Incorporating social justice in tourism planning: racial reconciliation and sustainable community development in the Deep South

Abstract

Tourism can serve as a vehicle for sustainable community development by contributing to equity and social justice. This happens as tourists learn about marginal groups through educational tourism, engage in development projects with host-area residents, undertake pilgrimages that bring greater meaning and cohesiveness to an ethnic identity, or encounter stories that transform their view of social injustice and spur further action to reduce inequities. Tourism planning can produce a sense of reconciliation when it brings historically divided groups together. An example is found in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where a group of white and African American residents are collaborating to develop tourism projects designed around a narrative of reconciliation, while they use the process of tourism planning to work towards racial reconciliation within their community. This case illustrates strategies tourism planners employ and challenges they face when they envision tourism as more than merely a means of economic growth.

Keywords:

• heritage tourism
• Mississippi Delta
• racial reconciliation
• social justice
• sustainable community development

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission of Tallahatchie County, MS for graciously collaborating on this research. We appreciate the helpful comments from Katie Kerstetter, Deborah Moore and two anonymous reviewers on a previous draft. We thank Subu Swaminathan and the Delta State University Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies for their assistance.

Notes

1. Michaels (2006) argues that attention to culture comes at the expense of structure. A focus on diverse identities ignores the real issue, economic inequality. We do not mean to detract from the importance of economic equality, but we view equality as multifaceted, involving more than just economics.

2. In alternative spring breaks, common at many American universities, students forego a week on the beach to engage in community development projects (Bermudez, 2008). The gap year, a concept more common in Europe than North America, refers to a year of travel between high school and college, and some “gappers” are finding time to work on community development projects in lieu of or while backpack touring through places like Southeast Asia or South America (Simpson, 2004).

3. On the USHMM's webpage (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/mission/), part of the description of the museum's mission is: “With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide. And we encourage them to act, cultivating a sense of moral responsibility among our citizens so that they will respond to the monumental challenges that confront our world.” This call to action exemplifies the transformative experience that the museum seeks to provide for visitors.

4. For more information on the Emmett Till case, see Beauchamp (2005), Beito & Beito (2004), Huie (1956), Popham (1955), Russell (2006), Segall & Holmberg (2003), Sparkman (2005), and Whitfield (1988).

5. About three months after the verdict was handed down in the Emmett Till murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, which led to an extended bus boycott by the city's African Americans. Mrs. Parks' actions have been widely recognized as sparking the civil rights movement, but Mrs. Parks also acknowledged that she was inspired by Emmett Till as she remained seated on the bus (Segall & Holmberg, 2003).

6. One complaint we did not hear, but that was common during the 1950s and even part of the strategy used by the defense lawyers during the Emmett Till trial, was that the NAACP and other outside groups were using the murder of Emmett Till as a way of undermining “the Southern way of life” (Popham, 1955). While some residents are concerned about the appearance of exploiting Emmett Till's personal tragedy, the notion that outsiders are exploiting it for political gain does not seem to be a prevalent view in the county today.

7. The brochure can be viewed at http://www.etmctallahatchie.com/pages/et-brochure.htm

8. The text of the statement can be viewed at http://www.etmctallahatchie.com/pages/news-archives.htm