Cara Anthony
SIKESTON, Mo. — For residents of Sikeston, as for Black Americans across the nation, talking brazenly about experiences with racial violence will be taboo and, in some circumstances, forbidden.
As a baby, Larry McClellon’s mom instructed him to not ask too many questions on the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright of their hometown of Sikeston. McClellon, now an outspoken activist, needs his neighborhood to acknowledge the town’s painful previous, in addition to the racism and violence.
“They do not want to talk about that subject,” McClellon mentioned. “That’s a hush-hush.”
Also on this episode, host Cara Anthony uncovers particulars of a police killing in her family. Anthony unpacks her household’s story with Aiesha Lee, a licensed skilled counselor and an assistant professor at Penn State.
“This pain has compounded over generations,” Lee mentioned. “We’re going to have to deconstruct it or heal it over generations.”
Host
Cara Anthony
Midwest correspondent, KFF Health News
Cara is an Edward R. Murrow and National Association of Black Journalists award-winning reporter from East St. Louis, Illinois. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Time journal, NPR, and different shops nationwide. Her reporting journey to the Missouri Bootheel in August 2020 launched the “Silence in Sikeston” undertaking. She is a producer on the documentary and the podcast’s host.
In Conversation With …
Aiesha Lee
Assistant professor of counselor schooling, Penn State
click on to open the transcript
Transcript: Hush, Fix Your Face
Editor’s observe: If you’re able, we encourage you to take heed to the audio of “Silence in Sikeston,” which incorporates emotion and emphasis not discovered within the transcript. This transcript, generated utilizing transcription software program, has been edited for fashion and readability. Please use the transcript as a instrument however verify the corresponding audio earlier than quoting the podcast.
Cara Anthony: A lynching isn’t an remoted, singular act.
The violence — and the silence round it — was a deliberate, community-wide lesson meant to be handed on.
And handed down.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: In Sikeston, Missouri, a 25-year-old soon-to-be father named Cleo Wright was lynched by a white mob.
It occurred in 1942. But you didn’t must be there, and even born but, to get the message.
Larry McClellon: I grew up right here in Sikeston, Missouri. My age … 77.
Cara Anthony: That’s neighborhood elder Larry McClellon.
He was born two years after Cleo Wright’s physique was dragged throughout the railroad tracks to the Black aspect of city.
Larry McClellon: Back within the previous days, when darkish comes, you don’t wish to be caught over right here after 6 o’clock. You wish to be on this aspect of the tracks.
I didn’t cross the road. Because I knew what was ready. I knew what time it was right here in Sikeston, Missouri.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: I’m Cara Anthony. I’m a journalist. I’ve been visiting Sikeston for years to work on a documentary movie and podcast in regards to the lynching of Cleo Wright.
And the police killing in 2020 of one other younger, Black father, Denzel Taylor.
Larry McClellon: All these Black males are getting shot down, dropping their life.
Cara Anthony: Cleo and Denzel, killed some 80 years aside. In the identical metropolis.
Larry McClellon: They don’t wish to speak about that topic. That’s a hush-hush.
Cara Anthony: In this episode of the podcast, we’re exploring how that “hush” hurts the neighborhood. And the way in which it hurts folks’s well being.
Here’s an instance: Larry says it’s arduous to really feel protected in your hometown when Black males are killed and practically everybody seems to be the opposite manner.
Growing up, Larry had plenty of questions on Cleo.
Larry McClellon: I used to ask Mom. You know, “What is this with this man that supposedly, uh, got lynched?” And she instructed me, “Hey, you stay away from that. … Don’t you be asking no questions about Cleo Wright because that was just a no-no.”
Cara Anthony: Why was {that a} no-no?
Larry McClellon: Because she’s afraid for me that they’d most likely take me out and do one thing to me. Maybe bodily hurt or one thing like that.
Cara Anthony: “They” being white neighbors.
Despite these classes, Larry turned an outspoken activist for racial justice and police reform in Sikeston. He based a corporation right here known as And Justice for All.
Being vocal has come at a value, he says.
