727 Rose Street, The Historic Home of Dr. A. H. McCoy & Dr. Rose E. McCoy

This small white, wood-framed, cottage-style house is one of three structures remaining on the west side of the 700 Block. It used to be the fifth house the corner of Rose and Pearl Streets. It is now the first resulting from demolition of the other four on that side of the street, past the Dr. Robert Smith Sr. Parkway, going toward Lynch St.

The house was built by Dr. A. H. McCoy around 1950. It was his family residence during the time he was most active in the Civil Rights Movement. He hosted Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkens, and Glouster Current at his house during the time around the Supreme Court Decision of Brown v. Board of Education. He was State President of the NAACP in the mid 1950’s. When Emmitt Till was murdered, it was Dr. McCoy who called the wire service, AP/UPI. He was said by Dr. EJ Stringer to be the first to alert the national media of the heinous crime. Dr. Stringer, the first State NAACP President went on to say that Dr. McCoy and the others in leadership suggested to Mrs. Mamie Till Mobley to have an open casket so the world could see, just as had been done to show the truth about how Rev. George Lee of Belzoni was murdered. Dr. McCoy was Rev. Lee’s dentist and unequivocally disputed the dishonest claim by local police that the lead in his face was from dental fillings. Dr. McCoy also spoke at Rev. Lee’s funeral, calling out the White Citizen’s Council for being responsible for the murder. This was reported in Jet Magazine. Knowing that he was on the ” three most wanted list” by the KKK, Dr. McCoy also drove the 100 mile trip from Jackson to attend the Emmett Till murderer’s trial every day. During this time he received death threats including numerous threatening phone calls answered by his wife, Mrs. Rose E. McCoy while “Doc” was at his dental office on Farish St. or attending to his cattle or horses on his heir property on Old Canton Rd. Mrs. McCoy was relieved to reach him by phone, but got really afraid when the calls came at night.

Dr. McCoy would often travel around the State to help blacks in rural areas who were being harassed by whites. The intensity of threats and violence which obviously traumatized the family, heightened when the Jackson Daily News ran editorials targeting Dr. McCoy for his outspoken challenges to the white power structure. He publicly advocated for them to obey the Supreme Court law to desegregate the schools. He chartered the Jackson NAACP office in the Masonic Temple on Lynch St. and participated in the Ribbon Cutting at its opening. Membership grew during his tenure and voter registration was pushed.

In 1955, several men in the community took turns sitting with a shotgun by the front door at the house at 727 Rose St. Dr. McCoy kept a shotgun in his bedroom closet. He was given police protection. Mrs. McCoy finally convinced her husband to step down from the presidency when a bullet came through the window 18″ above their one year old daughter’s head and the next door neighbor, Rev. S. H. Jones was asked by a white stranger, “Doesn’t Dr. McCoy have a little girl?” He was succeeded by Aaron Henry. In 1961, Dr. McCoy was one of the local hosts of the Freedom Riders. The group was brought to the McCoy’s home to gather. One young lady spent the night on a pallet on the living room floor. In 1965, Dr. Rose McCoy spearheaded a tutorial program through the Jackson Chapter of the Links, Inc. for the first black high school students who attended white schools in Jackson. Charles Cockrell, who was the first black to graduate from Murrah, and Charles Evers’s future son-in-law was one of them. Classes were held at Jackson State College. She hosted social functions for the students at this home. The next school year, the McCoys enrolled their only child at Hardy Junior High where she was the second black graduate following Obradella Harrington the year before. According to statistics recorded at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, only 3% of eligible school children attended desegregated schools in 1967.

Many of the most influential blacks in Jackson lived in vicinity of Rose St., a main biracial traffic thoroughfare for decades. During segregation, whites lived on Rose St north of Deerpark St. There may have been free flow of traffic, but if walking people adhered to that racial divide with rare exceptions. Dr. McCoy was instrumental in breaking the color barrier in that white neighborhood. He was Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of Central United Methodist Church when the Board purchased a house on Ewing St. to move the parsonage from Church St. for Rev. Wendell Taylor

There are few remaining houses of the prominent people of that era. The ravages of time, vandalism, and vacancy have taken a severe toll on this one. They hope to restore the house to its original condition. The dining room chairs that Drs. McCoy once sat in, have been preserved awaiting such time. Weighing the costs and risks versus benefits, if has not been feasible to invest the necessary funds on their own. Our hope has been restored by the prospect of funding via the Jackson Landmark Designation. Because of the Federal Building being named for Dr. McCoy, there is a marker of the Civil Rights tour on a telephone pole in front of the house already. Please also consider the fact that the Auditorium at Jackson State is named for Dr. Rose McCoy.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes summed it up for most people too young to qualify for AARP, “We know Dr. McCoy, but we don’t.” By restoring this house so that it can be an interactive tourist attraction such as the Medgar Evers home, we can give more insight into the life and times of Drs. A.H. and Rose E. McCoy. If the dream of creation of a visitor’s site could come true, and if a revenue stream could be generated, it would be fitting for some of the proceeds to go to the Scholarship Fund in their names at Jackson State University.

Author- McCoy’s daughter, Rosaline Stribley