JACKSON, Miss. (NNPA)�The state�s top economic development director�s description of a group of rural Black landowners as "uneducated people" has stoked the flames of controversy burning over local government�s involvement in acquiring Black land over a Nissan automotive plant under construction in the state.

A group of civil rights leaders, elected officials, and Black landowners demanded the immediate resignation of J.C. Burns, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, during an early April press conference.

The larger issue is the action of state officials and the Trustmark Bank, who set the $24,500-an-acre price for land in Gluckstadt, located eight miles from Jackson, for the $930 million Nissan plant. Trustmark, the state�s second largest lending institution and the trustee of several hundred acres of land in the proposed Nissan core site, set their price before Nissan�s announcement.

The move effectively denied Blacks there the ability to set their own�and substantially higher�price for their adjacent acres. Black leaders have charged the state government and insider white landowners for conspiring to cheat the Black landowners out of the rightful cost of their land, which they say could have totaled up to $200,000 an acre. Mr. Burns apparently made the remarks during sworn testimony in the Feb. 19 eminent domain hearing of real estate investor Tom Hixon, an angry white landowner who claims that he too was cheated out of a fair price.

Mr. Burns, in response to a question to one of Mr. Hixon�s lawyers about why he offered Black landowners Betty Cain and Andrew Archie Jr. the same amount per acre as the MDA had given to Trustmark, said the bank "had much more knowledge and much more ability than the people we were dealing with, and we went out there, we looked at it (the area containing the Black landowner�s homes) and we saw that maybe there were uneducated people there, and so we made the determination that what we would do is offer those people in the core site the same amount that the adjoining property got, which was Trustmark and the $24,500 per acre."

Stephanie Parker-Weaver, executive secretary of the state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called those comments "insulting and condescendingly racist."She called for nonviolent action protests to take place in the state. She also said she would file a civil rights complaint against the state if Mr. Burns remains on the job. "We�re not against the Nissan project, nor are we trying to stop this project," she said. "What we are doing is trying to stop the racism and discrimination associated with this project," insisted Ms. Parker-Weaver.

The Burns comments were "the proverbial straw that broke the camel�s back," she added. The civil rights leader pointed out that Black leaders are still angry over Gov. Ronnie Musgrove�s firing of a Black female as head of the state Department of Health and Human Services. Gov. Musgrove said the woman was let go over "philosophical differences," saying they were "not singing off the same song sheet," recalled Ms. Parker-Weaver. "We can�t help but now wonder: Is the song sheet that the governor and J.C. Burns are singing from called �Dixie�?" she asked, referring to the white Southern anthem mythologizing the slaveholding South. Lonzo Archie, one of the Black landowning families, said Mr. Burns "was wrong about what he said about me and my family, as well as all the other landowners surrounding the Nissan plant. ... He must be held accountable. As of this day, he must go!"

State Rep. Earle S. Banks said that Mr. Burns� comments "show that Gov. Musgrove has appointed at least one person with a pre-civil rights (movement) attitude towards Blacks."

Calls to Gov. Musgrove�s office were not returned. The first eminent domain hearing for the Black landowners will be on June 28.

--Carolyn Stephens Maxwell
The Jackson Advocate