Eugene Parker Booze

Eugene Parker Booze (July 14, 1878 – November 7, 1939) was an American businessman, planter, political organizer, and Black community leader from Clarksdale, Mississippi and later Mound Bayou, Mississippi. His older sister Trenma Ophelia Booze was married in 1893, to Charles Banks (1873–1923). Booze attended Natchez Junior College, and apprenticed in merchandising and cotton trading.

He married Mary Cordelia Montgomery (later known as Mary Booze) in 1901, the daughter of the founder of Mound Bayou, Isaiah Thornton Montgomery.

Career

Booze was on the executive committee of the National Negro Business League in 1907, and 1910, representing Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Booze and his brother in-law Charles Banks opened a mercantile business called Banks and Bro. in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

In 1909, Booze co-founded alongside Charles Banks the Farmer's Cooperative Mercantile Company in Mound Bayou, a store to sell affordable items to farmers.

Booze was a delegate at the 1924 Republican National Convention for the third district of Mound Bayou. His wife, Mary Booze, served on the Republican National Committee, and was the first African American woman to do so.

Booze owned extensive cotton lands, and was described at Mound Bayou's wealthiest citizen at the time of his death. The Booze House (c. 1910), 308 West Main South, is part of the Mound Bayou Historic District.

Later years and estate issues There was a Montgomery family feud over Isaiah Thornton Montgomery's estate after his death in 1924, Booze was the estate administrator. Some of the Montgomery daughters charged that they were not given fair shares of the estate, and one of them Estella Montgomery unsuccessfully mounted a legal challenge.

In 1927, Estella Montgomery charged that Booze and his wife Mary, and Mayor Benjamin A. Green, had participated in a plot to poison Isaiah Thornton Montgomery. in what newspapers described as possible "foul play".

Many citizens of Mound Bayou, including Mayor Benjamin A. Green, blamed Booze for his treatment of his sister-in-law, and demanded that he leave the community. He died the next day in the hospital in Greenville, Mississippi.