Founding Mound Bayou (Letter to the Editor)
With regard to the suggestion in your Oct. 26 article on Mayor Evers ("The Mayor of Fayette, Miss.") that the all-black town of Mound (not Mt.) Bayou was founded by Jefferson Davis for his former slaves: even a century ago black people did act by themselves in their own interests.
Although many of the first settlers of Mound Bayou had participated in an earlier and abortive experiment at Davis Bend on the former land of Davis's brother, Joseph, the initiative behind the founding of Mound Bayou was black, primarily the work of the black entrepreneur, Isaiah T. Montgomery.
JOSEPH A. HERZENBERG, II.
Dept. of History, Tougaloo College. Tougaloo, Miss.
(Editor's note: Joe wrote this letter to the editor in 1969, but Blogger only allows posts to be categorized as far back as 1970.)
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