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LELAND — A frenzy of gunfire after a high school football game earlier this month in a small Mississippi Delta town has claimed a seventh victim as a 25-year-old woman died of her wounds around a week later, medical officials said.

Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for the shooting in Leland, but the FBI says it may have been “sparked by a disagreement among several individuals.” At least nine people have been arrested, several of them charged with capital murder.

The death of Ebanee Williams was reported Friday by the coroner’s office in Hinds County, which encompasses the state capital, according to a news release Saturday from LaQuesha Watkins, the coroner in Washington County where Leland is located.

More than a dozen people were wounded in the shooting, and several were taken to other cities for medical care. The violence broke out late in the evening of Oct. 11 as people were gathered in Leland’s tiny downtown to celebrate homecoming weekend. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Leland, on the state’s western edge, is home to fewer than 4,000 people, and the FBI’s Jackson Field Office has been posting pictures of suspects wanted for questioning.

Witnesses described a chaotic aftermath with people wounded and bleeding as four people lay dead on the ground. Days later, tattered yellow police tape lay tangled at the scene in front of a boarded-up storefront not far from City Hall.

People in Jackson, Hernando, Greenville, Gulfport, Oxford and other Mississippi cities took part in “No Kings” rallies Saturday to protest policies of President Donald J. Trump.

Demonstrators at rallies across the U.S. criticized ICE raids, the deployment of National Guard troops to Democratic-run cities, the federal government shutdown and redrawing of some states’ congressional districts to favor Republicans.

Trump and many of his supporters labeled the events as “Hate America” rallies.

Hundreds of people at a rally on the south lawn of the Mississippi Capitol chanted, “Vote them out.”

“We’re here, you know, fighting for our democracy,” Clinton resident M.D. Whitfield said at that rally. “We’re fighting for due process.”

The infant mortality rate, a stat that tracks deaths of infants before their first birthdays, in many Southern states is higher than average for the U.S. — Mississippi’s health department even declared a state of emergency this year after the rate of infant deaths increased.

Lawmakers and medical experts say that health care spending cuts and restrictions on services could make things worse.

“These are states that historically have struggled both with infant mortality and maternal mortality,” Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock told NOTUS. “Medicaid is part of a safety net that impacts overall health. When that safety net is broken, things like infant mortality are impacted as well as chronic disease.”

READ MORE: Mississippi health officials declare emergency over infant mortality rate

Democrats warn that a confluence of factors could lead to fewer people accessing care, potentially with dire consequences. The reconciliation bill that became law this summer cuts $1.1 trillion in Medicaid. Enhanced subsidies in the Affordable Care Act will expire in December, resulting in increased premiums in 2026 for millions if not extended — something Democrats have demanded in exchange for their votes to reopen the government — and potentially lowering the rate of people getting care. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that by 2034, the number of people left uninsured could increase to 11.8 million.

States in the South would be disproportionately affected if the enhanced ACA subsidies aren’t extended. According to analysis from the Urban Institute, Louisiana would see the steepest decline in subsidized marketplace enrollment in the country.

Many of these states — including Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina — have traditionally had infant mortality rates on the higher end of the spectrum. Nationwide, the infant mortality was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023; in Mississippi, which has the worst rate of infant mortality, the rate was 8.94 deaths per 1,000 live births. That number climbed in 2024 to 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Dr. James Bauerband, a retired OBGYN based in Georgia, told NOTUS that the strain that Medicaid cuts have put on rural hospitals could cause the infant mortality rates in Southern states to increase.

“I understand you don’t want to have to insure people that could get insurance on their own and want to incentivize getting a job and getting good insurance,” Bauerband said. “But, there has to be the safety nets, and I think that making sure Medicaid is well-funded is something they really ought to do.”

Alison Gemmill, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently did a study analyzing the impact that the Dobbs Supreme Court case decision had on infant mortality in states and found that there were “higher than expected” mortality rates “in states after adoption of abortion bans.”

