Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Richard West Family Papers (Z/2420).
Creator/Collector: Eliana West.
Date(s): 1949-1954.
Size: 0.40 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH Summer Intern Isabelle White, 2025.
Provenance: Gift of Eliana West, on June 27, 2025; Z/U/2025.018.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Richard West Family Papers (Z/2420), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Richard West

Richard West was born on July 29, 1903 in West, Holmes County, Mississippi, the sixth child of eight of Amanda Ellis and Frank West. Frank was born in 1872 in Chickasaw County, Mississippi to Henrietta and Primus West. Primus’ father, Richard’s great-grandfather, was also his enslaver, a white man named Westley Peters. This Westley Peters is from whom Richard’s family traces their surname. Due to his family’s poverty and the separation of his parents, Richard was forced to leave school in the sixth grade. He supported his family by picking cotton and working for the Illinois Central Railroad.

By 1920, Richard had married his first wife, Minnie, and on June 25, 1922, their son, Jonathan West, was born. During the 1920s, Richard moved to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois where he lived with his brother, George, for a time. He worked various odd jobs, including shoe shiner, factory worker, candy concession stand operator, and chauffeur. Eventually, Richard learned how to read and write and became a sleeping car porter. During this time, Minnie remained in Mississippi with Johnathan and rented out rooms in their house. By 1940, they had joined Richard in Chicago and by 1950, Minnie and Richard were divorced.

After Johnathan was accepted to attend Tuskegee University, Richard returned to Mississippi and met his second wife, Neva Riley, born on April 30, 1909. Neva owned a beauty parlor and Richard opened a service station in Greenwood, Leflore County. Richard began working with the Mississippi Registered Voters League to encourage African-Americans to register to vote. He also worked with Louie Redd to organize the first Boy Scout Troop for African-Americans in Greenwood. Richard was heavily involved with the early Civil Rights Movement as he investigated lynching as an NAACP field representative, including the Emmett Till case. It was Medgar Evers, NAACP secretary at the time, who asked Richard to investigate Till’s lynching. During his investigation, Richard’s home phone was tapped, a burning cross was placed in his yard, and his name was one of many civil rights workers on the Ku Klux Klan’s hit list.

Due to this hostile environment, Richard’s wife and business were suffering, so they left Mississippi and moved to Sacramento, Sacramento County, California in 1956, where he worked as staff at Sacramento State College. They stayed in California for about twenty years. During that time, Richard and Neva visited Mississippi almost annually and were able to witness the evolution of race relations in the South. By 1963, Johnathan was also living in Sacramento, where he met and married his second wife, a white woman named Marjorie Yvonne Baker on August 27, 1966.

Richard retired in 1969, and his family moved back to West, Mississippi in 1974. At this time, African-Americans were rapidly losing their land due to defaulting on their taxes. To combat these losses, Richard worked with the Emergency Land Service educating African-Americans to write wills and get their land surveyed. He also went on to start a restaurant in West as a way to create jobs for Black people in the community. In 1977, Richard was elected as the first African-American alderman for the town. Additionally, in a 1981 special election, he won the position of Mayor of West.

Neva died in June of 1985 and Richard died almost ten years later on January 20, 1995; both were buried in West. Johnathan and Marjorie lived in Snohomish County, Washington from the early 1970s until about 2010. The pair then moved for the last time to Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon. Johnathan died shortly after in 2012 and Marjorie in 2023.
 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection included an original scrapbook created by Patrick "Pat" M. Harrison documenting his years in the Canton High School Band during 1949-1954, and related events.  For archival purposes, the original scrapbook was dismantled and arranged in folders.  A photocopy of the original scrapbook is available.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence. April 26, 1944.
The only piece of independent correspondence in this collection is a West, Mississippi, postcard from “Ruby” with a brief message addressed to  Mrs. Lois Evans in Chicago, Illinois.

