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Jackson lawyers are split on who should be the next Hinds County district attorney, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports from four of the five candidates in next Tuesday’s special election.

Gwen Agho, Greta Mack Harris, Marvin Sanders and Wendy Wilson White filed their reports by this week’s Tuesday deadline. A fifth candidate, Darla Palmer, had not submitted her campaign finance report by close of business Thursday.

State law requires candidates file pre-election campaign finance reports, even if they did not receive or spend any money. Palmer did not respond to calls and texts from Mississippi Today asking why she has yet to file a report.

In past years, criminal defense attorneys in Jackson – the main special interest in the Hinds DA election – have picked a clear favorite. In 2019, that was Jody Owens, who is from a prominent family in southern Hinds County and avoided a runoff by nabbing 52% of the vote against two rivals in the Democratic primary. 

Owens’ resignation this summer, after pleading guilty to a federal corruption charge, triggered a quick-turn special election that has left little time for the capital city’s legal community to vet those vying to replace him.

Marvin Sanders, who formerly worked in the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and once prosecuted Owens’ predecessor, Robert Shuler Smith, reported the largest fundraising haul of $31,678. Of that, Sanders loaned himself $19,412. 

The next Hinds DA will play a role in determining how many people are held at any given time in the troubled Hinds County Detention Center — a factor in the long-running federal consent decree over the facility. 

Notably, Sanders received donations from attorneys who are fighting the consent decree: $250 from Tony Gaylor, the Hinds County board attorney, and $350 from John Hall, a private attorney representing the Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones. 

Sanders also reported the largest amount of in-kind donations at $25,350, mostly for videography services. He received a $500 in-kind donation from Terris Harris, an attorney who owns the Continental Cigar Club, where Sanders held a fundraiser. 

Gwen Agho, the Hinds DA deputy chief who is running for office for the first time, reported $30,111 in donations. Of all the candidates, Agho has contributed the least amount of personal funds to her campaign – just $1,052. 

Agho has also listed the largest donor base, reporting itemized contributions from five limited liability corporations and 34 people, including criminal defense attorneys Carlos Tanner and Merrida Coxwell. 

Greta Mack Harris reported raising $28,550, with $20,000 loaned from herself. Mack Harris pulled donations from six people and six law offices, including criminal defense attorney Dennis Sweet and Preselfannie McDaniels, the wife of Hinds County Court Judge Johnnie McDaniels.

Wendy Wilson White, the other current Hinds DA employee in the race, reported loaning herself $10,571 and receiving $600 from two people, one of whom reported their $300 donation as a loan. 

Wilson White is the only candidate who completed her campaign finance report by hand. She also did not provide required information, including the dates of her loan, her two donations and all of her disbursements except for an Oct. 24 payment of $300 to the Jackson Jambalaya blog.   

Each of the four candidates who filed reports on time paid for advertising on WMPR, a radio station majority owned by Hinds County District 4 Supervisor Wanda Evers, the niece of famed civil rights leader Medgar Evers. 

Agho and Mack Harris were the only two candidates to report spending money on political consultants. Agho reported paying $4,420 to Campaign Impact, a firm owned by LaDarion  Ammons. Mack Harris reported spending $9,000 on campaign consultant Angela Grayson.

Mississippi’s unemployment rate dropped only slightly in September, from 3.4% to 3.3%, the lowest since July 2024 when it was 3.1.%.

The unemployment rate has decreased slightly over the last several months after remaining around 3.8% for almost a year. 

September 2026 unemployment numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the number of jobs in Mississippi held relatively steady, dropping by about 700 jobs compared to August, mirroring the national “no-hire, no-fire” environment.

“We’ve got a steady labor market, not a whole of jobs being added but not seeing declines in employment, either,” said Corey Miller, Mississippi’s chief economist. 

Unemployment claims have declined over the past year, but so has the number of people in the labor force, leading to a lower labor-force participation rate, following national trends.

Mississippi has one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the country. In September, the rate was 54.3%, down from 55.8% a year earlier. The national rate was 61.8% in September.

UMMC building new cancer center

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has broken ground on a new cancer center in Jackson. UMMC, the state’s only academic medical center, said the building is critical to its goal of achieving National Cancer Institute designation and improving patient outcomes. The building is expected to cost $250 million with funds coming from the state, federal government and private donors.

The center could bring more jobs to the area and generate additional economic benefits for the region. UMMC estimates that once it opens, an NCI designated center would generate over $200 million a year in economic benefit.

UMMC has sought the NCI designation for over a decade. Dr. Alan Jones, the medical center’s associate vice chancellor for health affairs said achieving the designation will take more time.

UMMC will need to hire more faculty, perform community outreach and expand its research capabilities. Researchers receive federal grants, but the grants do not cover all the costs associated with running a large, complex research organization.

Is a Jackson casino possible?

Investors want to build a casino along the Pearl River in Jackson and asked the City Council to sell them city-owned land. Rep. Chris Bell, a Democrat from Jackson, said the project would bring in much needed tax dollars for the city. For the project to happen, it would need approval from the Legislature, which Bell has attempted and failed to secure multiple times.

Tax revenue from Mississippi’s gross casino earnings has been flat over the last few years according to numbers from the Department of Revenue. The growth of online gambling and prediction markets, although mobile sports betting outside casinos remains illegal in Mississippi, is an increasing worry for the casino industry. 

Other news

• Barge Forest Products is investing $8.3 million to expand its sawmill operations in Macon.
• Jackson-area business leaders discussed the impact of data centers on Mississippi communities as the centers face increasing pushback from residents and lawmakers. 
• Mississippi, the Federal Trade Commission and 19 other states filed a lawsuit against Dollar General claiming the company has persistently overcharged customers. In 2023, Mississippi had the highest number of Dollar General stores per capita.
• Ingalls Shipbuilding received a $99-million contract for testing and upgrades on a Navy destroyer. 
• Fairbanks Morse Defense will double its capacity in Pascagoula. The $60-million expansion includes $27 million from the U.S. navy.

Multiple generations of Black civil rights activists met at Xavier University on Wednesday to honor a group of Freedom Riders after they finally completed a disrupted bus journey from Washington D.C. to New Orleans 65 years after the original trip was halted.

The original ride, the first in a series of trips to protest Jim Crow laws, was interrupted when a segregationist mob firebombed their buses in Anniston, Alabama on May 14, 1961. The 13 riders were able to escape the bus before it exploded but sustained beatings from the mob. The next day, they flew directly to New Orleans and sought refuge at Xavier University after hotels refused to host them out of fears of further violence.

Leaving D.C. on Oct. 17 and stopping in historical cities like Selma and Jackson, the latest cohort of Freedom Riders completed the bus route their predecessors were unable to. Among the riders were original participants of the 1961 Freedom Rides, including Steve Thomas, who traveled from Jackson to Montgomery.

