It's Canton Mayor Dr. William Truly. 'Nuff said. The Madison County Journal reports:
A colorful mural planned for downtown and designed to bring people together has instead split the town.
Joy Dodson, director of Keep Canton Beautiful, said it began a year ago when she was looking at painting a mural somewhere in town and decided on West Peace Street in a section known as The Hollow near where some of the movie “A Time to Kill” was filmed.
“I started doing research on murals in general,” she said. “Murals have improved economic development, they’ve improved foot traffic, they’ve improved community pride, and they’ve even decreased crime.”
Dodson said she wanted to do an interactive mural similar to ones found in larger cities such as Nashville and Atlanta, so travelers can tag themselves and promote the city on social media.
It was then she began speaking with merchants and vendors in the area and she said those in “The Hollow,” the hub of the African-American business/entertainment district in Canton’s early days, were trying to attract some of the foot traffic from the square.
Dodson then found a building owner excited about the project, and signed a contract for use of the side. She then worked with two local Canton artists on a design. The end result was an umbrella being showered by different colors, with words about the city on the side. Visitors would then be able to stand under the umbrella and snap a pic.
Dodson said she received unanimous approval from the Canton Historical Preservation District for the mural, and in December, presented the plans to aldermen. Mayor Dr. William Truly was not at the Dec. 17 meeting.
“At the very end of January we started painting,” she said. “On the second day of painting I received a call.” ...
Then she started dealing with the Mayor.
“At the very end of January we started painting,” she said. “On the second day of painting I received a call.”
She said Truly said there was a problem with the mural and they needed to talk about it before she continued. So they met, she said, and from there began a series of what she calls lies and misdirection.
Truly said he had no comment about the mural.
“I’m trying to put this city in the right direction,” he said. “Address the issue of housing, workforce development, and unemployment in our area. We may not catch Madison and Ridgeland but we’re certainly going to try.”
Dodson said three straight meetings she was removed from the city agenda. Text messages, emails and phone calls to Truly were not returned, she says. She even changed the messaging on the mural, but she says Truly wouldn’t even look at it.
In the end, she says Truly didn’t like the colors or the message, that he wanted something more like the mural on Hickory Street of Elmore James, and that she wasn’t going to get her mural.
“I’m just a fool for believing him all this time,” she said. “Why would you want forward progress — which is so necessary and needed — stopped in Canton.”
Canton Alderman Les Penn backs up Dodson’s account of the events that transpired over the mural, saying Truly said if the board voted to approve the mural he would just veto it.
“Not one alderman spoke up against it,” he said when it was initially presented. “(Truly) told me that a mural like that would look good somewhere in the Fondren area, but not in the Canton Hollow.” Rest of article.Maybe the headline should have been "Why we can't have nice things in Canton." Some people are just plain pigs. They like living in slop and don't want to live any differently.... like the Canton Mayor.
39 comments:
Actually, it's entirely a race-based issue. The Mayor has decreed that he wants any mural to represent the struggles that Canton citizens went through sixty years ago. The proposed mural didn't do that. He mentioned that he wanted to see a mural representing a woman going into a shoe store with a drawn-measurement of her foot size since black folk were not allowed 'back then' to use the foot measuring tools available in stores. That's the vision he wants visitors to see and the memory he wants them to leave with as they continue their journey or travels.
None of this will change as long as the city is majority black and the administration continues to be black and continues to simmer in racism that they can't grow beyond. Same as in Jackson.
Truly is a racist. It’s just that simple.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25229906@N00/23385670254
This is what Truly wants. The new mural is not black enough for him.
Housing has to be Guberment funded, it will be torn up, that too will be someone else's fault. Let's all just wallow in the civil rights era and blame jim crow for our faults.
Truly is afraid a mural such as this would cause gentrification much like it has in Fondren. He basically wants the city of Canton to be down with the struggle. Funny how he wants forward progress by looking to the past. This man is Truly a racist and needs to be out of office. Demographics will swiftly change in Canton before to long as it is. He is trying to fight that by the typical race baiting plantation divide and conquer mentality.
Perhaps he wasn't paid enough to approve it... Isn't that how he betters Canton? By bettering himself?
Incredible how a simple mural with no racial overtones can be offensive for a racist like Truly. People like him won't be satisfied if we aren't constantly mired in memories of what injustices happened 60+ years ago. I'm still shocked that the "Welcome to Jackson" mural downtown wasn't also accompanied by a picture of Medgar Evers, a raised fist and a "We Shall Overcome" tagline.
Apply the proper lubricant$$$. The consultation is free.
