My name is Emerson, and I am a rising fifth-year at Northeastern University. I moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, in January for six months to serve as an intern at the Mississippi State University (MSU) Coastal Research and Extension Center.
I worked across two programs: Coastal Conservation and Restoration (CCR) under Dr. Eric Sparks, an MSU associate extension professor and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant's assistant director for outreach, PLACE:SLR under Dr. Renee Collini, a coastal climate resilience specialist with MSU and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant. During my time here, I had the privilege of working on many different projects across the northern Gulf Coast. One of the most meaningful projects I was able to work on was the Resilient East Biloxi Community Development Leadership Program.
History of East Biloxi
In order to better understand our work in East Biloxi, I think it is important to know the history of the neighborhood. East Biloxi has a rich and unique history among the Gulf Coast. It has played a significant yet underlooked role in historic events.
When learning about the civil rights movement in grade school, you typically hear of integrating schools, the Freedom Riders and the lunch counter sit-ins from Greensboro, North Carolina. However, Biloxi was also at the forefront of the civil rights movement.
The beaches along Highway 90 were segregated: African-Americans were not allowed to swim in the water where they called home. Compared to many other battles during the civil rights movement, this was a fight to access public land; an instinctually free, natural resource. Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr. organized a series of wade-ins, a peaceful protest where Black residents in East Biloxi simply went to the sandy beach. By the third and most popular wade-in in 1960, participants were met with unprecedented violence from white Mississippians, and in 1963, with many arrests. Only in 1968 were African-Americans allowed to visit the beaches, a place that is public at heart.
East Biloxi has also been overlooked in its impact from Hurricane Katrina (2005). Most national attention was focused on New Orleans, while tens of thousands of homes along the Mississippi Gulf Coast faced devastating damage, and many more were left without power.
Also unique to Mississippi is that the destruction was due not to levee failure, but from the sheer force of the hurricane. East Biloxi lost the homes and businesses that fueled its economy. Before Katrina, the economy might’ve been struggling; but after, it was nonexistent. East Biloxi was and still is a lower-income community of color.
After Katrina, many residents were forced to leave and never came back. Even today, the effects are clear as day. Casinos line Highway 90, but if you drive across the railroad tracks you will see filled in swimming pools, numerous vacant lots, boarded up businesses and roads still under construction.
Working in East Biloxi
The Resilient East Biloxi project was a partnership with multiple organizations in East Biloxi to conduct a series of four training sessions for community leaders and corresponding community action meetings for residents. The overall objectives were to educate leaders on ways to create a sustainable future for East Biloxi and to engage with residents to plan a strategy for redeveloping the neighborhood. In accordance with our mission at PLACE:SLR, one of our key contributions to the project was hosting a training and providing resources on flood risk in East Biloxi. Other organizations we worked with include the Steps Coalition, the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, East Biloxi Community Collaborative and the NAACP Biloxi Branch.
As we progressed through the project, we learned a lot about how to best serve the community. For example, one thing we focused on was language access, as East Biloxi has significant Hispanic and Vietnamese populations. At our first community action meeting, we did not get a high turnout of Hispanic and Vietnamese folks. We also found that a single, in-person translator wasn’t the most effective. At our following community action meeting, we decided to use headsets for translation services, and we received more positive feedback. The Vietnamese turnout was significantly higher and more engaged. Overall turnout and engagement significantly grew over time as well, which was really rewarding to see.
I personally found this a really engaging way to work with and learn from local leaders and residents. In addition to planning this program with leaders and interacting with residents at community action meetings, I also got to connect with local businesses. As a part of the advertising for this program, I went to central businesses and organizations in the area. Throughout the process I got to see how tight-knit and supportive the East Biloxi community is.
Living in East Biloxi
Having never been to the state of Mississippi, let alone Biloxi, I had no idea what to expect when I moved here. I grew up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and now go to university in Boston. Neither of these places prepared me for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Biloxi was nothing like my hometown; it has its own Target, airport, a vegan restaurant, eight casinos, more than three stoplights and close proximity to Mobile and New Orleans. Biloxi, oozing with southern hospitality, a slow pace of life, quaint downtown, no traffic and very diverse residents, was also nothing like Boston.
What was integral to my experience in Biloxi is that I lived in East Biloxi (or just about… depending on who you asked). Coming from a small town, a sense of community is super important to me. I got to know and become friends with many of my neighbors, work at a bar downtown Biloxi and see the complexities of dynamics in my day to day life. It is the heart of Biloxi, where you can see lifelong residents running their own small businesses downtown, the thriving Vietnamese bakery, grocery store and restaurants, and the classic Gulf Coast seafood.
This experience is also what made working in the neighborhood even more significant. While I am no longer living in Biloxi, I fortunately get to continue my work in the community as I work remotely for PLACE:SLR!
You can find CCR on Instagram and PLACE:SLR on Twitter.
