Black and White Bean Salad

The Black and White Store down on the far west end of Main Street in Yazoo City opened the doors to its two-tone storefront in 1938. It stocks general merchandise and department-store goods; everyone in town shops there for fabrics and patterns, back-to-school clothes, new shoes, and footlockers for summer camp. Whenever I hear the words “black and white” I think of their big neon sign. Mr. Chisholm, the longtime manager, says at first the store was White’s Store, with an aptly painted front; and when it expanded into the building next door that had been burned and the bricks charred black, it became the Black and White Store. I was writing out a grocery list at home the other day and when I looked at the list at the store I had absentmindedly written “Black and White Store Beans” underneath “carrots.” This salad ensued.