[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15601]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MR. EUGENE HICKS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 2014

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
remarkable Entrepreneur of Clarksdale, Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
  Clarksdale business owner, Eugene Hicks, Sr., continues to receive 
recognition for his world famous hot tamales. He has been featured on 
the Food Networks television show, Rachel Ray's, Chile Pepper, Southern 
Living, Esquire magazines and other national magazines. He has also 
been featured in the local and national newspapers.
  Mr. Hicks has hosted and served quite a few famous people and 
celebrities from the late, John F. Kennedy Jr., and John Amos, Blues 
entertainers, Bobbie Rush, Rufus Thomas, Tyrone Davis, and many 
worldwide tourist travelers. The most exciting historical event hosting 
and serving President Bill Clinton, Rev. Jessie Jackson, and several 
Mississippi governors including Governor Ray Mabus, Governor Ronnie 
Musgrove, and Governor Haley Barbour, and many more distinguished 
customers.
  Mr. Hicks, who is now 70 years old, has been making tamales since age 
16 when he was introduced to the cooking craft by the late Angelo 
Thompson who was the owner of Liberty Super Market in Clarksdale. Mr. 
Thompson instructed him on how to properly cut meat and how to manage a 
store and a restaurant. Mr. Hicks started working at the Liberty Super 
Market at the age of 12 years. He would work after school and worked at 
local stores doing various types jobs.
  During the same time around the age of 12, an older black gentleman 
named Acy Ware befriended him. Mr. Ware made and sold tamales to the 
public by push cart and Mr. Hicks would go back and forth to the local 
grocery stores on his bike to pick up the different spices and shucks 
that Mr. Ware needed to make his tamales. A couple of years later, Mr. 
Ware taught Mr. Hicks how to make tamales and informed him that the 
skill of making tamales can assist in him becoming an entrepreneur.
  Mr. Hicks was drafted into the military at the age of 21 and worked 
in the mess hall preparing and cooking for the officers and his fellow 
soldiers. His ability to cook afforded him the opportunity to stay 
state side and be shipped off to Vietnam. After his military service he 
went back to work at Liberty Super Market, and at the federal building 
before opening his own grocery store. He opened Hicks' Superette in 
1973, on 109-5th Street at the age of 26 with $52 dollars where he sold 
groceries and his tamales.
  Business was booming and people from all over the world came to eat 
his tamales. Customers liked his tamales and the word spread that he 
had the best tamales in the Mississippi Delta and they would request 
orders to be shipped to them in various parts of the United States and 
foreign countries.
  ``The mid-90s were really tough,'' Hicks said. However, he had to 
close down Hicks' Superette. In 2000 because of high crime and drug 
usage in that area of down town, people began to move out.
  Mr. Hicks moved and opened a restaurant/ banquet hall, called Hicks' 
World Famous Hot Tamales & More on 305 South State Street. He has 
independently own his business for 41 years now. Hicks is one of the 
oldest independent black business in Clarksdale.
  Mr. Hicks is amazed that these years his business still attracts 
people from all over the world.
  So, what is the secret to Mr. Hick's success? It is the shucks he 
uses to wrap the tamales in before cooking. Many people use wax paper 
which is cheaper. It's kind of expensive the way he does it, but it is 
the way he was taught 50 years ago and it has paid off. He does not 
believe in cutting comers like most people may.
  His wife, Betty, of 44 years has worked in the business for the last 
11 years after retiring from the Clarksdale Public School System. She 
said, ``Eugene has recently contemplated retirement.''
  Mr. Hicks stated that his career has been a blessed one, because he 
has had a chance to meet a lot of people due to his tamales. Mr. Hicks 
lives by the motto of: ``What you do--do it well.''
  Mr. Hicks and his wife are the proud parents of 3 children.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing an amazing 
entrepreneur for his dedication and service to his profession.

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