She said the Trump administration’s termination of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System could lead to a lower understanding of infant mortality. The monitoring system collected insights from moms before and after giving birth, asking questions regarding alcohol use and stress during pregnancy, among others.

“Those are all things that we can’t capture in a birth certificate data source,” Gemmill said. “And that was a really important data for people like me to figure out what’s going on with pregnancy health in the nation, in a state over time. And they completely canceled that program.”

“So now it’s like we don’t even have the data to inform strategies on how to improve rates of pre-term birth infant mortality,” she added.

Democrats believe these reforms have lasting consequences.

“Not enough mamas get prenatal care, partly because of cost, and partly because of access,” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “Finding places that can treat them can be a real challenge. The Medicaid cuts will impact infant mortality, both for the people who are cut out of health care access, and also for people who depend on rural hospitals and community health centers that can’t survive the cuts and will close.”

Republicans have also raised concerns about infant mortality rates. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican whose state has more than 60 rural hospitals, told NOTUS that he wants to extend the funding for rural hospitals provided under the law from 2026 to 2030.

If changes take effect after that time, cuts to Medicaid could cause infant mortality rates to go up, he said.

“I want to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” he told NOTUS. “Under the president’s reconciliation bill, there’s increased funding for rural hospitals now for the next couple of years. … I want to see that extended.”

Some of the Republicans who voted against the reconciliation bill stopped short of saying its Medicaid cuts could affect infant mortality rates.

“We’ve had an infant mortality rate problem in this country for years,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who cited health care as her reason for voting against the reconciliation bill, told NOTUS. “This is not new, and it does warrant research to find out why we also have huge racial disparities in maternal mortality rates.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who also voted against the bill, called the country’s infant mortality rate “unacceptably high,” with root causes including poverty and substance abuse. However, he didn’t see the correlation between Medicaid cuts and infant mortality rates.

“I haven’t seen any data,” Tillis said. “Maybe some people would say that. But they’d have to be statistically, not politically, motivated to catch my attention. I just haven’t studied it.”

Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt called on Democrats to support her legislation to help support women during the prenatal, postpartum and early childhood years of pregnancy. Britt told NOTUS that she will continue to work across the aisle to address it.

“That’s something we’ve got to get to the bottom of … find out what is the root cause,” Britt said.

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

Mississippi has one of the nation’s highest percentage of Black state legislators.

That should not be a surprise since Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black people of any state in the nation.

Despite Missisisppi’s large Black population, without the Voting Rights Act of 1965 the number of African Americans serving in the Mississippi Legislature would be far fewer than it is now. There is no disputing the fact that the Voting Rights Act has resulted in more Black people serving in the Mississippi Legislature and indeed in every level of government in the state – from the local to the national level.

Even with the Voting Rights Act, the number of majority-Black districts in the Mississippi Legislature – about 34% of the 174 seats – is less than the percentage of Black people in Mississippi’s total population – about 38%.

Before the Voting Rights Act, there were no elected Black officials in Mississippi during the 20th century except for those in the all-Black town of Mound Bayou. 

This past week, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the section of the Voting Rights Act that ensures a certain level of minority representation in the drawing of political boundaries, such as for state legislative seats, city council seats and U.S. House seats, should be repealed.

Louisiana, which was forced by the courts to draw a second majority-Black congressional district this decade to meet the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, argued before the court that race should not be a factor in redistricting. Louisiana was assisted by President Donald Trump’s administration in its arguments.

The case before the Supreme Court is a big deal. A decision by the court to gut the Voting Rights Act could provide a monumental boost to the desperate and unprecedented efforts of the Trump administration to convince some states to redraw their congressional districts to provide Republicans more safe seats before the 2026 midterm elections. The effort is part of a strategy by Trump to hold onto the small Republican majority in the U.S. House.

It appears some members of the Supreme Court – perhaps a majority – believe that the protections from racial discrimination provided by the Voting Rights are no longer needed. The nation has moved beyond that, they argue.

No doubt, there has been substantial progress made toward halting racial discrimination since the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.

