Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:42
what's going on good day Las

Unknown Speaker 0:48
Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I am pleased to be here today. And let me, as I always, make these announcements, I want to just say to you all how much I appreciate Wes Knight. He keeps me on track. I appreciate and love him so much, because without him, man, I'd be all over the place. I'm a show enough. Scatterbrain. So thank you. Wes, I appreciate you, young man, oh, in terms of announcements, the 10th annual armed forces and military and first responders event will occur on October 19. I forget the exact time, but you can check your local newspaper, etc, etc, but it's just it's the 10th annual. This is something they've been doing for military and first responders for some time now. So we want to acknowledge that particular group is the vets. Gosh, I'm trying to remember the name. I apologize you all, but it's a worthwhile event to attend. In terms of birthdays, we got my deceased sister, Kathy, we just we acknowledged her. She passed away a couple weeks ago now, but her birthday is this month, October. And then, of course, we got a whole slew of them in our other immediate family that is Angel, Nathan, Chris, casara, and of course, Amira, all those are October birthdays in our family, and we certainly thank God for them all being around and and helping us with a lot of different things that we doing as a family. So thank you so much. Our condolences. We just learned that Frankie Beverly passed away, one of those icons. And we also mentioned James Earl Jones at our last show in September. Charlie Barber, local master electrician, he recently passed away. We don't have any idea in terms of services, so I trust that something will be coming out soon, and one of my colleagues, Fire Service colleagues, they call him GL Gary. Lindsay passed away recently, and his services will be coming up in the next couple of weeks. So we certainly want to extend condolences to his children, his new wife, and all those in the family of the Lindsays and for the work that this man did in the fire service. So just want to acknowledge the passing of again, a colleague, Gary GL Lindsay. Appreciate that very much. We have a guest that will be calling in shortly. And she is a relative of my wife. She is a former service, military service person, Elva Smith, so we'll be talking to her shortly. Also in the second part of the show, we'll be talking with Mr. Herman Johnson. He is the curator or leader of the Mound Bayou museum down in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. So we'll be talking with him today, give us some further insight. And we did talk with his father, Mr. Herman Johnson Senior, a couple of weeks ago, along with Reverend Darryl Johnson, who was, who was his, who was the son and in the brother of Mr. Herman Johnson. So we'll be talking with those folks shortly, and appreciate them taking time to come on the show to talk to us. So at this time, I'd like to introduce and welcome to the show. Miss. Elva Smith, Elva, how you doing?

Unknown Speaker 4:43
Hi, Dave, I'm fine. How

Unknown Speaker 4:44
are you I'm doing okay. Doing okay. Elva, will you tell our listening audience what branch of military Did you serve in and how long?

Unknown Speaker 4:54
Well, you know, I'm Army. So there's no other branch other than the army. It's.

Unknown Speaker 4:59
I'm an Army guy too, so I understand.

Unknown Speaker 5:04
So I was in the army. I joined the army when they had Women's Army Corps, which was in 1975 so I am considered a whack. I was two years active, and I have 13 years reserve time.

Unknown Speaker 5:21
Oh, wow, cool. So what was your MOS?

Unknown Speaker 5:25
My military occupational skill when I joined the military was 64 Charlie, which is a motor vehicle operator, is now called 88 Mike. I also with correspondence. I had a 71 Lima, which was admin specialist, and a 25 uniform, which was signal tactical operator. So

Unknown Speaker 5:47
go back to the to the first one you mentioned, and give us some detail on it. For those who may not know what that particular specialty is.

Unknown Speaker 5:57
Okay, when I went in again, I said it was called 64 Charlie's old soldiers, it's now called Eight. Eight. Mike, it's called Motor transportation operator. And what we did was loading and unloading, operations and procedures, vehicle maneuvers, navigation. And eventually they started global positioning. Mm satellite, which is the GPS thing. But however, when we were doing it in the 70s, we didn't have GPS. We actually used the compass and grids, and you had to learn how to really read a map and do navigation by land, and you get your coordinates, you know, longiture. You had to go all these points and then plot them on the map and know where you were going.

Unknown Speaker 6:47
Wow, that's interesting. I remember those days when you had to pull out that compass and do all those things, but that's an interesting specialty that you had. Yeah, absolutely interesting. So what are you doing? Where do you actually live at today? Where you live in?

