HUFFINGTON
11.10.13
STONEWALLED
“We live in a society with all kinds
of people, and we all got to meet
our maker at the end of the day. I
think everybody got their rights.”
Outside the shop, a half dozen
older black men sat on stools
and in beat-up office armchairs.
Some gathered there said they
remembered when blacks in Mississippi were barred from entering white establishments. Lyles
said he’d never turn away a gay
customer. “This is a business,”
he said. He turned to a man sitting in one of the office chairs.
“Who do we cater to?” he asked.
“All people,” the man replied,
laughing and nodding.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Lyles said.
There was a chorus of approval. But one of Lyles’ associates,
a black man in a baseball cap,
wasn’t laughing. “It’s a disgrace
and an abomination,” he said,
shaking his head disapprovingly.
He wouldn’t elaborate.
Of the two dozen Shannon residents interviewed for this story,
most who condemned homosexuality declined to give their names.
Among them was a 60-year-old
woman who signed the petition
against Newton. “I don’t think we
need any bars, but we sure don’t
need a gay and lesbian bar,” she
said. “That’s for New York and places like that. Not for a little town.”
Warming to her theme, she continued, “You’ll never get Mississippi to go for same-sex marriage. That
may be 200 years down the road,
but I don’t think it’ll ever happen in
Mississippi.” Asked if she knew any
“At one time Shannon was
known of having quite
of [sic] few aspiring
artists. At one time they
were three cotton gins,
corn elevator and a grain
elevator in operation here.
Coca Cola was bottled
here in around 1915 and
1916. Sadly only remnants
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