But it is worth remembering that in the 2010s, provisions of the Voting Rights Act were used to successfully argue a Mississippi Senate seat that covered 102 miles in various nonsensical directions on the fringes of the Delta was drawn to dilute the Black vote while protecting a white incumbent. Or more recently, the principles of the Voting Rights Act were followed to create three additional majority-Black districts in the Mississippi Legislature.

And it is worth pointing out that state Auditor Shad White, a Republican who aspires to be Mississippi’s next governor, took to social media to celebrate the possibility of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

“I hope they will rule that the kind (of) gerrymandering that has protected Bennie Thompson for years is out,” White wrote. “If they do, Mississippi should immediately move to create simple districts that are not gerrymandered to protect Bennie Thompson.”

Thompson, first elected to the U.S. House in 1993, is Mississippi’s lone Black congressman. He has been the only Democrat in the state’s delegation in Washington since early 2011, when 22-year Rep. Gene Taylor left office after losing to a Republican in south Mississippi.

Perhaps Auditor White does not know that Thompson lobbied the Mississippi Legislature to draw his district more compact after the 2020 Census. But the Legislature opted to draw Thompson a sprawling district that extends almost the length of the western side of the state – at least in part to protect Republican congressmen by packing as many Black residents as possible into Thompson’s district and keeping the other three districts whiter.

In a 2018 interview with Mississippi Today, Thompson spoke of the impact of the Voting Rights Act.

As a student at Tougaloo College in the 1960s, he was working in the Delta to help register Black people to vote when he had a conversation with his mother, who said, “You know we don’t vote here in Bolton. It was a shock to me that I was up in Sunflower County helping register Black people to vote and even in my hometown they didn’t enjoy the same luxury.”

Thompson said that his father, an auto mechanic who died in 1964 before passage of the Voting Rights Act, never voted. His mother, a school teacher, did and most likely cast her first vote for her son when he ran and was elected in 1969 to the Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Bolton.

Without the Voting Rights Act, that would not have been possible. And without the Voting Rights Act today, it is safe to assume there would be fewer Black people elected to office, not just in Mississippi but throughout the nation.

Some might say that is a good thing. But is it really?

Mental health reporter Allen Siegler recently published a series of stories investigating how Mississippi’s elected officials have been managing about $124 million of Mississippi opioid settlement money — money that the state is receiving as a result of lawsuits against companies that profited off a devastating overdose crisis.

His findings were staggering.

Most of the money spent so far has been for lawyers’ fees or stuff that isn’t related to addiction, like police cameras and fiber optic cable installations.

And it’s not that the crisis is over — more people are dying now than seven years ago, when the biggest lawsuit was filed. But less than 1% of the Mississippi money has actually been used to stop the problem.

This project took over three months to report and write, and there were plenty of weird things that happened along the way. So Allen answered questions from our readers on Reddit, taking them behind the scenes on what it takes to undertake such an investigation.

You can read the conversation below. This includes guidance on how people can file a Freedom of Information Act request to access public records (with a link to a sample FOIA request you can use) and other actions community members can take to ensure these funds are used to address the problems highlighted in the lawsuits.

If you want to be alerted about future AMAs with our reporters, sign up here.

Some questions have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What can we do to help pressure whoever is in charge of distribution of the funds?

Q: I see a lot about police funds and even some that explicitly state money was put towards guns. My understanding is that some funds were allotted to counties to be used at their discretion.

Q: Are any of these funds discussed with constituents, or does it seem to entirely be at the whims of the ones in charge? How can we know whether or not they will a) use the remaining funds at all b) use them for anything remotely related to dealing with the supposed target issue?

Q: Could you give a rundown of how one goes about requesting (or accessing) these documents?

Q: How are other states handling/distributing funds to address opioid overdoses? Who should the public turn to for recommendations on how best to use these funds to address the problems? Health professionals? Law enforcement officials? Local Politicians? How can the public be more involved?

