The state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Mississippi public schools and universities has been blocked for the foreseeable future.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate granted a preliminary injunction in the caseon Monday, which prevents the law from being enforced until there’s a final ruling. Wingate previously granted a temporary restraining order in late June, which expired Monday.
“(The law), if it lives down to the fears it has generated, has a mouthful of sharp teeth which could inflict deep bites,” Wingate wrote in his order.
Joshua Tom, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and one of the lawyers in the case, said in a statement that he was “pleased” with Wingate’s ruling.
“The State’s attempt to impose its preferred views — and ban opposing views — on Mississippi’s public education system is not only bad policy, it’s illegal, as the court has preliminarily found today,” he said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, including professors, parents and students, and lawyers from the state attorney general’s office met in court in early August to make their cases for and against the preliminary injunction.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that House Bill 1193 violates the First and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting discussions about race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms, and that the law was dangerously vague, potentially opening the gates to a flood of complaints against educators and students.
They said the law would ban discussions and books about the Civil War, women’s rights and slavery, and other topics that are essential to understanding the country’s history.
Witnesses called to the stand testified that the law was having a “chilling” effect, just weeks before classes were set to start at colleges across the state. Professors from the University of Mississippi said the policy was preventing them from finalizing their syllabi.
A Jackson Public Schools parent said the law made her scared for her children, worried that if they shared too much about their home life, they would be punished in some way — the process for “curing” violations was unclear to witnesses.
Attorneys from the state attorney general’s office, whose argument centered around the plaintiffs’ “overwrought” reading of the statute and public employees’ lack of First Amendment rights, did not present enough evidence to counteract the plaintiffs’ claims, Wingate said. He wrote in his order that the witnesses’ testimonies were enough to justify a preliminary injunction.
“It is an enormous relief that the court has sided with academic freedom, free speech, and due process in its recent decision,” said Deanna Kreisel in a statement. Kreisel is an associate English professor at the University of Mississippi and a member of the United Campus Workers, one of the plaintiffs in this case.
“The fight is not over, but at least for the time being, the students of Mississippi can continue to learn in an environment free of ideological constraints and partisan censorship,” Kreisel said.
Wingate’s ruling preventing state officials from enforcing the law will be in effect until the overall litigation is concluded. Attorneys for the plaintiffs and the state defendants will now move to discovery, where they collect evidence before a bench trial.
After Wingate conducts the trial, he will issue a final ruling. An aggrieved party can appeal Wingate’s ruling to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mississippi Today reporter Taylor Vance contributed to this article.
Mississippi will send about 200 Mississippi National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., to support President Donald Trump’s push to federalize law enforcement in the nation’s capital.
Following the governors of at least three other Republican-led states, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on social media on Monday that he deployed the troops to bolster Trump’s “effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital.”
“Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it,” Reeves said. “Americans deserve a safe capital city that we can all be proud of. I know the brave men and women of our National Guard will do an excellent job enhancing public safety and supporting law enforcement.”
The move comes after Trump signed an executive order federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 District of Columbia National Guard members. He did so after claiming the nation’s capital was gripped by “lawlessness.”
Washington’s elected officials have disputed these claims, noting that violent crime is lower than it was during Trump’s first term in office. Hundreds of residents of the city marched in protest of the federal crackdown on Saturday.
Reeves, a staunch ally of President Trump, opted to participate in the federal takeover after at least three other Republican-led states had already done so.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he was deploying 300 to 400 guard troops. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he deployed 200 at the Pentagon’s request. And Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he sent 150 guard military police at Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s request.
Reeves’ announcement on social media did not say who requested support from Mississippi’s National Guard.
The activations from Republican-led states suggest the Trump administration sees the need for additional manpower after the president personally played down the need for Washington to hire more police officers, according to The Associated Press.
Trump declared an emergency due to the “city government’s failure to maintain public order.” He said that impeded the “federal government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the nation’s broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.”
Monday was not the first time Reeves followed other Republican governors in sending National Guard troops outside the state.
In 2023, Reeves mobilized a National Guard unit to help with security at the U.S. border with Mexico. That came a day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent officers to Texas to assist with border security.
In a letter to city residents following Trump’s executive order, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, wrote that “our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.”
Konnor Griffin was all smiles for local and national TV cameras after being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in July, 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Reed Hogan
The legend of 19-year-old Mississippi baseball phenom Konnor Griffin continues to grow and grow with each home run blast, each stolen base, each fielding gem, each promotion. Who knows where he will be when he reaches the legal age of 21?
