JA Guest Writer
One of my fondest memories I can recall as a little girl occurred in October 1978, while standing with my mother, brother, and uncle at a parade in Jackson, Mississippi. The excitement was bubbling up as we waited – impatiently –to catch a glimpse of the champ, Muhammad Ali, Men’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion. He was in town to campaign for civil rights activist Charles Evers, who was running for U.S. Senate as an Independent candidate.
I can still see Ali waving and smiling from the back of a red convertible, larger than life. Behind us loomed a massive building that seemed both grand and ghostly, almost frightening in its emptiness. At the time, I couldn’t understand why such an enormous place sat abandoned, pigeons fluttering in and out of its broken windows…