End of the article states that Penn feels like they wouldn't have five aldermen to override the veto. Question is which alderman wouldn't want this? That's where the pressure needs to go. Forget Truly. He's garbage. Go after the holdout.
Eric Gilkey, Vickie McNeel and Rodriques Brown are the 3 that side with Truly. They are also the 3 that pay cash for absentee votes. FBI is going to have to take these 3 down. Check their bank accounts.
Yes Truly does accept cash for his vote. Just ask WastePro.....
As a child of the late fifties and life long resident of Canton whose family owned businesses on the square and in "The Hollow". One being a grocery store the other a clothing store that sold shoes and boots. I spent many many days in both stores after school and NEVER once was any person, red, yellow, black, white or purple with pink zebra stripes EVER refuse use of any type device or service that the stores offered.
Truly is a racist, a ball faced liar and medical quack and I will tell him that to his face. We haven't heard much from him publicly but now we're starting to.
William Truly if your reading this and I hope you are, "That was just plain Dumb"....
A future resident of Gluckstat, Thank God.
I don't know what race got to do with it. I keep hearing that race doesn't exist, that it's just a social construck.
Truly has a plan for Canton. Eradicate all whites. He is a racist bigtime. If you are white and have a business in canton, close it and move it out of canton. Let’s shut down canton. Gluckstadt you need to get with the organizers of the canton flea market and have it relocated to Madison! Truly, is rotten to the core. Take all the white business and sink his ship.
Reverse Racism. Truly and his 3 Alderman who oppose this mural are racist.
That mural suggests to me "what little of the white that is left in this colored town is under an umbrella of black". I've seen more thought provoking and intricate art work on the side of a railroad box car. Throw in some falling unicorns and call it a "anti LGBTQ safe zone". Sheesh!
Maybe the Hizzonor thought the colors were the Gay Pride flag, hence his reference to Fondren.
Well property value had been holding, BUT with all the negative press from the city and CMU the values are certainly going to be effected.
Wow. If Truly were Cindy Hyde-Smith, Kingfish would have 'disallowed' all of these posts.
So the ACLU is fighting the Madison Co. Sheriff over so call racism. Canton's Mayor hate gay people might as call it what it is. Mayor Truly is homophobic. I hope the gays march on Canton.
Stay out of Canton & Jackson. Spend your money in Madison & Rankin. Let downtown become a cess pool. John Grisham made tons of money on his book A Time to Kill using the race card. The race card is like a Gold Amex Card.
Beautiful Mural. I would not worry yourself about bringing such beauty to Canton. Those thug politicians running Canton don’t deserve or appreciate it.
Truly doesn’t even live in Canton. Yet he is the Mayor! Delbert what do you think about this?
Notwithstanding the racist bent of the mayor, what the hell has this got to do with homosexuals.
I agree with the Mayor. That is not an appropriate design to reflect that area.
I hope the artist can bring attention to her beautiful mural on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, so everyone all over the world can see what is going on here. This mural would look good in any city that has great history, festivals, architecture, etc. Taking selfies under the umbrella and sending them out is great advertisement for Canton. Shame on the Canton mayor for stopping this beautiful mural. Sad!
Boycott Canton Flea Market!!! We certainly won’t be coming.
Who’s ward would the mural be located in?
Mayor is a good southern baptist and hates rainbow art. Quit making it about race. It’s about his Southern Baptist roots.
We only have 3 years left of the racist in the White House, how long do we have to wait to vote Truly out?
Mural is a polite word for vandalism
MLK famously (and he knew it was inaccurate) said white folk built the iron fence around the Madison County courthouse to 'keep black folk off the property'. That was never true but made good press. The fence was put up a hundred years ago to keep cattle and horses off the lawn. Truly and his racist friends are all about continuing that bitter old rhetoric as the symbol of Canton.
I say paint a mural with Truly in a neon silk suit and McNeil with a cotton sack and it'll be accepted proudly as a symbol of the struggle.
Confused. If it's private property and the owner of the building has agreed, why are the mayor's opinions relevant?
"We only have 3 years left of the racist in the White House,"
Unemployment among blacks is the lowest it has ever been since they started measuring it (reversing the last eight years of deterioration). Labor participation rate among blacks is the highest it has ever been.
These are the results of his color-blind actions aiming to improve the economy for everyone. Sorry to disrupt your delusions, but facts are sometimes unpleasant things.
@ March 29, 2018 at 10:00 Anonymous said...
