Tears and Laughter: A newbies guide to Wilcox County

Y’all all come to Wilcox County. It is quite a place. I have lived here for almost 25 years, and it has completely changed me as a person. Prior to living here I grew up in neighboring Clarke County, which as always say, was thirty miles and a whole world away. Once you cross the Alabama River…things change.

The soil changes. The culture and dialect changes. The economy is different. The history is different. Wilcox tosses being the poorest county in the state back and forth with Sumter. It is a strength not to be defined by or fully dependent upon money, but once upon a time – when cotton was king – Wilcox County was the wealthiest county in the growing nation.

That is over. Wilcox County has spent the last 154 years attempting to rise above its own history. This is the deep south. This was a slavery stronghold. Steamboats brought slaves to the banks of the river, and it was the river that carried the cotton away. Slaves were bought, sold, and sometimes hung along the streets in downtown Camden. You can still walk the sidewalks.

And of course the civil rights movement did not make a smooth transition here. It wasn’t Selma or Birmingham, but the history has been well documented. There are pictures. I am going to pass on dredging it all up, because again, Wilcox County has been trying to spiritually heal and move forward. We have no other choice. But it is a rather dreadful history for a place to have if you think about it. Nobody has to march to get rights anymore and there is not a single confederate soldier left living. There are a few houses remain that some people are real proud of, but Sherman and his troops aren’t camped out over on Highway 41.

Locals struggle to explain the past and some are so ashamed and embarrassed by it that they pretend it doesn’t exist. Others stay silent in fear they will say the wrong thing. A few haven’t known what to say since 1965. Especially the growing number of people like myself who were not yet born in 1965 but live in this place burdened with post trauma. This is where the white hoods were. But make no mistake, nobody wears them here anymore. Nobody, black or white, would allow such to ever happen again. Only the haunt of it remains.

Wilcox County has its issues, but we get along better than outsiders know. It has been labeled with a racist past. And all of us living here know that. It has always been. We are used to it. But we have chosen not to hate one another. There is a natural camaraderie that exists. It’s like social hour at church some days in town. Men will be shaking hands and women will be hugging one another’s necks, asking about the sick and the old. White folks and black folks together. We are all just folks. We laugh together, and we mourn together.

So we encourage everyone to come to Wilcox County. Spend your money, buy land, invest at your own risk. Marry the women and fraternize with the men – or vice-versa. Nobody cares. But after all this place has been through, please don’t move here and threaten frivolous discrimination lawsuits simply because local laws aren’t changed to suit private business pursuits. That is disrespectful toward this county and those everywhere who have suffered from true discrimination.

Wilcox County accepts people as they are. Be arrogant and condescending, call the men in town good ole boys – which is not novel by the way, and frankly a little tacky – but don’t try and bully Camden with lawsuits. There are already more law offices downtown than there are open stores.

Amanda Walker is a contributor with AL.com, Selma Times Journal, Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, Alabama Gazette, and the Wilcox Progressive Era. Contact her at Walkerworld77@msn.com or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.