In reply to the question: “Why would anyone want to live in Mississippi?,” I’ll say this:

I, Thelma T. White was born here in Natchez and graduated from Brumfield High, attended Natchez College, worked and lived in Jackson for two years, graduated from Jackson State cum laude, taught two years in Adams County, 15 years in Natchez and retired after 20 years of teaching and living in Baton Rouge.

I substituted for six months in Rochester, N.Y. and lived 10 years in Chicago before my teaching career began.

I wrote the following poem as my soul rejoiced on returning to Mississippi:

Back from those lands of wintry and polluted breath,

From my people, transplanted for a season,

a generation or an era.

Back to the clime like our natural one;

Hot and sweaty, stifling but refreshing,

cleansing and familar.

Land of my people,

Hills of my home.

Soil enriched by our blood,

Watered by our tears

My land. My home.

This beloved terrain.

Tyrannized by many, yet home.

My breath is easier, my step is lighter.

I am reacquainted with the soil.

Feet bared to Mother Earth,

Chest and skin caressed by vagrant breezes.

I am Home!

Thelma White

Natchez resident