When John Tierre launched his restaurant in Jackson’s derelict Farish Street Historic District, he was drawn by the neighborhood’s past as an economically independent cultural hub for Black Mississippians, and the the prospect of helping usher in an era of renewed prosperity.
This week he sat on the empty, sun-drenched patio of Johnny T’s Bistro and Blues and lamented all the business he has lost as tainted water flows through his pipes — just like other users in the majority Black city of 150,000, if they were lucky enough to have any pressure at all — and the revival he and others envisioned is very much in doubt.
