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The Buck Stops Here

Looking for the courthouse crowd?S.B. Buck’s restaurant is a good place to start.

With Photo: BUCK

Cutline: S.B. Buck's restaurant is where a lot of the courthouse crowd goes for lunch and political gossip. Photo By Marianna Breland.

By MAGGIE DAY

For 15 years, S.B. Buck has brought the community together for more than just a plate lunch.Tucked away in an outdated strip mall across the street from the Washington County Courthouse is Buck's Restaurant, and if you blink twice, you just might miss it.

But don't let its humble exterior fool you.Buck and his wife, Demetris, own and run the establishment, complete with decor of historic newspaper clippings, posters and snapshots on the walls, cafeteria-style trays, and Tabasco sauce at every table.

The enterprise is well-known, serving everyone from the regulars to Barack Obama in 2008 during a campaign stop. Soul food and sweet tea combine to create a place where the courthouse crowd takes a break, politicians strategize and thecommunity congregates.

But Buck doesn't stop here.

In November, Buck’s name will appear on the ballot for county supervisor for District 4. This is his first political campaign, but don't underestimate him -- with his infectious personality and signature cackle, Buck is no stranger to the community.

S.B. Buck was born on April 17, 1947, a mere 25 miles away in Indianola. Buck was named for his uncle, Samuel Bernard, but the whole name didn’t exactly make it to his birth certificate. So he is simply known as S.B.

Buck has 13 brothers and sisters, and he is fourth-oldest. Their mother raised them on Billups Plantation near Greenwood, and they worked as sharecroppers while enrolled in school. Buck went on to study for two years at Mississippi Valley State University but did not obtain a degree.

“I had enough brothers to have a football team!” Buck howled. “I guess having that many siblings taught me how to share and appreciate when you don’t have much.”

Buck then took the chance to get out of Mississippi. He traveled to Detroit in 1967 to stay with his uncle, who was a minister.

“I was just a kid that wanted to get into things, but he had a different idea of what I was going to be doing,” Buck said, raising his eyebrows to hint at a point.

Buck got his first taste of a big city there, witnessing the 1967 Detroit riot. A short time later, hedecided to make the long journey home. He got a job with Modern Line Production in Indianola and worked his way up to become the company's first black supervisor.

It was in Indianola that Buck got a taste of civil rights activism, marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others from the Delta to Jackson.

When he retired, he opened the restaurant in Greenville and has been there ever since.

It’s a biracial crowd – “60 percent of my customers are white,” Buck said – that includes folks who work in the courthouse and nearby stores as well as the crowd from the hospital. Buck also does a healthy takeout business and can be seen running around town delivering tall stacks of Styrofoam containers of piping-hot lunches.

But his place also has become a sort of community meeting place. Clubs and organizations frequently meet and eat in the second dining room off to the right of main room, a large space with more photos and clippings on the walls from the Obama visit and a big color television mounted on one wall.

Buck likes to talk, smile and laugh, and that hasn’t hurt his business, either. It’s also helped him get a strong sense of community trends and what people think. He’s plugged in.

As Chancery Clerk Marilyn Hansell put it: "Buck's is where all the politicians and the people downtown go to eat. It's the place to be and it's a big gathering place for the community. It’s where everyone goes."

Produced by the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.

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