Do you have a North Star, someone steadfast, constant, and an ever-guiding light? Mine is Patricia McPherson Hicks, my mom. I often lean on her teachings and influence when the world or my life is in disarray.
Lately, various politicians and their agents have co-opted certain words of positivity and hope, turning them into demeaning and disparaging concepts. Mom believed deeply in a public-school education. She and my father moved to McComb as young adults with children and had two school options. Parklane Academy, a school with racist beginnings, created to offer a segregated whites-only choice for people opposed to integration. Mom had no interest in that school. She gladly sent us to the public schools, where she praised the racial and economic diversity of students. The word “diversity,” she taught, meant learning other points of view with students less privileged, many of whom lived across the tracks. Not surprisingly, by high school, I fell in love with a young Hispanic girl whose parents immigrated from Central America to McComb. The diverse student body elected her homecoming queen, and our Black superintendent congratulated her on the football field. Mom adores her, particularly for her unconditional support of me and her selfless devotion to my mother’s grandsons.
Mom missed her calling by a generation. Whip smart and opinionated, she had a long career as a paralegal, and easily could have been a first-rate attorney. Marriage, children, and the era all blocked her potential attorney vocation at a time when few women were admitted to law schools. Slowly, beginning in the 1970s, law schools implemented equity-based admissions, not male gender preferred. In my law school class of 1991, almost half were women. Mom quietly cheered as more women moved into various professional careers, and she encouraged me to always treat women in the workforce as equal persons, and with dignity and respect. The term “equity” is one of fairness, often considered on the same footing as the law. Mom strongly supported the Equal Pay Act as a newlywed in 1963, and she influenced me to assure that all women in my employ were paid a fair wage commensurate to their male peers.
These principles remain with me in today’s societal struggles. My mother is a Christian, imbued with a love of the Gospels. She never speaks badly about anyone different from her. In recent times, as more men and women begin to step from the shadows to reveal their sexual orientation, Mom shares words of love. This is not easy for someone of her generation. Yet, Christ loves all and welcomes all. To be “inclusive” – a beautiful word – is to be like Christ, and Mom always instills in me to be purposely inclusive of all people.
Mom has not been perfect. I have not. But, in my Mississippi family, Southern tradition means loving and caring for your neighbor, Black or white, male or female, straight or gay. My best friends are Democrats and Republicans of all stripes. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words of promise, light, and yes, love. Recapture them into their rightful place in the English language for the betterment of us all. A tried and tested rule of thumb for me is that Mom knows best.
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Clark Hicks is a lawyer who lives in Hattiesburg. His email is clark@hicksattorneys.com.