Rick Cleveland
My guess would be Pittsburgh. And his Major League debut may come sooner than that.
Sunday afternoon, the Jackson Prep star, the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, was promoted by the Pittsburgh Pirates from high-Class A Greensboro, North Carolina, to Class AA Altoona, Pennsylvania. On Tuesday night, he will be youngest player ever to play for the Altoona Curve in the Eastern League. He doesn’t turn 20 until April 24, 2026.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling,” Griffin said in a phone call Monday morning while en route from Greensboro to Altoona, a six-hour drive. “I got the news after the game Sunday when they called a team meeting and the manager told us.”
Making the news all the more exciting for Griffin was the promotion of of one of his best friends, catcher Derek Berg, from Greensboro to Altoona. The 23-year-old Bird is on a much more traditional baseball career path, having played college baseball (at Army) for four seasons before being drafted in the 10th round of the 2024 Major League draft. In contrast, Griffin was playing for Jackson Prep in May, 2024.
“Derek’s a good friend. We were taken in the same draft together and have been together at Bradenton (low Class A) and Greensboro,” Griffin said. “It’s really neat we are taking this next step together.”
Even though the Pirates drafted Griffin with the ninth overall pick (first high school player chosen) of the 2024 draft, his rapid rise this spring and summer has been nothing short of astonishing, as have his statistics. In 50 games at Bradenton, he hit .338 with plenty of power. In 51 games at Greensboro, he hit .325. Combined, he has hit 16 home runs, 21 doubles and four triples. In the process, he has become a more disciplined hitter. His on-base percentage rose from .396 at low-A to .434 at high-A.
Add to all that Griffin’s combined 59 stolen bases and far above average fielding ability at both shortstop and centerfielder positions. Little wonder the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder last month was named the top MLB prospect in all of baseball.
“It’s been a heckuva year; the hard work is paying off,” Griffin said.
Has his meteoric rise affected his timeline for making to the Major Leagues?
“I am just trying to live in the moment, not think about all that,” Griffin said. “My goal is to remain humble and continue the hard work that has gotten me to where I am. I just thank God for where he has taken me.”
The last Pittsburgh Pirate to make it to the Class AA level at 19 is Andrew McCutchen, who has since become a five-time All-Star and the National League MVP. In 2013, McCutchen, the 11th pick of the 2005 draft, made it to Altoona in 2006 at 19. He did not make his Big League debut until 2009 at age 22. He has since hit 330 home runs.
Konnor Griffin at the plate at Prep in February, 2024. Credit: Robert Smith/Jackson Prep
Griffin would appear to be advancing at faster rate. Nothing has seemed to faze him, including his ascension to No. 1 MLB prospect not quite a month ago. Even his father, Belhaven softball coach Kevin Griffin, expressed concern at the time that the No. 1 prospect designation would heap more pressure on his son, who only last year was playing high school baseball.
“I have tried not to let it add pressure, but there’s no doubt you have more eyes on you with something like that,” Konnor Griffin said. “I try to take it one step at a time, continue to work hard and give it everything I have.”
Altoona has an off day today before playing a home game Tuesday night against the Reading (Pennsylvania) Fighting Phils.
Griffin expects to remain primarily a shortstop, but also play centerfield on occasion. He was to learn more later Monday upon arrival in Altoona where he will meet with Curve manager Andy Fox, a former Major Leaguer who played for two World Series championship teams.
Said Griffin, who remains as grounded and mature as any 19-year-old I’ve encountered, “I just see it as another challenge and another chance to learn. I can’t wait.”
FOREST – Cheryl Baier pushed her car key into the ignition when her boyfriend approached her passenger window in a Walmart parking lot in Forest. Bilbo Faulkner then pushed the passenger door open, sat down beside her and began to punch.
Baier saw red and black. Blood dripped from where her vision grew blurry. She screamed but only choked. He pried the car keys from her grasp and strangled her with her seatbelt. She cried for help as he hit. She reached for the horn. No honk. She felt one of her eyes come loose after what seemed like 20 blows.
“I was hoping he’d just knock me out and put me out of my misery. So I didn’t feel it no more,” Baier remembers.
It was dark outside at 9 p.m. The car was parked yards from the main entrance underneath a lamp. She had agreed to meet her boyfriend in the lot because it was a public space. Few shoppers stopped to see his fist against her face or hear her cries, though. She saw a couple pull their child away before she lost vision in her right eye. That’s when she says Faulkner threatened to burn down her house before speeding off in his car. A witness eventually called the police, who instructed the fire department to rush to her home.
