‘Home Town’ Reflects an Incomplete Picture of Laurel’s History of Disenfranchisement
Jonathan Odell writes that HGTV home-rehabilitation show “Home Town” sweeps Laurel’s racist past and gentrified present under the rug.
MFP Contributor
Jonathan Odell writes that HGTV home-rehabilitation show “Home Town” sweeps Laurel’s racist past and gentrified present under the rug.
Laurel, Miss., native and author Jonathan Odell reflects on the summer of 1971 when he was a door-to-door salesman of the Ebony Pictorial History of Black America. As a young, white man brought up in white supremacy, Odell learned later that summer that Black history is for everyone. “You can’t understand Black history without reflecting on white history,” he writes. “We created this history together.”
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