Interlocking hands to sing “We Shall Overcome” and hosting a litany of faith-based activists, the reception highlighted a legacy of Black political action amidst concerns of voter suppression after the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act and a nationwide redistricting eliminated majority-Black congressional districts across the Deep South, including one of two in Louisiana. 

“We are approaching another election and once again questions about voting rights, equal representation, civic participation and the integrity of our democratic institutions is before us,” said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, who is based in Missouri. “Across the nation, the communities are wrestling questions that should have been settled permanently long ago: ‘Who gets to vote?’”

Among the some of the original Freedom Riders recognized were New Orleans locals Jerome “Big Duck” Smith and Dodie Smith-Simmons. Smith famously met with then-U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy in May 1963, confronting him about the failure to protect him and other civil rights activists against angry white mobs across the South. The meeting is seen as a pivotal factor that pushed the federal government to support the civil rights movement. Smith continued to fight for civil rights and mentor New Orleans’ youth until his death in August. Smith-Simmons, who attended the event, also trained freedom riders when she was with CORE.

Before the Xavier event, the Freedom Riders first stopped at the TEP Interpretive Center — located at the former William Frantz Elementary School — to meet founder Leona Tate, one of the first students to integrate the school in 1960.

They then made their way to Xavier University’s St. Katharine Drexel Chapel for a recognition of their efforts and a program to highlight the legacy of Black activism. Like the original bus trip, solidarity with HBCUs was a throughline for the new campaign as student leaders paid tribute to the actions of their predecessors.

“Mr. Smith was more than a fighter and freedom rider. He was a father, a mentor, and a man who demonstrated love, courage, culture and commitment to his family. We honor him today, and his sacrifice, his service and his journey,” said Xavier University student Paytra Flood, who spoke at the event. “As we welcome back Freedom Riders to Xavier, we recognize that we are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. As students at this historically Black University, we have the responsibility to understand history that shaped our communities.”

While the original Freedom Rides were undertaken to confront ongoing transit segregation, this year’s trip sought to mobilize voters and encourage activists to understand what they can do today to enact change.

Kredelle Petway-Phillips, a legacy Freedom Rider who also participated in the recent trip, said she wanted to remind young Americans of the importance of their vote and ability to make change. Her Freedom Ride was an July 1961 airplane trip from Montgomery, Alabama, to Jackson, Mississippi, where she was arrested by Jackson police and held for three days. Petway-Phillips’ participation in the rides was seen as integral to the eventual desegregation of flights. When she visited Jackson for the 50th reunion of her flight, she said it was rewarding for her to see Black people represented in the local government.

“It’s up to you young people to vote and keep the legacy alive,” Petway-Phillips said.

“Fight for what’s right [and] vote for the common good of all people because what affects one affects the other. … We all suffer when one suffers.”

The Xavier ceremony wrapped up with a second line from the chapel to a statue of Norman Francis, who provided safe refuge for the May 1961 Freedom Riders when he was Xavier University Dean of Men. Francis, who died earlier this year, later became Xavier’s first Black and non-clergymember president in 1968.

“The reality is that we have to declare that there is more work to be done,” said Bishop Erika Crawford of the Eighth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church that represents AME churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. “There are testimonies about what happens when we refuse to allow the last stops to be the final stop …This is the last stop, but don’t let it be the final stop.”

Over 200 pages of Snapchat messages pulled from the cellphone of Nolan Xavier Wells have only fueled questions surrounding what led to his death on Horn Island. 

The forensic phone extraction by Garrett Discovery covers messages sent within nearly 30 group chats between July 4 and July 26. The 18-year-old and his friends communicated primarily on Snapchat and other social media apps like Instagram, which is why investigators focused on the app. Wells’ body was discovered July 6.  

The recovered Snapchat messages provide a glimpse into how Wells’ friends tried to reconstruct where he was and who he was with. Some also mention the presence of what they described as “sketchy” characters on the island that day. 

After Wells died, messages in the groups turned from words of support to anger over social media speculation and criticism directed at lawyers representing Wells’ parents. Some of the national and online attention led some group chat members to express concerns about their own safety. 

The release of the Snapchat messages and GPS from Wells’ phone came days after a Jackson County grand jury declined to indict anyone for the Ocean Springs native’s death, concluding the condition of his body was consistent with drowning despite the lack of water found in his lungs, stomach and throat. 

National civil rights attorney Ben Crump and team members have presented more information such as an independent autopsy that highlighted injuries that the state noted but did not explain. They have also called for federal investigators to step in. 

In the report, Garrett redacted phone numbers and Snapchat usernames that identify senders in the group chats, but forensic investigators identified at least 200 distinct users. 

Mississippi Today reviewed the messages and organized them chronologically across all groups rather than individual group chats. Below is the start of messages friends sent directly to Wells checking in on him and asking if he needed help, which continued through the early morning of July 5. 

Wells was not able to read any of the messages because his phone was left on the boat that headed from the barrier island back to the Coast on the afternoon of July 4. His parents reclaimed the phone from his friends and later turned it over to the forensic investigators. 

‘You scaring me dude’

Wells told his friends he would get a ride back to the mainland on a different boat. He was reported missing the night of July 4, and the next day law enforcement, his family, volunteers and others began their search by water, land and air. 

Direct messages sent through Snapchat show how people began to worry. Some showed anger toward the people who took Wells to the island but did not return with him.

“If (you) bring someone on boat (you) make sure they fucking get back on,” wrote one person wrote in “thevapersofgtv” group text, which did not appear to include anyone from the boat.

The messages continued throughout the early morning of July 5, showing a mix of worry and best wishes. 

People asked Wells to text or call them back and offered prayers of safety. They told him to tell them where he was so they could come get him. Others told Wells they loved him. 

The messages picked up later in the morning with people mentioning that Wells had been reported missing, and they were more insistent about needing to hear back from him. 

“You scaring me dude I’m seeing and hearing a lot of stuff about you going missing can’t (lose) you bro,” one person wrote just before 10 a.m. 

Next are the group messages members traded July 5, the day after Wells was last seen. 

‘Has anyone seen Nolan yet’

One of the earliest messages about Wells was in the “Supa Senior Guyz” group chat at 6:15 a.m. As the morning progressed, other group chat members began to ask similar questions, including whether Wells got a ride off the island and who he interacted with throughout the day. 

Just before noon, people from multiple group chats said things seemed suspicious, but they also held out hope. Wells wasn’t the type of person “to get left,” someone wrote from the “WCBIA” group chat. Another person from “thevapersofgtv” chat said if he were on land he would’ve called someone. 