When she arrived at the hospital, she wasn’t sure if she was alive.
Victimized by crime, Baier later found herself victimized by a justice system that denied her critical aid because she had a more than decade-old drug conviction, even while the system gave her abuser one of the lightest sentences possible for an attack that left her temporarily homeless and with failing sight. Even though Mississippi has long boasted long sentences and high incarceration rates, domestic abuse cases still rarely rise to felony status – and offenders in those cases receive lighter sentences than other protected classes.
*WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGE* Photographs of Cheryl Baier of Forest, before and after she was savagely beaten by her then boyfriend, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Unable to cover the over $12,000 in medical bills, Baier, a convenience store clerk, filed a claim for crime victims’ compensation through the attorney general’s office. The maximum payout to cover medical bills is $15,000. After her night stay at the hospital and 10 days of recovery, she was able to return to work. Paid $10 per hour at 45 hours a week, she knew it’d be several years before she could pay off her medical debt.
Weeks out from her surgery, she pulled a letter from the mailbox and squinted to make out the writing. The attorney general’s office denied her claim because of her felony drug conviction from 13 years ago. Victims, she learned, must be five years out from the last day of their probation to qualify for the program. Baier was weeks away.
“My pain is just the same. My loss is just the same,” Baier said in an interview with Mississippi Today. “What happened to me had nothing to do with what I did over a decade ago.”
While five other states deny victims’ compensation for prior felony convictions, Mississippi and Louisiana count all felonies, including victimless and nonviolent ones. Mississippi is also unique in counting probation, post-release supervision and court-ordered drug treatments, among other programs sponsored by the Department of Corrections, as part of their incarceration time.
Nearly a quarter of denied applications between 2021 and 2023 were based on prior felony convictions. The amount the AG’s office paid out to cover medical costs for assaulted crime victims decreased by half each year from 2021 to 2023, from a total of $1,424,475 in 2021 to $534,026 in 2023.
“The rules can unintentionally create barriers, and we must stay mindful of the fund’s original purpose,” said Stacey Riley, who provides shelter to 25 children and 30 adults through the Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence in Biloxi. “Administrators should approach this work with an understanding of survivors’ trauma, their specific needs, and the often challenging environments in which they live.”
Some justice
In the months after her assault and the arson at her home, Baier lived out of a camper parked in her front yard. She wore a purse around her neck with a deer-skinning knife inside. Some nights she wet herself, too afraid to push open the RV door and use the restroom in her burnt home. She stayed up most nights with a pain in her mouth and eyes, unable to rest after working double shifts at the convenience store.
Photograph showing fire damage at Cheryl Baier’s home in Forest after it was set afire by her ex-boyfriend, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Shirley Baier
She lived for her day in court when restitution would be set and she could deliver her statement. She wrote out the facts on a piece of loose-leaf paper for the judge, jury and court officers to hear. She had June 2 marked on the calendar on her phone and in her kitchen. She called the district attorney’s office and the victim service coordinator each week, checking to make sure she had the date of the hearing correct.
She missed 15 days of work for court, many of them earlier trial dates that were bumped. She missed close to a month from surgery that eased her right eye back into its socket. In total, she estimates that she lost about $5,800 in wages.
When the hearing date arrived, Baier waited in a room in the courthouse with a printout of her victim impact statement. She was told to come back the next day when Faulkner would only plead. Restitution was set the next day, too. The victim service coordinator promised to let her know when she’d get a chance to tell her story in court and impress upon the judge the need for a substantial restitution payment. Baier waited for hours.
During the hearing, District Attorney Chris Posey remarked, “This does come with the approval of the victim in this case who I’ve spoken with many times and believe is actually in the courthouse today although not in the room at the moment.” But Baier said Posey never spoke to her about the plea deal.
The Victims’ Bill of Rights entitles victims to be present for all hearings before a judge. Baier wasn’t present to dispute the characterization of the attack she experienced. Posey attributed the attack to “some type of argument” between Faulkner and Baier.
Faulkner pleaded guilty to three years for aggravated domestic violence with time served for the 767 days spent in the Scott County jail for assaulting a jail guard. Restitution was set at $14,000 shy of the amount Baier asked for. She would get $2,000 at the end of the month – with the rest paid in $150 monthly installments once Faulkner’s court fines and fees were paid. The clerk then let her know she could leave.
