most racially balanced state in terms of the population of whites and blacks; as compared to the United States,
Mississippi is 61.4% vs 75.1% white and is 36.3% vs 12.3% black. (U.S. Census Bureau: State and County
QuickFacts, 2000). The areas that I chose which make up Morrisons’ County are representative of Mississippi’s
population as a whole, with 61.0% whites and 37.6% blacks. The higher ratio of blacks in Mississippi is important
because I am interested in studying rural whites’ views in a more diverse setting, as compared to studying rural,
whites in Appalachia, the Midwest, and other rural whites in the United States who often live in more racially
homogeneous communities. Second, as a white person who grew up in a nearby rural community in Mississippi, I
had the advantage of an “insider” status, which may have helped these rural, Southern whites feel more comfortable
talking about very sensitive topics previously inaccessible to many researchers. Due to the difficulty of collecting
such data, I ultimately chose Morrisons County, Mississippi because I had familiarity with the area and networks
that I could use for recruitment.
Data collection was in three stages; 1) fifteen initial interviews with rural, community club members, in
1998; 2) follow-up interviews with thirteen of the initial respondents, in 2002
; and 3) twenty-seven full (initial and
follow-up combined) interviews with rural, community members, in 2002. The rural communities I studied were at
least ten to fifteen miles from nearby cities. Forty to fifty years ago much of the land in these communities was
farmed and logged by people in the communities. Now they are mainly residential areas with a few family farms,
but mostly smaller gardens, and even fewer family logging operations. However, the communities have not really
experienced urbanization or even many aspects of suburbanization, because the community clubs and churches are
the main forms of social organization and most people in the community have lived there or have extended family
who have lived there for a large part of their lives. I first chose to recruit from community development clubs that
focused on rural community life. I wanted to get access to community members who had a strong sense of history
and understanding about the community. I contacted a county agent in the Morrisons County Home Extension
Service to get a list of the community clubs in that county. After choosing the clubs that were in the most rural areas
of the county, I had a sample of four community clubs. I sent a letter to each of the club presidents that explained
my project and asked for their help in recruiting interview subjects. I told them that I was doing research on the
lives of rural, Southern whites, particularly in terms of their racial, class, and cultural experiences. I also indicated
that I wanted to interview club members about their personal, family, and community history and their
understanding of what it means to be a Southerner from a rural community. In the end, I had participation from at
2
I was unable to re-interview two, elderly female respondents (Virginia and Edna) due to their health problems.
Convention