“(He’s) gotta be shlumped somewhere (right now) hopefully,” someone wrote in the “Supa Seniors” group. 

People from at least two groups chats wondered why Wells’ phone was left on the boat that departed without him. 

Group messengers told each other to look at their Snapchat memories and phone camera roll to see if Wells was in the background or if there was anything they could glean. 

Several people across different group chats asked about a girl Wells was seen with, which is in line with what his friends reported to law enforcement. 

The “Supa Seniors” group members traded messages about two “sketchy looking” people nearby at Horn Island who they believed were ex-felons. One said their father had to walk a woman who knew the men to her boat. Another responded that sheriff’s deputies told their dad that the men were people “you wouldn’t want to be left alone with,” especially if alcohol was involved.

By the afternoon of July 5, people in a few group chats said they had been contacted by law enforcement about Wells’ disappearance. They encouraged each other to “stick to what you know” and share what they could.

“(The police) are just trying to help Nolan, so be as cooperative as possible,” someone wrote in the “Supa Senior Guyz” group.

‘We’ll get through this together’

The morning of July 6, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said a body was found around Horn Island by a National Park Service ranger matching Wells’ description, leading to messages in the group chat expressing anxiety and, again, hope that it wasn’t Wells. 

Members of the group chats told others they loved them and that Wells loved them, too. They offered each other support and spoke highly about their friend. A few shared Bible verses or prayers. 

“Nolan was the most nice and caring guy we knew. He’s in a better place now and we’ll get through this together,” said one message sent July 6 in the “Supa Seniors” group around 10:15 a.m., before the body had been identified. 

“I wish I could help his family (right now),” a person in “thevapersofgtv” group wrote around 11:30 a.m.

Seconds later, in the same group, someone wrote: “I feel so bad bro.”

By noon, Wells’ parents announced that the body found on the island was his. 

As news spread across the state, nation and online, public discussion and social media chatter ramped up. The tone of some of the group chat messages took a turn. 

Members of multiple group chats had already complained about social media attention on Wells’ disappearance and death, calling the speculation lies and slander meant to provoke them. 

Through Snapchat, people in the group chats shared clips, posts and other information about Wells’ death that they found problematic. One member of the “thevapersofgtv” said people online were “(just) stirring up mess” and another person replied that “anything along that topic is dividing everyone.”

Intertwined with that displeasure were comments about race. Members from different group chats noted a focus on how Wells was Black and only his white friends made it home, and the idea was circulating on social media that white people in Ocean Springs were racist. 

“If they knew how much we love him, they wouldn’t say that,” one sender wrote in the “OS + BTown” chat the evening of July 5.

Several of the group chat participants criticized how Wells’ parents were working with Crump. A week after his death, members of the “Supa Seniors Guyz” called Crump someone who “does his job for the wrong reasons” and “hides behind the wall of being an ‘activist.’”

“It’s almost like their brainwashing Nolan’s parents and taking advantage of them while (they’re) overwhelmed with grief,” a member of that chat said about the legal team on July 14, a week after Wells’ parents hired Crump and joined them in several news conferences. 

Some also talked about taking precautions, such as limiting communication beyond friends and law enforcement and digital safety by turning off locations, blocking calls and ignoring messages on various social media apps. 

To date, some who have accused Wells’ friends of playing a role in his disappearance and death have been threatened with legal action. Three of Wells’ friends filed a federal defamation lawsuit against NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens over a social media post. Those making death threats to people linked to Wells’ death investigation are facing charges in federal court. 

One said in “thevapersofgtv” group chat that Wells’ case had grown bigger than that of Aubreigh Wyatt, another case that put Ocean Springs in the center of online and social media conversation. In 2023, Wyatt, 13, committed suicide after years of alleged bullying by classmates. Her mother took to social media to share her daughter’s story and pursue legal action that is still active.

Weeks after Wells died, some of the members of the group chat continued to talk among themselves, following updates including Wells’ funeral and news conferences hosted by Crump. 

“Supa Seniors” group members discussed whether they should attend the funeral with their Black friends “to send a message to the media.” 

It’s not clear whether they attended, but the day of the funeral, one group member called the offer of the $150,000 reward announced during Wells’ service “a disservice … and so ignorant.”

Wells’ direct messages also captured longer, thoughtful words recounting memories, his impact on their lives and wishes for him to rest in peace. One person went further and called for justice. 

“(You) and your family deserve justice. I’m praying you get everything you deserve that wrong will be shown and that if anyone did something to hurt you that they will be accounted for and punished,” they wrote July 7. “You deserve everything good out of this situation and I pray that God will reveal that.”

SHAW — Cassandra Phillips hates to see the old Ray Brooks School building rotting off Highway 1. 

To local lawmakers and residents, it was the best maintained public schoolhouse in Bolivar County. The one structure connected to a gymnasium with a vaulted ceiling and glossy wooden floors and a cafeteria with cushioned booths in maraschino red.

Now, vines hang where school banners did. Shelves and desks lie rusted and mangled in the abandoned breezeway, and wires stripped of their copper lay limp from behind shattered doors and windows.

The Ray Brooks School, which served grades K-12, was a casualty of a 2014 consolidation between Benoit’s school district and those in Rosedale and Shaw. 

But the community lost more than a school. Families had gathered at the building for repasts, impromptu kickball tournaments and youth mentoring. They could attend a football game or pick up a child without making a 20-minute drive — the typical amount of time it takes now to get to school in Shaw. 

Now, former Ray Brooks Tigers, including Phillips, cheer for the Shaw Warriors, their pre-consolidation rivals. But that harmony that took six years to achieve is at risk again.

State lawmakers are considering another consolidation in Bolivar County, which has three districts: North Bolivar, West Bolivar and Cleveland. The details of lawmakers’ new consolidation plans are not yet clear, and  the promises of cost savings and better schools from the last one have fallen far short of expectations. Schools have closed, buildings have deteriorated and turmoil has plagued the resulting district. 

“Benoit has lost so much,” Phillips said.

Taking the fight against consolidation to Jackson

In January 2012, Beverly Culley, Benoit’s superintendent, addressed lawmakers to argue against consolidation. She handed packets detailing district budgets and student test scores.

She brought students, too. They sang a hymn. She made an impassioned speech and listed off the district’s high test scores relative to its neighbors. Benoit was one of the best performing school districts in the Mississippi Delta. The district had minimal debt. The community needed its schools.

“They didn’t listen,” Culley said. “They had all the data. But none of that mattered because they were going to do what they were going to do.”

Evelyn Henry, who served on the Shaw school board before the consolidation, was also present that session, but with a different pitch. She presented a binder with the total cost of unaddressed maintenance issues in Shaw schools, which was steep, she recalled. 