Faulkner was also assigned an anger management course that he already took for a prior assault.
In an interview with Mississippi Today, Posey said that because the hearing took place in the courthouse while jury selection was happening for a separate trial, it would’ve been impossible for Baier to give her statement. The hearing was in the judge’s chambers, not the courtroom.
The victim service coordinator in the case refused a request for comment by Mississippi Today.
“What was said was further from the truth because that just makes it seem like he’s responding instead of the psychopathic behavior it truly was,” Baier said. “There was no foundation.”
Six percent of domestic violence cases were prosecuted as felony domestic aggravated assault in 2024, according to data from the Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts compiled by the Center for Violence Prevention.
“Too often, the gravity of domestic violence is misunderstood,” Riley said. “These are not simply individuals who ‘can’t get along’ with their partners — they are perpetrators of violence, many of whom will go on to commit even more serious crimes.”
On the street where she lives
Cheryl Baier of Forest, is overcome with emotion recounting the night she was beaten by her then boyfriend, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Baier was pulling out of her driveway in Pulaski in Smith County when she saw a familiar face picking up a neighbor’s trash bin – and dumping the contents into the compactor. It was Faulkner. He was wearing the county jail striped orange pants. They locked eyes as she passed him on the gravel road by her house.
“There was no guard,” Baier said. “The way he beat me in the Walmart parking lot in front of God and everybody – you think he would hesitate in front of that trucker or another inmate?”
Mississippi Today was able to confirm that Faulkner, convicted of aggravated domestic violence along with two other prior violent felonies, was made a trusty at the Smith County jail — and was on work detail as a garbage collector on her street.
When Mississippi Today brought this to the Smith County Sheriff’s Department’s attention, the sheriff relayed that Faulkner was no longer in the program. He didn’t know Faulkner had been convicted, he was only going off the man’s criminal record in his county.
Mississippi Department of Corrections policies prohibit inmates convicted of violent felonies, including aggravated domestic violence, from serving as trusties.
“Much of the problem comes down to communication,” said Riley, whose organization operates in 24 municipal justice courts in the lower six counties in Mississippi. “The issue isn’t that our justice system fails to act — it’s that it has long operated in silos. This entrenched way of functioning must change if we are to respond more effectively to interpersonal violence.”
In 2022, Attorney General Lynn Fitch established the Mississippi Domestic Violence Registry, which gives law enforcement access to information helpful for keeping law enforcement, victims and bystanders safe when answering domestic violence calls. It has been “a little slow” to get cooperation from agencies, said Michelle Williams, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, as officers have a lot of competing paperwork requirements. In an attempt to reduce this, Fitch’s office incorporated the registry into existing law enforcement reporting platforms.
Luke Thompson, former Byram police chief, said it was hard to convince his deputies to investigate domestic violence cases. He advocated for the attorney general’s office’s registry to be incorporated into the National Incident Based Reporting System, administered by the FBI.
Domestic violence cases require dual reporting and more paperwork than other cases. Officers are expected to determine a primary aggressor, which requires more discretion. Since 1992, just over a third of shootings of officers happened during domestic violence calls, Thompson found in his agency’s data.
Since retiring as chief, Thompson has been helping Mississippi agencies implement the Lethality Assessment Program, a questionnaire that helps law enforcement identify victims and serial abusers in their communities. The program helped his department connect victims with services faster and provide prosecutors with a more thorough history of abuse.
“It’s one of the hardest types of cases to sort through,” Thompson said. “Cops focus on ‘bad guys.’ We’re empathetic to victims. But sometimes we don’t always take that extra step to get a victim’s help.”
‘There was nothing in his eyes’
While the father of Baier’s children was incarcerated, he had sent Faulkner to be her protector. She felt taken care of by Faulkner, with his wide back and a muscular frame. She remembers the first day he arrived at the convenience store where she worked. She was drawn to the kindness he showed to another single mother. He provided money to her when she fell behind on car payments.
They were friends before they began dating. She enjoyed going on evening drives listening to “Good Ol’ Girl” by Frank Foster around Smith County when they were both off work. She knew he had been to prison, was first put off by his many tattoos, but was taken by his “big heart.”
For one month, he had been living with Baier, who was surprised when he announced he would be moving out. He had recently begun accusing her of cheating, which she thought was a joke. A relative of Faulkner’s attributes his behavior to untreated bipolar disorder. Baier said that he had been drinking alcohol.