Larry McClellon: Somebody known as me and mentioned, “Uh, Mr. Larry, your building is on fire.”
So, I didn’t even actually cling the cellphone up actual good. I simply jumped up and are available up the freeway.
Cara Anthony: It was April 2019 — Larry rushed to the headquarters of And Justice for All.
Larry McClellon: I might see the flame was excessive as something in Sikeston, may as properly say. So, I will get up there and, uh, fireplace burning. So, all the fireplace division get on the market pouring water and the whole lot.
Cara Anthony: The constructing was a complete loss.
Larry McClellon: The constructing was set on fireplace. That’s what, that’s what occurred.
Who would are available and destroy one thing like that?
Cara Anthony: The police report says it was arson, however nothing actually got here of the investigation. Larry suspects it was a focused assault — retaliation for his activism, for talking out. Retaliation that might proceed.
Larry McClellon: I acquired 4 acres over there. Loads of bushes and so forth. And a few of my very own folks, they make jokes out of it someday, like, “Man, you going to be hanging from one of those trees down there, or somebody’s going to set over in those bushes with a high-powered rifle and going to shoot you when you walk out the door or shoot you when you pull up.”
Cara Anthony: And nonetheless, Larry’s determined he’s not going to carry his tongue.
Because protecting quiet causes its personal hassle, its personal harm and ache.
This is “Silence in Sikeston.” The podcast all about discovering the phrases to say the issues that go unsaid.
From WORLD Channel and KFF Health News and distributed by PRX.
Episode 2: “Hush, Fix Your Face.”
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Larry’s protecting on together with his work in Sikeston. But all these warnings from his mom a long time in the past to maintain quiet about Cleo’s lynching left a mark.
I known as up Aiesha Lee to speak about this. She’s a licensed psychological well being skilled and in addition an assistant professor at Penn State.
One of the primary issues she needed me to know is that silence has been used as a instrument of systemic oppression in America for a really very long time.
Aiesha Lee says lynching — and the neighborhood terror it prompted — was a part of a wider effort to impose white supremacy.
Aiesha Lee: This is a design. Let me be clear, that is, it was very a lot designed for us to be these subservient, submissive individuals who don’t ask questions, who don’t say something, and simply do as they’re instructed.
Cara Anthony: One of Aiesha’s areas of experience is how racism can influence bodily and psychological well being — throughout generations. She sees indicators of it in her purchasers every single day.
Aiesha Lee: No one truly is available in and says, “Hey, I’m dealing with intergenerational trauma. Can you help me?” Right?
Cara Anthony: I must admit, I’ve been very skeptical about that time period, what meaning, as a result of, in my household, it was at all times this factor of like, “We’re good over here. Everything’s OK.”
Aiesha Lee: I really like what you simply mentioned. And, and for me, as a psychological [health] skilled, I get actually cautious when utilizing, even utilizing the phrase “trauma.”
Part of the, the generational legacy of Black households is we don’t speak about our issues, we simply sort of roll by them, we take care of them, we’re sturdy, and we simply hold it shifting ahead, proper?
It’s safety. It is “Let me teach you the ways of the world according to us” or for us, proper? And for us, we have to hold our mouth shut. We can’t ask any questions. We can’t make any noise, as a result of if we do, you’re going to get the identical, or worse than, , others.
Cara Anthony: My dad and mom. Grandparents. My great-grandparents. Their experiences with racial violence — and what they needed to do to remain protected — formed me.
Stuffing down injustice and ache is a tried-and-true technique to cope. But Aiesha says holding harm in hurts.
Aiesha Lee: It’s nearly like each time we’re silent, it’s like slightly pinprick that we, we do to our our bodies internally.
Cara Anthony: She says over time these wounds add up.
Aiesha Lee: After so lengthy, um, these little pinpricks flip up as coronary heart illness, as most cancers, as, , all these different illnesses.
Cara Anthony: Feeling unsafe, being that vigilant on a regular basis. What can that do to somebody’s physique?
Aiesha Lee: Imagine each time you stroll out of the door, you’re tightening your physique, you’re tensing up your physique, proper? And you’re holding on to it for the complete day till you come house at evening. What do we expect would occur to our our bodies consequently?