She hoped if lawmakers did go through with consolidation, they would consider consolidation with Cleveland, which had a larger tax base and was closer in distance.

“We had to realize something was going to happen,” Henry said of the board’s attempt to negotiate. “I just wish we could have had somebody to help us before we went to Jackson so we looked like a unified front.”

Neither Culley or Henry’s wishes were honored, both now saying their fears were realized.

‘We just couldn’t sit down and just make it work’

The consolidated West Bolivar school board would be tasked with fixing crumbling infrastructure in Rosedale and Shaw with little money. Lawmakers chose three communities with some of the lowest tax bases in the state to combine, which Henry felt set them up for failure.

The consolidated districts saved roughly $400,000 in administrative costs, much less than lawmakers’ claims the move would save up to  $1.6 million.

Jackie Lloyd, who has represented Rosedale schools on the West Bolivar board since consolidation, recalled getting little technical assistance from the state Education Department after the districts merged. She said pooling the different schools’ resources and then dispersing them equitably was particularly challenging.

The districts had a combined $1.48 million in debt coming into the consolidation. West Bolivar School District, based in Rosedale, owed more than $1 million. Benoit’s district only owed $40,000.

Henry, who represented Shaw on the consolidated school board until 2020, had the same observation as Lloyd. She felt each community’s representatives were only interested in measures that would benefit their schools. The board increasingly failed to reach consensus, and gridlock on votes became common.

Five years and four superintendents later, Henry observed a more aggressive school board whose actions were fueled by the increasing polarization. According to a 2020 lawsuit Culley filed against the district and board members, board members aggressively bullied and harassed her. She alleged the behavior started soon after she was appointed superintendent of the consolidated district in 2017.

The district settled out of court in 2020 for an undisclosed amount for alleged behavior that U.S. District Court Judge Michal P. Mills called “distasteful.”

In Shaw, district consolidation meant no high school, no band

While videos of board members’ quarrels reached viewers on Facebook, district infrastructure continued to crumble. Two district high school buildings were eventually condemned: Shaw in 2018 and West Bolivar in Rosedale in 2020. As a result, Shaw High students attend classes at the elementary school building.

For Shelia Ratliffe, a Shaw alum, budget cuts at the school mean her children missed out on extracurriculars. 

At the Sept. 14 football game, Ratliffe pointed to the old Shaw High school gym, where she remembered majorette and band practices took place. She remembered the pride the community felt for Shaw’s band, when they had one.

Failing infrastructure and fewer extracurricular offerings weren’t inevitable, Henry said. The Shaw school board received a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to renovate the high school building prior to consolidation. A crew from Jackson provided an on-site inspection along with a project overview in 2013, she recalled.

Later, the consolidated school board and a series of superintendents never prioritized the project. Instead, they abandoned the historic high school and relocated its students to the McEvans Elementary building.

In 2020, the West Bolivar Consolidated school board, now dominated by representatives from Shaw and Rosedale — and one from Benoit — voted to close Ray Brooks, too.

“It made no sense,” Culley, the former Benoit superintendent, recalled. 

The district installed two portable toilets by the concession stand for spectators and players alike in lieu of a field house at Shaw High’s football field. 

“Our community, Shaw, just really started feeling like the ugly child,” said Henry of upkeep projects that went ignored at her alma mater. She said she paid for McEvans school sign out of pocket to replace an old, decrepit one, and the board moved slowly on other Shaw priorities. 

Communities adjust to playing on the same team

Zalia Sanders, a Benoit native and a senior at Shaw High, was miles away from home at the Aug. 28 matchup between Leland and Shaw. But the rural community on a bayou has become a second home for her. She, along with three other students, said Shaw and Benoit have come together despite a tumultuous consolidation in 2014.

At the game, she stood by the fence with her older sister, Ja’khyria Williams, who is a college freshman. They reflected on what became common in the wake of consolidation: student fights.

She said the rivalry between Rosedale and her native Benoit can be fierce — a  feud that stretches back to the 1980s, long before her time in school. 

There was an uptick in fighting between Rosedale and Shaw youth in the years after the consolidation in the late 2010s and in 2024, Rosedale Police Chief Aaron Malone recalled. But while he remembers some dispatches last year related to disputes, this year has been mostly quiet.

The catalyst can be as small as an unfriendly look or as big as allegations of romantic infidelity, Sanders said. 

Still, she said, she loves Shaw High. She got more comfortable at Shaw schools through joining the volleyball team, she says. 

“When you’re playing on the same team, you get to know each other as people.”

Shaw, the town miles down the country highway, no longer feels so foreign, she said. But between board members weighing another school closure and consolidation talk in Jackson, students like her might be sent to yet another community for school.

Shaw residents don’t want to reopen the wounds of consolidation

Arika Williams, a Benoit native, was wrapping up her shift in the concession stand.

By the fourth quarter, she was counting cash from the stand’s register beneath the hum of an electronic fan. Her brows knitted beneath her tortoiseshell-framed eyeglasses as she shifted to counting the remaining stock of chips and sodas.

“If we can all work together and go in the direction we’re going, I think we can all be successful,” Williams said. Initially, she worried consolidation could mean her son would miss out on extracurricular opportunities in Shaw and spend too much time on a school bus.

The big Delta sky had gone black by the fourth quarter. The headlights of old Silverados lit up reflective workmans’ vests in the dark streets by the field. Some were trying to catch the game’s last moments after getting off work.

In the past, some of the Shaw Warriors’ biggest boosters were Ray Brooks Tigers. Ray Brooks alumni, Lajaruis Jaron among them, said they know the importance of community more than anyone in the county. They know how losing schools and football victories can fracture a community. 

During the football game, he leaned forward to watch a Warrior nab the ball. He cheered. The player ran the ball to the end zone. Two students sprinted school flags by the edges of the field. 

Shaw scored again.

Jarone said he attends each season’s game whether home or away. He owns multiple maroon and yellow T-shirts. He couldn’t imagine autumn without a Warriors football game. 

“When the bus moves, I move,” he said.

Jarone attended Ray Brooks School, not Shaw, but like Williams and Phillips and Sanders, he said he’s found a new home. He’d hate for another district consolidation to force students to find another one.

“I hope consolidation doesn’t happen to these kids like it did to us because it will take a toll,” he said. “This is how it’s always been for small communities. The odds have always been stacked against us.”

GULFPORT — Gulfport plans to break ground this month on a $54 million road project that would give drivers another way across Interstate 10. City officials say it would improve traffic flow and emergency access, while environmental advocates raise concerns about wetlands and flooding. 

The Interconnecting Gulfport project would build an overpass west of U.S. Highway 49, connecting the Airport Road area south of I-10 with Daniel Boulevard to the north. The route would also provide another entrance and exit for Gulfport Premium Outlets. 

