Christine Loftin believes medical marijuana could save the life of her son, Bryan, who has mitochondrial disease. But more than a year after Mississippians voted to enact a medical marijuana law, Gov. Tate Reeves has not called a special session to create a program.
After applying for 43 vacancies in northern Mississippi and being denied every one of them after his time in prison, former Columbus, Miss., Councilman Kamal Karriem is now advocating for the business community to open its doors to people like him as a measure against recidivism.
Speech-language deficits are the most common childhood disability, affecting around one in 12 children. Without treatment, speech-language problems can lead to behavioral challenges, mental-health problems, difficulty reading and academic failure. The Magnolia Speech School is a nonprofit school established with a mission to help children with communication disorders develop their potential through spoken language and literacy. The program takes kids as young as 1 year old up to age 13.
Warning: This piece contains graphic descriptions of race violence. NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss.—Travonder Dixon-McCloud grew up in Macon, Miss., hearing about a local white mob killing
Central Academy was one of Mississippi’s dozens of segregation academies that opened in the 1960s in anticipation of a final Supreme Court mandate, while many others were “founded in 1970” soon after the Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education decision finally ended legal public-school segregation. They demanded and often got public funding even as they excluded Black children and openly taught racism to many of today’s prominent white Mississippians and decision-makers.
Noxubee County mothers and educators, many of them resilient Black women, are determined to make it work and find solutions that their students and families deserve. But that is a challenge now, just as it was before the pandemic hit, due to long-term disparities and historic and intentional inequities that made the effects of the pandemic especially acute for the Black women of the county and their families.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Mississippi’s challenge to Roe v. Wade for more than a month, but leading abortion-rights organizers say they are not holding out hope for a favorable ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Instead, they are preparing for a post-Roe Mississippi.
Damion Portis is a barber who participates in the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Shots at the Shop program, educating his clients on the importance of the vaccine. After months of low Black vaccine uptake, Mississippi has broken through an enormous barrier of vaccine disparity.
The jail designed to improve conditions for detainees has faced a myriad of problems: structural deficiencies, chronic understaffing and poor management. But fixing those problems have been elusive under whatever sheriff and Hinds County Board of Supervisors are in elected office at a given time. Now, 27 years later, the federal government may take over the Hinds County Detention Center, wresting control from local officials.
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