Mississippi Today profiled both Jackson mayoral candidates competing in the April 22 Democratic primary runoff. Read the profile of state Senator John Horhn here.

A brief encounter with Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba left the festivalgoers at Urban Foxes so stunned, as if they had just experienced the coolest thing in the world. 

“What has happened?” said Zac Clark, whose band had just finished playing a set at the coffee shop’s annual CouchFest.

“My day is great, my day is made,” his friend responded.  

“Word,” Clark said.

Lumumba was at the Belhaven Heights coffee shop on Saturday as part of a busy day campaigning for reelection, but after meeting Clark, the two-term mayor paused to share what he called his “origin story.” 

“So my wife and I have known each other since kindergarten, right,” Lumumba began. “We lived in the same townhouse community and walked to school together. I’ve always had a crush on my wife.” 

But there was competition. 

“When we were five, there was a little boy who was a drumming prodigy … and all the little girls loved (him), so I asked my parents to get me a drum for Christmas,” he said. “They did. I never learned how to play, so I been trying to learn how to play the drums my whole life.” 

“I had to share that,” Lumumba added. “One day I’m going to learn.” 

Just as the two-term mayor has yet to learn the drums, Lumumba is still working to achieve the goals he set out to accomplish when he was first elected in 2017 on a wave of grassroots support — most notably, creating what he has termed a “dignity economy” in the beleaguered city of Jackson.

He says he’s had success. But he’s faced many challenges, too. 

For one, Lumumba has repeatedly said that Jackson has more obstacles than other cities when it comes to basic government functions like data collection or blight elimination. And that’s not to mention the numerous crises he’s faced: The COVID-19 pandemic, multiple water system failures, a years-long contract dispute leading to garbage pickup interruptions, and now, federal corruption allegations in an FBI sting involving campaign checks and a favor for a prospective developer.

It may be one too many mishaps for Jacksonians to justify giving Lumumba, 42, another chance. Earlier this month, Sen. John Horhn, 70, all but trounced him in the Democratic primary. The incumbent took home just 17% of the vote and lost support in every single one of the city’s precincts compared to eight years ago.  

But the race isn’t over yet, and Lumumba and his supporters have been out in the city, touting the accomplishments he says Jacksonians don’t know about. 

Will it be enough? Clark’s bandmate, drummer Katie “Fort” Fortenberry, said defending the mayor is complicated. 

“I feel that a lot of the stuff that happened while he was in office, what I saw of him was I saw someone who had a lot of integrity, almost so much integrity that it sometimes created issues with things actually working in our favor, if that makes sense?” she said. “Like with the city council, he wasn’t just going along with whatever everyone else wanted to do. … I would rather be like, yeah, we’ve got issues but it’s because we’re doing things the right way.” 

It’s hard because she doesn’t trust “those people” — conservative politicians in Mississippi — and believes that when things are seamless in government, it’s often because “it’s all a show.” But sometimes, that’s what is needed. 

“Because, practically, people do need things to just kind of work sometimes.”  

Lumumba completed his first important initiative as mayor in 2018: A strategic plan for the city written with input from residents in the form of focus groups and “people’s assemblies,” periodic community meetings with a history in Jackson dating back to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in the 1990s.

The plan had five pillars: healthy citizens, affordable homes in safe neighborhoods, a thriving educational system, occupational opportunities in a growing tax base, and a city that is open and welcoming to visitors.

Some goals were more specific than others. The plan called for more public art in the city. It also specified the elimination of 25% of the city’s blight by 2021. 

“We’ve been in reactive mode,” Lumumba said when he announced the plan. “We’ve been in often crisis management mode. And so we’re trying to look at how we move to not only creating a more stable plane but how we look at optimization.” 

Since then, Lumumba said the plan has functioned as a “guiding star” for his administration. But it’s been tricky to measure progress. 

That’s partly because the city is not as data-driven as Lumumba said he would like it to be. The mayor said he can point to examples of events the city has put on that support the goal of being welcoming and open to visitors — such as free concerts the city used to hold before the pandemic — but that’s not the same thing as being able to measure outcomes.

“While you may be doing good work,” he said, “the question is how does it contribute to the whole, and how much are you shaving off from the overall challenges?”

Plus, some information hasn’t been collected over the last 30 to 40 years, Lumumba said. But he added that he’s taken steps to fix that. Under his tenure, the city created a rental registry of landlords that Lumumba said is used for code enforcement. He’s also hired the city’s first-ever data analyst who primarily works with the Jackson Police Department. Lumumba hopes the analyst will examine homelessness in the city, including the primary cause in Jackson. 