Q: Why would the crowd that diverted welfare money to a volleyball stadium with little consequences be expected to do the right thing with the settlement money?

Q: Are there any accountability frameworks that would allow the money to be used in a way that it benefits the actual victims of the opioid crisis?

Q: How will the One Big Beautiful Bill impact mental health and those that work in this field in private practice, agency settings and psychiatry hospitals?

Q: Has any of the spending been audited so far?

Q: How will the settlement be spent?

Q: A lot of states are using the opioid settlement to purchase equipment like Reassurance Solutions cell monitoring devices; basically vital sign radars that go in county detention centers and jails to monitor for overdoses (which happen most often within the first 24 hours of incarceration). Is tech like that a viable option for Mississippi’s funds?

Q: Grant decisions will be determined by the legislature. Will there be any opportunity for public comment on the grants recommended to the legislature?

Q: Did you find that Mississippi officials resisted sharing records or delayed responses? If so, how did you overcome that and what rights do regular residents have to push back when agencies ignore or stonewall?

Q: Who is responsible for making sure this money is spent on addiction treatment instead of unrelated projects?

Q: When you filed 147 records requests, how many governments actually complied fully and how many gave partial or no responses?

Q: Were there clear reporting requirements for these funds, or is it left up to local officials to decide what to disclose?

Q: From your experience, what is the most effective way for everyday citizens to get attention on financial mismanagement of public records, media coverage, state agencies, or something else?

Q: If Mississippi is spending less than 1% of opioid settlement money on the crisis itself, what avenues are there for residents to push for change? Lawsuits? Federal oversight? Public campaigns?

Q: How were local needs assessed, what outcomes will be measured to determine program effectiveness due to funding, and how are programs or intervention evaluated & will the results be shared publicly? 

Q: Can you let me know if ANYONE/ ANYWHERE has purchased or contemplated purchasing Fentanyl test strips?

Scott Colom, a Democrat running against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, said he would largely side with Democratic leaders in the current partisan dispute that has the federal government shut down and has pitted Senate Democrats against President Donald Trump. 

While campaigning in Jackson on Oct. 11 at Jackson State University’s homecoming game, Colom told Mississippi Today that if he were a U.S. senator from Mississippi, he would pressure congressional leaders to reach a deal on health insurance costs alongside an agreement to fund the government. 

At the heart of the government shutdown fight is a dispute over extending expiring subsidies that help people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Colom said this is “common sense policy” for Mississippi. 

Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s former agriculture commissioner and a former state senator, has voted with the Republican leadership in favor of funding the government, but punts the issues of the health insurance subsidies.  

She wrote on social media that Democratic senators were putting on a “political show” by not agreeing to pass a bill to fund the government without promised protections for the subsidies. 

If the subsidies are not extended before the end of the year, the cost of insurance will go up on average $480 annually for an estimated 285,000 Mississippians on the federal health exchange, according to KFF, a national nonprofit health care research organization. The premiums would increase significantly for some Mississippians.

Participation in the marketplace by Mississippians has increased 242% in recent years since the enhanced federal assistance program was enacted, according to KFF, and Mississippi has one of the highest percentages of residents who don’t have health insurance. 

Some Republicans argue that Congress should debate the subsidies once the government is funded, but most Democratic senators have said they should act urgently to extend them because they will expire in the coming months. 

Colom, like most of the current Democratic senators, said the deal on funding the government should happen concurrently with an agreement over the subsidies because less affluent Mississippians would suffer without the extra government assistance.

“It has to be at the same time,” Colom said. “We have to do it at the same time.” 

Colom, the current district attorney in the Golden Triangle area, also criticized Hyde-Smith for not using her close relationship with Trump to negotiate a deal on the subsidies or the shutdown. 

“Democrats have repeatedly refused a clean, bipartisan bill to reopen the government,” Hyde-Smith said. “Everyday Americans are beginning to feel the pain, and it will only get worse as this unnecessary Democratic shutdown continues. This did not have to happen.” 

The U.S. government shut down on Oct. 1, and federal lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement for three weeks now on how to fund and reopen it. 

