Alpha Graphics (2022)

Signed. New in paperback.

West Jackson was once the city’s ethnic and cultural palette. Living there were Greeks, who immigrated from the cradle of western civilization; Lebanese, descendants of the seafaring Phoenicians; Italians, descendants of the empire that birthed Christianity even after it first tried to abort it; and African-Americans, whose ancestors came from the cradle of mankind. While Jackson’s Jewish population tended to live in other parts of the city, their businesses were downtown and on the border of the city’s growing western section. The pioneer residents of West Jackson built lovely homes. They built churches that were magnificent, stately or perhaps possessed a simple elegance.

This book returns to the decades when downtown Jackson was a retail center, and West Jackson was a showcase of prosperous and middle class living for a growing city. Those who grew up in the west and attended school at St. Mary’s, Whitfield, Hardy and Provine, or who shopped at the Vogue downtown or hung out at Westland Plaza will find pleasant memories and a chance to visit their collective and personal histories.

Vincent J. Venturini was baptized in St. Mary’s Catholic Church when South Jackson was still in that parish. His classmates and schoolmates at St. Joseph High School in the late 1960s included many of the Lebanese and Italian residents of West Jackson. He acquired an appreciation of West Jackson and its residents in those high school years. Venturini is the co-author with Doug Shanks of One Direction Home: A History of South Jackson.