DAY TWO - TO OXFORD FOR HAROLD

Barbara and I were joined now by her son Aidan and another friend and “Burson Person”, Trina Foster, at the start of Day Two for our onward journey to Oxford, Mississippi. On our agenda: a 90-minute drive that would take us through the forested rolling hills of northern Mississippi.

All of us had made this trip to attend the memorial service of a friend and mentor, Harold Burson, the late founder of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where Barbara, Trina and I had worked for many years.

Described by PRWeek magazine as “the [20th] century’s most influential PR figure”, Harold had passed away at 98 in Memphis, where he had moved to after a storied New York career and completion of his book, The Business of Persuasion: Harold Burson on Public Relations—part autobiography and part lessons for us all. A memorial service was to take place at the Paris-Yates Chapel at Harold’s alma mater, The University of Mississippi, founded in 1848.

Thus we all came together—from Thailand, Japan and across the United States and around the world—as the bells tolled at 2pm, on February 22, at the chapel at Ole Miss.

After the service, we gathered for a reception at the Lyceum—the only surviving building of the original five that made up the early university. A statue of James Meredith, the first African American student at Ole Miss, stands nearby as part of a Civil Rights Memorial unveiled in 2006.

“Courage,” reads one inscription depicting Meredith passing through the doorway of the campus as he was formally admitted to the university. Another inscription reads, “Opportunity.”

The events surrounding the integration of Ole Miss are some of the most important milestones of the civil rights struggle. This site, along with the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, are among more than 100 destinations important to the US civil rights movement that are featured as part of the Civil Rights Trail, extending across 15 states. All are very much worth a visit and detailed in a helpful website—civilrightstrail.com.

Read more: This Is Why You Should Visit Flower Island Resort, Palawan

Founded in 1837 and named after the British university city of Oxford, this small town of 28,000 people is also known for its literary heritage. Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner—once interviewed by a young Harold Burson—made his home here, and his Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha County of literary fame were inspired by the real-life Oxford and Lafayette County.

We see this inspiration on a short evening walk from our rooms at the Oxford Graduate Hotel to the historic Oxford town square, with the Lafayette County Courthouse at its centre. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the present courthouse dates to 1872. It was built to replace a building burned down by Union troops during the US Civil War. A fictional version of the courthouse figures in the dramatic ending to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.

Our day in Oxford though ends with a very real and delicious Southern meal. This time, a mouth-watering Saturday night dinner of fried chicken delights us at a restaurant called Tallahatchie Gourmet on The Square. Southern hospitality is also on full display as the restaurant team keeps the place open for us.

Read more: 10 Luzon Destinations To Check Out For Your Next Road Trip

DAY THREE - HELLO ELVIS

Some come to Memphis for the music and a bit of “Mempho Mojo”. They either take a pilgrimage to Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland—no escaping a key photo op with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll near the entrance—or to sample the music and restaurants of historic Beale Street, another destination on the Civil Rights Trail.

Established in 1841, Beale Street became one of America’s most iconic streets and a thriving area for Black commerce and culture. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, BB King and other blues and jazz legends played on Beale Street, helping develop the music style known as Memphis Blues.

Other home-grown success stories include the global Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who hails from Lucy Avenue in Memphis. Those of a different generation may well know a former Mickey Mouse Club member born and raised nearby in Shelby County—Justin Timberlake.

For us though, Elvis beckoned on our way back from Oxford. Born in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis would go on to make Memphis his home. In a bit of a karmic connection, Harold and Elvis (13 years later) both wound up going to LC Humes High School in North Memphis. Harold would note that he and Elvis are both in the Humes High Hall of Fame.

The self-guided tour of Elvis’s Graceland complex gives visitors the chance to explore the beautiful mansion, visit the gardens where he found peace, tour the aircraft that he travelled on, and see some of the legendary costumes, artefacts and personal mementoes from Elvis and his family.

Our visit was preceded by a stop for lunch at Uncle Lou’s Southern Kitchen—featured on The Food Net- work’s “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives”. On our menu? More great fried chicken. This time with a side of fried pickles. And then on the wall, a memento we left behind amid a bulletin board of business cards and handwritten messages on napkins and scraps of paper: a note from us that simply read, “Feb 23, 2020. Celebrating Harold Burson. Curtis. Barbara. Trina. Aidan.”

Three days. Two cities. We had come by plane and car to remember and honour Harold Burson. “Be kind. Be humble. Be accountable. Earn trust. Tell the truth.” These core principles we learned from Harold live on.

But it was also during this visit that we had the chance to see and learn more of that longer, unfinished journey—that of America’s pursuit of equality for all. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Martin Luther King, Jr once said. And I think that Harold also would have agreed.

Read more: 3 Exciting Places Local Tourists Can Travel To In The Philippines