In another example, Lumumba has touted in campaign materials that his administration has paved more miles of roads than any others. While he didn’t have the numbers on hand, Lumumba said his administration has paved 144 roads and “spent well beyond what other administrations have had available to them.”  

Despite these gains, Jackson has remained in reactive mode under Lumumba’s administration. Some of the crises he’s faced have resulted in gains for the city, such as $800 million in federal funding to help fix the water system — but they’re not exactly what Lumumba set out to achieve when he was first elected. 

As far as whether the city has met its blight elimination goal, Lumumba was candid that hasn’t happened, mainly due to what he called “limitations” with the state’s blight elimination program, especially when it comes to the cost of clearing titles. 

“The narrative that my opponent has tried to share is that the city has left money on the table,” Lumumba said. “First of all, that money was for statewide, and it was inefficient and ineffective statewide, because the program while it gave money for the demolition of the property and the upkeep, it didn’t give as much money for the administrative costs and those are some of the most expensive.” 

The city’s current planning department has taken steps to better understand the current scope of the problem, Lumumba said, but it’s still a moving target. 

After introducing a band and looking at local art booths, Lumumba left Urban Foxes to meet up with his campaign staff and volunteers at a gas station on Medgar Evers Boulevard. It was time for a canvassing event in Presidential Hills, a neighborhood in Ward 2 that Lumumba lost to Horhn this primary despite historically drawing support there. 

A red truck carrying a campaign sign rolled through the neighborhood with a recorded message for voters. 

“Jackson, don’t be fooled,” a woman said on a loudspeaker. “Don’t let the state take our city. The Republicans are using John Horhn to take our city. They are fighting to take our airport, our water system, Smith-Willis stadium, our zoo, and our schools. If you want to keep your city our city, Jackson, vote for Chokwe Antar Lumumba for mayor.” 

Since the primary, Lumumba and his supporters — including former mayoral candidates David Archie and James Hopkins who are now endorsing him — have accused the Horhn campaign of being driven by hidden interests.

The challenge was to deliver that message in a neighborhood where many people support Horhn. Initially, there was some confusion over whether to knock on doors at homes that had a Horhn sign out front. One volunteer told Lumumba not to. 

“That’s not a strategy,” he responded. 

As he walked along John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Lumumba passed out a card with information about his accomplishments and aspirations for the city, as well as an edition of the Jackson Advocate with an endorsement of Lumumba. His campaign removed a page that contained an advertisement for Horhn. 

When people answered the door, Lumumba wouldn’t say his opponent’s name, but he would make references, such as “I believe you deserve an administration that wants to be held accountable” or “we don’t need our resources taken.” 

Mostly, people were just excited to see Lumumba, as if he was a celebrity. 

“Oh Chokwe!” the guy who answered the door exclaimed. He ran back inside to get his grandma. “Grandma, it’s Chokwe!” 

At a house with a Horhn sign on the property line, Lumumba was vindicated: The woman who answered the door said she was going to vote for him. Nearly every person Lumumba talked to said the same. A man in white socks holding a TV remote told Lumumba, “I’m gonna give you another shot.” 

In one of his last stops, Lumumba, his wife and his daughters met a woman who wanted speed bumps installed on her road. 

“Absolutely, well, you know what, that’s a council decision, however, have y’all gotten through the process of getting a petition?” Lumumba asked her. 

The conversation then shifted to Callaway High School and Murrah High School, who attended which schools, what years they’d graduated, and if they knew the same folks. 

What does it say about the direction Jackson has chosen if Lumumba is not reelected? 

Sitting outside of Soule Coffee shop in Fondren, the mayor said it would mean that Jacksonians think another person is better equipped to handle the city’s future.

“It would also suggest that maybe people are not as familiar with the gains that we’ve made,” he said. “That’s my hope that we can communicate with them just how much work has taken place and how heavy of a lift it’s been, in spite of the odds.” 

Communication – or lack thereof – has been a defining feature of Lumumba’s time as mayor, especially in recent years. And the mayor and his supporters have, at times, been critical of the media coverage his administration has received. 

A dispute between Lumumba and the City Council over the city’s garbage contract, which spanned from 2021 until they finally inked a long-term contract in 2024, is the chief example, he said. Lumumba contended that Richard’s Disposal, a Black-owned company from Louisiana, had the lowest bid, while other city council members said that wasn’t true.