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved two state-level authorizations in May. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also lists a federal permit issued with special conditions June 12. 

The city awarded Cotton Creek Transport Inc. a construction contract in September, with completion required by May 2029. 

What will change for drivers

Plans include two roundabouts, connecting roads, drainage improvements, lighting, sidewalks and access for bicyclists and pedestrians.

City officials say the road would improve emergency response and provide another evacuation route during hurricanes. 

Engineers considered several routes before selecting the current alignment. According to a 2022 environmental assessment, an earlier option was eliminated because of conflicts with existing infrastructure, right-of-way limitations and environmental restrictions. 

Some residents hope the project will ease congestion around Highway 49 and I-10. 

“It’s honestly a good idea. It’d probably clear up a lot of the congestion in that area,” said Quintana, who has lived in the Gulfport-Biloxi area for 14 years. 

Gulfport resident J.E. Lawrence said afternoon traffic can make travel difficult.

“It’d be beneficial for all of our residents if we could do this from the 49 to I-10 aspect. Putting an (overpass) in could alleviate a lot of the traffic problems that we see, especially from Airport Road to, say, around the Crossroads Mall area. It’s very congested there during the day, especially at 5 o’clock when everybody’s getting off work,” Lawrence said. 

What the traffic study shows

A traffic analysis by engineering firm Neel-Schaffer compared projected conditions in 2045 with and without the new road. 

The study projected improvements in some areas but found that certain intersections could still experience significant delays. 

At Highway 49 and Airport Road, traffic conditions were projected to worsen by 2045 whether or not the project is built. 

It has not been confirmed whether the projections were updated following subsequent design changes.

Wetlands and flooding concerns

The project’s potential effects on wetlands and nearby neighborhoods have drawn opposition from the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization, known as EEECHO. 

Katherine Egland, the organization’s co-founder and deputy executive director, said the group favors another route and has concerns about flooding. 

“I’m all about economic advancement, but this does not have to be at the expense of the environment,” Egland said. 

Egland said EEECHO has also sought an explanation from city leaders about their choice of route. 

“We’ve asked the former mayor and the current mayor for a meeting to help better understand why they would select this road over much better alternatives, and they have declined to meet with us to explain why,” Egland said. 

The project’s 2022 environmental assessment documents public concerns about flooding and effects on nearby communities, including Forest Heights. 

The Federal Highway Administration issued a finding of no significant impact for the selected route in 2022, determining that a more extensive environmental impact statement was not required. 

In May, the city said it had enlarged a planned detention pond to manage heavy rainfall, increasing the estimated wetlands impact from 66 acres to 98.3 acres. 

City officials said engineering analyses projected improved drainage and reduced flooding risks from rainfall runoff. The detention system is not intended to protect against coastal storm surge. 

The city provided information about the construction contract and planned groundbreaking but has not responded to follow-up questions, including whether drainage projections were updated following the design changes. 

Economic development officials on Wednesday urged Jackson business leaders to craft informed opinions about data centers and consider their impact on Mississippi’s infrastructure, economy and communities.

“You are entitled to all of your own opinions,” said Jeff Rent, president and CEO of the Greater Jackson Partnership, which organized the panel, “We are a nation of varying opinions. But I hope you will learn something today and base your opinion of data centers on the facts.”

Data centers are facing increasing pushback from residents in Mississippi and across the country as companies are rushing to meet the expected artificial intelligence demand for computing power. Residents are concerned about the impact on electricity rates, noise, water and the surrounding environment. There are seven data centers being built in Mississippi, with more potentially in the pipeline. In the Jackson Metro area, there are two in Madison County, one in Clinton and one in Rankin. 

State and local officials are eyeing more regulations. The Jackson City Council passed the state’s first data center moratorium and other cities have passed zoning regulations. Earlier this year, a legislative task force on artificial intelligence expressed concerns about the potential impact of data centers.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there on social media, a lot of things that happen in other communities that are not relevant to our communities,” said Garrett Wright, director of Rankin First Economic Development Authority, “It is incumbent on everyone in this room, everyone on this stage, to make sure that the local population is fully informed of reality, not just what they are reading in the media.” 

Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, said that it is important to understand what data centers are because they will be the new infrastructure, similar to railroads and the internet.

“I’ll tell you why I’m excited about it, “ Fisackerly said, “It’s not just about the growth and the jobs and investment. How is it going to transform the services we provide our communities and our customers?”

Fisackerly said that before Amazon Web Services decided to build a data center in Madison County, Entergy was concerned about the impact that rising costs, aging infrastructure, severe weather and a lack of sales growth would have on electricity costs for customers. 

Entergy, the state’s largest electricity provider, knew that it needed to build two new power plants by 2030, Fisackerly said, and having Amazon as a customer is now helping to pay for them and will lessen the increased costs for Entergy’s other’s customers. A report commissioned by environmental groups said that data centers have already increased rates for Entergy’s Mississippi residential customers by around $10 a month. Entergy has pushed back against these claims and emphasized that customers are benefiting from, not subsidizing data center costs.

Amazon has continued to expand its presence in Mississippi since the announcement of its first data center in 2024. It plans to invest $25 billion in Mississippi data centers in Clinton, Madison County and Warren County. 

“We have never seen an economic development opportunity like this in our state’s history,” Fisackerly said. 

Beyond the corporate investment, speakers on Wednesday highlighted data centers’ broader economic impact, including taxes directed towards public schools and job creation. Amazon recently tried to challenge Madison County’s property valuation which would reduce the amount it pays in property taxes. However, the county upheld the assessor’s valuation.

“When you think about data centers, it is not just the direct jobs. They are impacting every level of our education system. So, I’m so proud of what this entire region is doing to support the ecosystem for the data center industry,” Wright said.

“The jobs obviously are an important part, but what’s happening with the taxes? What’s happening with the wages? What’s happening with the home prices? What’s happening with the overall investment in the community,” said Andrea Hutchins, a project manager with Amazon Web Services.

The panelists emphasized the importance of partnerships between data centers, local businesses, government officials and the communities they’re building in. They encouraged people to ask questions and get engaged in the process.

“My advice is, it’s OK to say no. If you don’t want a data center, say no. Let your voice be heard,” said Joey Deason, Executive Director of the Madison County Economic Development Authority. But he cautioned against relying on misinformation and encouraged people to go to Amazon’s data centers in Canton to see and hear what they’re like. 

Panelists agreed that data centers are here to stay. Hutchins said that Amazon is projecting demand for at least the next decade, but there are ways data centers can be better partners. Deason said that there have been car wash gift cards given to people living close to the Amazon data centers and regular street cleaning in an effort to be good neighbors.