Cara Anthony: A research from UCLA discovered experiences with racism and discrimination correlated with increased ranges of irritation within the our bodies of Black and Hispanic folks. It affected their immune system, their intestine.
Aiesha says at all times being on edge can rewire how the mind offers with stress.
Aiesha Lee: That’s what that hypervigilance does. That hypervigilance causes our our bodies to tense up in order that we are able to’t absolutely breathe.
Cara Anthony: Yeah, that’s exhausting. And as you had been speaking about it, like, I even really feel my physique simply being tight as you might be talking about this stuff.
Cara Anthony: If you don’t take care of the emotional stuff, Aiesha says, it could actually stay in your physique.
Aiesha Lee: Arthritis, fibromyalgia, hypertension …
Cara Anthony: … and ripple by households as intergenerational trauma.
That makes me surprise about my dad’s hypertension.
My mother’s continual ache.
About my very own hassle sleeping.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Despite infinite conversations with my dad and mom about this work — someway, I used to be months and months into reporting on racial violence in Sikeston earlier than I realized new particulars a few loss of life in my family.
Wilbon Anthony: I take pleasure in studying about historical past the place, , my folks come from.
Cara Anthony: My dad, Wilbon Anthony, knew the story for practically a decade, however saved it to himself.
Really, I shouldn’t have been stunned. My complete life I used to be taught in huge and small ways in which often it’s higher to remain silent.
There’s a threat — to self — if you communicate out.
I’m 37 years previous — lots grown now — nevertheless it feels just like the “adults” have at all times tiptoed across the story of Leemon Anthony, my great-uncle on my father’s aspect.
Leemon served within the army throughout World War II. Family members keep in mind him as fun-loving and outgoing.
I used to be instructed that Leemon died in a wagon-and-mule accident in 1946. But at household reunions, typically I’d overhear particulars that had been totally different.
Wilbon Anthony: There was a touch there was one thing to do with it in regards to the police, nevertheless it wasn’t a lot.
Cara Anthony: My dad knew that the tales he’d heard about Uncle Leemon’s loss of life had been incomplete. That lacking piece left him feeling undone.
Wilbon Anthony: Later in life, I began researching it. I simply considered it at some point and, uh, simply mentioned, “Oh, see if it was something about this.”
Cara Anthony: He known as up members of the family, dug by newspaper archives on-line, and searched ancestry web sites. Eventually, he discovered Leemon’s loss of life certificates.
To present me what he discovered, Dad and I sat in his house workplace. He pulled up the loss of life certificates on his pc. Leemon was 29.
Wilbon Anthony: It says, “Shot by police, resisting arrest.”
Well, nobody ever, I by no means heard this in my, uh, complete life.
Then merchandise 21, it lists the causes of loss of life: accident or suicide or murder, and the checklist says that merchandise is murder.
Cara Anthony: OK, OK, um, that’s so much. I must pause.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Shot by police.
Even now, I solely have bits and items of the story, largely from whispers from my household.
There was a wagon accident.
One of my older cousins says an area white girl noticed it and known as the police. An article revealed in The Jackson Sun quoted Leemon’s father saying that Leemon had been “restless” and “all out of shape” since he returned house from the conflict.
What we do know is that the police confirmed up. And they killed Leemon.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: When I realized about my Uncle Leemon’s loss of life, after I acquired slammed by that grief and anger, I known as my Aunt B — my dad’s sister Bernice Spann — and instructed her what my dad had discovered.
Cara Anthony: OK, I simply despatched you the loss of life certificates, um, simply so you may …
Bernice Spann: What does it say, his loss of life, how he died?
Cara Anthony: It says murder, and that he was shot by the police.
Bernice Spann: Wow.
Cara Anthony: Yeah. Yeah.
Bernice Spann: And they mentioned “homicide”?
Cara Anthony: Right.
Bernice Spann: And no person was charged?
Cara Anthony: No fees.
So, what are you pondering proper now?
Bernice Spann: I’m heartbroken.