“It was very clear,” he said. “All you had to do was look at the documents and what was being offered. It was very clear. We released the numbers.” 

But the media did not dig as far as it should’ve, Lumumba said. He also didn’t think it was clearly communicated to Jacksonians that the council stopped the trash service, not him. 

“I think the media profited from the so-called ‘trash fight’ and it was more valuable to them to show dissension than to tell the truth,” he said. 

Lumumba lobbed bribery allegations against council members, but when FBI agents eventually started poking around in Jackson, it was Lumumba they accused of corruption. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial in 2026.

If Lumumba is not reelected, it won’t be the end of his work, he said. He’ll keep fighting for his ideals through his job as a criminal justice attorney. 

Through his sister’s nonprofit, he said people’s assemblies would continue. 

“There will be a million different ways that I’m going to continue working in community,” he added. 

The post In runoff’s final days, Lumumba defends accomplishments in appeal for ‘another shot’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today profiled both Jackson mayoral candidates competing in the April 22 Democratic primary runoff. Read the profile of incumbent Mayor Chokwe Lumumba here.

State Sen. John Horhn had just finished standing on the bed of a shiny white truck, tossing packets of candy to the sparse crowd at the South Jackson Parade on McDowell Road, when a City Hall employee came up to him. 

“We need you down there,” she told Horhn. “Oh, we need you bad. Bad, bad.” 

A few hours later, another city employee pulled Horhn aside to say that she was looking forward to working with him when – not if – he’s elected mayor. 

A four-time candidate for Jackson mayor, Horhn first ran for the office in 2009 on much of the same platform he’s using today: Cleaning up crime and blight, pursuing more federal funding, and growing and developing the city. 

As his repeated interactions with city employees the weekend of April 12 illustrate, many Jacksonians feel these problems have only deepened. But Horhn, who has represented northwest Jackson and surrounding rural areas for 32 years, argues the mood around his campaign is much more optimistic. 

“There’s something in the air, and I think they sense that,” he said. “You know, the most often used word that I hear from people – young, old, rich, poor, Black, white – is ‘excited.’” 

So far, the numbers seem to support that. Earlier this month, Horhn, 70, took even his campaign team by surprise when he pulled 48% of the vote in a crowded Democratic Primary. His chief opponent, incumbent Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, 42, lagged far behind at 17%. 

But Tuesday’s runoff – an entirely different race from the primary – will prove the real test of whether voters are buying Horhn’s message this year. 

The moderate Democrat has argued that Jackson’s basic city services are suffering and need to be improved. His election would be a marked shift from Jackson’s current administration that is guided by a commitment to radical politics grounded in Black self-determination. 

For this, Lumumba’s campaign and supporters have attacked Horhn as the candidate in the pocket of the city’s white business community located in the northeasternmost ward — even though a majority of Horhn’s votes came from Black Jacksonians. The repeated claim that Horhn will all but sell Jackson for parts – from the city’s airport to the Smith-Willis Stadium on Lakeland Drive – has become one of the defining narratives of this year’s election. 

As Horhn was talking to voters at the South Jackson Parade, for example, Lumumba’s campaign volunteers tabled with a sign that read: “Keep our city ours.” 

Horhn, who was raised in Jackson by a labor organizer and a cafeteria manager for Jackson Public Schools, adamantly rejects this narrative. So do many others, including Congressman Bennie Thompson, whose endorsement of Horhn noted the senator’s intention to defend Jackson’s right to control its own resources.

“Every attempt, either successful or otherwise, of the state taking over an asset of Jackson, I’ve been the lead senator against whatever that take-over attempt happened to be,” Horhn said over small water cups at the Taco Bell on McDowell Road. “I’ve been the go-to guy in the Senate when it comes to fighting that stuff. I’m not all of a sudden going to change my stripes and hand over the city.” 

In fact, Horhn said he thinks his style of politics is better suited to defending Jackson than the mayor’s. Horhn described his approach as deliberate, behind-the-scenes, using the existing legislative process to leverage resources, and best summarized by the following aphorism: No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.

“It’s hard for people to understand how it is that you can be fighting one minute and working with them another minute, and for me it depends on the issue,” he said. “It depends on what’s at stake and what’s the best path of victory to get to the best interest of my community.”

Horhn concedes that most of the bills he authors never become law – the woes of being in the Legislature’s minority party – but he says he’s won significant funding for Jackson nonetheless, including $85 million for the downtown convention center, $20 million for the Westin Hotel, and $20 million for the JSU Metro Parkway. 