“I don’t think we can ignore the fact there have been some bad players or some some projects that have been detrimental to some local neighbors in the broader Southeast or even in the U.S. region. But there are a lot of ways to mitigate that,” Wright said, “ I think it’s incumbent on us as our developers to make sure that what we bring to our community is only going to increase the overall value of the region.”

International student Qingfang Pang had barely touched down on his new campus in Itta Bena last month when he learned his expired visa could thwart his hopes of finally breaking into the highest ranks of college basketball, according to his new school, Mississippi Valley State University.

MVSU spokesperson Donnell Maxie remembered that day: The 6-foot-9-inch junior forward from China hadn’t been in Delta Devils territory for long, but he quickly caught students’ attention at the small, historically Black institution nestled in the fields ringing the tiny Delta college town.

“You walk around, and you’re a 7-foot or 6-9 Asian kid here,” Maxie said. “Everybody wants to talk to you.”

The semester was already in full swing — classes were a couple weeks in, and basketball season was due to kick off in less than two months — when Maxie said MVSU secured Pang as a late admit. As a player, he was different from the Delta Devils’ usual picks as the worst-ranked team in NCAA Division I basketball for the last three years in a row.

The Delta Devils are a basketball team with such a storied losing streak that they rake in funding for MVSU’s whole athletic department by traveling the country to get demolished in “buy games” against powerhouse schools — taking home a payout of up to $100,000 a match. The team hasn’t won a nonconference game against a Division I opponent in 20 years, but it did earn nearly $1 million in buy games in 2024.

The news of Pang’s addition ignited the hopes of fans of the underdog team such as Oliver Fell, who opened a fan account on X to find humor in the Delta Devils’ many losses. He has accrued over 10 times more followers than the team’s actual account.

Pang was taller than the usual MVSU baller, and more sought after. Coming out of high school in Queens, New York, in 2024, he garnered over 10 offers, including multiple bids from top-ranked Division I teams, like the University of Illinois and University of Michigan.

He ended up cutting his teeth on junior college basketball at Monroe University in New York for the last two years. This fall at MVSU marked his break into Division I basketball. 

Pang stood out as an unconventional Delta Devils player for new head coach Mike Davis’ equally unconventional lineup — one that was filled with taller and more diverse talent than past teams at the HBCU. He was one of three ballers with an international background and two non-Black players, along with 7-foot center Tianhao “Howie” Wu, who also hailed from China.

“Pang is a guy who is frankly a caliber of player MVSU doesn’t get all that often,” Fell said. “A player who is excited to be a part of this team, who is certainly going to be one of the centerpieces on the squad and who brings a different kind of player and personality than Valley has seen before.

“Athletically, missing Pang would be a huge blow to the squad.”

Then, after Pang’s one day on campus, he was gone.

Three weeks in ICE detention

Pang hadn’t gotten the chance to play on the Delta Devils’ court when his new school realized his visa had expired, Maxie said. Pang and MVSU realized his transition wouldn’t run as smoothly as they had hoped.

Pang had been busy running through a checklist of first-day duties on campus. Maxie said he sat for a player photoshoot and met with the school’s international student services, which is in charge of making sure MVSU’s small contingent of 60 international students follows immigration requirements. 

The staff reviewed his documentation. Things quickly derailed from there, according to Maxie.

“Within 10 minutes of him being there, they told him, ‘Hey, man, you know your visa has expired?’” Maxie said.

Up to that point, Pang wasn’t aware his visa had expired, as he mistakenly believed that Monroe had arranged for it to be reinstated, according to his attorney, Marcus Session, a former professional basketball player. Monroe spokesperson Jacqueline Ruegger said the school warned Pang two years ago to reinstate his visa and that he had met with an attorney to discuss the issue at the university’s recommendation.

Because Monroe had already issued him the necessary immigration documents, Ruegger said, he was allowed to remain in the U.S. as long as he was maintaining a full course load at the school. But ultimately, he never reinstated his visa, and he graduated from Monroe in April with his associate degree in sports management.

In an effort to resolve his visa issues at MVSU, Pang decided to get a flight to New York to meet with his sponsor, a family friend, Session told WJTV. 

But in the process, Session said, he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Greenville airport on Sept. 29, amid what immigration attorneys say is an increasing wave of immigration arrests at airports.

Pang’s case follows a string of high-profile detentions of college student athletes in recent months, including fellow HBCU basketball player Aminata “Amina” Seck, over what the Department of Homeland Security has said are illegal overstays. Immigration law experts said these issues have traditionally been resolved by simply filing paperwork to reinstate the students’ visas. But the Trump administration has had an unprecedented approach: detention.

“Making an example of high-profile people is a very strong way to send a message,” said Adam Cohen, a Memphis-based immigration attorney who specializes in representing universities and international students. “It discourages and makes people fearful.”

ICE held Pang in detention at Richwood Correctional Center in rural Louisiana. Federal inspectors have uncovered a history of violations at the facility, including unsanitary conditions and restricting detainees’ access to their attorneys without any justification. 

The day ICE arrested Pang, an immigrant from Peru who was being held at the detention center died of a heart attack from septic shock.

DHS wrote in a statement after his arrest that Pang “accepted voluntary departure” — an agreement to leave the U.S. — and would remain in ICE custody until his “removal.” But Pang didn’t know what he was agreeing to and was “tired” of being treated like a “criminal,” Session said.

Pang wanted to return to basketball and classes, but Session said authorities told him to sign a removal order and failed to provide him with an interpreter — a violation for which federal inspectors have previously cited the detention center.

Pang was gone just weeks before the Delta Devils’ basketball season was about to kick off, with MVSU not knowing when — or if — he could return.

“No one thought this would happen here,” Maxie said. “Yet we’re still doing everything we can to make sure we help this student, like we would do for any of our students.”

Fans rallied around the Delta Devils’ new recruit as his detention garnered national attention. Fell launched an online petition calling for his release that racked up over 500 signatures.

“He’s been gone since the 29th of September,” Fell said, “in a facility meant to house violent criminals that doesn’t seem to treat these detainees as if they are anything more than that.”

Pang’s case reminded international student Israel Makoka of his time in a cell at another immigration detention center in Louisiana, after ICE arrested him and his younger brother Max in April while they were waiting for their school bus in Hancock County. Their arrests marked some of Mississippi’s highest profile immigration cases this year.

“You can’t do anything,” Makoka said, “You’re just in a room.

“You start questioning everything: Why did I even come to America?”

Makoka, who is from the Republic of Congo, spent nine days in ICE custody. Since then, he’s tried to resume life as any other 18-year-old, by graduating high school, moving away from his host family, starting his freshman year at Hinds Community College and playing for the basketball team there.