Before that day at Walmart, when he assaulted her, Baier had never seen his violent side. He asked to meet up while she was still working at the convenience store that night. She chose a public space because “there was nothing in his eyes.” He just looked different, she said.
Cheryl Baier of Forest, shows the charred remains of a family photograph, the only image she had of her grandfather, salvaged from her home after it was set afire by her then boyfriend, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“It was premeditated,” Baier said, clutching a charred family photo in her Smith County home. “That’s part of what’s gotten me all this time.”
Although she was able to clean her house, the smell of smoke persists. The fire damaged a photograph of four generations of her family. It was the last picture she had with her grandfather before he died from cancer.
Baier is well known in her community. She meets most locals as a clerk at a popular store in Forest where checks are cashed. She knows the farmhands who buy equipment and the waitresses at the local restaurants. Young and old, from out of town and native, they all chat with her at the store.
Lately, she’s been acting as her own investigator. She collected a list of witnesses from her assault as well as to the arson to hand to authorities. She helped the boss at her place of work transfer security footage onto a flash drive to capture the moment Faulkner entered the convenience store earlier in the night of her assault when he allegedly bought alcohol. The arson at her home has not gone to trial. No witnesses have been interviewed.
Her first eye surgery wasn’t considered a success because the muscles and tissues were damaged, pushing her right eye forward and causing pressure and migraines.
In a handwritten letter to the crime victim compensation director, Baier wrote, “After the fire, all I had was the torn, blood stained clothes on my back. My home was not habitable for four months. I’m telling you all this so you can understand the great financial strain, not to mention the physical and emotional damage that I will probably always suffer.”
Over half of completed victim compensation claims were denied in Scott County between 2021 and 2023, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today. Thirteen were denied and 11 were approved with an award.
“When I got your denial and read the explanation, I felt abused and victimized all over again in a different way but just as damaging. Does a mistake from 13 years ago make me any less of a victim? Does it make what happened to me any less painful? Did it make me deserve what he did to me?”
Nora Miller, the president of the Mississippi University for Women, is pushing back on a recommendation from the state Board of Education to relocate the Mississippi School for Math and Science off the campus of MUW to another of the state universities. MSMS, a gifted program for high school juniors and seniors, has been located on the Mississippi University for Women’s campus since its inception. Miller tells Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance and Candice Wilder why the program is crucial to the city of Columbus and why taxpayers across the state should be concerned with the estimated $80 million cost for relocating the school.
Don’t look for Mississippi to get involved in what appears to be an escalating redistricting war where states redraw their U.S. House districts to aid Republicans or Democrats ahead of a hotly contested 2026 national election.
Mississippi most likely will not engage in the redistricting battle because Republicans already have been helped about as much as possible in the Magnolia State. Here, there are three safe Republican U.S. House districts and one safe Democratic district.
In theory, the Mississippi Legislature could draw the congressional districts in such a manner as to make all four districts favor Republicans. But to do so, Black voters, who generally are more prone to vote Democratic, would have to be diluted to such an extent that the redraw would conflict with long-held federal court rulings.
From a legal standpoint and even from an ethical and moral standpoint, it would be difficult to justify no Black-majority districts in Mississippi, where the non-white population is nearing 40%.
Unsurprisingly, Texas fired the first shot in what is shaping up as a nationwide redistricting battle. The Texas Legislature, at the behest of President Donald Trump, who fears his Republican Party will lose the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm election, is trying to redraw the Longhorn State’s 38 congressional districts to give the Republicans five more seats. They currently have 25.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to retaliate by creating more Democratic districts. California currently has 43 Democratic districts and nine Republican districts.
There have been rumblings of blue New York and red Florida also going back to the redistricting drawing board to create more seats to help their respective party.
Normally, redistricting is conducted every 10 years after the release of the U.S. Census. The last redistricting occurred after the 2020 U.S. Census. But it should be no surprise that Trump, fearing that Republicans will lose the House in 2026, asked Texas to eschew the norms and conduct a mid-decade redistricting.
Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of gerrymandering or of drawing districts to benefit their political party. The courts, generally, have said that is OK.
But the courts — at least in the past — have also said their minority populations must be given opportunities to elect candidates of their choice.
While the courts have said gerrymandering is allowed, a recent Economist/YouGov poll found an overwhelming 69% oppose the partisan drawing of districts, compared to only 9% who support it and 22% of respondents who are unsure. A plurality of 35% support states retaliating if another state draws districts to support one particular party. The retaliation is opposed by 30%, while 36% of respondents are unsure.
