Jena 6? American Violet?
By Helen Higginbotham
Bobby is the former Mayor of Waterproof, Louisiana and is unjustly incarcerated. There is a petition on the Color of Change.
I suspect that many of you recall in 2007 when I traveled south in search of my roots and in support of Jena 6. I took my time in my travels and made an excursion of the trip. I call it Part II of my southern trek. I stopped and visited friends and did Black History tours all across the south, including Nashville, Memphis and Jackson before heading to Jena, Louisiana. As usual, I was traveling solo. I befriended some woman who answered the phone at the hotel I where I planned to stay and she shared with me a back road route to Jena from Jackson that would be a little shorter. What she did not tell me was that I would travel through the middle of no where and often times not even have cell phone service.
As I traveled along taking in the scenery, mesmerized by the cotton crops, wanting to stop and take a picture of it, get out and pick it in honor of and in tribute to my ancestors who endured such cruelty and back breaking work simply so that I can be... I began seeing signs, "Bobby Higginbotham for Sheriff". Of course, considering the "neck" of woods I was in, quite naturally I thought it was some White guy running for sheriff in some small town. I passed one sign, then another or two before I decided that I should at least stop and take a picture of the sign bearing my name in the middle of no where. One of the benefits of having a unique last name like Higginbotham is that you take notice when you see it, when you hear it. So I turned around and just as I did, the sign now facing me had a picture of this Bobby Higginbotham. Lo and behold, Bobby was Black! So you know what I did. I ventured out to find this Bobby Higginbotham who was at the time, Mayor of Waterproof, LA. He was running for Sherriff of Tensas Parish. They don't have counties in LA, they have parishes.