Museum honoring Hoxie integration efforts planned

HOXIE — Museums showcase the work that has been done over the years and on Sunday, Hoxie announced their efforts of adding one of their own.

The museum will be focusing on the city’s impact during integration in education in the 1950s. President of Board of Directors for Hoxie: The First Stand Ethel Tompkins said the city stood up to the issue.

“They’re also heroes because they withstood the force of people trying to change their mind and bring outside forces to say, ‘You don’t want integration. You don’t want your children to go to school with African Americans,” she said.

“They didn’t use the term African Americans but that’s basically what it was.”

In that time, Tompkins was forced to use the back door when entering restaurants. She was also refused entry to the local movies.

Brown vs. The Board of Education showcased Little Rock’s efforts of combining integration. Tompkins wants Hoxie to get the recognition they deserve.

“Two years before Little Rock did, there was Hoxie,” she said. “We want the museum to showcase the community, the town and the city of Hoxie itself and the African American community.”

The First Stand group has sought the help of Principal of Exhibition Associates James Volkert. He has worked with museum construction for 40 years. He wants others to know of Hoxie’s history.

“It’s an incredibly important story and particularly important now in the times that we live where the idea of cooperation and collaboration and partnership is important,” he said.

The school has also gotten involved with the project by creating curriculum that showcases Hoxie’s history. A building has been bought for the museum.

The First Stand is wanting the upper end of the renovation, which would cost around $1 million. Now, the group is fundraising to get the museum the city needs.

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An Army veteran severely injured and paralyzed while serving in Iraq will receive a custom home donated by a nonprofit.

Homes For Our Troops (HFOT) is a nonprofit dedicated to building and donating custom homes adapted for severely injured post-9/11 veterans.

On Saturday, September 21, HFOT will donate a home to Army Sergeant Bryan Camacho.

Camacho was serving in Hawija, Iraq in December 2007 when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device (IED), throwing Camacho from the vehicle. Camacho broke his back and was paralyzed from the waist down. A few years later in 2014, Camacho was in an adapted truck when it was involved in a crash, causing him to break his neck and paralyze him from the neck down.

HFOT says Camacho has been limited to staying in bed most of the time due to current living conditions and limited accessibility. They are working to change that by donating a home which boasts over 40 adaptations for Camacho.

The Murfeesboro home will feature widened doorways, a roll-in shower, pull-down shelving in the kitchen, and other changes that will help the wheelchair-bound Camacho improve quality of life. Cost for the home will be covered by Homes For Our Troops.

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2-year-old boy found floating in river days after wreck

DUNDEE, Miss. — The body of a 2-year-old-boy has been recovered from the Mississippi River, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of where a woman drove into the river. Tunica County Sheriff KC Hamp tells WREG-TV that a body matching the description of Cortez Moore was spotted by a helicopter on Wednesday, floating in the river near Dundee.

The body was sent to Mississippi’s crime lab in Pearl for official identification.

Moore has been missing since Sunday after an SUV driven by 29-year-old Symphony Wilson plunged into the river. Hamp says Wilson dropped a relative at work at a casino. Her body was found Monday. Another child inside, 5-year-old Brenilah Moore, was found Tuesday. Wilson wasn’t the children’s mother.

It remains unclear why the SUV left the road and entered the water.