant after chatting with friends to resume grill duties as people, some local, some just passing through town, line up for burgers and ice cream treats.
Rolling Fork is mending, slowly. Although there is evidence of some rebuilding such as new homes under construction, many buildings like the library and post office remain boarded up and closed. A brutal reminder of that fateful evening two years ago.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
George Foreman, surely one of the world’s most intriguing and transformative sports figures of the 20th century, died over the weekend at the age of 76. Please indulge me a few memories.
This was back when professional boxing was in its heyday. Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion of the world for a second time. The lower weight divisions featured such skilled champions and future champs as Alex Arugello, Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Tommy “Hit Man” Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard.
Boxing was front page news all over the globe. Indeed, Ali was said to be the most famous person in the world and had stunned the boxing world by stopping the previously undefeated Foreman in an eighth round knockout in Kinshasa, Zaire, in October of 1974. Foreman, once an Olympic gold medalist at age 19, had won his previous 40 professional fights and few had lasted past the second round. Big George, as he was known, packed a fearsome punch.
My dealings with Foreman began in January of 1977, roughly 27 months after his Ali debacle with Foreman in the middle of a boxing comeback. At the time, I was the sports editor of my hometown newspaper in Hattiesburg when the news came that Foreman was going to fight a Puerto Rican professional named Pedro Agosto in Pensacola, just three hours away.
Right away, I applied for press credentials and was rewarded with a ringside seats at the Pensacola Civic Center. I thought I was going to cover a boxing match. It turned out more like an execution.
The mismatch was evident from the pre-fight introductions. Foreman towered over the 5-foot, 11-inch Agosto. Foreman had muscles on top of muscles, Agosto not so much. When they announced Agosto weighed 205 pounds, the New York sports writer next to me wise-cracked, “Yeah, well what is he going to weigh without his head?”
It looked entirely possible we might learn.
Foreman toyed with the smaller man for three rounds, almost like a full-grown German shepherd dealing with a tiny, yapping Shih Tzu. By the fourth round, Big George had tired of the yapping. With punches that landed like claps of thunder, Foreman knocked Agosto down three times. Twice, Agosto struggled to his feet after the referee counted to nine. Nearly half a century later I have no idea why Agosto got up. Nobody present– or the national TV audience – would have blamed him for playing possum. But, no, he got up the second time and stumbled over into the corner of the ring right in front of me. And that’s where he was when Foreman hit him with an evil right uppercut to the jaw that lifted the smaller man a foot off the canvas and sprayed me and everyone in the vicinity with Agosto’s blood, sweat and snot – thankfully, no brains. That’s when the ref ended it.
It remains the only time in my sports writing career I had to buy a T-shirt at the event to wear home.
So, now, let’s move ahead 18 years to July of 1995. Foreman had long since completed his comeback by winning back the heavyweight championship. He had become a preacher. He also had become a pitch man for a an indoor grill that bore his name and would sell more than 100 million units. He was a millionaire many times over. He made far more for hawking that grill than he ever made as a fighter. He had become a beloved figure, known for his warm smile and his soothing voice. And now he was coming to Jackson to sign his biography. His publishing company called my office to ask if I’d like an interview. I said I surely would.
One day at the office, I answered my phone and the familiar voice on the other end said, “This is George Foreman and I heard you wanted to talk to me.”
I told him I wanted to talk to him about his book but first I wanted to tell him he owed me a shirt.
“A shirt?” he said. “How’s that?”
I asked him if remembered a guy named Pedro Agosto. He said he did. “Man, I really hit that poor guy,” he said.
I thought you had killed him, I said, and I then told him about all the blood and snot that ruined my shirt.
“Man, I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I’d never hit a guy like that now. I was an angry, angry man back then.”
We had a nice conversation. He told me about finding his Lord. He told me about his 12 children, including five boys, all of whom he named George.
I asked him why he would give five boys the same name.
“I never met my father until late in his life,” Big George told me. “My father never gave me nothing. So I decided I was going to give all my boys something to remember me by. I gave them all my name.”
Yes, and he named one of his girls Georgette.
We did get around to talking about his book, and you will not be surprised by its title: “By George.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
://mississippitoday.org”>Mississippi Today.
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