Unknown Speaker 7:05
I live in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I am, go ahead. I am currently an active member of our American Legion here, post 213 which we, of course, reach out to veterans. I was just listening to you mentioning some veterans that deceased, or anyone that disabled. We still work as a unit in contacting these veterans. We go to the nursing home to see vets, even those that are not members of the American League, just because they serve, regardless of the branch, we go and visit them. Pure oddly, we just recently, recently had the Legion riders who came from started out of Missouri. They came to Vicksburg through Vicksburg, this was one of their stops. They ended up in New Orleans, five National Conference of American Legion. And these riders came from all over the years. We even had riders from China, and they purpose was they were collecting money for children. And I believe by the time they got here, they had over $300,000 Wow. They collected,

Unknown Speaker 8:24
yes. Now the you say riders, motorcycle or

Unknown Speaker 8:29
Yes, Legion riders, okay, they're all over to include channel

Unknown Speaker 8:35
interesting. So you know, one of my questions was going to be, what were you going? What were you doing now to advance the the needs of veterans. And you pretty much covered it. You actually go out and you guys as a group, go out and visit folks.

Unknown Speaker 8:48
And yes, we do. We visit our nursing home, our veterans home. We do have a veteran, Veteran Center here in Jackson, Mississippi, which is like 52 miles east of here, we have the sunny Montgomery VA so we go there. We even go to our local nursing homes throughout the region and visit that is any vet. That

Unknown Speaker 9:14
is great work. Because, you know, one thing I've noticed as I've visited friends and various types of assisted living, some in rehab centers. You notice that some folks don't get a visit, not from anyone, and it's a sad state of affairs that no one will come and visit a parent, you know, a relative, because I can see their eyes light up, and when you speak to him. It's like, wow, I really appreciate you speaking to me

Unknown Speaker 9:45
exactly. And they're so glad to have that contact next to Margaret ship, they go to talking about their days and what they did they they're so anxious to talk to somebody. And people act like I vets, especially. Of those are Vietnam here veterans. You know how we would have forgotten veterans? You know you couldn't say you was a Vietnam vet. It was almost like a thing of shame to say you as a Vietnam veteran, not just World War Two, World War One, Korean, right? But when we got out of the military, which was the Vietnam era, it was almost like a bad word to say Vietnam.

Unknown Speaker 10:23
Very true. In fact, you know, my in my next show for the following week, I have coach Tate. He's a veteran, and he does a lot of stuff with baseball, you know, encouraging and coaching young folks. And he as a veteran, he's Vietnam era veteran. In fact, went to Vietnam. I think he told me had a Purple Heart, but he said it was just really sad how the Vietnam era veterans were treated. You know, I'm a Vietnam era veteran as well, but I did not go to Vietnam, and I used to tell the guys on the fire department, y'all better be glad I didn't go to Vietnam, because y'all think I'm crazy, and, you know, and some of the things that he talked about ever is how, you know, there were so many, in fact, my my brother in law, Marsh's sister's husband, he was affected by Agent Orange, and it was just such a battle for people to get this, this coverage. It took him a it was like pulling teeth and I mean, come on, these folks served and got harmed in a very specific way in our in defending our country. So ever yes and go ahead,

Unknown Speaker 11:33
Joe has mentioned those hardships he had, you know, talking to Deborah and talking to Joe about that, he had to go a long way, but that was just not with him. That was all of them, right? And to think, you know, we served out there our country too. I didn't go to Vietnam, but we were all levied as Trump drivers and supply people. In 1976 to 77 we were levied to go to Germany. I went to Third Infantry Division. We stayed on alert, 24/7 at that time, the Berlin Wall was still up, so we were constantly on alert. He walked around with a loaded M 16. Was no dummies in it. It was a loaded M 16. This was at the close of the Vietnam War, but they levied all of us over there in case we had to be sent out to go to Nam to do something or bring things back right

Unknown Speaker 12:30
as we as we get ready to wrap up, I want to say that Elva was one of the few. Well, there was quite a few, but women who attended the Million Man March. When we saw she said, What? What you doing here? She say, I come to be a part of this. What are you talking about? What? Why am I here? And we really appreciate your support, for sure. Ever. No doubt about it again. Yeah, we love you. Any any closing remarks?

Unknown Speaker 12:58
Yes, well, I like to what I'm doing now, I'm actually in politics. I'm an Election Commissioner. So please, everybody on the sound of this, please vote. Voting is very important. This is what I do here in Warren County for the state of Mississippi. I'm elected. I've been in this position since oh nine, and we always, always say, please go out and vote. Your vote makes a difference. Absolutely

Unknown Speaker 13:24
to your point, let's make sure that our registration is current, because you can get vetted if you don't vote in a previous election cycle. So please do that. I think it's important, and I'm glad you brought that up, elder, because it's important to get yourself knowledge about the various issues, and I continue on this show to prop up and talk about Project 2025 get exactly your information and your your knowledge base together. Elva, thank you so much, and we'll have you back on the show sometime in the future, because I think the work that you're doing with the American Legion is so appropriate and so well needed for those, again, who have no one to come and visit them. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs. Plus I just had a former soldier, Miss Elva Smith, on the show, and she's doing some outstanding things down in Vicksburg and in Mississippi in general. So thank you so much. Thank you for having me. All right. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. On the other side, we'll have Mr. Herman Johnson. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 14:32
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I am so pleased to have a gentleman who runs he's the lead for the Mount Bayou Museum, which I had an opportunity to check it out when I was down in my family reunion in July. So Mr. Herman Johnson, how you doing?