But Pang’s case hit close to home for Makoka and his host mother, Gail Baptiste. Like Pang, Makoka found support in the basketball community when he was detained after he and his brother unknowingly violated their student visas by transferring to a school closer to their host family.

What started as a mistake set off an immigration case that the Makoka brothers and their host family are still navigating. As Makoka awaits a decision in immigration court on whether his visa can be reinstated, he has to wear an ankle monitor everywhere as a condition of his release. 

“I feel a little connected to him,” Baptiste said of Pang’s case. “When it’s a kid, and they have the language barrier, and they’re trusting other people to understand the process.”

After three weeks in ICE custody, Session said, the removal order Pang signed was rescinded, and he was released from detention on Oct. 20 on a $12,000 bond. His return came just in time for the Delta Devils’ season opener on Nov. 6: a matchup against the Oklahoma Sooners. 

His attorney applied for his visa to be reinstated, and it could take 15 months for his application to be processed, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ current estimates. As he awaits a decision, he may return to classes and the basketball court.

Nichole Francis Reynolds, Coach Davis’ cousin and a Washington-area attorney who assisted with Pang’s case, said the forward would play before the school Saturday in MVSU’s Halloween basketball game.

Upon his release, Pang thanked Mississippi’s U.S. senators, Republicans Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, for helping to move his case forward. Despite their track record as Trump allies who support the president’s immigration policies, the senators’ intervention also proved pivotal in securing the Makokas’ release from detention, after the brothers’ largely conservative Gulf Coast community advocated for their return. Neither senator’s office responded to Mississippi Today’s request for comment.

But most of all, Pang was excited to return to the court.

“Thank you to Coach Mike Davis and the assistant coaches, who believed in me and never stopped supporting me, and to my teammates for standing by me,” he said in a statement. “I am looking forward to going back to school, catching up on my classes, and playing basketball again for Mississippi Valley State.”

What went wrong?

MVSU maintains that as an international student, Pang bears sole responsibility to ensure he maintains a proper immigration status. On MVSU’s part, Maxie said the school fulfilled its responsibility to manage his international student records and help him navigate immigration requirements.

“It is on the student to then follow through, and he did not follow through,” Maxie said. “So this is all of his own doing, unfortunately.”

While Pang is legally responsible for ensuring his status, immigration law experts said, based on the available information, MVSU also bears some responsibility.

Cohen said MVSU was “late” in fulfilling the requirements that came with Pang’s transfer as an international student. Before Pang even came to campus, according to Cohen, the university should have reviewed his documentation and noticed his visa had expired. It should have obtained his international student records from Monroe and issued him a key document called a Form I-20, which would confirm his enrollment to immigration authorities and allow him to apply for his visa to be reinstated.

But MVSU didn’t fulfill those responsibilities until after Pang was already on campus or even later, when ICE had already detained him.

“It’s late in the game to be just seeing this file and the student’s there on campus,” Cohen said. “It’s like basically going to a university and taking classes before that university even has jurisdiction over your student record.”

It wasn’t until Pang was in ICE custody that MVSU moved to obtain his international student records from Monroe and issue him a Form I-20, according to Maxie. But he said MVSU didn’t cause any “paperwork delay,” saying the school’s international student services notified Pang about his expired visa as soon as they noticed it.

“Our people, they are on top of this stuff. They don’t play about this stuff,” Maxie said. “They make sure that their documents and their paperwork is in line so that we don’t have issues, particularly in this political climate that we’re in.”

Pang’s case has also raised questions about the accuracy of the Department of Homeland Security’s public explanation for his arrest. The department wrote in a statement that Pang was arrested after he “legally” entered the country while in high school in 2023 on a “temporary basis not to exceed September 5, 2024, but illegally overstayed.”

That last day fell on his first week of classes as a freshman at Monroe. Ruegger said that while Pang’s visa had expired then, the school had already issued him a valid Form I-20, allowing him to legally remain in the country as long as he was taking classes at Monroe.

As a result, Cohen said he couldn’t see how it was in any way “accurate” for DHS to say that Pang had illegally overstayed his visa for the last two years. The department did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment about the basis of its explanation.

“I think they are just embellishments and half truths or no truths,” Cohen said of DHS’ statement. “It’s amazing to see what is said and compare it to the actual truth of it.”

Former President Bill Clinton will campaign in Tupelo on Friday for Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom, the Colom campaign told Mississippi Today.

The Democratic former president’s trip to Mississippi will be the latest in a string of appearances by national figures hoping to turn out voters in the state’s heated Senate race between Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris have each come to Mississippi over the past week to campaign for Hyde-Smith and Colom, respectively.

In a statement, Colom said Clinton would discuss issues important to Mississippi voters.

“I am honored President Clinton is coming to Tupelo to highlight the issues that matter most for Mississippians, from the rising cost of gas and groceries to the negative impact tariffs are having on our farmers and small businesses,” Colom said. “Those are the same issues Trump voters talked to me about when I walked the line of the Trump rally on Monday, and it’s why I know Mississippians are ready to fire Cindy High Prices on November 3rd.”

Clinton last came to Tupelo for a campaign event in 2008, when he spoke at a fish fry to support his wife, then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, during her 2008 presidential primary campaign. He also traveled to Jackson in 2016 to support his wife’s next primary campaign.

Colom’s campaign also told Mississippi Today that South Carolina U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn would campaign for Colom in Mississippi on Thursday. Clyburn, the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, is set to make stops in Olive Branch, Ruleville and Jackson.

Clyburn will focus on voting rights and Hyde-Smith’s opposition to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and Freedom to Vote Act, Colom’s campaign said. Mississippi remains embroiled in a fight over an expected push by the Republican-controlled state Legislature to redraw electoral maps, and Colom has highlighted the threat of redistricting on the campaign trail.

The South Carolina congressman also came to Mississippi in 2023 to campaign for Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor that year.

The Senate race has attracted a last-minute barrage of spending as Democrats see an opening and Republicans worry that reliably conservative Mississippi could become a casualty of Trump’s sinking popularity nationwide.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg campaigned for Colom in Gulfport and Biloxi on Tuesday, pleading for Mississippi voters to “send shockwaves” by voting for Colom. He was preceded by a cavalcade of Democratic senators who have come to Mississippi in the election’s homestretch for the Democratic nominee.

Democrats hope to flip the U.S. Senate and have begun looking at Mississippi as a dark-horse pickup opportunity. At his rally in the rural northeast Mississippi town of Corinth on Monday, Trump said he came to Mississippi because he couldn’t “take a chance” that Republicans might lose what has been a reliably safe seat.

In a statement, Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, said Clinton is “synonymous with higher taxes, low morals, sex crimes, and Jeffrey Epstein.”

