Henry Harris just tells it like it is, and he always has.

The same young man who once blazed up and down the football field for North Natchez and taught tennis to countless area youths is back in town. Natchez is a better place with Harris in it.

After having moved away from Natchez for several years, the legendary youth tennis organizer has returned, brought back to Natchez by family needs.

And perhaps being away for a bit sharpens his perspective on the Natchez area he loves so much.

&8220;We&8217;ve got the oldest city on the river, and yet we can&8217;t get 10 people to sit down and agree on anything,&8221; Harris said. &8220;If they don&8217;t wake up, we&8217;re going to end up looking like one of those Delta towns.&8221;

Now for those of you who don&8217;t know Harris, that statement may make him seem like a negative person. He&8217;s not. He&8217;s among the most optimistic, open-minded people in the city.

He never gives up.

He&8217;ll do anything to get something done.

But Harris wisely sees that often the stumbling blocks to progress are the old ways and habits of adults.

Having devoted years to organizing youth tennis programs, Harris knows a few things about recreation and the youth who revel in just having fun.

Youth don&8217;t come into the world with biases about skin color or wealth or even who&8217;s nice and who&8217;s not.

Children just like to play.

Harris was one of those children back in the days when Natchez&8217;s public school system was still segregated. It was a different time, then, race separated things &8212; at least for the adults.

Harris remembers a time when some of the junior high and high school football players from North Natchez and South Natchez would play together, &8220;just about every weekend.&8221;

&8220;We just showed up to play football. We&8217;d go to Martin stadium,&8221; Harris said. &8220;We&8217;d move around because we didn&8217;t want the coaches to know what we were doing.&8221;

The thought being if all the adults knew what was going on they might have put an end to the fun.

Harris&8217; comments illustrate something that could be a tremendous catalyst for togetherness: recreation.

Recreation &8212; as illustrated by Harris&8217; memories of blacks and whites playing sandlot football &8212; cuts through issues of race, class, economics and most other things that tend to separate groups of people.

Lots of folks such as Harris, Joe Eidt and others have been preaching the needs of better recreation facilities in the area for years.

But perhaps the recreation dreams haven&8217;t been realized because the adults are still bringing their own baggage to the table.

Could state-of-the-art recreation facilities help shape Natchez&8217;s future? Odds are, they could.

A great new baseball facility, for example, would have enough capacity for both the Natchez Dixie Youth Leagues and the T.M. Jennings Leagues. That may seem strange, suggesting that two baseball leagues whose histories have been rooted in race would come together, but it&8217;s not.

The first step in getting over our difference is by acknowledging that they exist. Through time, perhaps, and lots of cooperation, who knows? The leagues might merge, but that&8217;s not the issue now.

Today, we need to worry about joining forces to make the community a better place for all of its residents &8212; particularly the youth.

&8220;What I&8217;m scared of is that we&8217;re going to hold on too long (to the past) until you get to where Natchez can never pull itself out,&8221; Harris said.

He tells it like it is. Hopefully, someone&8217;s listening.

Kevin Cooper

is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or

kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

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