CLARKSDALE, Miss.–An announcement about a Courtyard Marriott convention center hotel being announced in Pine Bluff, Ark., was the partial reason for a half-hour rant from Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy, at Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
“What’s so heartbreaking about this very story that’s in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was it’s the same, identical model that was brought here in 2018 for the City of Clarksdale,” he said at the beginning of his solo speech.
Espy said that a certain segment of the population was responsible for stopping some development in the city.
“Citizens of Clarksdale both Black and white, we can’t have malice in our hearts to stop a multi-million dollar project, Jesus! And, it goes to Arkansas!”
Espy blamed sabotage from a segment of the “white population” for the city losing out on the development, supporting that argument with mostly anecdotal evidence, but also paraphrasing headlines from the Clarksdale Press Register. Espy and Press Register Publisher Floyd Ingram have had a public feud, which led Espy to say Monday that Ingram rarely published any positive headlines about the city, but especially his administration.
“Some type of an opinion I think, that Ingram wrote…that talked about, and listen to the subject line. ‘Secrecy, Deception Erodes Public Trust’,” said Espy. He followed that by saying the headline was full of lies and that the paper had painted certain events to look like corruption or incompetence.
Espy also cited a former city employee’s actions, telling the Dept. of Archives and History that Clarksdale did not want a Wingstop, an action Espy says he intercepted.
He challenged the citizens before wrapping his rant, to do better and work together for the good of the city.
But, he promised his last days as mayor would be devoted to stopping internal and external “sabotage”.
