Founded by Freedmen, Forgotten by Textbooks: The Men Reviving Mound Bayou

MOUND BAYOU, Mississippi — On an early summer morning, Hermon Johnson Jr. walked the halls of the former band hall of the John F. Kennedy High School surrounded by archival photographs and rotating exhibits.

The historical records tell the story of Mound Bayou, Mississippi.

The small but mighty town is one of America’s first all-Black communities that centered Black political and economic advancement.

“This place deserves way more attention. We should be bringing in 10 to 15 million people per year,” Hermon said with a sense of pride as he stood in the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and Heritage, which he co-owns with his brother, the Rev. Darryl Johnson. They’ve turned a portion of the now-closed high school into a museum. 

Mound Bayou became an oasis for the Johnsons’ ancestors, who settled here between 1887 and 1900. The town had one of the earliest banks in the state built by and for Black people. By 1907, the community had 13 stores, six churches, three cotton gins, and a newspaper. They also had Black elected officials and law enforcement.

As the threat of erasing Black history looms, the Johnson brothers and other proud Mound Bayou natives are owning their stories and encouraging more residents and descendants to do the same. Through the museum and even a docuseries, these native sons want to ensure this “jewel of the Delta” thrives again. They also want Black residents to reap the financial benefits of a renewed spotlight on the town. More tourists are flocking to the area. In recent years, the town has garnered national attention because of shows like ABC’s Women of the Movement and this year’s hit film Sinners. 

“We got 27 historical markers around town. We have so much history. When you sit there and you listen to all the history that’s here in this town, it’s incredible,” Hermon reflected.

The once bustling town is now a shadow of its former self. There’s a post office, churches, a health center, town hall, and gas stations throughout the area. Although 1,500 people call Mound Bayou home today, many travel outside the town to shop for groceries and other necessities or for jobs.

Booker T. Washington once wrote that “Outside of Tuskegee, I think I can safely say there is no community in the world that I am so deeply interested in as I am in Mound Bayou.”

In the center of the main room in the museum, Hermon, 69, points out the collection that adorned the walls. Grayscale and color images are displayed on shelves, walls, and easels. The photographs feature Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green, two cousins who founded the town in 1887. They were formerly enslaved by Joseph Davis, the brother of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

“We had so much other stuff that we needed to put out that we thought that our next move would have to take this whole school to put stuff in it,” he said, referencing the building a few feet away. 

Among the images is one of Mamie Till Mobley and other witnesses at the trial of her son Emmett Till’s murderers. During the trial, the town provided refuge for Mobley. The museum also showcases a photo of the historic Taborian Hospital, which exclusively admitted Black patients at a time when other health care facilities refused them. 

It’s where civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer died. Beyond its role in civil rights history, the town also was a hot bed for blues artists. The iconic Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye was originally written here in the choir room with songwriter Ed Townsend.

When Darryl entered ninth grade, and learned he would take Mississippi history, he got excited, hoping to find one chapter in a textbook about his beloved hometown. To his disappointment, the book included only two sentences.

Even as a teenager, he questioned who is supposed to tell the history with honesty and integrity. He realized, then, no one would, and the onus would be on him. 

It has been the 66-year-old’s mission since.

“We are the most qualified to declare our history. People in Mound Bayou are most qualified to declare black history in Mississippi,” Darryl said.

The other Black Wall Street

The Johnsons aren’t the only ones bringing Mound Bayou into the spotlight.

Kahari Nash — known as the BooRay! King — is a proud native of Mound Bayou, and he makes it known wherever he goes. 

Nash, 49, is helping to preserve that history, too, in a new docuseries. The first episode of Mound Bayou: The Most Remarkable Town in the South is out now.

“Our story is their story because the American story is inclusive, not exclusive to them,” Nash said, referencing the threats to erase Black history. 

This is the time, he said, for people in the community to tell their own fuller stories.

“It’s time that Mound Bayou takes center stage,” he said.

His roots — and knowledge of the town’s history — run deep. He can trace his lineage on his maternal side going back to at least the 1930s. He still has a host of uncles, uncles and cousins that live there today.

