Ferry Service for Gee’s Bend

“Gee’s Bend: Crossing Over” (Aug. 22) by J.R. Moehringer has got to be one of the most moving newspaper articles I have ever read. It’s well-written, detailed and beautifully defines the principle of putting people in the story.

And I can only hope that Gee’s Bend is revived, not destroyed, by the ferry its inhabitants were never asked to approve.

ROBIN M. WEARE

Long Beach

* My parents are Alabama natives; my sister and I were raised south of the Mason-Dixon line. My Russian Jewish grandparents got there via Galveston and Savannah, settled, raised families, opened businesses and marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King. I remember seeing communities like Gee’s Bend through the car window as we drove to visit my grandparents, taking the back roads my mother preferred. I remember wondering aloud about the people living there, why no one seemed to notice the lack of businesses, the absence of street lights, all the things I thought they couldn’t live without. I never wanted to believe it might have been a purposeful attempt by their distant white neighbors to isolate them, even though I knew that was probably the case. Your article renewed that conflict for me, because no matter what I know, I still don’t want to believe. And I have to thank you for that, for reminding me.

Next time I visit my family in Alabama, I might try to get to Gee’s Bend, to find Mary Lee Bendolph, if she’ll have me, if the ferry’s running. Maybe not. Either way, I’ll be thinking about her and her people and wishing them well.

RUTH GURWITCH

Los Angeles