A plurality also opposes Trump’s call for the FBI to hunt down Texas Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to prevent the Legislature from having the quorum needed to draw new congressional districts.
For what it’s worth, a study by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project found 15 states with failing grades in terms of non-partisan redistricting. Nine of those states failed because of their strong Republican tilt, while five failed because of strong Democratic leanings. Two — Tennessee and Louisiana — failed because of racial unfairness. Through court rulings, a new Black-majority district has been created in Louisiana since the Princeton study was conducted.
Texas and Florida were among the states receiving failing grades. New York and California were not. Another large Democratic stronghold, Illinois, did get a failing grade.
Mississippi is unique because of its racial makeup and voting patterns. Most white Mississippians vote Republican, but the large Black minority — the largest percentage of Black voters in the nation — tends to vote Democratic.
While Republicans have won all statewide elections since 2016, the elections often are relatively close.
In the latest redistricting, Democrats argued that because of the strong pro-Democratic minority population, one of the three heavily Republican congressional districts should be drawn in a manner to make it more competitive.
But the majority-Republican Legislature rejected that argument. Hence, there is no need for the Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature to undertake redistricting now.
Legendary Mississippi author Greg Iles died Friday after a long battle with cancer.
The 65-year-old best-selling author, who wrote 17 novels, lost his battle to multiple myeloma, a cancer in which white blood cells begin to grow abnormally in the bone marrow. He had been battling the disease since 1996.
“He gave us great books, and he stayed in Mississippi,” said Lemuria Bookstore owner John Evans. “He wrote about a lot of the wrongs to make people all over the country realize that some people were trying to do right.”
Iles became a supporter of Lemuria long before he ever began writing books, coming first with his father and later on his own, Evans said.
Once on Ernest Hemingway’s birthday, Lemuria had a keg of beer and threw a party.
When Iles arrived, he confessed that he felt “totally at home in this bookstore,” Evans said. “He was just a kid.”
He pursued a career in rock music, but traded it for love and a life of writing novels. His first novel, “Spandau Phoenix,” a 1993 book that involved one of the unsolved mysteries of World War II, became a national success.
Iles soon became a New York Times best-selling author, blending real-life history with his spellbinding tales.
In 2011, he faced his own life-or-death crisis when he was nearly killed in an accident on U.S. 61. His right leg below the knee had to be amputated, but Iles never gave up.
During his convalescence, he began writing a trilogy set in his beloved Natchez based on a Ku Klux Klan group known as the Silver Dollar Group, which was involved in the fatal firebombing of Frank Morris, a Black shoe repairman in Ferriday, Louisiana, in 1964 as well as others.
Iles based one of the characters, Henry Sexton, on real-life investigative reporter Stanley Nelson, who wrote about Morris’ killing and other Klan violence.
Nelson, who died June 5, was flattered that Iles penned such a character, but the journalist confessed that his alter ego “has had a much more adventurous life than me. He is a musician, has a girlfriend and is tech savvy — that’s something I don’t know a damn thing about.”
After he finished the trilogy in 2017, he appeared with Nelson at the Mississippi Book Festival, an event he did his best to champion.
The festival’s executive director, Ellen Rodgers Daniels, greeted Friday’s news with sorrow. “He was such a huge part of the festival,” she said. “I’m heartbroken for [his wife] Caroline and the children.”
Despite his national success, Iles continued to sign books and host events at Lemuria. He held the last of those events at Cathead Distillery in Jackson, where he sat in a wheelchair as he talked about his last novel, “Southern Man,” which author Stephen King called “his latest and best.”
Ever since Evans learned the news Friday night, he said he’s been thinking about Iles and other authors who have left us too soon. “I’ve seen so many of my Mississippi friends go away,” he said. “It makes me sad, and it makes me think of others, too.”
In one of the last posts on his website, Iles wrote, “My last thought for today is that only two things matter: family and friends.”
Nearly 2,000 families may be without child care at the start of this school year after dozens of child care centers run by Mississippi Action for Progress in northern Mississippi have not reopened after losing their federal funding.
Mississippi Action for Progress Inc., an administrator of Head Start pre-kindergarten centers, has lost funding to run its northern district centers – of which there are 28 listed on the group’s website – after the federal Administration for Children and Families found multiple deficiencies in MAP’s operations, including the group’s failure to report sexual abuse at one of its centers. MAP’s tax disclosures in 2024 showed that its revenue of $78,850,872 came entirely from government grants.
