Mass evictions of the residents at the Catherine Street Apartments in Starkville are underway in spite of the raging pandemic. Many residents fear they will have nowhere to go.
Dr. Pete Smith, a journalism professor at Mississippi State and an advisory board member of the Mississippi Free Press, originally published this essay on the
On the penultimate day of the Confederate Heritage Month, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made a bold declaration: “There is not systemic racism in America.” The announcement, if it were true, could come as a relief to the 38% of Mississippians who are Black. But around 16% of those residents will not have the opportunity to express their gratitude to the governor in the next election because they are systematically disenfranchised due to an 1890 Jim Crow felony voting law.
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.
As Gov. Tate Reeves lifted mask mandates on March 3, 2021, some cities like Hattiesburg extended their rules. Others, including Oxford, did not. Meantime, local businesses hoped to recoup lost business despite ongoing risks.
Three local Oxford candidates are in confusing limbo after Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced on Monday that municipal candidates in Mississippi should be required to live in their current wards for at least two years leading up to their election in order to qualify for their races.
Trump’s Lost Cause creates its own brutal trap for those who will not acknowledge that he lost a standard, legal, legitimate election. Good losers aren’t happy about losing, but because they share a devotion to the community, they concede and move forward instead of burning everything down in a frenzied tantrum.
Election officials are busily trying to recruit younger volunteers to staff the United States’ roughly 230,000 polling sites on Election Day in November. Many of the nation’s poll workers are reluctant to work during the pandemic because they are, overwhelmingly, older and at high risk of severe COVID-19 infection.
Four new lawmakers are joining the Mississippi Legislature after voters in two House districts and two Senate districts voted in special elections to fill the vacant seats on Thursday. Though the candidates appeared on the ballot with no party identification because state special elections are non-partisan, they did share their party allegiance on the campaign trail.
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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).
