Stone of Hope

Glendora is a small rural town located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Th e people of the towntake 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, JimCrow, and poverty, in addition to having the unfortunate experience of being the town where afourteen-year-boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered and thrown into the Black Bayouthat energized the Civil Rights Movement in America. Th is book tells a story about the struggle ofthis small town to rise above a mountain of despair that plagued the town for decades to a stoneof hope that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned in his famous I Have A Dream speech inWashington, DC, in August 1963. For the past four decades, Glendoras hope for a brighter futurehas rested in the hands of Johnny B. Th omas, who rose from the son of sharecroppers on a localplantation to the mayor of the town. When Th omas became mayor, he inherited a town that hadbeen ravaged by the eff ects of poverty, neglect, isolation, a heritage of plantation sharecroppingservitude, and a culture of racial suppression of the civil rights of African Americans. Th is bookprovides a historical account of the struggles and challenges that Mayor Th omas faced in buildingthe Emmett Till Museum to promote education about civil rights, and to promote culturaltourism to generate much needed revenue for community development in Glendora. Th is bookalso includes much information about the rich history and culture of the people of Glendora asthey continue their journey to become one of the stones of hope in the Mississippi Delta.