Barbour’s brother, while Mayor: Blacks ‘not listenin to white people like they used to’
It just keeps getting better and better. Hard to believe Gov. Barbour could’ve been totally oblivious when his own brother was saying such things as mayor.
[…]
While mayor, Jeppie Barbour became a central figure in reporter Willie Morris’ 1971 book about the integration of Yazoo City. The book largely portrayed Barbour as a relative moderate on race.
But during one interview for the book, Barbour told Morris that he was having trouble working with the town’s biracial commission, complaining that whites could no longer appoint black commissioners of their choosing. From the book, as quoted at length by HuffPo’s Amanda Terkel:
“Maybe five years ago,” he said, “you could’ve appointed a colored man yourself. Now you simply can’t get away with it. They’re goin’ to have to pick their own leaders. You could’ve gotten on radio five years ago using these very words, ‘George Collins is this ni**er we’ve appointed,’ and could’ve gotten away with it. I guess they’re just goin’ through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin’ to white people like they used to.”[…]