Head Start is a federal program that, for 60 years, has provided early education and child care to low-income families with children younger than 5. Mississippi is one of a few states where Head Start is available in every county.
While the contract to administer those centers has recently been given to other nonprofits, parents of Head Start children and employees of MAP say they never received any formal communication from the organizations, leading to mass confusion and uncertainty, with questions from parents and teachers flooding Facebook.
“In the coming weeks, the Office of Head Start will implement a plan to transition Early Head Start and Head Start operations to the leadership of these new grant awardees. This plan includes ensuring Head Start services for families who are expected to return in the fall,” the federal Office of Head Start told Mississippi Today.
A letter reviewed by Mississippi Today that was sent by MAP Executive Director Bobby Brown to some employees on Friday said the Office of Head Start had asked MAP to provide “temporary, limited services” until “all locations have been transitioned to their new agencies.” While Brown said the temporary services would come with “some limitations and lower enrollment,” the letter did not provide clarity on the number of students who could be enrolled this year, or the number of teachers and staff MAP would retain, besides saying that “identified staff” would return on Tuesday for training and to prepare the centers.
Despite repeated requests from Mississippi Today, representatives of MAP did not provide the number of students or workers they would retain.
Mississippi Action for Progress was founded in 1966 with a biracial group of board members including civil rights activist Aaron Henry, who served as president of the Mississippi state conference of the NAACP, and Hodding Carter III, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper publisher and journalist in Greenville. It was one of the earliest organizations in the state to have local Black leadership shape how federal dollars were spent.
In the early years of the organization, Mississippi’s local government vetoed the spending of federal money and state officials threatened workers. Brown, who most recently drew a salary of $203,167 from the organization, has served as chief executive officer of MAP since at least 2001. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Scrambling to find child care
For parents and grandparents in north Mississippi, the loss of Head Start came at the worst time: the beginning of the school year. For caregivers, it sometimes has meant calling up day cares in neighboring towns.
“It was sort of a shock for everybody,” said Sheila Summerford, whose granddaughter was set to attend Head Start this month in Fulton.
She had to scramble to find a new day care. Even though Head Start is the best value option, Summerford says she was able to find room at a new day care near the flower store she owns off Main Street. Many centers were already full.
“Everybody’s kids that go there was pretty much just waiting on a start date. And then, I found out through Facebook that they’re not opening yet,” said Sabrina Celeste, mother of a 5-year-old who was also set to attend Head Start this year.
“And then it was going around that they wasn’t even going to open. And then now somebody got on there and updated everybody, saying that some more companies had took over, but it’s not MAP anymore,” she said. Celeste and her husband have since been taking their daughter to work with them. “Gotta do what you gotta do.”
It’s not clear when the federal Office of Head Start notified MAP that it had not been awarded funding for the northern district. When Mississippi Today reporters visited MAP’s Jackson office Thursday, Ashley Nichols, MAP’s director of community development, said she could not remember the date of notification.
No one else from MAP’s Jackson office could be reached in person or by phone or email.
A federal monitoring review of MAP Head Start centers conducted in June 2023 found multiple deficiencies, including negative behaviors demonstrated by MAP staff “causing children to be afraid to attend the center and regress developmentally,” not following appropriate strategies to support children’s independence and individual needs around toileting, and the organization’s failure to report allegations of sexual assault to the Office of Head Start in a timely manner.
Because of the deficiencies, the Office of Head Start notified MAP in 2024 that it would need to re-compete for funding for the 2025 school year.
Mississippi Today on Friday filed a public records request for all reports regarding MAP Head Starts in the northern district.
“They should at least send out a text message or something, instead of people finding out through Facebook,” Celeste said.
“I don’t know what’s going on.”
Kala Holt worked for 16 years for Head Start in Fulton. For the last week, she has called MAP’s Human Resources department, and has been sent to voicemail each time. She was hoping to secure her retirement money.
“I feel like my 16 years are gone. I’m not even sure I want to teach anymore,” she said. “My babies are my babies. I loved what I did. I loved the smile on their faces and the joy that came over them when they learned something new.”
This month, her husband had to ask his aunt for help paying their electricity bill. She said her health insurance is set to expire this month, and that she was focused on securing her retirement money, but when she called the firm, she said it redirected her to MAP’s HR department that ghosted her for a week.
“The unknown of not having a job is very, very stressful,” she said.
Ten employees of MAP Head Start centers told Mississippi Today they found out about the closures through social media and are struggling to find alternative employment, all the while dealing with a lack of communication from their superiors and MAP management.
