El Segundo. James Newton
had hand water pumps outside about twenty-five or thirty yards from your shack with outhouses or out door toilets located about 50 yards from your living quarters.
We were living in hell or just west of it.
'="" src="assets/image-jpeg_dfe7144ea6c0fa8093cb0c399a80efec.jpg" the=""/>James at 11 with older brother Dennis and sister Mary Jane in sharecropper
Chapter Three
The Slough
A large share cropping family (we had twelve) would receive 100 dollars
a month. Out of that 100, we had to buy groceries. We made most if not all of our clothing by hand but had to purchase the cloth. There was no extra money, we only had one pair of shoes for the year. They were bought before winter that had to last until they were totally worn. Most of us, particularly the boys went barefooted from spring time until the beginning of winter. We all were share croppers-servants-slaves living on the Deep South Slough.
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic sub-regions in the Southern United States Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period. The Deep South was also commonly referred to as the Lower South or the Cotton States.
My uncle Vivian MCcrary, had held on to his job as a ginner. A Ginner worked the Cotton Gin which was a machine that quickly and easily separated cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are processed into clothing or other cotton goods, and any undamaged seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil and meal of the gin.
The cotton was harvested into bales of 1300 lbs, but the gin still had to separate the cotton from the seed, and take all of the trash, leaves or anything from the pure white cotton. Uncle Vivian McCrary was a professional ginner. He lived separate and free from the cotton share cropping community.
He lived at the first house on ravine that ran through our community called the Slough. The Slough is defined as a swampy and a stagnant area of water connected to a larger body of water such as a marsh, inlet, bayou, or backwater. Ironically, a Slough is also defined as a situation characterized by a lack of progress. Both were appropriate in describing our lives there in Mississippi.
Our Slough ravine of stinky nasty water ran for miles.. During the hot summer months, it was especially heinous. Every shack for miles that lived on either side of the Slough suffered. We suffered through our living conditions, and a share croppers-servants and slaves we suffered at the hands of the Big Man- Masters- Owners.
They would always beat you out of your earnings, cheating you out any and everything you were due. Heartlessly, they would steal your sole if you let them; but we had The Secret.
William Brian Newton the father on porch with little sister Peggy at age of 4.
Chapter Four
The Leprous
Four leprous men, dying on the out side of the walls said, “why should we sit here until we die? Let us get up and move and walk toward the enemy, we have nothing to lose. So what if they kill us. We are dying any way.”
These men got off of their sick bottoms and moved. They stumbled along with their gait resembling weary wounded soldiers that had walked a thousand miles to get back home.
In the case of these leprous men, God caused the enemy to hear the hoofs of thousands of men and horses. So the enemy got out of their beds and abandoned their posts leaving millions of dollars of booty behind. The four leprous lifeless men were the only ones left to enjoy these riches. But these men said, “We must go back and share this loot with those that put us out and counted us out”. These four leprous men saved a Nation, only because, God used them and made them look greater than they appeared. He used them as a secret weapon against oppression.
Yet year after year like the slavery system of “Old South’s past and the sanction apartheid policies of South Africa, both poor white and black were helplessly deprived of social acceptance in our little town of Sumner. We were like the leprous. We skirted around the outer circle of our little town. Sumner was a little town of about five stores, which encircled the county Court house at the town center which embodied the seat of power.
We were not part or privy to that power.
Sumner had less than one hundred and seventy five houses which were mostly the affluent white land owners. Of course, there were no blacks except for “The Help”, who were kept there as servants to do menial work such as house cleaning and child care in these Southern traditional homes.
Racism and economic segregation was part of the social fabric and ideology in our day to day ongoings especially in the Towns, Counties, States and Regions of the Deep South.
King Cotton ruled the day in every way even the legislative court system. Everybody suffered under its whip both whites and blacks who tolled under this terror were called “White Trash and Niggers”. Fueled by the hate of the K.K.K. that controlled the State Highway Patrol there was no way out of Mississippi as a practical matter as well as an economic matter.
But not everyone was a bigot and racist, there were a substantial number of white people who were loving, compassionate and even helpful towards the socially isolated and deprived black and white share croppers. Why? The reason is simple many of the compassionate and conscientious had white relatives trapped with in this economic and political system of apartheid. Cotton picker who were aunts, uncles and sometimes brothers and sister would provide “love” offerings and unofficial system of aid to their relatives who would in turn share their booty with their black brothers and sister because poor didn’t know no color.
With very little industry outside of cotton, Cotton became the life blood of the south with money flowing like wine with all the luxuries enriching our corrupt society.
History tells us, that wicked tyrannical systems eventually fall. But, it was difficult to see how anything would change for me and my family.
Fortunately, the Newton Family had a secret which all stemmed from the “Holy Roller Brush Arbor”. The sawdust floor worship place made by tree limbs, and covered by tree brush with no electric lighting and pot belled stove for heating had instilled a will to walk with faith through the hard times and the darkness. Our secret steeled and prepared us not only to cultivated our share chop, but cultivated our plans to escape from our fallen condition, the secret of the “Holy Roller Brush Arbor” was to be our salvation, our gift from our leprosy.
Overseer in hat supervising the Newtons and their adopted "black" brother Snow Kirk weighing Cotton.
Chapter Five
The Love, the Laughter and the Plan
The winter months were bitter and sweet. December to March, school was out for us share croppers. Consequently, we had more time on our hands and a bit more liberty.
Daddy kept the meat slaughter house going, so there was plenty of food. We also had the luxury of having enough shoes and clothing. Normally, we had to go barefooted from March until the next winter.
It was an unwritten law for the share cropper. Hardships were expected. Especially when you have a 15 person family to clothe that included 12 kids, Mom, Dad, and Snow Kirk, our adopted brother from another mother. But right now, it