And he said he’s used the legislative process, from floor fights to bill amendments, to fight for Jackson.

Horhn cited the state’s ongoing effort to wrest control of the Jackson Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport as one example. 

The day the bill to regionalize the airport authority came up for a vote in the Senate in 2016, Horhn said the Jackson delegation was caught by surprise. 

“Of course we spoke on the floor against the bill,” Horhn said. 

As Horhn offered one amendment after another to kill, then water down the bill, he said Lumumba was watching from the gallery and even texted him encouraging words and suggestions for what to say on the floor. 

But the bill passed the Senate. Horhn said that members of the House Jackson delegation then went to meet with Philip Gunn, the Speaker of the House at the time, and the group came to what Horhn called a “gentleman’s agreement.” Gunn would not bring the airport bill to the House floor if the Senate Jackson delegation, including Horhn, agreed to help kill a bill that Gunn did not want to see passed. 

“Some might say it violates the quid pro quo oath that you take, but it happens all the time,” Horhn said. “We held up our end of the bargain. We killed that bill.” 

The former speaker told Mississippi Today he could not recall any meetings about the bill because it was nearly 10 years ago, but that he doesn’t “traditionally do a gentleman’s agreement.” 

Horhn added that some other House members then had their own meeting with Gunn that was not as cordial as Horhn thought it should’ve been. 

“The meeting did not go well and some things were said by some members that insulted the Speaker, and he became angry,” Horhn said. 

In the end, the efforts failed.

“That’s a battle that we lost, but it’s one that we should not have lost,” he said, “because cooler heads should’ve prevailed.”

The narrative that white, conservative, statewide interests want to take what rightfully belongs to Black, progressive Jacksonians persists, especially among Lumumba’s supporters. 

Horhn says he understands why. 

“There is so much mistrust it becomes something you can weaponize,” he said. 

Plus, narratives often possess a kernel of truth. 

This election, Horhn has secured the backing of Rethink Jackson, a coalition of city leaders and business people convened by Robert Gibbs, a downtown Jackson attorney and developer. Horhn recently touted an endorsement from a local developer named Gabriel Prado who is building apartments in north Fondren. 

And, a review of Horhn’s campaign finance reports shows that he accepted $4,000 from a political action committee named Build MS that primarily donates to Republican candidates, according to its filings with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office. Build MS declined to comment.

The PAC was started two years ago to promote “business friendly” candidates and is affiliated with a government relations firm co-founded by Austin Barbour. 

After he was asked about this documentation, Horhn reviewed his documentation and said he believed he received the check by mail and that he was not aware of the connection between Build MS and the Mississippi Republican Party. He went on to say that he’s received many contributions from a diverse group of donors — but it doesn’t mean he adopts their political ideology. 

He also pointed to the first donation he received: $10,000 from a Black woman who started her own home care company. 

“They’re all supporting our campaign because of one thing and that is because they want to see things change for the better in Jackson,” he said.

To be sure, Horhn, who has worked as a business development consultant, has never denied being a “business friendly” candidate. Neither has Lumumba. 

But the two candidates differ in what that means. Lumumba has historically focused on the idea of creating cooperatives in an effort to build a new kind of economy in Jackson. Horhn is not opposed to that approach, but he is more likely to emphasize working within the current system. 

“Folks want you to make a difference,” Horhn said. “You have to be able to work with the white business community. You have to be able to work with white statewide officials, because they control this state, and if you’re going to get resources you have to have some type of relationship. And we’ve been successful at getting resources.” 

When it comes to managing City Hall, Horhn said he thinks the current mayor has done a poor job, from keeping parks clean, helping businesses get permits, completing audits on time and answering questions from constituents. 

But that’s not all – he said he thinks it is Lumumba who has failed to defend Jackson’s resources. 

In early 2018, Jackson suddenly dropped its longrunning lawsuit opposing an effort by the West Rankin Utility Authority, which serves surrounding suburban communities, to build its own wastewater treatment plant instead of continuing to pay to use one owned by the City of Jackson. Lumumba’s public works director told him it wasn’t worth fighting.

With that, the city reportedly lost an average of $5 million in annual revenue. 

Horhn said he would’ve fought harder, because he believes the loss of West Rankin kicked off a series of incidents that ultimately led to Jackson losing control of its wastewater system to a third-party manager two years ago. 

“We’ve seen a deterioration of our wastewater since then, and what are we seeing now? The second rate increase in the last couple years that’s being implemented by the third-party manager, because we’re not taking in enough revenue to operate the system,” he said.  

