Gulf Coast couple seeks acceptance and a place to re-start their
lives
Jade Reedus and Wesley Jackson always talked about moving to
California from their home in Mississippi. Reedus originally lived
in California before she moved eastward with her mother and
grandmother after she graduated high school. Jackson had a rough
upbringing in Mississippi, growing up near the Gulf Coast. His
mother, Sandi Jackson, married several times and kicked him out of
the house as a teenager.
The couple met three-and-a-half years ago and has a 10-month old
baby, a girl with wispy brown hair and dark brown eyes named
Natalie. Before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast, they shared an
apartment together in a small town near the Gulf Coast in
Mississippi called Long Beach, a town a few miles from Pass
Christian.
Gulf Coast couple seeks acceptance and a place to re-start their lives
Jade Reedus and Wesley Jackson always talked about moving to California from their home in Mississippi. Reedus originally lived in California before she moved eastward with her mother and grandmother after she graduated high school. Jackson had a rough upbringing in Mississippi, growing up near the Gulf Coast. His mother, Sandi Jackson, married several times and kicked him out of the house as a teenager.
The couple met three-and-a-half years ago and has a 10-month old baby, a girl with wispy brown hair and dark brown eyes named Natalie. Before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast, they shared an apartment together in a small town near the Gulf Coast in Mississippi called Long Beach, a town a few miles from Pass Christian.
But the young couple’s problems started long before the major hurricane hit their home. Jade Reedus is black and Wesley Jackson is white. People in their small community in the South felt free to tell the pair their relationship was wrong, including members of their family.
“It was the worst thing for me,” Reedus said. “California, it’s not really black. I grew up feeling like a white girl.”
She had never seen so many black people until she moved to the South, she said.
The couple share many moments when they felt discriminated against because of their interracial relationship. Jackson’s mother told him not to bring Reedus with him when he was visiting his hometown because she didn’t want neighbors to know he was dating her. While shopping with her young baby, who has light skin and fine hair, Reedus said people always mistook her for a babysitter, rather than the mother of the child.
When the hurricane hit, Jackson and Reedus had evacuated from their apartment with just the items they could fit in their car. They left behind Jackson’s dog, Dakota, and headed out of town. They waited more than four hours to get $20 of gas at a local station. By the time the storm ended, they had no place to live, no place to work and most of their belongings were gone. Of the things left in their home, only Dakota survived the winds and water.
“My friends all went to a hurricane party on the beach,” Jackson said, a party where people hang out on the beach and drink during a hurricane. “I just have two friends left.”
Many of his friends are still missing and he said they were likely killed in the storm at the hurricane party, he said.
“I’ve been to one before, but I had a feeling about this one,” Jackson said. “I know how to read [the weather] pretty good.”
Jackson worked as a commercial fisherman and Reedus worked as a clerk at a dollar store. The couple moved in with Jackson’s mother for a few months and gave her a share of money they received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help them find temporary shelter.
“We were helping with the bills there, but when we ran out of money, she kicked us out,” Jackson said. “She kicked out her own grandchild.”
The hurricane destroyed the home of Reedus’ mother and grandmother. They shared a FEMA trailer, but had no room for a baby and two adults to move in with them. Jackson and Reedus left baby Natalie with her grandmother at the trailer and stayed in their car for three days. The couple decided to take the initiative and move to their dream state.
“We picked up our lives and moved on a whim,” Reedus said. “Most people don’t think they can relocate to a place like this because they think the cost of living is so expensive. They don’t realize there are programs to help you find a place to live and get a job.”
The couple connected with South County Housing, a nonprofit organization that is helping to relocate Katrina and Rita victims to the region. SCH got involved with the relocation efforts because some of their housing facilities were funded through the United States Department of Agriculture.
With the help of SCH staff members, Reedus and Jackson applied for any federal, state and local aid they were eligible for as victims of the hurricane.
“They helped us get section eight [housing], food stamps and any aid,” Jackson said. “They got all that together for us.”
SCH is getting an apartment ready for the couple in Morgan Hill, but until it is ready the family has been staying at a home in Salinas. Reedus got in touch with one of her oldest friends in San Jose before the family made the long drive from Mississippi to California. Her friend’s parents had just bought a house in Salinas and offered it as a temporary place for the family to stay.
The only downside they see to their new apartment is that it doesn’t accept pets so they won’t be able to keep Dakota with them, though they are hoping they can find her a temporary home until they find a place that accepts pets.
Other than that, they are both ready to have a place to call their own and a room for Natalie. The family has set goals for themselves beyond finding a place to live. Jackson enrolled in a culinary arts school in San Jose. He will start classes there after the holidays and hopes to someday own his own restaurant. Reedus would like to get involved in theater again since she was signed up to enter drama classes in Mississippi before the hurricane hit. The couple is looking into helping Reedus’ mother and grandmother move back to California as well.
“My mother and I thought it was the best thing to move somewhere cheaper,” Reedus said. “But now I know there’s no place better than California for me. I appreciate the people, the climate, everything more.”
