Day Seven

Our final morning at Camp Biloxi consisted of cleaning and packing, then we drove to Camp Coast Care to attend a church service at St. Patrick’s (Episcopal). I was really excited to come to CCC because I had friends from BREAD Camp who volunteered there earlier this summer and talked endlessly about what a great experience it was. The service was really similar to how services used to be at Resurrection where we had to look up all the readings and hymns in the books. Of the small part that we saw of CCC I especially liked all the wooden arrow signs naming different Episcopal churches whose groups had volunteered there and the number of miles away their homes are.

Then we drove to Jackson, MS. The drive wasn’t too long and it was a relief to finally be in real buildings (houses) with plumbing. Then St James’ youth minister, Heather, took us to the local country club where we got to swim and live the “high life”. It was interesting to talk to Heather about Southern culture and customs and life in Jackson and where she lived in Alabama. This was the first time that we got to speak with someone who was honest about life in this area and how it’s shaped by history. The culture shock has been pretty intense and I don’t know if any of us really know how to react. We don’t want to be disrespectful as guests in their state and at the same time it’s hard for us to understand why they have certain expectations.

Mississippi has more history than California in terms of events that have shaped the entire history of the United States and it’s such a weird feeling to be a witness to such an important part of our history as Americans.

We had an amazing dinner of truly southern cuisine and stuffed ourselves full of delicious food that hadn’t been available to us at Camp Biloxi.

Before and after dinner we had two stunning speakers, the first was Dr. Anita George who talked about growing up in “the bottoms” of Vicksburg with other blacks. Her personal story was unbelievably moving. As someone who loves history, stories like hers make the Civil Rights movement so much more real because she took action, she didn’t just wait around for someone else to end injustice. All the time she was describing her life as a young girl though her college experience, my most prominent feeling was disgust and it brought up new emotions when I put myself in her shoes and the thought constantly in my head was “for what purpose? And how can everyone just sit back and watch racism grow?”.

The Reverend King also spoke about his activism as a white priest in the Southern community. I was touched by both of their efforts to push for equality and civil rights and I’m so glad I was given the opportunbity to meet them. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly how I’m feeling currently, I guess it’s an overwhelmed emotion towards a sensative period of history.

-Claire McConnell