me john, some call me jim. some call me nigga. oh that hurts, but you have to smile. if you don t, what s wrong with you? the meaner the man be, the more you smile. although you crying on the inside. i m not gonna tip that nigga. he don t live for no tip. yes sir, thank you. what d you say? come back, goodnight, take care. so that s what you have to go through here. but remember, you have to keep that smile. anthony: telling the truth was still risky business in 1966 mississippi, and booker wright was not rewarded for his candor. it was not a good experience for him. it did not make him a star by, you know john t. edge: not within the white community, but even though stokely carmichael maybe first chanted black power here, that was less important to the black community here than what booker said on the nbc news. anthony: yeah. the private dining rooms at lusco s are still here. the menu, much the same.
and the likes of duke ellington, cab calloway, count basie, and louis armstrong all took the stage at places like the crystal palace ballroom and the alamo on farish street. what happened? where did it all go? geno: what killed farish street was immigration. once we were able to branch out of our own indigenous black-run businesses, the black-owned businesses died. anthony: right. geno: so great for the black race, but terrible for the black business. in fact, the only reason you re coming to farish street right now anthony: mm-hmm. geno: is we have two churches, two funeral homes, and the big apple inn. so you re gonna either die, worship, or come to my place to eat, and that s the only traffic we get. anthony: or all three, and that you know? geno: that s right. anthony: not in that order, but woman: how you doing? woman 2: one hot? how y all doing today? anthony: back when things were hopping, geno lee s great grandfather juan big john mora moved to m
willie simmons: and i wanna know what you think about those greens and butter beans. anthony: oh man, they re nice. man, that s tasty. do you think the right people get the credit for southern cooking as we know it? willie simmons: i do. anthony: you think the right people get the credit? i mean, look, you john t. edge: people know. people know who s behind this food. whether it s called soul food or whether it s called country cooking. anthony: how is the delta the mindset of the delta different than the rest of the state? willie simmons: no one else can compare with us. like there is no other senator who can sit and talk to you and tell you that they represent dockery plantation, where the blues supposed to been born. there s no one else can tell you that in his district is the home of b.b. king. can tell you that he represents the area where fannie lou hamer came from. where jerry butler was born. go on and name others. the staple singers. when we talk about the he
move into workshops, perform in spaces, set up something new and good in formerly abandoned and neglected parts of town. yeah you know the name already so there s no need for intros gather round, get close the hood here that s exactly why the hood s here and if you trying to find man, look here anthony: this is a deeply, deeply conservative state. to say the least, right? this is a tough question cause i ve got my own opinion. is it more racist than new york? pyinfamous: so, i think there there are some deeply ingrained problems in mississippi that are connected to a very ugly past that we share with some other southern states. however, i think as far as we talk about racism expressed through a classes lens anthony: mm-hmm. pyinfamous: i think mississippi and new york are on par. right? anthony: yeah, no doubt. pyinfamous is originally from clarksdale in the delta and went to ole miss. but he s neither left, nor lost faith. he feels an obligation to
survival, and the ins and outs of guiding and the history of the river. most of these kids come from pretty distressed neighborhoods. and the hope, the intent, is that once trained up, they ll stay with the company. john ruskey: nice paddling, tony. you got the feather down. anthony: thank you. i ll be feeling that tomorrow. anthony: buck island. most of the island could be under 45 to 50 feet of flowing river water from april to june, with a spring ice melt and rain storms. john ruskey: we do a lot of cooking with dutch ovens out here. anthony: multipurpose and indestructible. john ruskey: mm-hmm. and the next step on this thing is that here are the greens and we should stuff as many greens as we can into that pot. anthony: into this right here. john ruskey: uh-huh. anthony: all right. so how does your program work?