Jackson Free Press logo

This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

In spring 2006, Mayor Frank Melton broke his 14-month silence toward the Jackson Free Press, after refusing to give an interview to the newspaper after critical coverage of his campaign by JFP editor Donna Ladd, who was later joined by Adam Lynch and Brian Johnson. Over several weeks, Ladd spent many hours interviewing Melton, and went on two ride-alongs with him and police officers on the Mobile Command Center. Here are transcripts of those interviews:

Note: The following interviews have been temporarily pending completion of a special project.

Part I: The Passions of Frank Melton (Reader’s Guide)
Part II: The Obsessions of Frank Melton
Part III: The Trials of Frank Melton
Part IV: The Future of Frank Melton

Ride-along narrative: On the Road Again

MFP Solutions Lab logo

The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.