Jonathan Odell

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Articles

Opinion | Et Tu, Hoss: How ‘Bonanza’ Turned the Channel on Segregation

Oct 15, 2024 | mississippifreepress.org | Jonathan Odell

Growing up in Mississippi in the mid-20th century, I believed we white folks had it all figured out. We knew who we were: good, humble, God-fearing people, proud of our heritage and state. Sure, we didn’t travel much, but we read the papers, flipped through magazines, watched plenty of movies and devoured TV. The stories we consumed never challenged us—they affirmed our beliefs. No one asked us to feel guilty about slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow or what was happening right under our noses.
Et Tu, Hoss?

Sep 11, 2024 | jonathanodell.substack.com | Jonathan Odell

Growing up in Mississippi in the mid-20th century, I believed we white folks had it all figured out. We knew who we were: good, humble, God-fearing people, proud of our heritage and state. Sure, we didn’t travel much, but we read the papers, flipped through magazines, watched plenty of movies, and devoured TV. The stories we consumed never challenged us—they affirmed our beliefs. No one asked us to feel guilty about slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, or what was happening right under our noses.
White Narratives Undersell Leontyne Price’s Triumphs

Aug 1, 2024 | mississippifreepress.org | Jonathan Odell

A few years ago, my hometown paper in Laurel, Miss., asked me to write a series of columns focusing on local historical events. I decided to cover Black history since the white perspective was dominant. In one column, I wrote about one of our renowned citizens, Leontyne Price, who was raised a dozen or so blocks from where I grew up. Despite the challenges of Jim Crow, she is an African American who rose to become the world’s most celebrated opera singer.
My Reckoning With the Lost Cause Myth

Jul 11, 2024 | mississippifreepress.org | Jonathan Odell

My home state of Mississippi is one of only four states that made Confederate Memorial Day a public holiday. In Mississippi alone, 25,000 state employees get the day off with pay, courtesy of state taxpayers. Ironically, nearly 40% of those government workers are Black. I’m pretty sure they don’t spend their day off extolling the virtues of the Confederacy.
How It Is Down Here – Salvation South

Nov 23, 2023 | salvationsouth.com | Jonathan Odell

As I sat in a seventh-grade science classroom in Mississippi on a warm day in late November, my born-again science teacher said, “One day soon, your faith will be mightily tested by this great abomination.” Then Mrs. Shaw wrote the word EVOLUTION in big block letters on the blackboard. Like all my teachers, she was a resolute Christian and felt it was her duty to witness in public.
‘Home Town’ Reflects an Incomplete Picture of Laurel

Aug 18, 2023 | mississippifreepress.org | Jonathan Odell |“The Healing |“Miss Hazel |Utne Reader

I tell people where I grew up, and they say, “Oh, is that the Laurel, Miss., on HGTV?” Then they gush “It sounds just like Mayberry!” parroting one of the perky hosts on the blockbuster home-improvement show “Home Town.”I suspected the show was repackaging my memories for popular consumption, because my Laurel was no Mayberry.
Returning to Laurel

Jul 1, 2023 | portside.org | Jonathan Odell

When I tell people where I grew up, they say, “Oh, is that the Laurel, Mississippi, on HGTV?” Then they gush, “It sounds just like Mayberry!” parroting one of the perky hosts on the blockbuster home improvement show Home Town. I suspected the show was repackaging my memories for popular consumption, because my Laurel was no Mayberry.
Returning to Laurel

Jun 23, 2023 | progressive.org | Jonathan Odell

When I tell people where I grew up, they say, “Oh, is that the Laurel, Mississippi, on HGTV?” Then they gush, “It sounds just like Mayberry!” parroting one of the perky hosts on the blockbuster home improvement show Home Town. I suspected the show was repackaging my memories for popular consumption, because my Laurel was no Mayberry.
What Daddy Can’t Fix – Salvation South

Jun 22, 2023 | salvationsouth.com | Jonathan Odell

If I admitted I had an alcohol problem, it meant acknowledging my mother as an alcoholic, and her father, most of her brothers, as well as my father’s family. Ancestors dating back to our first juniper-berry-squeezing progenitor would be outed as alcoholics. So, no, I wasn’t an alcoholic. It just wasn’t acceptable. “Where’d you ever get an idea like that?” my mother asked. “For starters, that DWI in Mississippi and the DUI in North Carolina a year later.
Grace, Glitter and Radio Preachers

May 31, 2023 | theotherjournal.com | Jonathan Odell

Ten years ago, a childhood friend came out to me. He was nearly sixty and living in Laurel, Mississippi, the small town where we both grew up. He said he had been seeing the same woman now for twenty years, unable to come to terms with his sexuality. He had had plenty of sex with men but had never had a date with one. Had never spent the entire night with one. Had never been sent flowers. Had never been kissed.