Cara Anthony: Yeah. Yeah.
Bernice Spann: I imply, that’s shut. That just isn’t … it’s an uncle.
Cara Anthony: That’s your uncle. That’s my great-uncle. That’s your uncle. Yeah.
Bernice Spann: Well, that’s my uncle. And he died and no person fought.
Cara Anthony: Yeah.
Bernice Spann: Nobody fought for a decision ’trigger no person … all people felt powerless.
Cara Anthony: Even now there’s a lot silence in our household round Leemon’s loss of life.
Bernice Spann: I feel there’s one thing in our DNA that also makes us scared to speak about it. I would like for us to have a look at it. I don’t know. Does it make sense? And possibly you’re the one who, it’s time so that you can take a look at it.
Cara Anthony: So, that’s what I’m doing.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: This storytelling — this journalism — is about what’s at stake for our well being, and our neighborhood, and family members once we’re silent within the face of racial violence — and the systemic racism that permits it to exist.
So on one reporting journey to Sikeston, I requested my household to take the trip with me.
We loaded right into a van.
[Cara’s mom hums in the background.]
And throughout the drive from Illinois to southeastern Missouri, my mother hummed hymns, whereas my daughter, Lily, napped and inhaled snacks.
Cotton continues to be king in Sikeston. It’s an enormous a part of the city’s economic system, and tradition, and historical past. So simply earlier than we acquired to city, we stopped at a cotton subject.
[Car door shuts.]
Cara Anthony: OK, Lily, come right here.
Cara Anthony: Lily was simply 5 again then.
Cara Anthony: What is that this? What are we proper now?
Lily: Cotton.
Cara Anthony: Lily was excited, however after I circled, my dad, Wilbon, regarded watchful.
Wary.
As for plenty of Black Americans, cotton’s part of our household’s historical past.
Cara Anthony: OK, Dad. Come over right here. So, Dad, Lily simply mentioned that cotton seems to be like cotton sweet and potatoes ’trigger it seems to be fluffy. When you look out at this subject, what do you see?
Wilbon Anthony: Well, I see. First, I see plenty of recollections. I keep in mind … choosing cotton as a child. Actually, I can keep in mind ready on my dad and mom whereas they had been within the fields choosing cotton. And then I keep in mind plenty of days of arduous work.
So, yeah, I … yeah, I’ve so much, plenty of recollections about cotton.
Cara Anthony: My mother has recollections, too. As slightly lady in Tennessee, round Lily’s age, my mother was already working in a subject like this.
Days and days hunched over. Carrying heavy bales, working till her arms had been sore.
My mother’s nonetheless in grief in regards to the violence and punishing labor — and misplaced alternative — so tightly woven into all this cotton.
As a baby, she hid that ache. She’d lie face down within the grime when the varsity bus drove previous, hoping the opposite children wouldn’t see.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Standing in that cotton — three generations collectively — I anxious I used to be dredging up previous wounds or inflicting new harm.
Still, I wish to attempt to have these conversations with out passing the ache and stress right down to the following era — to my daughter.
Cara Anthony: Why did we come down right here to Sikeston?
Lily: Because there’s essential work right here.
Cara Anthony: Yeah, there may be essential work right here.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Someday I would like to inform Lily about lynching in America. About Cleo Wright and our Uncle Leemon. I would like her to know their names. I would like to inform Lily about her private threat of encountering that sort of violence.
But, in truth, I’m not fairly prepared but.
Here’s some recommendation I acquired from psychologist Aiesha Lee.
Aiesha Lee: This ache has compounded over generations, and so we’re going to must deconstruct it or heal it over generations, proper? And so, , our era and the generations that come behind us can have little items of the work to do.
[BEAT]
As we put psychological well being extra so on the forefront, and as we begin to talk an increasing number of inside our households, that’s how we interact in, on this therapeutic.
Cara Anthony: I used to be instructed to maintain quiet so much after I was a child, however I wish to nurture Lily’s curiosity and educate her what she must know to remain protected.
My dad and mom did what they thought was finest. Now it’s my flip to attempt to discover that stability.
