The Time of Eddie Noel

by Allie Stuart Povall

In January 1954, about eighteen months prior to young Emmett Tills' murder and only forty miles away, a young black man named Eddie Noel shot and killed a white honky-tonk operator named Willie Ramon Dickard. Dickard's killing by Noel led to formation of perhaps the largest posse in Mississippi history, its members fueled by hatred, outrage, and in some cases, white lightning. Noel took on elements of the posse in two gunfights, killing two more white men and wounding three others.
Noel was never caught, never tried, never convicted, and never went to prison. This is the story of how and why these things happened. It is the story of a time and a place and a social system that are long past. And it is the story of a young man, who defied extraordinary odds and a system that had condemned him to a certain death from the moment he stood up to a white man. The Time of Eddie Noel is a rich history filled with colorful details of a time and a place when the Deep South stood at the threshold of the civil rights movement, which would forever change both the region and the social system that governed the lives of its people, both black and white.

195 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

Reviews

[Susie James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard bits about this story from a couple of people before Allie Povall wrote his book, "The Time of Eddie Noel", a paperback that has all the makings of history and worthy of being filmed. Rough and ready Holmes County, Miss., area.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! The intricacies of Mississippi race are compelling. They are sited in this well researched tale of Eddie Noel's rampage in Holmes County, Ms. - pre Emmitt Till . A goodly part is devoted to Hazel Brannon Smith, small town newspaper owner, journalist and subsequent Pulitzer Prize winner. The personal costs of standing against good old boy bootlegging and the White Citizen's Council are heartbreakingly recounted.