Horhn also pointed to the state of west and south Jackson. If downtown Jackson is the trunk of the city’s economy, then the city’s outlying neighborhoods are withering branches, deprived of water and poised to fall off. 

Even though it’s not part of Horhn’s district, he said he’s tried to help these communities. He cited his efforts to assist Pearl Street AME Church’s community development corporation secure funding to transform an abandoned Holiday Inn on Highway 80 into a senior living facility.  

That work took years, Horhn said, and was made possible in part because of connections he had forged in the state Senate with organizations like the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership or the Mississippi Home Corporation. 

“The business of business is business,” Horhn said. “If you’re trying to do business, you have to do business with the people that are doing business, and if you’re trying to develop wealth in your community you have to follow some of the same codes around which wealth is created.” 

But if that was Lumumba’s goal, Horhn called it a “miserable failure.” 

During the April 12 parade, Horhn kept talking about how few people had come out to celebrate. Last year, when the Sonic Boom of the South and Alcorn State’s band played, he said thousands of people turned out. 

On Saturday, the floats and high school bands marched past a boarded-up beauty supply store, a defunct Chinese restaurant, an empty elementary school, abandoned homes and overgrown bushes. 

There was one new business: A plasma donation center. It used to be a pharmacy. 

Addressing the crowd at the festival, Horhn said on the microphone that turning around South Jackson would be the first thing on his to-do list. 

But it’s going to be a tall order. The neglect in this part of Jackson runs so deep that much more than economic development is needed. All the same issues Horhn ran on in 2009 are more pronounced now. 

Horhn and his campaign team made it back to their cars in a sunwashed parking lot outside a Save-A-Lot that had served as a staging ground for the parade. As they planned the rest of the day, parents picked up their kids, and a little girl hopped into a black sedan dotted with rusted bullet holes on the side. 

The post Countering campaign narratives, Horhn argues he’s the best man to defend Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Last month, more than a hundred people sat in the auditorium of Dollye M. E. Robinson Hall at Jackson State University. It was a Tuesday night, and nearly all of the mayoral candidates in a stacked primary race waited patiently near the front of the room readying for their turn to share their platforms. 

It was the first time that JSU Votes hosted an event such as this, creating an opportunity for residents and students to meet the candidates. The organization partnered with The League of Women Voters Jackson Area for the forum.

“We just want to try our best to make sure that the people of our generation understand that politics is important … not just the presidential election either, but also the mayor and city council is just as important,” said Amiyah Banks, vice president of the campus organization.

However, when the primary Election Day came around, the precinct located at Jackson State University’s Student Center had the lowest turnout after only 1% of its registered voters visited the polls. In a precinct with 2,600 registered voters, 27 ballots were cast on April 1.

“ I don’t think people realize it’s powerful to use your vote to say you know what you want to change, what you want to fix within your community. That’s powerful,” Banks said. “I don’t think people realize all that our ancestors had to go through to even just get the ability to vote. So it’s very disappointing when they don’t go out to the polls.”

Jacksonians will have another chance to make their voices heard in the municipal Democratic primary, which historically decides who will be mayor, by voting in the Tuesday runoff between incumbent Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and longtime state senator John Horhn. Runoff elections typically see lower turnout, which could play a factor in the results.

Savina Schoenhofer is with the League of Women Voters Jackson Area. She’s the chair of the Get Out the Vote Committee. She said that in a democracy, it’s important to have civic participation.

“ It’s our voice. The vote is our voice, and this is a democracy, and so that means it’s of the people, by the people and for the people and the way we the people live. Our democracy is in large part by voting,” Schoenhofer said.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that works to educate citizens of their voting rights and support voter access on both the local and national level. Schoenhofer said she doesn’t like to focus on the concept of voter apathy as much as she hopes to encourage students to be active participants in democracy.

“I think, ‘Wow, if we don’t have students involved, we’re not gonna have voters tomorrow or next year,’” she said. “We’re already seeing the results of that and I attribute it and a lot of people attribute the decreased interest in citizen participation in government to the absence of civics education in the schools.”

But what does it mean for a community when there’s low turnout? 

“It means things happen to them, and not with them and by them,” Schoenhofer said. “We can’t have that. If we’re gonna have a democracy, we have to have participation.”

