Bringing New Possibilities to the Mississippi Delta

It was working with community leaders in the Ireland Initiative that led the Mastery Foundation to Mississippi and to the development of Community Empowerment as a major area of our work. We began in Corinth, where Liz Jones, a Mississippi native and board member, was the priest of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. In the summers of 2000 and 2001 at the invitation of St. Paul's and other members of the Corinth community, we developed the two-day workshop now known as the Community Empowerment Program.

In 2001, at the invitation of the local newspaper and other members of the community, the program moved to Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta. The Mississippi Delta is a region rich in history and culture that has been in economic decline for several decades. In a state famous for ranking at or near the top of lists no one wants to be on—illiteracy, poverty, teenage pregnancy—the communities in the Delta often fare the worst.

Clarksdale, like the rest of the Delta, is an agriculture-dependent community. Its population of 20,000 is 70 percent African-American and 30 percent white. Before integration became the norm in the 1970s, there was little community cooperation or communication across racial lines, and today the citizens of Clarksdale remain largely separated. And while African-Americans now have significant political power with a majority on all governing boards except the County Board of Supervisors, they still lack economic power.

As many agricultural and manufacturing jobs have left the area, there has been a steady exodus of middle and lower-income citizens of both races leaving to find jobs elsewhere. The jobs that remain in Clarksdale are largely blue collar or manual farm labor. A small core of manufacturing also remains along with a growing health care sector. Crime, drugs, and gangs are a significant problem for all sectors of the community.

Still, the citizens of Clarksdale are a proud people who have maintained a stubborn confidence in themselves. This independent spirit is a perfect fit with the Mastery Foundation approach of empowering people in their own commitment and abilities to successfully take on and resolve their problems.

Each summer since 2002, citizens of Clarksdale and the surrounding area gather for two days at the public library to create a new conversation about and for their community. Business people, bankers, educators, community workers and volunteers make new connections with each other, consider new ideas, acquire new tools and skills, and create new possibilities for Clarksdale. And in June 2005, the conversation expands deeper into the Delta, with the first Community Empowerment Program in Greenville.

Dan Brownell, Pat Dillan, and Myrtle Gallow in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Steve Stewart, editor of the Clarksdale newspaper, talks about his experience of the program.