Ellen Reddy, who lives and works in Holmes County, Miss., is a long-time advocate for the rights of young people. She is also a school-discipline expert who, in 2003, helped start the the Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse to identify and end the systemic factors contributing to the “pipeline” between schools and prisons.
Dr. Sandra Carr Melvin, epidemiologist and public health advocate, writes that “the health, wealth and economic sustainability of Mississippi” remains at stake since state legislators refuse to expand Medicaid, which would close the health-insurance gap.
“This newsroom all of you helped build is, quite literally, a dream team,” Donna Ladd writes. “Now we’re ready to add another leader to it who wants what we have to offer and to grow with the MFP as all of these amazing human beings—all leaders, to a person—have done.”
Dr. Karla McCullough, executive director of the Juanita Sims Doty Foundation, says Mississippi should embed core “humanizing factors” into our varying service support systems to improve relations and engagement within our communities, especially communities of color.
Ebony McLaughlin keeps the dream of Randy McLaughlin, her late husband, alive by continuing the Mississippi Black Owned Business Facebook group. She advocates for sustainable Black businesses in Mississippi and encourages everyone to shop Black-owned every month, not just in February.
Karen Hinton, author of “Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power,” joins Donna Ladd and Kimberly Griffin as a guest on this week’s MFP Live, Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 6 p.m. Hinton learned first-hand how difficult the path to the top can be for a woman in a political culture traditionally dominated by men. More than once she saw her career derailed because of her refusal to stay silent about the bad behavior of powerful men.
People are losing faith in democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere. Support for democracy has declined by almost 10 percentage points since 2004. The 2021 round of AmericasBarometer offers important insights into what’s driving declining support for democracy in the region.
MFP publisher and co-founder Kimberly Griffin encourages all Mississippians to face our turbulent history and keep telling the truth to make sure we don’t repeat the past. Today, Mississippi seems to take two steps forward, and one step back. But moving forward incrementally is still progress.
Rhea Williams-Bishop, director of Mississippi and New Orleans programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, believes that the richness of Mississippi’s soil should be passed down to every young person in the state, cultivating generations of healthy eaters.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).