FOCUS: #MSWelfare/TANF Scandal • Jackson Water • Abortion • Race & Racism • Policing • Incarceration • Housing & Evictions
“Every person in Mississippi has the right to know how our legislative public servants are making decisions and why,” Donna Ladd writes.
Nearly three decades ago, most of the once-bustling businesses in downtown Laurel, Miss., had shuttered their windows, and the brick streets that criss-crossed the Pine Belt town’s center were void of pedestrians and drivers alike. Today, downtown Laurel is enjoying a resurgence thanks to locals and outside assistance. As always throughout its history, like that of other Mississippi towns, it’s complicated.
George Raymond was a teenager when he came to Mississippi from New Orleans to fight for Black freedom and voting rights. He could have been driving the car instead of James Chaney on Father’s Day, 1964, when the KKK killed three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.
Recently, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said that the United States would suffer if more “woke” and “uninformed” college students are registered to vote under President Biden’s executive order on voting which, Watson claimed, included “automatic voter registration.” There are so many wrong things about this statement, it’s hard to know where to start, former Mississippi Gov. and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus writes.
MFP editor Donna Ladd’s pilgrimage to civil-rights hero James Chaney’s grave in rural Lauderdale County reminded her we cannot go back to 1964-style racism.
Despite death threats, Tiffon Moore is pushing to move the Confederate statue in front of the Neshoba County Courthouse. Her cousin Malek and her mother Tiffany, all descended from slaves, are helping.
Rita Schwerner Bender stood on the lawn of the Philadelphia courthouse tackling rapid-fire questioning with the same iron-clad composure, poise and presence as she had done back in 1964 in Mississippi.
I know what it’s like to grow up without a father. I have no idea what it is like to have your father taken simply because he wanted civil and human rights.
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.
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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).