Actually, it's entirely a race-based issue. The Mayor has decreed that he wants any mural to represent the struggles that Canton citizens went through sixty years ago. The proposed mural didn't do that. He mentioned that he wanted to see a mural representing a woman going into a shoe store with a drawn-measurement of her foot size since black folk were not allowed 'back then' to use the foot measuring tools available in stores. That's the vision he wants visitors to see and the memory he wants them to leave with as they continue their journey or travels.
None of this will change as long as the city is majority black and the administration continues to be black and continues to simmer in racism that they can't grow beyond. Same as in Jackson.
ANON: You hit the nail right on the head. Blues-man Elmore James represents a better marketing tool for Canton. The Mississippi Blues trail is an international draw. A rainbow? Not so much. Besides, the Rainbow,"We're all in this together as equals" certainly does not represent the reality of Canton or Madison County. The international community certainly understands this reality. All they have to do is go online(Google Maps) and look at the difference in the housing between Blacks and Whites in Canton/Madison County
Some would fault the Mayor for not specifically spelling out what he wanted, but a wise politician would want his less than devoted constituents to see the light for themselves.
Also the way the State took millions of needed tax dollars from the City and School District with NISSAN, left a very bitter taste in the mouths of the more sophisticated citizen's of Canton. Similar to what the State did to Port Gibson with the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant. Meanwhile, there was absolutely no talk of tax reduction for local government and school district in the discussions about the failed Iuka lignite plant, and the Toyota Auto Plants in NE Mississippi.
Rainbow Equals?
Right!
Payback, even at this minuscule and trifling level, is a bitch ain't it?
I'm not saying it's right or Christian, but there it is.
March 30, 2018 at 9:02 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...
"We only have 3 years left of the racist in the White House,"
"Unemployment among blacks is the lowest it has ever been since they started measuring it (reversing the last eight years of deterioration). Labor participation rate among blacks is the highest it has ever been.
These are the results of his color-blind actions aiming to improve the economy for everyone. Sorry to disrupt your delusions, but facts are sometimes unpleasant things."
ANON:
Ignorance is truly bliss!
First of all ten years ago the Labor Department changed the way they calculated the unemployment rate where they didn't even count the chronically unemployed or "dropouts.
http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/10/thank-labor-force-dropouts-not-new-jobs-for-a-falling-unemployment-rate/
And thanks to how BLS calculates and reports the official unemployment rate, those 7 million people are not included among the ranks of the unemployed. Add them back in and you have an unemployment rate that averages a very stubborn 10.8 percent since the end of the recession.
The documented increase in Black unemployment is also partly based upon the worker starved businesses finally looking the other way on minor drug possession offences/convictions, which in our upside down "lock all the coloreds up" society, are felonies. This policy overreach also greatly reduced the available labor pool.
The result is that more Blacks, and Whites, can work multiple low income, minimum wage, part time jobs with no benefits.
The economy of the wealthy is doing fine.
In my opinion, the three classes in the US that make sense in terms of current public policy, are 1) the poor, who pay no taxes (in fact the working poor get Earned Income Tax Payments from the Feds as an incentive to work, as employers refuse to pay a "Living Wage"), 2) the wealthy who live off of their investments (the 1%) and finally, 3) everybody else, the Working Middle Class.
The economy for the less than wealthy is, in my opinion, is more of a struggle than ever and these folks are not happy.
Grateful for the work, yes, but in my opinion, the working Middle Class will definitely be non Republican voters at the mid term.
That's both Blacks and White!
Everyone needs to call Mayor Truly and tell him what WE want! He works for US. His number is 601-850-7198. Let your voice be heard.
Mickens: Give it a rest. I realize you old, unbridled and delusional, but hell.......
You may not realize it, but 'the blues' no longer represents blacks as they don't gravitate toward 'the blues'. Truly wants 'the struggle' or his warped vision of it to be depicted. Like the imaginary requirement that blacks had to bring a drawing of their foot length to the shoe store in the fifties.
And when you have a bit of free time, find out from officials at the Canton Separate Municipal School District what they do with all that money gifted to 'the district' every year by Nissan. That's money that does not pass through the hands of a corrupt city administration.
Lastly, nobody has claimed that a rainbow illustrates some illusion of 'we're all in this together', as 'we're not'. You can drive the streets of Canton in every direction till you're green in the face and see hoards of recalcitrant ne'er-do-wells strolling the sidewalks and wonder why they're not at work. We're simply trying to co-exist and stop fighting each other, as if that were possible. But, as long as we have Truly and a line of folks who think like him waiting in the wings, ain't gonna happen.
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