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Cleaning up Clarksdale for the next generation
by Eva Ann Dorris

Henry Espy Jr. was told from a very early age that he was expected to be a better man than his father. Not because his father wasn’t a good man, according to the younger Espy, his father, Henry Espy Sr., was a great man.

“My father always told me that if I wasn’t better than him, then all his work would be for naught,” says Espy. “He set a benchmark for us.”

If Henry Espy Sr. were alive today, I’m sure he would recognize his son had lived up to, if not exceeded, the expectations of the father.

The younger Espy is currently serving his third term as mayor of Clarksdale, Miss., a town revitalized by Espy’s devotion to the people of the town he has called home for almost four decades.

Espy graduated from Southern University at Baton Rouge in 1964 and worked one year as a teacher before being offered the opportunity to move to Clarksdale and work for one of the family-owned funeral homes, which were headquartered in Espy’s hometown of Yazoo City.
“I wanted to come to Clarksdale because I had always wanted to be in the family business,” says Espy. “When I came to Clarksdale there were no elected black officials at all, and my father asked me why I didn’t run for a political office there.”

Espy’s father was the first black to be appointed to the public service commission board in Yazoo City. Espy Sr. and his wife, Jean, also deceased, both graduated from Tuskegee University.

“He told me don’t expect to win, but give it all you have. And if you do a good job campaigning, you will gain name recognition,” explains Espy. “I ran in my first political outing for city council Post 4. I did lose, but I almost won.”

But out of that first exposure into politics and because of his strong support from the black voters, came an offer from the Clarksdale City Council to serve as the first black on the Clarksdale City School Board.

“That was the first time anybody black had been appointed to any board in Clarksdale,” says Espy.

After a few years on the school board, the job on the city council came open again. Espy ran again and won his first political office as a city commissioner in 1973, and made history as the first black to win an elected position in the county. He remained as a city commissioner for 14 years.

It was 1989 when Espy again made history by being elected the town’s first black mayor. He was reelected in 1993 for his second term, and elected again in 2001 for his third term as the town’s mayor.

“This is my last term in office. I will retire after this term,” says Espy. “When the founding fathers adopted this political system, it was never supposed to be a career. People have made it a career, and we are honored by those people that keep us in office,” “but at the same time, there are new faces—standard bearers—ready to take up whatever their causes are.”

“America or Clarksdale always needs an infusion of new ideas. Sometimes people stay in office too long and even though their ideas are accepted by people, the ideas are stagnant. I am humbled the people have allowed me to be here so long, but there are other opportunities that other politicians might have that will take Clarksdale on to the next stage of where it needs to go.”

Espy’s most honest of reasons for choosing to retire at the end of his term: “I’ve accomplished those goals I thought were necessary for this to be a good town. And, when you do that, you need to leave on top. Right now I feel I am on top.”

The challenges that brought the change
During this last term in office, Espy has been even more dedicated to make right the wrongs in the city where all of his four children were raised.

His dedication and team approach to problem solving has been good for Clarksdale as it pushes into the 21st Century.

Crime rates are down significantly. Unemployment rates in the city are at 6.8 percent, the lowest in 29 years, and a rejuvenation of tourism has helped clean up the town and infuse dollars into the local economy to balance out some expected losses to industry.

“We are the home of the Blues, and it has become a salvation that when industry is not coming to the community, tourism is,” says Espy. “We have good and competent people to help us like Morgan Freeman. We also have the Delta Jubilee, and we have had record turnouts during the blues festival.”

Espy says even in the first months of his new budget year that retail sales are up over budget expectations.

“That goes back to tourism. It goes back to a campaign of stay at home; let’s win here. Don’t take your dollars out of this city,” admonishes Espy. “If you get people feeling enthused about where they are in their situation, and if you do some things like clean up the city, then people will feel better about their city.”

One of the most recent events to leave Clarksdale residents feeling good about their city was a Washington, D.C. presentation recognizing Clarksdale in two categories for being a safe city. “Clarksdale received two awards for being a safe city. Out of 225 awards given, only six went to non-federal law enforcement and two of those went to Clarksdale,” according to Espy.

Why Clarksdale? It’s a town that has reduced violent crime by 36 percent in one year
“When I came into office, even though I had vision, I had to take care of the business at hand of reducing high crime. I had to do that, but I needed help.”

His help came from the President’s national program: Project Safe Neighborhood, which teamed local, state, national and federal crime prevention agencies into a cooperative effort to lower the crime rate in Clarksdale.

Involvement in that programwas one part to that success
“The other part was the people of Clarksdale got tired. They were sick and tired of crime overrunning the city,” says Espy.

“The community joined in our first town meeting in 2001. More than 600 people came to the city auditorium to meet with these different law enforcement agencies to vent about how we were going to clean up this town,” he relates.

Out of the involvement of those 600 people, Espy credits the town with successful Neighborhood Watch programs and with putting policemen in the schools, walking the halls and keeping students safe.

“And out of that came a ministerial outreach into churches and communities about let’s join this administration and stop crime in this city.

“When we were told we were going to receive the award, I didn’t believe it. I still didn’t believe it until they called our name at the ceremony. There is nothing like success. Other cities in the Delta are now asking for this same program,” says Espy.

When the U.S Attorney General’s office came to Clarksdale as part of the Project Safe Neighborhood, “it was like the Lone Ranger and Tonto coming to Clarksdale to put out crime,” laughs Espy. “It has worked and the people know it is working. The morale of this town is high.”

According to Espy, Clarksdale stands on the edge to gain much more.
“We are one of the largest cities in the Delta and on a major four-lane highway to Memphis and major distribution centers. Corporate America is looking for a safe city for its people. And in the minutes from Clarksdale to Memphis we have tourism and the gaming industry, golf course, airports, good schools.”

In Espy’s goals for a better Clarksdale, he knew the community had location and the resources to attract residents and industry, but he had to be able to offer low crime, a clean community, a stable economy and good schools.

“When you do those things, you become like a budding flower. People say ‘oh look at Clarksdale.’

“If you work hard with all you have, the product will be good,” says Espy. “I have given Clarksdale all I had, and the product of the city is good.”

Making time for the third generation
Espy says his retirement days won’t find him in any rocking chairs. He will be busy taking on more responsibility at the family-owned Century Funeral Home. His son, Chuck, is now president of the business, but Chuck is also in his second term in the Mississippi House of Representatives.

“So, I’ll retire and follow him. His ideas are good. They are doable. His education has been good. He is Christian, he is a good man. He has ideas for his community. He is a man of imagination. He chose to run for state representative right off the bat. He could have run for city council, alderman or even mayor, but wanted to go to Jackson,” says Espy.
Henry Espy Jr. has six siblings. Among them is his brother Mike, a former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Henry and his wife, Linda, have four children, Chuck, Charisse, Carolyn and Paula, all have completed college educations. DBJ