Many federal agencies are operating at reduced capacity because of the shutdown, but core programs such as the military, Social Security and Medicaid have continued. 

The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board indicated Thursday it has heard the clamor for more transparency in the selection of Jackson State University’s next president. 

The board unanimously approved the request by Steve Cunningham, chair of the Jackson State search committee, to begin gathering a proposed list of potential members to serve on a Search Advisory Constituency. 

The advisory group will support the board’s search committee by providing recommendations and insights during the process. 

Cunningham and IHL Commissioner Al Rankins must submit a list of names for review and approval at a future meeting, possibly before IHL’s next board meeting on Nov. 20. 

“This is the first time our board has done this in a long time,” said Gee Ogletree, president of the IHL board. “It’s because we have heard from many people asking us to broaden this process and we’re listening, and you’ve seen the board act.” 

The move marks the first time in recent years the board has used an advisory group to assist with Jackson State’s presidential searches. The last time the board used a group was in 2017 during the university’s executive search that resulted in William Bynum. In 2022, the board’s policies were revised to provide for a Search Advisory Constituency.

Alumni and supporters of the HBCU have repeatedly raised questions about the board’s opaque process, calling for a fair, transparent national leadership search for the university. This includes having multiple supporters’ voices heard and valued. 

The top job at Jackson State has been vacant since May. Marcus Thompson resigned as president less than two years into his tenure without explanation from the IHL board. 

Thompson was the third president to depart in five years — similar to his two predecessors, Thomas Hudson and Bynum. 

Denise Jones-Gregory is serving as the interim president. 

The IHL board can seek additional input from constituents and stakeholders by appointing members to serve on an advisory group for a university’s presidential search, according to board policies. 

The group can have up to 15 members and should represent a diverse range of university stakeholders, such as students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. The advisory group will not discuss potential candidates, since the process only seeks to gather input. Nor will the board publicly share the group’s input, as stated in board policies. 

The board also heard Thursday from Kim Bobby and Carlton Brown, two consultants with ABG Search, an executive headhunting firm based in Washington. The consultants presented a proposed timeline for Jackson State’s president search as well as best practices. 

In September, the board voted to select ABG Search, to assist with naming the university’s next leader, departing from its usual pick of Academic Search, an executive firm it has used twice in the past. 

It is unclear when the board will announce constituency group members or how long the presidential search will take, but AGB’s proposed timeline said it could be up to five months. The board said it is committed to getting it right. 

“This work will take time and due diligence, and is not locked into a specific timeframe,” John Sewell, director of communications for the IHL board, said in a statement.  

Cunningham, who is also a Jackson State alum, said the board is working to find the best possible candidate. 

“We all know the university has a rich history and bright future,” Cunningham said.

In the small, rural town of Taylor, eight miles south of Oxford, residents are debating a proposed asphalt plant that would include rezoning land from agricultural to heavy industrial usage. 

The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors will decide whether to approve the change on Monday. The county’s planning commission voted 3-1 last month to move forward with the proposal. 

Residents have come together over concerns about the precedent the rezoning would set, potential air emissions and water run off, and how the plant would affect the bucolic nature of the town of about 300 people.

“We’re worried about pollution and how it’ll affect our health,” said Melissa Roberson, a Taylor resident.

The September planning commission meeting saw a large turnout, with most voicing objections to the plant proposal. Many came in support of Falkner Farms, a grass-fed beef and egg producer that supplies markets in the area. 

The family-owned farm sits across a two-lane highway from the proposed asphalt site. Reed Falkner, whose parents bought the land in 1996 to raise their family, is worried the plant would disturb their business. Too much noise, for instance, could cause chickens to produce fewer eggs, he said. 

“There’s the potential to put us out of business,” Falkner said. “ This decision (from the county) has a lot of weight. It’s sending a much larger message than asphalt over agriculture. It’s the precedent they’re setting.”