The precincts with the lowest turnout are located in Wards 5, 6 and 7. At Precinct 73, which is located at Key Elementary School on McDowell Road in southwest Jackson, there are 1,065 registered voters, but only 99 votes were cast on April 1. Similarly, turnout was low at Shirley Elementary and St. Luther Baptist Church, where just around 11% of registered voters cast a ballot. Turnout didn’t necessarily affect how candidates performed, though. While Ward 1’s high turnout precincts represented Horhn’s largest wins, he also received more votes than Lumumba in all but two precincts across the city.

In the April 22 runoff, most voters will cast a Democratic ballot, choosing between Lumumba and Horhn. Residents in Wards 6 and 7 have a Democratic primary runoff for their representative on the City Council. There’s also a Republican primary runoff for mayor between Wilfred Beal and Kenneth Gee. Mississippi has open primaries, meaning voters do not register with a political party and may vote in any party primary they choose. However, those who voted in the April 1 primary are not legally allowed to vote in the opposite party’s runoff. Anyone who did not participate in the primary may vote in either runoff race. Voters may also select any candidate in the General Election in June regardless of the primary they voted in.

One Voice, with offices located on Jackson State University’s campus, is another group doing voter outreach work in Mississippi. Catherine Robinson is the program director of the nonprofit organization based in the capital city. She said one reason why voter turnout is low is because residents feel unheard.

“One of the things that we hear a lot is that they’re not going to change anything. It’s gonna stay the same. So why should I vote? Why should I vote?” Robinson said. “We try to educate them on that systematically. Change does not occur just by complaining. In order for us to have this change, it’s a democracy, and without democracy, we’re ineffective.”

One Voice has been holding voter registration drives and distributing educational materials to inform people of their rights and what’s on their ballots.

“We understand that there’s a gap in understanding how these local elections or national elections impact their everyday lives,” she said. “ One thing that we try to do here at One Voice is close that gap by making sure that we are creating relatable materials for people to understand the complex policies in a simpler form.”

Schoenhofer said that it’s key to vote in every election, especially the smaller ones, in order to see the change desired in Jackson, such as improving clean water access and infrastructure woes.

“Those are things that happen because of your local elections, your city council, your mayor, and the mayor, who appoints department heads,” she said. “So that’s where you can really see the results, and that’s where you really need to express your opinion.”

When it comes to the upcoming election, she encourages voters to do their research, not just for the April 22 runoff but beyond.

“Study these candidates, these people who are willing to put themselves forward,” she said. “Study their ideas and choose who you think is best, and once you’ve done that, tune in once in a while to the online livestream of the city council meetings, because it doesn’t just stop on election day.”

The post ‘Be a part of democracy’: Voting rights groups urge participation in April 22 runoff appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This column is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Mississippi is the beating heart of American culture.

Our writers have reshaped literature, our musicians have birthed modern genres, our freedom fighters have given voice to the nation’s conscience.

From Welty and Faulkner to Jesmyn and Kiese, from Robert Johnson to Jimmie Rodgers, from Ida B. Wells to Medgar Evers, Mississippi’s influence on American culture isn’t just important — it’s foundational.

Mississippi, for its many faults, excels at preserving and showcasing these contributions to the nation. We have, without question, gotten the humanities right. And in countless cases, local economies across our state rely on this cultural study and preservation through museums, monuments and programming to ensure that while we work toward a better future, we’re maintaining a full understanding of our past.

But today, the humanities are under attack. To defund them is to erase the roots of American identity, and no state has more to lose, or more reason to fight back, than Mississippi.

The Trump administration, at the direction of billionaire Elon Musk and his band of tech bros hunting for federal budget cuts, has gutted the National Endowment for the Humanities — slashing its funding and demanding an 80% reduction in staff. The effects of this mind-blowingly obtuse decision are devastating for Mississippi: the $1 million in federal funding appropriated annually to the Mississippi Humanities Council, whose decades of work and grant making touches every county and corner of this state, is gone.

The Mississippi Humanities Council is a nonprofit founded in 1972 that responsibly distributes these federal funds through grants to entities that are boosting our state’s arts and culture, preserving history for generations to come, and creating deeper cultural life in small towns across the state.

The abrupt budget cut jeopardizes more than 35 grants that were already awarded by the council for programs like an oral history of former Gov. Kirk Fordice’s time in office, a museum exhibit on Mississippians who fought and died in the Vietnam War, and lectures about the work and legacy of artist Walter Anderson.

Musk and Trump’s tech bros at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may know how to download personal data and make sweeping decisions that may or may not be constitutional, but they don’t seem to understand the power of poems, paintings, songs or history. And they certainly don’t know a thing about Mississippi.

