One of many treasures of our archives on the Oren Dunn City Museum comes from the pen of the Dukes of Vera “Sugarmeter”. A lot of you’ll keep in mind her as a college bus driver and English instructor.

She additionally wrote a ebook, “I Am Somebody”, wherein she urged her readers to “rejuvenate, revive and rethink our priorities”.

Contained in the manuscript, she drops nuggets of knowledge. For instance, Dukes talks about good manners and his mom, who insisted on them. The rule: do not damage your hostess’ feeling by not cleansing your plate.

Dukes adopted his mother’s orders to the letter, even when a hostess positioned a plastic piece of parsley on her plate. She defined to the hostess: “… that mother advised us to eat every part on our plates, whether or not we prefer it or not.”

She additionally weaves tales in regards to the individuals who lived on “the Hill” as she referred to as it. It is a fantastic story of the individuals who made Park Hill thrive. At one level, Park Hill flourished with medical doctors’ workplaces, parks, the Elks Membership, church buildings, cafes, the George Washington Carver College, and retailers in a neighborhood of properties stuffed with households, every with its personal historical past. treasured.

Dukes took these tales from a column she wrote for the Each day Journal. The one which caught our eye featured Harry Grayson, or “Huge Harry,” as she referred to as him. Dukes remembers 1949 when she labored on the Porter grocery retailer. Her sister Valeria got here again from Lane School in Jackson, Tennessee, and introduced together with her “that brief, slim little man like a rail.” It was Harry Grayson. He had come to ask for Valeria’s hand in marriage.

Through the years, Dukes went to varsity out of state, however returned to Carver to complement his instructing wants. Harry discovered him a job there at dwelling. For the rest of the story, Harry Grayson directs Carver as director of desegregation after which turns into the primary principal of Inexperienced Road College. For 34 years, Duke’s “Huge Harry” educated kids in Tupelo. He additionally served on town’s first Biracial Committee – a motive Tupelo fared much better than different cities throughout an explosive civil rights period.

Dukes additionally writes in regards to the Nineteen Fifties, when black mother and father used US Senator Theodore Bilbo, an unrepentant fanatic, to scare their kids into “following the road.” At the moment, Park Hill had its personal eating places, the Dixie Bell Cinema, the Harlem Grill, a hangout for youngsters.

She refers to Sam Prepare dinner’s music “A Change is Gonna Come” and tells us that Palmer Foster grew to become the primary black individual to carry a management place within the Lee District of the Yocona Regional Boy Scout Council. Carver graduates migrate to schools exterior of Mississippi and many don’t return. Those that be a part of the Freedom Riders who come to Tupelo. Their mother and father worry for his or her security.

Shake Rag turns into a sufferer of city renewal and the Downtown procuring heart takes its place. “We will now not say that we stay in each part of Tupelo. All of us stay on the Hill, ”writes Dukes. “These are turbulent occasions.”

Dukes and others survived the chaos of change. She broadened her attain earlier than she died in 2015 to serve on the Downtown Tupelo Important Road Partnership, the Lee County Library Board of Trustees, and the Oren Dunn Metropolis Museum Board.

As soon as solely allowed into the Lyric Theater by way of a facet door to Church Road, Dukes later grew to become a member of the Tupelo Group Theater and carried out roles in a number of productions. In 2005, she was awarded the title of Junior Auxiliary Lady of the 12 months.

Certainly, the title of this wealthy manuscript rings true – Vera Dukes was somebody.