Box 1, Folder 1

 

Series 2: Transcripts. 1968; 1979; 1981.
This series contains two transcripts of interviews with Richard West. One is an unedited, typed copy of a 1979 interview between Richard West and Bob Blauner. The second is an edited version of both the 1979 interview and a 1968 interview by Hardy Frye. In this edited transcript, West’s name has been changed to Howard Spence. The edited version is accompanied by a 1981 letter from Blauner to West introducing the transcript and discussing various elements of personal life.

During these interviews, West describes his experiences growing up in the South, such as how the treatment of African-Americans as inferior to white people during his youth affected the psychology of his generation. He also discusses many of his experiences as a black man during and after the Civil Rights movement. He recounts his work as an NAACP field representative investigating lynching, specifically his investigation of the Emmett Till case. West also discusses his thoughts on racial topics such as integration and intermarriage.

Certain sections of each transcript were tabbed as topics of particular interest. The unedited 1979 version contained three tabs on pages 26, 27, and 45 respectively. Page 26 was tabbed to highlight West’s struggle to be able to vote as a black man in Mississippi. Page 27 details West’s investigation of the Emmett Till lynching and the consequences of his involvement. On page 45, West describes his experience of being the first African-American alderman for the town of West, Holmes County, Mississippi. The edited transcript contained one tab on page 9 where West describes his involvement with the Emmett Till case.

Box 1, Folders 2-3

 

Series 3: Cookbooks. 1935; 1960.
This collection contains two cookbooks that specialize in recipes of the Old South: Old Southern Tea Room and Southern Cook Book. The former was published in 1960 by Mary McKay, owner of the Old Southern Tea Room restaurant in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The restaurant originally opened in 1941 and would become one of the South’s most popular restaurants. Both the restaurant and the cookbook, heavily promoted the ideals and imagery of Old South mythology. The Old Southern Tea Room was a whites-only establishment, excluding the staff of six African-American women who were required to wear calico dresses with white aprons and bandannas, emulating the Mammy archetype. Old Southern Tea Room also makes use of such harmful stereotypes, as it contains many offensive caricatures of African-Americans in positions of servitude. The latter, Southern Cook Book, published in 1935, uses such caricatures of African-Americans even more frequently, puppeting the likeness and dialect of African-Americans in the form of various poems that appear on almost every page.

Box 1, Folders 4-5

 

Series 4: Photographs. 1939; 1954-1955; n.d.
Included in this series are a variety of photographs that provide a glimpse into life in Greenwood, Mississippi from an African-American perspective. The majority of these photos focus on local parade events. One photo features Richard West’s wife, Neva, standing next to a float. Another pictures the service station owned by Richard in Greenwood, Holmes County, Mississippi in the background. Also included is an original photograph and photocopy of eight black men posed in a living room setting. Standing on the far left is Richard West’s son, Johnathan West.

Box 1, Folders 6-12

 

Series 5: Charter. April 12, 1976.
A charter from the NAACP Board of Directors in New York granting admission to the members of the Durant, Mississippi branch. The charter is accompanied by its original mailer which states the return and mailing addresses: “From TENTH FLOOR 1790 BROADWAY New York, N. Y. 10019" "To: Mr. Isaiah Winters – 104 W. Hayes St., Smith 112 Tayler, Durant, Ms. 39063."

Box 2, Folder 1

 

Box List:

Box 1
Folder 1: Postcard, April 26, 1944.
Folder 2: Richard West and Bob Blauner Interview, 1979.
Folder 3: Howard Spence and Richard West Interviews, Transcript, and Letter, 1968; 1979; 1981.
Folder 4: Old Southern Tea Room Recipes, n.d.
Folder 5: Southern Cookbook, n.d.
Folder 6: Photograph, ELKS Convention, June 1955.
Folder 7: Photograph, Greenwood High School Parade, November 1954.
Folder 8: Photograph, Sun Camp Organization, January 20, 1939.
Folder 9: Photograph, Sun Camp Organization (Photocopy), n.d.
Folder 10: Photograph, Neva West With Float, n.d.
Folder 11: Photograph, Greenwood Parade, n.d.
Folder 12: Postcard of West, Mississippi, n.d.

Box 2
Folder 1: Durant, Mississippi NAACP Charter, April 12, 1976.