Sometimes when Lily’s jumpy and stressed, having a tough time falling asleep, we’ll sing collectively.
Cara Anthony and Lily [singing]: Hush. Hush, hush, any individual’s calling my title. Hush, hush, any individual’s calling my title.
Cara Anthony: At first hear, which may sound like a message to remain silent.
Actually, it’s a track enslaved folks sang as they labored in cotton fields. As they dreamed and deliberate. It’s a name to be acknowledged. Named. And counted.
Lily has grown up so much since we visited that cotton subject in Sikeston. She’s 7 now. I would like her to know that she will communicate out extra freely than her ancestors might.
More than I’ve.
Cara Anthony: Sit over, come over right here. Come over right here. Seriously. Do you keep in mind a few weeks in the past if you had been crying? And I instructed you to repair your what?
Lily: Face.
Cara Anthony: That wasn’t very good. I would like you to know that we are able to speak about issues. Because once we speak about issues, we frequently really feel higher, proper?
Lily: Yes.
Cara Anthony: Can we hold speaking to one another whilst you develop up in life about stuff? Even arduous stuff?
Lily: Like doing 100 math details?
Cara Anthony: Sure. That’s the most important factor in your life proper now. But sure, all of that. We’re simply going to maintain speaking to one another. So, can we make a promise?
Lily: Yeah.
Cara Anthony: All proper, cool.
Cara Anthony: Talking simply may assist us begin to heal.
[BEAT]
Cara Anthony: Next time on “Silence in Sikeston” …
Mikela Jackson: The Bootheel is aware of what occurred to him. The world — they do not know who Denzel Taylor is.
CREDITS
Cara Anthony: Thanks for listening to “Silence in Sikeston.”
Next, go watch the documentary. It’s a joint manufacturing from Retro Report and KFF Health News, introduced in partnership with WORLD.
Subscribe to WORLD Channel on YouTube. That’s the place yow will discover the movie “Silence in Sikeston,” a Local, USA particular.
This podcast is a co-production of WORLD Channel and KFF Health News and distributed by PRX.
It was produced with help from PRX and made potential partially by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The audio sequence was reported and hosted by me, Cara Anthony.
Zach Dyer and Taylor Cook are the producers.
Editing by Simone Popperl.
Taunya English is the managing editor of the podcast.
Sound design, mixing, and authentic music by Lonnie Ro.
Podcast artwork design by Colin Mahoney and Tania Castro-Daunais.
Oona Zenda was the lead on the touchdown web page design.
Julio Ricardo Varela consulted on the script.
Sending a shoutout to my vocal coach, Viki Merrick, for serving to me faucet into my voice.
Music on this episode is from BlueDot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.
Some of the audio you’ll hear throughout the podcast can also be within the movie.
For that, particular because of Adam Zletz, Matt Gettemeier, Roger Herr, and Philip Geyelin, who labored with us and colleagues from Retro Report.
Kyra Darnton is government producer at Retro Report.
I used to be a producer on the movie.
Jill Rosenbaum directed the documentary.
Kytja Weir is nationwide editor at KFF Health News.
WORLD Channel’s editor-in-chief and government producer is Chris Hastings.
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Thank you. It makes a distinction.
Oh, yeah, and inform your mates in actual life, too!
Credits
Taunya English
Managing editor
Taunya is deputy managing editor for broadcast at KFF Health News, the place she leads enterprise audio initiatives.
Simone Popperl
Line editor
Simone is broadcast editor at KFF Health News, the place she shapes and edits tales that air on Marketplace and NPR, manages a reporting collaborative with native NPR member stations throughout the nation, and edits the KFF Health News Minute.
Zach Dyer
Senior producer
Zach is senior producer for audio with KFF Health News, the place he supervises all ranges of podcast manufacturing.
Taylor Cook
Associate producer
Taylor is an impartial producer who does analysis, books visitors, contributes writing, and fact-checks episodes for a number of KFF Health News podcasts.
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The “Silence in Sikeston” podcast is a manufacturing of KFF Health News and WORLD. Distributed by PRX. Subscribe and hear on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartwork, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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