“Americans and Mississippians are tired of being pandered to by the hypocritical elite like the Clinton family,” Monssen said. “It’s a shame Scott couldn’t get Hillary to join him on the campaign trail.”

The election is on Nov. 3.

STARKVILLE — In marbled rooms at the State Capitol, conversations about school consolidation often lead to Oktibbeha County. 

Many state leaders consider the 2015 consolidation of the Starkville city public schools and Oktibbeha County schools a success story. 

That’s because the consolidation — which married a failing district in the county to one that was middling in the city — resulted in more money, a temporary enrollment bump, a new state-of-the-art school with expanded academic offerings and what is now an A-rated district.

But some locals might argue that account leaves out another part of its legacy: Every school that closed belonged to the county district, where 90% of students enrolled were Black. By comparison, the city schools were 30% white.

Jackie Ellis, 70, attended county schools and graduated from B.L. Moor High School, which later became East Oktibbeha High School. Now the old school is home to an events venue and a boutique motel. 

Every time Ellis drives by the motel, she feels what she lost.

Early resistance ends with shared mission

When the consolidation was first introduced — by lawmakers from Hattiesburg, no less — Starkville residents grumbled, Haley Montgomery recalls.

“The community was fairly blindsided,” said Montgomery, who at the time was a volunteer with the local public school parents’ group and freelanced for the school district. She now handles communications for Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District. 

Starkville parents worried how consolidation with the state-managed Oktibbeha County School District would reshape their C-rated schools.

Families wanted a seat at the table and asked the Legislature to let locals take the lead. Lawmakers formed a committee of Oktibbeha County residents to recommend ways to improve education in their community.

The committee stumbled early on, when it proposed sending Oktibbeha students outside of the county. Rex Buffington, who led the committee, said the group was trying to shorten commutes for students who lived closer to neighboring school districts than to schools in Starkville.

But the proposal was perceived as a rejection of students. “And of course it was,” he said, acknowledging the misunderstanding. “Why didn’t we see that?”

Though painful, the incident helped change the committee’s perspective. No longer would they try to split up students. 

“These were all of our children,” Buffington said. “We were going to take responsibility for finding a plan to help children in both districts.”

When the committee visited the county schools, Buffington saw obvious disparities and, more importantly, the opportunities that lay before him.

“They didn’t have a lot of the extracurriculars that we take for granted,” he said. “I saw they were missing out on so much — in the classroom, yes, but even extracurricular activities. They didn’t have the things they needed and deserved. It was a moral issue to me.”

Many of the county students had grown up in the shadow of Mississippi State University but never visited the campus, Buffington said. The committee wanted to change that. 

The idea for the Partnership School was born. 

The university would partner with the district to train teachers at the campus, and would give sixth and seventh graders from across the county access to a sparkling new facility and extracurricular offerings that were previously unavailable to them, like an agriculture class and piano class.  

The school, lofty and spilling with light, opened in 2020 and serves 657 students on MSU’s campus. 

When history is erased

Orlando Trainer, who served as the county representative on the local consolidation committee, saw only benefits in merging the two districts. 

Trainer attended Starkville schools, but he and his wife, a graduate of the county schools, chose to send their daughter to Oktibbeha County schools for most of her education. Over time, Trainer saw how much help county schools needed — facilities in disrepair, limited extracurricular and academic opportunities and low student morale. 

Trainer, a county supervisor, considered the condition of the county schools as shameful, particularly with a university just a few miles away. 

“Consolidation for us was an act of redemption,” he said. “I only wish we had done it sooner.”

But for Ellis, the longtime Oktibbeha County resident and B.L. Moor High alumna, the loss of her school still hurts.

The only buildings that closed during consolidation belonged to the county district. Today, two former county buildings remain in use — an elementary school and another that’s an alternative school for students with behavioral problems.

East Oktibbeha High School was central to the community and a hub for civic life, Ellis said, including Juneteenth celebrations, ball games, fundraisers and concerts.

Julius Clark, a longtime Oktibbeha County Schools administrator before the consolidation, remembers the reaction when the closures were announced. 

“Of course, everyone felt that their children were being pushed aside or thrown into something that someone else wanted,” he said. 

Though Clark wishes those schools that were closed could have stayed in the community, he eventually came to support the consolidation. That’s because it gave county students access to extracurricular activities they didn’t have at their district, such as band and choir, and access to better resources, such as modern textbooks and technology. 

“They had been missing out on everything,” Clark said. “We didn’t have recognition or opportunities because of the money. Everything was based on money, and money is based upon your student body.”

Ellis, who works on historic preservation in Oktibbeha County, acknowledges that consolidation ultimately benefitted county students, improving their academic offerings and facilities through the Partnership Middle School. But she feels the community lost something important.

“The opportunity for the community to preserve (the East Oktibbeha school) property was given away to someone outside of the community,” she said. “It’s caused a great loss.”

A number of mementos such as class photos and trophies went missing during the consolidation, Ellis said. Some were found two years ago damaged or destroyed, she said. 

Artifacts that make up a school’s history and traditions are often overlooked during consolidation, said Carrie Hahnel, a senior associate with Bellwether, a national organization that works to improve education outcomes. 

Schools with more Black students are more likely to be closed, research shows. The logic of closing a predominantly Black school and moving students to a modern, well-equipped building makes sense, Hahnel said, it’s important to understand “that facility might be in disrepair because of a history of disinvestment.” 

A consolidation lesson: Listen to locals

In one Partnership School classroom in early September, Montgomery watched as seventh graders labeled vegetables on worksheets. Outside, a garden flourished under the summer sun. A fresh basket of sky blue eggs, gathered by students, sat on the counter.

“All things are difficult before they are easy,” read a cutout on the wall, a fitting reflection on the district’s consolidation.

For Montgomery, the consolidation was the right decision, one that ultimately brought the community together.

“There is something very special about serving your entire county,” she said. “If there were hurdles and challenges, our community is better for it.”

As state lawmakers consider consolidating more districts, Buffington hopes they learn from Starkville-Oktibbeha’s successes — as well as its failures.

Above all, he said, locals should lead the process.

“You should really put local people and parents, in particular, in the forefront of deciding how the consolidation can be shaped to best benefit the students,” Buffington said.

“That way the community has ownership of it,” he said, “and it’s not something that is done to them.”

For Ellis, the loss of her former school offers an important lesson: Communities should have a say in preserving their history.

On a sweltering afternoon in September, Ellis walked through the halls of her old high school, now an event space and motel. Her eyes lit up as she pointed out the gym and cafeteria.

“That school had been there for over 50 years,” she said. “It was like home to the community. It was like home to me. And that history has been erased.”