Unknown Speaker 14:56
I'm doing fine. How are you I'm doing very well. Doing

Unknown Speaker 14:58
good. Doing. Good and so please. I had your brother, Reverend Darryl Johnson, and your father, Mr. Herman Johnson Senior, on the show a couple weeks ago, and they did an outstanding job. No pressure to you, of course, because I know that you know. You know the museum well, and you can give us some insight. So tell us a little bit about the museum and and how did you get in, what inspired you to get involved with

Unknown Speaker 15:24
the inspiration is actually, you know, discovering the deepness of the history of Mount Bayou and and the fact that really nobody was there to give it the sufficient help that getting getting the word out, you know, people there, and some people, you know, knew the history, but there was a lot more to it. And, you know, I looked around and I said I was living in California, okay, but still, even going back and forth and knowing that who was there, you know, I just understood that there was really nobody there that was going to give it the sufficient push that needed for people to understand the deepness of this, of this history. And so once we took that step of faith, then you know, God met it. And I won't say, I should not have say he met it, because he pushed it, and he just put things together that is kind of almost overwhelming, the things that he did and bringing the things together and making it a magnificent Museum,

Unknown Speaker 16:40
absolutely again, I did get an opportunity to to attend and and your brother did a great job in your absence to, you know, kind of take me and my friend Johnny Griffin, who lives down in Greenville, we got an outstanding tour of the Museum, and then to know that one gentleman donated a multi million dollar exhibit when he was when he could have sold it, so that that speaks highly of what you guys are doing,

Unknown Speaker 17:13
absolutely. And the word is he can still sell it, because there are, there are actors and people in Hollywood that I have heard. I really don't, don't know too many names or identify, but I just heard it that there are people clamoring for it and Hollywood. But, you know, I think it's better for our you know, use where it is. You know, if you and I know you saw the collection, right? And I'm, I imagine my brother kind of took you around and and and showed you, but put, put it in context of what it actually all means to us. We didn't know what it meant in the in the beginning, right, the fact that he just had African American artifacts. Mm hmm. But as you will see, or as you saw going through you look at at these, all these pictures and all these different things that he had collected over these years, right? And a lot of them, the images, or are disparaging, negative images of black people. Mm hmm, the A significant portion of it. And so you're looking at it and you now, you're starting to understand that when the people were who originally owned these, when they had them in their homes, this was what they were displaying, right? You know, all these images and disparaging words. And, you know, so we kind of, as we go along, have gone along we have when we give a tour and we bring people around, we we point out that this is America's thought pattern. This is America's consciousness. This is what America thinks about black people, right? You know, this, this negativity, and that's the reason that we get the we get. We get the pushback that we get in this country and and, but it represents a lie that America tells about black people right on the contrast, if you go through the story of Mount Bayou from where, where it began, on the plantation, down out of Vicksburg, and those people buying the black the black people buying the plantation they used to be enslaved on right, and being those people, that family becomes one of the wealthiest families in the country, right out of slavery, right this country doesn't know that story. Mm, hmm. And then they developed the highest grade of cotton, and when they were forced to leave that plantation because of race, racial you. Know, the way the things were set up in the United States, Davis was able to take it back over. But when the those same people, that same family, the son, at this point, comes up and discovers this, this this area in the balvola County, Mississippi, in the Delta that's uninhabited and a swamp, and he buys it. And they developed, they developed this city. And again, they developed the highest grade of cotton in the world. And the life of this city from the beginning through the end, they start educating everyone around there, educating people in Mount Bayou, educating people from other parts of the state and and no crime for 20 years. Even though they built a jail for 20 years, there was nobody. Nobody went in it right? And so they told me. Now, so it's and they innovated. They started things. They created things. And then even up through the 50s, this is where a lot of the civil rights movement was started. In Mount Bayou. People could come there because it was a sanctuary city. So that's a tremendous history that people need to know. And it was a place that we as a people, stood up from the beginning to the end, and and we're not at the end, and so we're turning another page, another chapter, to do bigger things than the city. And so that's where we at.

Unknown Speaker 21:28
Well, that's a perfect segue into my next thought, and that is, what are some of the immediate plans you guys have for the museum?