They’ve declared war on something our state has long treasured: the power of story, of memory, of meaning. And whether they know it or not, their budget cut stands to erase some of our nation’s most important culture.

Understand that the work of the Mississippi Humanities Council is not “woke,” focused on DEI or skewed toward liberal causes. These Trump administration cuts appear totally indiscriminate, which makes the situation all the more frustrating to those who rely on this funding. Though conservative politicians have long targeted the National Endowment for the Humanities budget, prominent Republicans — including those in Mississippi’s congressional delegation — support the work of the council.

President Ronald Reagan, not too long ago heralded by Republican Party officials as a model leader, likened humanities to a beacon of American freedom. At a time when the Soviet Union threatened our nation’s livelihood, President Reagan leaned into aspects of American life that brought people together. He wasn’t focused merely on the real threats to American society at the time. He went out of his way to underscore the importance of community theaters, small-town museums, library book clubs and school field trips — the very places and moments where Americans have long come to understand themselves and their neighbors.

“The humanities teach us who we are and what we can be,” Reagan said at the White House in 1987. “They lie at the very core of the culture of which we’re a part, and they provide the foundation from which we may reach out to other cultures so that the great heritage that is ours may be enriched by, as well as itself enrich, other enduring traditions.”

It was President Lyndon Johnson, who created the NEH in 1965, who warned: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Johnson rightly believed that the humanities were not a luxury but a local lifeline. They existed not in some marble gallery, but “in the neighborhoods of each community.”

Here in Mississippi, these neighborhoods and communities are literal. These are our hometowns, and these are our neighbors. Grants from the Mississippi Humanities Council have supported civil rights education in the Delta, local history archives in Gulf Coast libraries, and storytelling festivals in small towns where history is still passed down by word of mouth.

So when things feel more chaotic than ever, what can we do? We can fight. We must stand up and let our leaders know that the humanities cuts are too harmful to our state to let slide, that Elon’s tech bros cannot so easily erase the national contributions Mississippi has made. Demand they sponsor new bills to restore humanities funding that cannot be touched by a vulgar, spiteful billionaire or the president he serves. Implore them to save the Mississippi Humanities Council — to do anything before it’s too late for the preservation of our culture and for so many of our small towns.

If you’re eager to get more personal with our six members of Congress, here are some starting places:

Call U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and ask if she enjoyed her 2023 photo op at the opening of a traveling Smithsonian exhibit at her hometown library in Brookhaven. That exhibit and so many more in small towns across her state were underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

Call U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and ask if he learned anything by narrating Vernon Dahmer’s story for the traveling exhibit “A More Perfect Union: Mississippi Founders,” which aims to “celebrate the rich legacy of ideas and ideals at the core of our democracy.” That exhibit and so many more across his state were underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

Call U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly and ask whether he supports the Possumtown Book Festival in Columbus, the Oxford Conference for the Book, the Behind the Big House program in Holly Springs, or the Small-Town Preservation Symposium in Eupora. All of these community festivals or programs in his district are underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

Call U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson and ask whether he supports Mississippi Freedom Trail unveilings across his district like a recent one in Canton, grants to support civil rights movement anniversaries, and a Jackson State University-supported program that created a book club at Parchman. All of these programs in his district are underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

Call U.S. Rep. Michael Guest and ask him if he supports programs that bring history to incarcerated youth and provides prison education to adults who are incarcerated in Pearl, or the recent Jimmie Rodgers seminar at the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience in Meridian. These programs and so many more in his district were underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

Call U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell and ask whether he supports the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, the University of Southern Mississippi oral history center, or the Hancock County Historical Society. All of these entities boast recent programming underwritten by the Mississippi Humanities Council, which just lost its funding because Elon Musk said so.

For our six members of Congress to allow these cuts without taking action is to suggest Mississippi’s stories — the painful and proud, the devastating and inspiring — don’t matter. That we don’t matter.

But we do. We really, really do. And if we don’t fight for our culture, who will?

In the state where so much of America’s artistic and moral imagination was born, defending the humanities isn’t about nostalgia or wokeness. It’s about survival. It’s about reminding the nation — and maybe even ourselves — that Mississippi always has something important to say.

The post Trump and Musk are attacking the humanities. Mississippians must fight back. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

What was your reaction to the 2025 mayoral primary results?

“Shocked.”

Cheri Marshall

“It was expected.”

Darius Williams

“Disappointed.”

