Antebellum home showcase causes some to grapple with violent past
COLUMBUS, Miss. — Women in hoop dresses ushered visitors one April morning into the grand old house known as Riverview, showing off the hand-carved wooden chairs, oil paintings, tapestries and gilded mirrors brought from around the world to the estate in Mississippi.
The house stood as a testament to the prosperity that had flowed before the Civil War in Southern cities like Columbus, just over the border from Alabama, as fertile soil and the labor of enslaved workers built fortunes.
It was also a highlight of the long-standing tradition known as Pilgrimage. Every spring, the city’s finest antebellum homes are opened to the public for a few weeks, inviting people in to marvel at the craftsmanship and the opulence.
The event took its name from the belief among its organizers that Pilgrimage was just that — a journey to houses whose grandeur, scale and history represent something sacred for Mississippi and all of the South. Homeowners and docents often dress in period clothing to facilitate the time travel.
“We have a culture here that is something to be admired and respected,” said Dick Leike, owner of Riverview. “This is a prime example of it.”
But these days, some in Columbus are finding it difficult to justify a trip to a gauzy version of the city’s past without accounting for the suffering, injustice and violence associated with the slave labor that built and ran these homes. That has led to competing ideas about the scope of Pilgrimage and the story it is supposed to tell.
A theatrical production staged by a local high school every year during the weekslong event now depicts the plights of enslaved African Americans and 19th century immigrants who lived in Columbus. The local synagogue has been added to a church tour. Other events feature the region’s Choctaw and Chickasaw history.
“It seems like Pilgrimage only told one story, and that traditionally attracted a certain demographic — an older demographic, a more white demographic,” said Jace Ferraez, a 34-year-old lawyer who left Columbus after growing up there, moved back and is buying a historic home with his fiance.
He and other like-minded residents, he said, “want to tell a fuller story.” The aim is to relay history with more breadth, but also showcase the city as it is now, encompassing its struggles, strengths and sense of possibility.
No interstate runs through Columbus, whose population of 23,000 is roughly one-third white and two-thirds Black. Poverty has been a persistent issue, as has persuading young people to choose to stay in Columbus.
Still, parts of the city are lively. Friendly City Books, an independent bookseller, opened downtown a few years ago and became a haven for its regulars. An arts center up the block displays the works of local artists such as Ralph Null, a celebrated floral designer turned painter. Newcomers can easily get recruited to a perpetual circuit of cocktail gatherings.
“There’s a lot of things that can divide a community — economic status, race, the list goes on,” Ferraez said. But, he added, Pilgrimage could be more inclusive and reflect Columbus’ diversity and its aspirations. “It helps bring people together.”