J.W. McCurdy, the developer and owner of the land where the asphalt plant will be built, has lived in Lafayette County since he was 3 years old. 

“I’ve lived here virtually my entire life,” McCurdy said. “I care about the success of Lafayette County as much as anybody in the world. I mean, I’m probably going to die here.”

Between new subdivisions and paving roads, the county has a high demand for asphalt, Joel Hollowell, the county’s director of development services, said. He also pointed to an upcoming project, starting in March, to add new lanes to parts of Mississippi Highway 7.

“We’ve survived a lot of years without competition (in the asphalt market),” Hollowell said. “Could we survive longer? Probably so, but competition tends to create a more affordable product.”

McCurdy and other local developers said the area has only one asphalt provider, which has long lines and isn’t always open when it’s needed. That’s why a new plant could help make it easier and cheaper to build around Oxford, McCurdy said. 

“ I’m trying to better our community and make things more affordable for people to be able to buy houses, rent houses, build restaurants or whatever it may be,” McCurdy said.

Regarding concerns over emissions and runoff, such as into the nearby Yocona River, Hollowell said the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality would have to approve any water runoff or air emissions before the plant could open. 

In 2022, MDEQ cited McCurdy for violating rules around sediment runoff at a construction site in Oxford. The developer told Mississippi Today the error was quickly fixed, describing it as a “misperformance by a subcontractor.”

For nearby residents, though, the decision before the county isn’t just about the asphalt plant. It’s about preserving the area’s identity in the face of growing development and constant expansion around Oxford. This issue is especially acute amid local struggles with rising housing costs, as The Daily Mississippian wrote about a year ago.

“This kind of fight is a familiar growing pain in counties that are transitioning from rural to suburban,” said Ellen Meacham, a longtime resident of Taylor who saw similar fights in DeSoto County during the late 1990s.

Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to why Mississippians move out of state. To read more about the project, click here.

I didn’t leave.

That simple phrase carries more weight than most people realize. As a millennial born and raised in Mississippi, I’ve heard all the reasons to go, and I’ve watched many of my peers follow through.

But I stayed. Not because it was easy, but because I believe in the soil here. Mississippi is not just where I’m from. It’s where I’m building something that reflects the best of who we are and what we can become.

I’m Dyamone L. White, a daughter of western Hinds County – Edwards to be exact. I am a banker and housing strategist by training and a community developer at heart. But in this season of my life, I’m something more: a hospitality entrepreneur, a creative economy advocate and the founder of The High Horse: Bite & Beverage Barn of Bolton – a modern-day juke joint and cultural venue rooted in Mississippi pride.  

The High Horse isn’t just a bar or music spot. It’s a bet – a bet that Mississippi’s culture, stories and soul are not only worth preserving but worth investing in. It’s my answer to the question: What if we stopped exporting our best and brightest, and instead created the kind of spaces that made them want to stay?

The idea came to life during a drive through Louisiana when I stumbled upon the concept of beer barns — informal, deeply local gathering spots that once populated the rural South. Curious, I dug deeper and discovered these spaces weren’t just a Louisiana thing. Mississippi had them too. Changing times wiped them out.

Around that same time, I visited Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale. I saw how music, memory and place could intersect to create something magnetic. The vision started to form.

At first, I called the project Beer Run: The Beer Barn of Bolton. But as the idea matured, I partnered with Crema, a marketing and branding agency in Ridgeland.

After hearing my story, they quickly landed on a name that captured the spirit of what I was building: The High Horse. It is not just a brand, but a statement that we, as a people, deserve to feel elevated.

But as I brought the project to life, I saw more clearly than ever how poverty, displacement and disinvestment continue to choke not only our neighborhoods, but our hope. That’s when it clicked. Mississippi’s economic revival must be tied to its cultural revival.

And I still believe Mississippi already has everything it needs. It just takes someone bold enough to light the fire.

The High Horse is that fire. It’s a place where the blues isn’t background noise – it’s the heartbeat. It is where Black Southern foodways, music, storytelling and style converge under one roof. It is where tradition and progress don’t compete; they dance together.

