C.H. Blanton, Jr. Scrapbooks

Press Release:

DURANT MAYOR'S SCRAPBOOKS DONATED TO USM March 10, 1998 Mrs. Dot Blanton of Durant, Mississippi has donated to the Department of Manuscripts and Archives in the McCain Library and Archives of the USM University Libraries copies of five volumes of family scrapbooks which document the life and public service of her husband, former Durant mayor Mr. C.H. Blanton, Jr.

'Junior' Blanton served as Mayor of Durant continuously except for one term from 1961 to 1989. A native of Durant, Mr. Blanton attended Mississippi State University until World War II interrupted his studies. After service in the U.S. Marine Corps during the war, he returned to Durant to open a dry cleaning establishment. He and Miss Dorothy Case of McComb married in 1948 and made their home in Durant. After serving as Alderman from 1953 to 1957, Mr. Blanton ran successfully for Mayor for the first time in 1961.

Mayor Blanton oversaw the growth of Durant for almost three decades, welcoming new industry and new technology to the town. He actively participated in the Mississippi Mayors Association and other state-wide organizations. For thirty-one years he served as the public address announcer for Durant High School football games.

In the sixties he guided Durant in the transition from a racially desegregated society to a legally integrated one. At the beginning of the school year in 1965, when he spoke in favor of attendance at the newly integrated Durant Public School, crosses were burned in front of his home and at his dry cleaning business, which was damaged.

The Blanton scrapbooks document the life and civic service of Mr. and Mrs. Blanton and the history of Durant from the 1950's through the 1980's.