Nothing But a Gee Thing

Gee’s Bend is a rare kind of paradise for a rare kind of people: African American rednecks. It's home to cowboys, quilt makers, kids in do-rags driving dirt bikes, guys in roll-ups fishing for catfish and hip-hop coming out of small, fairytale shacks in the woods.

Geographically, Gee’s Bend is a small strip of water-locked land deep in the heart of rural Alabama. It used to be a cotton plantation, and in the story of the Civil Rights movement, Gee’s Bend features so prominently that it’s sometimes referred to as an African Alabama.

It was in Gee’s Band that characters like Martin Luther King first began addressing the populous and setting in motion the struggle for racial equality. If you had to go fumbling for a modern equivalent, you might say that Gee’s Bend was the Civil Rights movement’s Zuccotti Park, but I can't imagine there were anywhere near the same number of drum circles and crusties doing fire poi.

Gee’s Bend today is interesting because almost everyone who lives here is descended from the same group of one hundred slaves who first began the plantation. Those slaves all took the surname of their slave master. Two hundred years later and practically everyone you meet on Gee’s Bend is called Pettway. That’s a frightening legacy.

Just before we got there, we had our own fright. One of our tyres blew out on the highway. The car made a swerve and almost dipped into a creek. Luckily this all took place outside the home of Leroy ‘Rim King’ Pettway. Leroy repaired the tyre then made a very persuasive argument for fitting 22-inch spin rims. We’re driving a Volvo station wagon. Attaching anything spinning to it would be as appropriate as tattooing your baby.    Gee’s Bend is accessed by a ferry. We drove off without our sparkly wheels and boarded for the 15-minute crossing. Directly after the Civil Rights Act was passed, the sheriff on the other side of Gee’s Bend cancelled the ferry to prevent first-time black voters getting across to the polling station. “I’m not stopping the ferry because they’re black,” he said. “I’m stopping the ferry because they forgot they were black.” In spite of the asshole sheriff, the people got across. They simply hoofed it round the long way. Two fingers to him.

We arrived out on the Bend and went for a drink at the Pettway Lounge. There, we met Crew Pettway, Daryl Pettway and Abner Monroe (he is from NYC). We sat around listening to James Brown. James was advising men to eat more coochie. “Damn straight,” said Abner.

“What’s coochie?” I asked.  “Fanny,” answered Kendall, and then they all started smirking.

How was I supposed to know? I'm from a tiny village in rural Ireland. Until I was five years old, the closest I got to having any kind of relationship with black people was The Cosby Show, and they didn't talk about coochie all that much on that programme.

Gee’s Bend has always been incredibly poor. At one stage in its history, the government had to send emergency aid in to prevent the people there from starving. Abner, the guy from New York, comes here to get away from it all and that’s where we left him at the Pettway Lounge. “Gee's Bend is safer than New York,” he said, “You can walk the streets and the only thing that might jump you is stray cattle.” Thanks to Barry and Bonnie at the Red Bluff Cottage.

Follow Conor on Twitter: @conorcreighton

Previously: From Sea to Shining Sea - The Tinman