Read Pluto Walks the Earth, Chapter 6: Manuel Labor
Mary Lou
My Pawpaw was in the Ku Klux Klan.
This was in the 40s, understand. Different times. He wasn’t some redneck. Mercy no. He owned the biggest insurance brokerage in New Albany, Mississippi (“The Fair & Friendly City”), not too far from Tupelo, home of the King. It’s on the Tallahatchie River, 100 miles upstream of where Billy Jo McAllister jumped off the bridge. Back when Paw Paw was alive, New Albany was rural. Now its biggest sector is manufacturing. Pretty sure the next biggest is churches. Sixty of ’em! Drive along Highway 30 or County Road 126 and the crosses are like toadstools. Baptist ones, mostly.