Main Street is home to some of the most celebrated African American families in Hattiesburg, including Rep. Percy Watson, The University of Southern Mississippi's first African American student, Lieutenant Colonel Raylawni Branch (Ret.), and Mississippi's most successful African American politician, Johnny DuPree, the longest serving and first African American Mayor of Hattiesburg, MS. However, a few blocks up from the mayor's mansion looks like a ghost town.
The area that use to be thriving with business for the local African American community is completely dead. The only nearby business left is a convenient store owned by Arabians. That's much different than the thriving corner of Main Street and 7th Street a few years ago. What use to be a local grocery called 'Big Star' was bought out and replaced with a new store called Sullivan's Grocery. Across the street was a national fast food chicken chain restaurant called 'Church's Chicken.' Across from Church's Chicken was another national store chain called 'Family Dollar.'
Hungry? You can easily get some great greasy chicken from Church's chicken, the way the people in the 'Goula' liked it. Granny needed something to cook for Sunday dinner and didn't want to drive 15-20 minutes to Walmart? She could drive right up the street to the local grocery store and get a "Pick 5" that would probably last throughout the week. Need some toilet tissue, a fan for the window, and some toothpaste? Run over to Family Dollar and pick it up. But now its all gone. It's been deserted. It's left the community in poverty and ruins along with the jobs they provided for the countless of families.
That's a much different look than Hardy Street. Downtown in the African American side of Main Street looks much different than Midtown on Hardy Street. Millions of dollars of investments and multiple thriving businesses. Sure one end of Main street is filled with historical figures and monuments and even a town square park surrounded by quarter million dollar well kept homes, churches, and businesses.
The other end of Main Street deep in the heart of the African American community looks like a run down abandoned city left deserted after a plague that you only watch on tv or in a movie. But this isn't a tv series or a movie. This is real life in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The questions still exist, "What happened to Main Street?" Who's going to bring back the jobs, resources, and businesses to keep the community afloat? Or will the Main Street story be just another piece of Hattiesburg history like other once thriving prominent communities that have turned into "what used to be" stories passed down from one generation to the next?
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