As noted in a 2002 Congressional Record, the victim was a 39-year-old Black male, a prosperous land owner named Eli Hilson Jr. He was Mo Venie’s uncle. Her father, Jacob Hilson, was his brother.
Author Archives: LaWanda Dickens
A native of Brookhaven, Mississippi, LaWanda Black Dickens is a faculty member in the Jackson State University Department of English & Modern Languages, where she teaches Composition and Rhetoric. In addition to working with traditional students, she teaches writing courses for dual enrolled eleventh graders in the Jackson Middle College Program, a partnership between JSU and Jackson Public Schools. One of her primary research interests is Black southern rurality with an emphasis on literacy, identity, representation, and emergence. In October 2023, she presented her essay: "Social Justice, Advocacy, and Emergence: Omission of the Black Rural Voice from Rhetorical Scholarship" at the 5th Annual HBCU Symposium on Rhetoric & Composition. An advocate for student engagement in campus and community leadership, she served as a member of the steering committee, which made the reconvening of the historic Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival possible on Nov. 1-4, 2023, at JSU. In support of the event, Dickens co-developed a digital anthology honoring authors who attended the festival. She also directed an art project, featuring the work of Reshonda Perryman from Fayette, Miss. The renowned artist designed a mural on the campus of JSU, commemorating the lives of Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, the mastermind behind the original event, and the poet, Phillis Wheatley. Dickens wrote the Mississippi Arts Commission grant which funded the project. Her short story, "Communing with My Ancestors: Eli Hilson Sr.’s Legacy", focuses on her relationship with her paternal grandfather, Reves Black, Sr. Memories of him motivated her to start researching her family's history on the land where she grew up, which ultimately led to her discovery of her affluent third great grandfather, Eli Hilson, Sr. and the lynching of his son, Eli Hilson, Jr., her third great uncle.