Growing up there, he always felt a sense of pride because Black ownership and being Black was always at the forefront. His grandmother’s sister, Priscilla Anderson, later became Anderson-Smith after marrying Sir Perry Monroe Smith. The two led the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughter of Tabor, which founded the Taborian Hospital, though most records reference Perry Smith as the founding father of the hospital.

One of Nash’s fondest memories centers around Peter’s Pottery, a 27-year-old family-owned, African American pottery shop located in the small town. As a child, the mother of Pedro Woods, founder of Peter’s Pottery, babysat Nash. During that time, Woods’ nephew and Nash became friends, and even had a memorable fight over a penny, he said. Now this “famous penny” is framed inside the shop. 

“When you [ask] what Mound Bayou was like growing up, it was like that,” Nash told Capital B. “We had a lot of fun growing up. … There’s a long history between our families.”

Similar to other young adults, Nash left the town shortly after high school to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta and never looked back. Though he lives in Texas, he still visits family in Mound Bayou. 

Today, he owns KSN Gaming, where he launched BooRay!, one of the few Black-owned casino table games in the U.S. He recently hosted the second-annual celebrity BooRay! Game in Las Vegas with support from former NBA players Kendrick Perkins and Mario Chalmers. His efforts led to his induction into the Mound Bayou Hall of Fame and a resolution by the Tennessee State Legislature as a Living Legend Awards honoree.

His business acumen is a byproduct of his upbringing in Mound Bayou, but he said he feels it doesn’t get its deserved recognition for its place in history, despite it being featured in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the nation’s capital. 

It hit him in 2001 when he attended the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, where white mobs murdered Black residents and burned down the Greenwood community, a thriving Black neighborhood known as the Black Wall Street. 

As the speakers shared the greatness of Tulsa, he thought to himself, “I’m from where” Black people thrived, too, he recalled.

The Black people in Mound Bayou prospered because of cotton. It became known for having high quality cotton, and it drew in others — within and outside of Mississippi. 

At its height, “we had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the state of Mississippi. It was all because of cotton,” Darryl added.

But, the town also suffered two devastating fires that destroyed the downtown business district. Unfortunately, it never recovered. 

Placing value on our own stories

Five years ago, Hermon left his home in California — where he’s lived for about 42 years — and joined his brother back in Mound Bayou to start this venture. He worked in real estate, transportation, and as a musician touring with popular artists. Darryl became a pastor, served as mayor of Mound Bayou from 2013 to 2017, and even ran for state representative.

The two had always been entrepreneurs, opening businesses in Mound Bayou.

Darryl grew up knowing Mound Bayou’s history, and the powerful people who created the place he called home. It was reinforced by a poem he learned in the third grade, Don’t Be What You Ain’t.

Sitting in a chair near the Women of the Movement exhibit, he recited parts of it:

The sunflower ain’t the daisy,
The melon ain’t the rose.
Why is they all so crazy to be something else that grows?
Just stick to the place you planted
And be the best you know
Either be the sunflower or the daisies or the melon or the rose.

“When I’m a Black man in Mississippi in Mound Bayou, that’s who I need to be, and I need to be who I really is,” he said.

In addition to increasing exposure, Hermon pointed to the need for investment in the town and a shift in the perception that white-owned businesses are more valuable than Black-owned ones. For the town to prosper, everyone must chip in, especially because they support other businesses.

Hermon referenced I.T. Montgomery, and how he encouraged freedmen to build up the town in moments of defeat. Back in those days, when people were making their way up here and saw all the work that needed to be done — cutting down trees, clearing land — some of them started to grow weary. They’d say, “I’m going back to Vicksburg,” or wherever they had come from. And Montgomery would say to them, “If your master had told you to do all this … wouldn’t you have done it?”

That message still applies today. His question remains: Why can’t we do it for ourselves? 

“We have to say what we got is more valuable than what they say it is. And then once we place a value on it, they’re gonna have to go along with what we say,” he said. 

He added: “I can see this place — Mound Bayou, because of where it is, because it’s in the Mississippi Delta where the blues came from. It was the hub of the Civil Rights Movement. We have the potential to have more tourism in Mound Bayou than anywhere else in the state because of the value.”

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