The McComb racial and political situation is still receiving a lot of media exposure these days. Throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, people want to know the latest about McComb. Reporters, Internet bloggers and anyone else who just want to become more informed. I wouldn’t be surprised if pretty soon, CNN and other national television outlets started investigating what all the fuss is about in McComb.

Our newspaper has been covering this on going saga since our inception nearly two years ago. Some radio talk shows and television news stations in Mississippi and Louisiana have been covering news items related to what some are calling (and I agree with them) the battle between good and evil, that is, the new South (the good) vs. the old South (the evil) in McComb.

Now, after the major article written by the Jackson Free Press, a newspaper based in Jackson, about the “Muddy mix of race and politics” in McComb, more people have become aware of what is going on. Instead of getting their information from just one point of view, readers were able to see both sides of the situation with out the reporting bias and political spend that has dominated McComb politics and race relations in the past.

So, thanks to the faithful reporting of the Mississippi Tribune and unbiased reporting of the Jackson Free Press, people on the outside (outside of McComb; people from all over the state and throughout the nation) are beginning to see what is really going on in McComb.

And, that’s good. Everybody needs to hear and see about it. Because, I believe it will lead to some support and mobilization by others to hold the wrong doers accountable and stop the illegal and crazy actions of those four selectmen (Danny Each, E.C. Nobles, Wade Lamb, and Robert Maddox), as well as, the covert activities of the others behind the scene who have been trying to undermine this current mayoral administration and deprive the people of our inherent right to govern.

What I am saying is, Black people had to fight for the right to vote in McComb. Many white people helped us in that fight. Many people suffered during the 50’s and 60’s for that right. Some people paid the price with loss of property and personal injury or with their lives. Thanks to their efforts we have the right to vote and elect anyone that we choose to govern us.

But here in 2009 Blacks do not have the right to govern. What good is our vote if we still don’t get the right to govern when we are the ones elected to govern McComb?

Blacks and whites and so many more people voted President Obama into a position where he could govern this country with the same authority and power as all of his previous predecessors who were all white men. If a majority white congress voted to change the constitution and illegally removed most of the authority and power of the first Black U.S. president, the whole world would be in an uproar.

But, that is exactly what has happened here in McComb. Esch, Nobles, Lamb and Maddox presented and approved amendments to the city charter that violate the law in several ways, including the separation of power and the legal process of changing the city’s constitution.

Mayor Patterson has stated that attorney Norman Gillis is the ring leader of the group of people behind the stripping of his power and the control of city government by a “shadow government” of the “good-ole-boy” network. I agree.

I believe that Gillis has been pulling the string of his “puppet”, selectman Nobles, a Black city councilman who has clearly lost his way. One resident has reported that Nobles told him directly that the Mayor had hurt his family and that he was going to do everything in his power to stop the mayor. I have talked to a few of Nobles family members, and they confirmed that Nobles really feels this way about Mayor Patterson and some of them feel the same way and support Nobles.

They, these are Black people I am talking about, don’t want anyone to support the mayor and they refuse to recognize any of the tremendous amount of and exceptional good that the mayor and his administration have accomplished.

All personal stuff. And, Gillis has taken advantage of this personal situation. Gillis and his white friends could not continue to control McComb’s city government after the election of Zach Patterson as mayor in 2006, because Patterson was not going to allow Gillis or any other of the good-ole-boys to tell him what to do and how to govern McComb as mayor.

Unlike Nobles, he was not going to allow himself to be used like a puppet. Gillis and others are using Nobles as the front man. He is the Black guy who is opposed to the mayor. He is the one who challenges the mayor, not the white ones. They lay in the bushes hiding while Nobles does all of their dirty work. And it can’t be about race, because Nobles is Black and Mayor Patterson is Black...right? That’s exactly what they want everyone to believe. That it is not about race, it’s just infighting among Black people. It’s the mayor over stepping his limits. But we know better than that!!!!

