Jackson Free Press logo

This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Inspired by The Clarion-Ledger’s owners’ bizarre and Orwellian attempt to redefine “local business,” we’ve decided to launch a LocalList contest on Jackpedia.com. Just head to this Jackpedia ‘Local Jackson’ page and post a list of local stuff you love about Jackson. That’s it! Do it by 5 p.m. Friday, and we’ll put you in a drawing for a Tye’s $100 gift card (try the red sauce while you’re there; it’s divine!). Click here to see my list-in-progress to see how easy it is.

We will also draw for $25 gift cards to Sal & Mookie’s/Bravo/Broad Street and to Hal & Mal’s. We’ll give a $25 gift card to the person who posted the best “local name.” (Mine is SassyLocal.)

In addition, the best lists will be reprinted in next week’s print edition of Jackson: The User-Generated Guide to Cool Jackson. Thanks for supporting real-local businesses in and around Jackson!

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.