
Heart of Darkness: 1991 Lafayette County Cold Case Spurs Black Family’s Struggle for Justice
The Black family of Harry Mitchell has waited 32 years for the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department to solve his 1991 cold case murder.
MFP Contributor
The Black family of Harry Mitchell has waited 32 years for the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department to solve his 1991 cold case murder.
The Black family of Harry Mitchell, murdered in Lafayette County, Mississippi, in 1991 wants justice after decades of being ignored.
Mississippi is on track to have one of its driest years on record, with 98% of the Magnolia State currently experiencing drought conditions ranging from abnormal to exceptional as of Sept. 19, the U.S. Drought Monitor says.
July 2023 is set to have been the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, officials at the United Nations Meteorological Organization say.
Mississippi Power executives and political backers and lobbyists pushed a huge moonshot of an idea back in 2006 to turn low-grade lignite into “clean coal” to provide electricity from its Kemper County plant in east Mississippi. They also used new legislation to force ratepayers to fund the experiment in advance—funds they later had to repay before imploding part of the facility on Oct. 9, 2021, 15 years after hatching the plan.
A Lafayette County drug unit has lost at least $34,000 that its agents seized during busts and arrests targeting local residents and University of Mississippi students, including for crimes involving marijuana. Government documents show that local officials have known since at least 2016 that the funds were missing—a fact that remained hidden from the public until now. Federal investigators suspect the funds may have been stolen.
Former employees of an Oxford animal shelter accused operators and co-workers of animal abuse and neglect, leading to an emergency meeting and its temporary closure last week.The shelter in question, Mississippi Critterz, is a nonprofit organization contracting with the city of Oxford and Lafayette County. On Monday, March 8, Oxford Alderman Janice Antonow, who is the city liaison with the shelter, announced that it will be temporarily closed.
A monument dedicated to the seven known lynching victims in Lafayette County will go up on the lawn of the county courthouse in Oxford. But it will include language stipulating that one of the men lynched was accused of “murdering” a white woman although he was never convicted of the alleged crime.
The United Campus Workers of Mississippi is demanding the reinstatement of historian Garrett Felber, known for his anti-racism work at the University of Mississippi.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MS 39201
info@mississippifreepress.org
tips@mississippifreepress.org
events@mississippifreepress.org
601-362-6121