CNN
—
A 16-year-old employee died Friday at a Mississippi chicken processing plant, a county official said.

The teen died at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg, about 100 miles southeast of Jackson, deputy coroner Lisa Klem at the Forrest County Coroner’s Office told CNN. An autopsy was completed, but the results have not been released, Klem said.

Mar-Jac Poultry said the teen died from injuries suffered in what it described as an “accident” in an emailed statement to CNN.

“On the evening of Friday, July 14 an employee conducting sanitation operations at Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC’s Hattiesburg, Mississippi poultry processing plant died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident,” the company said. “We deeply regret the loss and send our most sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Shag carpeting. Eight-track tapes. Missing an important phone call because you weren’t home to hear the phone ring.

There are few anachronisms from the 1970s that most Americans from that era will not miss. It was a time of long gas station lines, itchy polyester double-knit suits and TV options limited to three networks that signed off each night with a warbled recording of the Star-Spangled Banner.

But as a Black child of the 1970s who grew up on shows such as “The Jeffersons,” I miss one storytelling element from that era that seems to be missing from contemporary Black TV series: hope. Not a naïve hope, but a muscular type of hope that maintained that though racism was persistent, America would eventually transcend its racial divisions.

Watching clips from popular 1970s shows like “Room 222” and “The White Shadow” is like stepping into an alternative universe. White and non-White characters tackled racial issues with a boldness and nuance that wouldn’t be allowed today. They strived together to create integrated neighborhoods and schools. They thought people could change, and so could America.