The "Year of the Blues" has come and gone, and the Tommy Johnson Memorial, paid for by Ms. Bonnie Raitt, has remained on display at the Public Library, in mute testimony to the true history of Mississippi's racial nullification, failure and neglect.
The Mount Zion Memorial Fund and the family of Tommy Johnson is asking that any all groups or individuals who would like to support the effort to place Tommy Johnson's headstone on his grave and to re-open this historic cemetery please write
Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
And demand that the State of Mississippi intervene immediately to correct this moral wrong and to finally do something honorable to get right with the Blues.
Skip Henderson
Butch Ruth
For more information please contact: Skip Henderson, P.O. Box 3872, New Orleans, La. 70177 or email:
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Here is a complete list of people to contact.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, MS 39205
Phone: 601.359.3150
Fax: 601.359.3741
Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Amy Tuck
P.O. Box 1018
Jackson, MS 39215
Phone: (601)359-3200
Fax: (601)359-4054
(click on membership roster for contact information)
(click on membership roster for contact information)
Mississippi Government Homepage
Mississippi Development Authority/ Division of Tourism
Mollie Gregory
P. O. Box 849
Jackson, MS 39205
Phone 601.359.3297
Mississippi Arts Commission
Tim Hedgepeth, Executive Director
239 North Lamar Street, Suite 207
Jackson, Mississippi 39201
Phone: 601-359-6030
TDD: 800-582-2233
Fax: 601-359-6008
Mississippi Public Broadcasting
3825 Ridgewood Road
Jackson, MS 39211
(Voice) 601-432-6565
(Voice) 1-800-922-9698
(Fax) 601-432-6654
Executive Director:
Marie Antoon
Director of Content Development:
Gene Edwards
Arts and Cultural Programming:
William Fulton
News and Public Affairs:
Dick Rizzo
Radio:
Bob Holland
Source: alt.religion.orisha
MISSISSIPPI TOUTS BLUES HERITAGE BUT TAKES NO ACTION TO AID FAMILY.
Three years after The Mount Zion Memorial Fund and the family of Tommy Johnson unveiled a headstone memorial in Crystal Springs, in 2001, the 600 lb., beautifully engraved, granite slab still sits in the Crystal Springs Library, miles from the cemetery where Johnson is buried.
The Copiah County Board of Supervisors, charged by law with
maintaining the Warm Springs Methodist Cemetery because of its official historic status, has denied all access to the cemetery where dozens of African American grave sites are located, by refusing to reclaim a road which was “given” to a local farmer under dubious legal circumstances.
For the last three years the Mount Zion Memorial Fund has worked with Vera Johnson Collins, Tommy Johnson’s niece, through a series of legal roadblocks and delays and the State of Mississippi, fully aware of the situation, has done absolutely nothing.
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