City considers fate of old school

“We held on for three years after that roof came off and just couldn’t carry it any further,” Easom Outreach Chairman Sam Crayton Jr. told the Daily Corinthian.

The infamous post-tropical cyclone stemming from Tropical Storm Olga in October 2019 dealt a major blow to the building, taking off much of the roof. Last year, mold had become a major problem, and water leaks were frequent.

“Shortly before we stopped operating, we had a gas leak in the building,” said Crayton. “The building just got to a point that we couldn’t maintain it with the operating income that we had.”

There is now some maneuvering by parties interested in preserving the building and continuing a community feeding program at the campus, which dates back to 1954. But demolition is also part of the conversation.

“I’ve had several meetings with several different individuals that have come forward wanting to try to salvage part of it,” said Mayor Ralph Dance. “I told them we were probably not in a financial position right now to tear it down, so they had a little bit of time to come up with some type of plan. The biggest thing they want to preserve is that food program.”

Easom served needed meals to the community, and it is being missed.

Dance believes renovation costs would be well into the millions.

“They’ve had the water cut off for a while because all the plumbing is leaking,” he said. “The electrical is shot. The roofs are shot. It’s in bad shape. With that said, it has a lot of sentimental value to a lot of these folks that grew up there.”

He anticipates that the city will eventually have to move toward demolition. The Mississippi Legislature allocated more than $300,000 that is expected to be available toward demolition, but not enough to cover the total cost.

Some believe the building is simply too far gone.

“I hate that, because I felt like the previous board, when we entered in this agreement with the Easom Foundation, I felt like that was a way this building could be saved and preserved,” said Ward 2 Alderman Ben Albarracin. “After walking through it, I just don’t know that there’s any salvaging it.”

Ward 4 Alderman Steve Hill, who attended Easom for one year, believes part of it can be saved.

“There’s so much history there,” he said. “I am all for whatever we can do to help.”

The loss of the meals program, which served senior citizens and disabled individuals, has been felt in the community, he said. Hill would like to see another nonprofit step forward to restart and manage the program, which began in 2012.

Crayton, a 1966 Easom graduate, said the hot meals program was the foundation’s anchor activity, serving roughly 36 to 48 people five days a week.

“When we first got involved, we thought it would be a continuation of what Easom had meant to the community, especially the Black community, going back to the time before integration from 1954 to 1969,” he said. “Easom was kind of like a haven for all the social activities for the Black community, like the bonfires and the football games. Everybody participated. Our parents participated. During segregation, there was not a lot of things to do, and everything kind of revolved around Easom.”

Years later, when the foundation formed, “a lot of that magic seemed to have gone away,” said Crayton, “and we didn’t get some of the community support that we expected to get. We operated with a skeleton volunteer staff for most of the time.”

The only paid staff person was the chef, Ben Betts.

“We hated to shut it down,” Crayton said of the meals program.

Easom Outreach has given most of its assets to other nonprofits.

A portion of the school building was renovated in recent years by Mississippi Action for Progress and is used as a Head Start center.