This is the same crap that white people used in the 60’s to try and stop Blacks from making progress and gaining full access to all of the good things that whites were already enjoying. Control of the money. The best jobs. The best schools. The best housing and the best neighborhoods. Full access to government, government officials and government money. White people in McComb have always had this privilege.

But, when Blacks said ENOUGH! Let’s be fair, white people like Gillis would look for and find puppets like Nobles who have no problem with selling out their own people. They use Black against Black, controlling the Black person who attacking the Black leader who is trying to help Black people. That is who Nobles is. A puppet.

Don’t believe me, then listen to Gillis and Nobles talking about each other. From the Jackson Free Press article “Shades of Gray”:

Gillis told me “I thought he’d (Patterson) make a hell of a senator when he first ran for office, but he proved he’s actually on the verge of dangerous”.

Now that is exactly the same thing that the white people during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, would say in Mississippi, including McComb, about Black leaders who attempted to change and motivate people to get involve with changing the way things were at that time. White control and domination and oppression. Yes, Black people were oppressed in those days. We couldn’t challenged white people or the white way. Even white people who knew that the Jim Crow system was wrong and the treatment of Blacks were wrong, mostly kept quiet and did little or nothing about it.

Not until the “dangerous” Black leaders came to promote change. Gillis is behaving like those white racists of the 60’s who want to control government and their negroes. That is what is doing with the help of his puppet, Nobles.

“Gillis opinion can weigh heavily in McComb. Selectman E.C. Nobles, the one Black selectman to side against the mayor, called him (Gillis) ‘the J.R. Ewing of McComb,’ referring to the rapacious oil baron from TV’s ‘Dallas...’” according to the article. “And now the mayor’s chief opponent is a Black guy, E.C. Nobles,” he (Gillis) added.

There it is! By saying that the mayor’s chief opponent is Black, Gillis is using Nobles to take everyone’s eyes off him and his white counterparts and keep everyone thinking that it is not about race. Some people just can’t stand Black people being in control or being successful.

I believe that Nobles statement that Gillis was the “J.R. Ewing of McComb” reveals his mental and social deficiency. On that television show, J.R. controlled and ran the community from his home that was a former plantation. Before J.R. was shot, all of the characters on that show were Black, except the chauffeur. J.R. was not an elected official, but he ran everything.

That sounds a lot like Gillis and Nobles. Gillis is like J.R. and Nobles is like his chauffeur. Indeed, to me, Nobles spoke as if he is admitting that Gillis is running a plantation in McComb. This is Gillis plantation!

White people control. But it’s time for all of that to change. Let Black people get the leases. Yes, those 50 year and 99 year leases that were given to white people and white organizations to use and control at a time when Blacks were considered 2nd class citizens. Let Black people use the sports park instead of run down MLK Gym that Nobles led the charge to reverse an approved bond issue that would have repaired that gym, streets and a whole lot more in the Black community. Let Black people use Edgewood Park as freely an openly as white people do.

I believe that we are having a lot of the problems, not because of the mayor’s personality and thirst for power, as some of them would say, but because the mayor will not be Gillis’ chauffeur. Patterson is trying to lead people away from that plantation mentality. And a lot of people are upset about that.

That’s why they stripped him of his powers. That’s why they got rid of former city administrator Jim Storer. That’s why they forced Fire Chief Jean Frye and interim city administrator Jackie Martin to leave their city positions. And all of the other casualties of this power struggle.

Tasha Dillon who has done nothing wrong except being appointed and supported by the first Black Mayor in the history of McComb. She and her department have been unfairly attacked and funding shutdown. Mary Adams and Mark Anderson. Editor Jack Ryan’s Enterprise-Journal said in a recent editorial that Adams and Anderson were casualties in this political battle at city hall. The editorial said that they picked the wrong side. But, I have one question: When is doing right or standing for what is right being on the wrong side?

To be continued...