On any given weekend, The High Horse transforms into something bigger than its square footage, hosting everything from blues jams and cultural parades to health fairs and voter registration drives. But the vision stretches beyond events or entertainment. It’s a blueprint that merges culture and commerce, storytelling and strategy, tourism and talent retention.

That’s why the recent Mississippi Today essay by Danielle Morgan of the Mississippi Tourism Association about the importance of tourism in the state moved me so deeply. It gave language to something I’ve lived: the tension of loving this place while working every day to transform it. Her writing made me feel seen. In return, I want this essay to make others feel possible.

We hear so much about those who left. I want to speak to, and for, the ones who stayed. The ones who are building something from scratch. The ones who see potential in the overlooked. The ones who know that investing in Mississippi isn’t foolish. It’s forward-thinking.

This journey hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to teach myself tax law, sift through local ordinances and figure out marketing and operations in real time. But every time someone walks through the doors and says, “This feels like home,” it reaffirms why I do it.

And I’m not alone. All across Mississippi, people like me are quietly – and boldly – building. We deserve a seat at the table in the tourism conversation. We are creating the next Mississippi.

So, no, I didn’t leave. I chose to stay. And every song sung, every meal served, every story shared at The High Horse is a love letter to the place I’m still betting on.

Bio: Dyamone L. White is a housing strategist, community developer and founder of The High Horse: Bite & Beverage Barn of Bolton. A proud daughter of western Hinds County, she works at the intersection of culture, hospitality and economic development to reimagine what’s possible for a rural region and small-towns Mississippi.

COLUMBUS — The groundbreaking of Kloeckner Metals’ new facility was a celebration of the area’s long-term investment in manufacturing and a continued push for American-made goods.

“ Today’s groundbreaking is another example of the special things happening in our state,” Gov. Tate Reeves said at the event on Wednesday.

The Georgia-based company already has a presence in Louisville, and this new $90-million flat-rolled aluminum processing facility will create 40 direct jobs.

Kloeckner Metals is the first company to join the Aluminum Dynamics Customer Park in Columbus, a venture of Steel Dynamics. Kloeckner will make automotive and other goods from metal manufactured next door at the Aluminum Dynamics factory.

Mark Millet, the co-founder and CEO of Steel Dynamics, celebrated the partnership between Steel Dynamics and Mississippi that dates back to 2014 when the company purchased a factory in Columbus. He emphasized the company’s continued commitment to Mississippi and thanked Reeves for the incentives the company received from the state. These included a $247-million package for the aluminum factory passed by the Legislature in 2022. 

Agriculture was once the Golden Triangle’s primary industry. But local economic developers and leaders have successfully brought new manufacturing jobs to the area. Leroy Brooks, who represents District 5 on the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, recalled growing up and smelling cotton just a few pastures away from where the new factory will break ground. 

Meryl Fisackerly, COO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK, the area’s economic development agency, said the factory, “Means jobs, opportunity and long-term commitment to our people and our region’s future.” Fisackerly is overseeing day-to-day operations of LINK after the sudden departure of its longtime CEO Joe Max Higgins in August.

While speakers mainly focused on the partnership between local and state governments and industry, the event also highlighted the national push for more American manufacturing. This included a logo on the event backdrop that read, “We are building North America.”

“ This investment by (Aluminum Dynamics) brings aluminum production back to North America at a critical moment in time. And Kloeckner is excited to become a strategic supply chain partner that helps deliver American-made aluminum,” said John Ganem, CEO of Americas Kloeckner Metals. 

Talking with the press after the event, Reeves emphasized that Mississippi’s investment in manufacturing has positioned it well for the current business climate.

“The president is focused on an American-first agenda and that includes manufacturing in America. The good news for Mississippi is that’s what we do,” said Reeves.

The partnership between the companies and the state still has room to grow.

“ We know this is just the beginning. This facility has been designed with expansion in mind. We anticipate growth phases beyond the initial build,” said Ganem.