Unknown Speaker 21:37
Well, for the museum now we're hoping for expansion. You know, we worked on this several years before we even got to the point where we even had a building, right, we had a dream to put the Museum of museum together because we knew we needed to tell the story. We didn't know all what was, what was going to be in front of us. In order to do it, we just start taking steps after steps. And so we went around. We went in several different places in the country. We found exhibits in different places, huge exhibits, nice ones, right? But we don't have room right now for everything. So we have a Chicago that we can't bring down. We have another exhibit, a huge trailer full of artifacts that we can't bring. We've already collaborated with the world's largest children Museum in Indianapolis, and last year we got with them and they we have a MoU with them, for them to help us build a children's museum in Mount Bayou. Okay, so plans and then we are working right now. We got a, my family owns a cotton gin, and we're, we're having a Grants written right now in order to turn that cotton gin into something productive, as far as historical, because it's a historical cotton gin, right? We had the highest grade in the world in Mount Bayou. Some place in Mount Bayou needs to point out that story. So we're also working with some people who were just at the museum a couple of months ago, but they offered us money to expand where we are. So we're waiting for the word back on the expansion plans and for the the money that we gave them in a proposal. We put a proposal together right for what we would who we would need in order to upgrade the museum. And so we have, we have plans and but we really want the city now. I don't. I'm not the mayor, I'm not in political office, right? But I can only urge the citizens and least show the citizens in my value, that there's a value to the city, right? And hopefully a lot of people will understand that and start taking some of the property, property that that they own and and upgrade it, or utilize it to bring in the the historical tourist, you know, tourism, absolutely the city area, and just revitalize the Delta,

Unknown Speaker 24:17
absolutely, I think that that's That's honorable. And I can tell you if my family reunion was in Delhi, where I was born, Delhi, Louisiana, about a two, two and a half hour drive. And I'm like, Man, I'm going because I had heard about you guys from a guy who lives, who was born in Mississippi, in a small town. I forget the name of the town, but Big Jim told me about I said, Man, if I ever get close to there, I'm going to check it out, particularly when I found out you guys had established a museum. So how can people assist or make contributions to your effort?

Unknown Speaker 24:53
Well, I would love people who are really, really interested. I mean, we. To call me. I can, you know, I can give you my number, or going to mount BYU museum.org, and there are donation pages there. We'll take any number, any, you know, any amount, all of it helps. So, yeah, we would love for people who who wanted to come aside and assist us, even with, not only with just financial assistance, but we need boots on the ground. We need, you know, we need that type of thing. Or, matter of fact, I have someone call me today and wanted to work remotely, so they couldn't be here, but they wanted to do some work, so I gave them a job to do, and we can even do that also. So we'll see any, you know, any kind of assistance. Because, like I said, we took a step of faith and got the museum started. Everything was started out, out of, out of our pockets. Did we were able to get a small grant in the beginning that was, you know, there was categories for that. We could only spend it, and that got exhausted within the first year, but we had to keep it going. And so we, because we understand this, this museum, the story is very important,

Unknown Speaker 26:21
absolutely behind it, absolutely well, I can tell you that this show will air because we're taping. It will air on 10 five, and from there, it goes to podcast, and I will be sending this to you as well as you can go on your go to your app store. It's a free app to get K, U N, V, 91.5, jazz and more, and you can listen to this anywhere in the world. And my point is, once we send it to you, I hope that you will send it to others. Because not only will it help me to increase the numbers that I like to see in terms of the Veterans Affairs plus and again, a lot of times we talk about the plus side, which is this, which is what this is about. And it was an honor to speak with your dad, knowing that he was a military veteran and his 90 plus years. Man, his mind is still tight as a steel drum. Man, I was just proud to have the opportunity to speak with him. So any closing remarks and anything that you'd like to share the next 60 to 90 seconds.

Unknown Speaker 27:26
Well, I would like to say, also, we would love your permission to take this recording and put it on our website. We have a fabulous lady who also volunteered to be our social media person. She does a wonderful job. And I imagine if she had, you know, these, this recording, it's always, it always amazes me what she does with the things that we give her. So making that available, we can, we utilize, utilize that also. And, you know, I urge everybody that black history needs to be told and is one of the most most important stories in the country. And so if anybody can assist us to help help us get that story told. We were open mountain body museum.org, our phone number is 662-441-2233, my personal number is 909-395-7736, so we're open for any kind of suggestions or help that's out there. All right,

Unknown Speaker 28:36
Mr. Herman Johnson, Junior man, we appreciate you so much because you've added something that is very needed. In fact, I tell people all the time, Black history is a part of American history, so stories must be told. We don't need to be getting rid of books and this that and the other. So thank you so much for coming on Veterans Affairs, plus we appreciate what you've shared with our audience. Thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker 29:01
Thank you for bringing me on. I appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 29:03
All right, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We'll talk to you next week where we will have coach Tate on to talk about some of the things that he's doing in our community, particularly as it relates to you.

Outro Song 29:46
All the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear, all you wear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai