JACKSON, Miss.—Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes called a woman in the council’s audience a slur during a long outburst at the Nov. 3 council meeting that forced the council to take a one-hour recess.
Seven weeks after Jackson residents presented a petition to discipline Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes for an outburst where he called another council member “a damn liar” and “a sissy,” another outburst from Stokes at the Tuesday morning council meeting led to chants for his removal.
The meeting had already seen repeated outbursts from attendees even before Stokes’ comment, largely expressing discontent with Stokes’ absence during the meeting’s public comment period and the city’s choice to hold a meeting on Election Day. But Stokes’ statement led to a new level of uproar.
Stokes had spent some time during the meeting advocating for Jackson to allow construction of data centers within the city limits. The council passed a six-month moratorium on considering data center construction in July. Stokes voted in favor of the moratorium.
“Hell yeah, let’s do some data centers. Bring some money to Jackson, and I’m ready to vote,” Stokes said.
After Stokes concluded his remarks, Council President Vernon Hartley attempted to move on when a woman in the audience, Carol Wallace, commented that Stokes “would sell his mom for a dime.”
“Now I don’t fight women, and I never fight them, but I’d cut that bitch out,” Stokes responded, after praising his mother to the crowd.
“She talked about my mama!,” Stokes said repeatedly while Police Chief RaShall Brackney approached the council members, putting herself between Stokes and the crowd, although attendees did not move towards the council members. She encouraged the council to take a recess.
Mississippi For a Just World President Candace Abdul-Tawwab spoke up as the crowd expressed their discontent, calling Stokes’ comment inappropriate and asking for its censure.
“Y’all take the rags out y’all hair, y’all not Muslims,” Stokes said in response to Abdul-Tawwab, who is a practicing muslim and wears a hijab, which is a scarf-like hair covering worn for religious purposes.
“Kick him out!,” chants filled the room as the audience stood, and council members quickly began standing up to leave the room as Brackney spoke to the crowd.
The council returned to chambers as the room calmed down. Hartley began to chastise the crowd for the interruption while Ward 2 Councilwoman Tina Clay and Ward 6 Councilwoman Lashia Brown-Thomas focused on Stokes’ comments.
“We have to be respectful,” Brown-Thomas said. “I’m a woman, and we have to respect each other … I think everybody needs to take a recess, just like Chief said, and get ourselves under control.”
The council soon voted to begin a 1-hour-long recess.
Ward 7 Councilman Kevin Parkinson, who left the city council chambers immediately after Stokes’ comment about Wallace, released a statement on the incident later that night.
“In short, one of my colleagues on Council made derogatory, insulting, misogynistic, Islamophobic, threatening, and deeply offensive remarks,” Parkinson said. “And, quite frankly, this was not the first time. I felt I couldn’t, in good conscience, sit through such behavior as though it were acceptable.”
Parkinson returned to the room to vote in favor of the recess, and returned again after recess to vote in favor of continuing the meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
“At a time when Jackson is working to rebuild the trust of its citizenry, this type of behavior creates division,” Parkinson said. “It also brings unwanted national attention and embarrassment to our city. I was ashamed to be part of a body in which such remarks were made.”
Stokes: ‘I Didn’t Curse’
“Bitch” and “sissy” are not curse words, Stokes told the Mississippi Free Press during the meeting recess. The latter word comes from a remark Stokes hurled at Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell at the Sept. 8 council meeting when the two began arguing about renaming a city street.
“M.F.; S.O.B—Those are curse words, not those words that you said,” Stokes said. “You show me, in the Bible, where it says if I say those words, it’s a curse.”
“I didn’t curse,” Stokes told the Mississippi Free Press, emphasizing that he believes all of his statements to be true. He did not address why he believes “son of a bitch” is a curse, but not “bitch.”
Grizzell, who was the target of Stokes’ last outburst where he called Grizzell a “sissy” and “a damn liar,” during a discussion about renaming a street, commented on the incident.
“It’s ridiculous, and it is a very strong pattern because these behaviors, even from the community and the council, have been forgiven for decades—we’re looking at three decades of this same behavior,” Grizzell told the Mississippi Free Press. “The lady today didn’t say anything about his mother—she was speaking to his behavior.”
Hartley and Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote were not present when the council members returned after that hour, and those present voted to resume the meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Mississippi for a Just World published a press release condemning Stokes’ comments shortly after the meeting.
“For those familiar with his behavior on the council, we know that his profanity is meant to distract from his failure as a council member to protect his citizens from the harms of data centers,” Mississippi for a Just World said in a Tuesday press release condemning Stokes’ comments. “He is trying to distract from the fact that today—on an election day no less—he proposed an extremely unpopular ordinance … He is trying to distract from his failures as a representative of the people, but we will not be distracted by his antics.”
“He Couldn’t Get to Me When He Said I Was Gay, So Now (He Said) I’m a Prostitute”
After Kenneth Stokes’ outburst on Sept. 8, 90 residents signed the initial discipline petition submitted to the council on Sept. 14, and group representative Norma Michael presented the petition to the city council at the following meeting.
When asked about the petition last month, Stokes asked if Michael was gay, the Clarion Ledger reported.
“Was she a prostitute?” Stokes said when the Mississippi Free Press asked him about the discipline petition on Tuesday. “Ask her, has she ever been a prostitute around Wood Street? … Why don’t you ask her, have you been a prostitute?”
Stokes declined to answer any more questions until the Mississippi Free Press asked Michael if she works as a prostitute. He also declined to explain the relevance of his accusations to the petition process.
“If Kenneth Stokes has said anything but the truth at any time, I would apologize at any time, but you go get the answer to those questions I ask you, and you come back and talk to me,” Stokes told the Mississippi Free Press during the council meeting recess.
Michael, a 69-year-old veteran and grandmother of three, denied Stokes’ allegation.
“He couldn’t get to me when he said I was gay, so now (he said) I’m a prostitute,” Michael told the Mississippi Free Press.
Although Michael spent time on Wood Street more than 30 years ago, while dealing with addiction after leaving the military, she never worked as a prostitute, she told the Mississippi Free Press.
“There was a time that I would really be pissed off because somebody has said something that’s untrue about me,” Michael said. “But I have learned, since I’ve been clean and sober, that what somebody says about me is not my business.”
‘It’s Out of Hand’
Kenneth Stokes’ latest actions have left his fellow council members exasperated. Jackson Ward 2 Councilwoman Tina Clay is looking into what can be done about Stokes’ behavior.
“I’ve really got to do some research as to what all we can and cannot do in terms of discipline in terms of the council, and this week I’m gonna make it my business to find out what we can and cannot do because even common sense tells us … it’s out of hand,” Clay told the Mississippi Free Press.
Clay called for sensitivity training in regards to Stokes’ comments, but that is not her only concern in regards to his actions on the council.
“He’s late to every meeting intentionally … And when he comes, he comes when public comment is over,” Clay said. “Even though we can do anything we want … at some point we need to respect the job … at some point, the voters has to see what’s going on and change.”
Although he was in his office for the entirety of the Tuesday meeting, Stokes waited until after public comment to enter the council chambers.
“I was going over the agenda,” Stokes told the Mississippi Free Press while still in his office, when asked why he was not in attendance. The meeting was not playing aloud in his office, although it was ongoing.
Stokes missed both of his agenda items while sitting in his office on Tuesday.
While Mississippi state law does not provide much recourse for disciplining legislators for conduct, Clay said, she is working with City Attorney Drew Martin to see what city-level ordinances might apply.
“(Stokes) does not have an obligation to us; he has an obligation to the voters, and therefore, it’s their responsibility to take him out of office,” Clay later told the Mississippi Free Press. “But we are going to have some training sessions to try to deal with conduct and have responsible citizens as council people.”
City code section 2-77 outlines behavioral expectations for Jackson council members and the consequences of violating those expectations under its rules of ethical conduct.
“A councilmember shall maintain decorum and set an example for conduct when the councilmember represents the City of Jackson,” the first rule in city code section 2-77 says. “Councilmembers shall conduct themselves so as not to bring disgrace or embarrassment upon the city.”
Council members can be fined $500 per violation from their personal money, and violations can be grounds for removal from office, the ordinance dictates.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn released a statement regarding Stokes’ comments and the crowd’s reaction at the Nov. 3 council meeting later the same day.
“Disagreements are part of public service, but they should never become personal attacks or disrespectful exchanges,” Horhn said. “Our residents deserve a city government that can work through difficult issues without losing sight of why we are here, to serve them. Our young people are watching. We must set the right example through our words and our actions, especially when we disagree. We owe that to them and to everyone who calls Jackson home.”
A livestream of Jackson’s Tuesday council meeting can be found here.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of Jackson and read past stories here.
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