“I called down there, left voicemails, they haven’t returned my calls,” said a teacher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Holt was expecting to come back to classes in mid August after three days of training in Jackson, like every other year. But no announcement came by the end of July about when class would resume. To this day, Holt hasn’t received any official word from MAP.
“A lot of us want to reapply for the job,” Holt said. “When can we reapply?”
Teachers who spent years at local Head Start centers were disappointed about the change.
“It’s a messed up situation. I don’t know what’s going on. I put my heart in what I’m doing. The truth is, it’s tough when children don’t know, too,” said Jerry Smith, who was a Head Start teacher for 19 years in Tupelo.
Lately, he’s been helping out after school part time in Lee County. He’s still waiting to hear back on a start date for Head Start.
Longtime employees said they could not get in touch with the same MAP supervisors they would call monthly for check-ups. Some were unsure if they were still MAP employees.
For one pregnant employee who wished to remain anonymous while she navigated the job search process, optimism has turned to dread. She feels her pregnancy has hurt her employment chances. As a single mother, she needs the work.
Another former employee already took another job with a public school.
An employee and mother of two who recently got her associate’s degree in early childhood education found out through Facebook that the Head Start center where she worked for two years shut down and has not been able to find a new job.
“I picked teaching, and I’m thinking I went to the wrong career,” she said.
“Any other place that I’ve ever worked, there’s an exit method set up for a smooth transition. But it was just like we went to the edge and they just pushed us over,” said another teacher who worked at her MAP Head Start center for six years.
What’s next?
Federal funds have been allocated to four organizations to run the MAP centers that are closing, according to the Administration for Children and Families, which houses the Office of Head Start.
Those organizations – Delta Health Alliance, Five County Child Development, Mississippi State University and Pearl River Valley Opportunity – have also been kept in the dark.
Delta Health Alliance received its award letter Thursday, the day after the federal Office of Head Start told Mississippi Today that the group was a grantee.
“The notification was back dated to Aug. 1,” said Rickey Lawson, communications coordinator for Delta Health Alliance.
The organization is working quickly to offer Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Lee, Itawamba, Pontotoc and Union counties – where 465 children were previously enrolled in MAP Head Start Centers, Lawson said.
The other three grantees did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Mississippi Today.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, told Mississippi Today he is monitoring the situation and wants to make sure the transition is seamless for families.
“Normally, when an agency has trouble, they will contact my office for assistance, but for whatever reason once I was made aware of MAP’s situation, the decision had already been reached to put it out for competition,” Thompson said. “So my effort now is to make sure that those families and employees formerly affiliated with MAP would be given the same consideration for the new agency.”
Memorial Hospital Biloxi will stop offering labor and delivery services as of Sept.1 – a change that comes seven months after Memorial Health System bought the hospital from Merit Health with intentions to expand services, including OB-GYN care.
The Biloxi hospital will still offer gynecological services, but patients will have to go to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport or another nearby hospital to give birth.
Kent Nicaud, president and CEO of the hospital system, said his team has prepared for this transition and expects no delays in care or extended wait times at the Gulfport hospital.
Kent Nicaud, president and CEO of Memorial Health System Credit: Courtesy photo
“We have recently added several new providers, including physicians and OBs, to support our growth,” Nicaud told Mississippi Today. “These resources ensure there will be no access issues or delays, and every expectant mother will receive the highest standard of care in the region.”
Both hospitals accept the same insurance, Nicaud confirmed.
Expectant mothers who are currently patients at Biloxi have been informed about the transition, their delivery options and enhanced services at Gulfport. The two hospitals are about 15 miles apart.
The Gulfport hospital is home to Mississippi Gulf Coast’s only Level III neonatal intensive care unit. Level III is equipped to deal with babies who are born earlier than 32 weeks or who have critical illnesses.
The availability of obstetrics care has been declining for over a decade, with labor and delivery units shuttering across the U.S., particularly in rural areas. Obstetrics is one of the most expensive services hospitals provide.
Nicaud said this move is intended to improve efficiency, citing Gulfport’s NICU, OB emergency department and 24/7 laborist program.
“We’re consolidating obstetrics services to give every expectant mother access to all of the region’s most advanced maternity resources in one place,” he said. “This unified approach ensures high-quality and coordinated care from pregnancy through delivery and beyond.”
The following hospitals offer labor and delivery services in Mississippi’s six southernmost counties, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health:
