Ever Is A Long Time

Drew Garrett 1
Ever Is a Long Time

W. Ralph Eubanks, in his memoir Ever Is a Long Time, lays out what life was like in
Mississippi during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement. His story, however, takes a slightly
different approach from most African American families living in Mississippi at the time. His
family lived in the Mount Olive community, and they "lived a dignified life in an undignified
system of racial segregation" (Eubanks 5). This is mostly due to the fact that his mother and
father held professional jobs and fit into the middle class. His father was a county agent, while
his mother "held one of the few professional jobs a black woman could have: She was a
teacher..." (Eubanks 5). Throughout his memoir, Eubanks highlights the experiences in his life
and how they effected his interpretations of Mississippi as a whole. An important fact to
understand in Ever Is a Long Time is how his life was shaped by his family's economic stability
in a state where blacks largely lived in poverty. The aim of this paper is to explain why Eubanks
left Mississippi, what made him decide to return, and what he ultimately decided about his home
state after he returned.
Eubanks left Mount Olive, Mississippi because of his experiences growing up in a
segregated state. His treatment as a lesser individual started when he began school in the first
grade. Lincoln School became the social structure Eubanks had to adjust to. It was quite different
from the "integrated, yet racially demarcated, social settings [he] was daily placed in with [his]
father" at the Negro County Agent's office (Eubanks 55). He recalls two separate assassinations
that occurred while he was in Mrs. Parker's first grade class. The first was the killing of Medgar
Evers, followed by the assassination of President Kennedy. Eubanks recalls, "Mrs. Parker began
to sob, and I remember her saying, 'They killed him because he wants Negroes to be free'"
(Eubanks 61). Also, he remembers learning from his parents later that all the white people were
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happy someone killed the president "because the Kennedy administration pushed for the
integration of the University of Mississippi" (Eubanks 62). These images cloud his early
childhood memories in Mississippi, and they are the foundation from which he builds throughout
his memoir.
Another defining moment in his life came some years later when he became one of the
early experimental groups integrated at Mount Olive school. When referring to the integration
process, he wrote, "I was twelve years old, in the eighth grade, and scared to death of what was
to come from that proclamation" (Eubanks 114). Though no one treated him cruelly, he was a
victim of an arguably racist teacher. He characterizes this teacher by saying, "Pernicie Knight,
whom everyone, including the principal, knew despised the presence of blacks in the school"
(Eubanks 121). Perhaps the worst part of the integration process was the sense of isolation he
had to endure. While recalling his times in middle school, he had this to say: "The isolation of
that semester and the ones that followed rattled my senses to the point that I felt disconnected to
school, my classmates, and to the little town that I thought would nurture me forever" (Eubanks
118).
Eubanks received a different perspective when he first met his roommate at the
University of Mississippi. Before enrolling at the University of Mississippi, he recalls learning
about the university's racial past and the struggle James Meredith endured at Ole Miss. By the
time Eubanks started attending Ole Miss, he understood all the racial traditions he would have to
overcome. While moving in with his roommate, Eubanks noticed, "a Confederate flag was
placed right above his (Crain's) bed" (Eubanks 146). This flag made Eubanks feel uneasy, even
though he tried to not pay any attention to it. However, this uneasiness did not last long because
the flag was removed shortly after he moved in. His roommate, Mark Crain, is quoted as saying,
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"I didn't want to offend you with the flag" (Eubanks 147). It turned out that Crain and Eubanks
shared the same conflicting opinions about the Confederate flag. This is one of the only bright
spots Eubanks experienced while attending Ole Miss. Similar to his years in middle and high
school, he was defined by his race as a black man and became stifled in the community. This
stifling became his main reason for leaving Mississippi upon graduation from the University of
Mississippi. He writes, "I had left Mississippi forever. Even after a long, cold Michigan winter, I
was certain deep inside that there was nothing that would draw me back there" (Eubanks 151).
Eubanks return to Mississippi would not occur until he had a family of his own, and even
then, it was an unusual circumstance that gave him the idea of trying to reconcile with his past.
His son, Patrick, asked the question, "Daddy, what's Mississippi like?" while in bed one night
(Eubanks xi). This question was so simple, but Eubanks struggled with the answer; he was
unsure of the answer he should tell his children. This innocent question from his six year old
sparked his interest to uncover what exactly Mississippi was like during his early childhood and
what it is like today.
The release of the Sovereignty Commission files created a sour start to Eubanks's
comeback story. In these files, Eubanks discovered that his mother and father were listed, and he
sought understanding for why they were. This organization is characterized in his memoir as a
"spy agency," that sought to "spy on its citizens and keep a handle on anyone, black or white,
who challenged Jim Crow segregation" (Eubanks xiv). A breakthrough in Eubanks's life occurred
when he talked to Horace Harned, "a retired state senator who served on the Sovereignty
Commission from 1964-1968" (Eubanks 161). Upon his interviewing of Mr. Harned, Eubanks
discovered that Harned only did what he thought was expected of him by society during the
1960s. In fact, Eubanks states his breakthrough like this: "Yes, he (Harned) clung to the vestiges
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of the past, but deep down I recognized that he knew the new Mississippi held a promise that he
never thought existed" (Eubanks 169).
Also, talks with Denson Lott, the former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member that put Eubanks
mother in the Sovereignty Commission files, helped break down barriers Eubanks had about
Mississippi. Though uneasy about holding a conversation with a former KKK member, Eubanks
felt it necessary to do in order to understand the reasons a person would join a white supremacy
group. Eubanks never expected his encounter with Mr. Lott to go as it did. Eubanks did not have
to confront Lott about being a former Klansman because Lott admitted to it without being asked.
When Lott admitted his involvement with the Klan, it was evident that he regretted it; however,
he is quoted by Eubanks as saying, "I have nothing to regret. . . All my decisions were designed
to protect every person" (Eubanks 180). Eubanks goes on to say, "I suspected that he really did
regret his years in the Klan; he just couldn't bring himself to admit it" (Eubanks 180). At the
conclusion of this meeting, Eubanks was able to better understand how people living during the
Civil Rights Movement acted based off of what was expected of them to do by society. He even
empathized with people like Denson Lott, who battled shame and heartache.
In conclusion, Eubanks's memoir, Ever Is a Long Time, defines Mississippi as a state with
a tarnished past but a bright future. The life and struggles of W. Ralph Eubanks show the battles
that blacks and whites fought in everyday life in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Eubanks's clear
depiction of Mississippi, through its characters Horace Harned and Denson Lott, fully captivate
the reader by explaining the personal and emotional tolls their decisions had on their entire lives.
Eubanks finishes his memoir by saying this about the storied past of Mississippi: "As the stories
move from the sins of the past to the seeds of redemption in the present, the rhythm of the tales
moves you to get up and dance for joy" (Eubanks 229).

Ever Is A Long Time

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Drew Garrett 1

Ever Is a Long Time

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