Lukas Flippo

Zach and Crysta Smith were leaving downtown Amory, Miss., after dinner on Friday, July 29, 2022, when they saw the marquees outside the Main Street Opry advertising a sock hop, a social dance popular in the 1950s and 1960s where teenagers would remove their shoes before dancing on wooden gymnasium floors. “We rushed home to change and were back in 15 minutes,” Crysta said. She wore a leopard-print bandana tied around her neck, a black top, black leather pants, and snakeskin pattern heels.

Water bottles, empty and crushed, line the asphalt walking track around the Choctaw Central High School football field. A trail of dried sweat leads to fresh droplets of blood on the pavement as Jon McKinney rests on his knees, gasping for air. He alternates between wiping away the blood around his nose and lifting an inhaler to his lips to help regulate his breathing.

NATCHEZ, Miss.—Debbie Cosey looked through tears of joy toward her backyard where 13 Mississippi State University Archaeological Field School students roamed around freshly dug holes in the ground on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Natchez, Miss. “We are bringing light back to this place,” Cosey, a Black woman who owns the Concord Quarters Bed and Breakfast alongside her husband, Gregory, said.