Koreyan Black, Al Brown, Georgia Cohran, Lucie Cooper

VOTERS

Koreyan Black
20, Ward 5, student

Al Brown
69, Ward 3, retired electrical engineer

Georgia Cohran
73, Ward 5, actress and nonprofit founder

Lucie Cooper
24, Ward 7, artist

Walker Lake
20, Ward 1, civil engineering student

Cheri Marshall
57, Ward 6, retired

Shirley Miller
67, Ward 3, retired mental health director

Shameka Reed
44, Ward 1, nonprofit director

Portia Scott
26, Ward 4, deposit processing assistant

Leslyn Smith
23, Ward 2, graduate student

John Spann
34, Ward 3, nonprofit program director

Warren Tatum Jr.
25, Ward 2, rural carrier

Darius Williams
34, Ward 1, IT analyst

INTERVIEWS

Did you vote in the primary?

Yes:

What was your reaction to the primary results?

KOREYAN BLACK, 20, WARD 5, STUDENT

I wasn’t that surprised because apparently there’s always a runoff here. I mean, I was a little surprised that people voted for Lumumba. Surprised isn’t even the word. I was disappointed, not necessarily surprised. I was like “Dang, you think you want better, but OK.”

AL BROWN, 69, WARD 3, RETIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

I was disappointed for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that the individual that I voted for was not the successful winner. And the second thing that I was disappointed due to the fact that Lumumba was able to make it into the runoff.

GEORGIA COHRAN, 73, WARD 5, ACTRESS AND NONPROFIT FOUNDER

 I was rather disappointed. I didn’t know that many Jacksonians, Black Jacksonians lived in the area, voted. There was a lot of people voting. Looks like someone may have crossed over so John could look good, and I love John, always have. His kindness, and his support of the community, like his father. John, I love John, but I don’t think those were Black votes, nor Democratic votes.

LUCIE COOPER, 24, WARD 7, ARTIST

I guess I was a little disappointed but not disheartened. The numbers seemed a little low considering the amount of voters who live in Jackson. I thought it was a little strange that Asbhy Foote, who’s the only Republican, switched to being an independent. It was very obvious to me that Republicans in north Jackson who were voting that way were choosing a Democratic ballot and voting for Horhn. So I was a little sad, but glad that there’s a runoff.

WALKER LAKE, 20, WARD 1, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT

I was very satisfied, John Horhn leading the pack in the mayor’s race. I’ve read up a bit more about him and he’s spent a lot of time serving in the state Legislature and secured a lot of money that’s been invested into the city. And so I’m really happy to see that he’s doing well. And he also submitted his campaign finance report on time, which I’m very happy to see.

CHERI MARSHALL, 57, WARD 6, RETIRED

 I was quite shocked that Lumumba was in the running. The candidate I supported came in third, but I was very shocked that more people voted for Lumumba than I thought. I knew no one that was outwardly supporting him.

SHIRLEY MILLER, 67, WARD 3, RETIRED MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR

 I was really hoping we wouldn’t have to go into a runoff. Of course my candidate came out first. And I was a little surprised that the mayor was surprised that he came in so far behind Senator Horhn. He was surprised. He thought that the Republicans voted, and they may have, I don’t know, to push Horhn and get him out. But I know there were people who specifically went there not to vote for him (Lumumba). I talked to somebody in my church the other Sunday, and his person didn’t win. He is not in the runoff. And he said, “But I know who I’m voting for this time, and they won’t be the incumbent.” People may have voted for other people, but they weren’t voting for him.

SHAMEKA REED, 44, WARD 1, NONPROFIT DIRECTOR

It was somewhat surprising. I definitely thought senator Horhn was going to do very well in the primaries, but I didn’t expect him to do as well as he did. I did expect the incumbent mayor to do a lot better in the primary, so it was a little surprising at those numbers that there was almost no need for a run-off.

PORTIA SCOTT, 26, WARD 4, DEPOSIT PROCESSING ASSISTANT

Not really surprised, but it was eye-opening to see what the rest of the residents thought.

LESLYN SMITH, 23, WARD 2, GRADUATE STUDENT

I wasn’t surprised at all honestly. I knew it was going to be between our current mayor and John Horhn. I know that they are the ones that are the most, I’m not going to say campaigned the most, but I guess I would say most known. I figured it would be between the two of them so I’m not surprised at all.

JOHN SPANN, 34, WARD 3, NONPROFIT PROGRAM DIRECTOR

 I figured that that would happen because of the popularity of both candidates. I was surprised John Horhn got that much support, not in a negative way, but it was like, “Wow, okay.” But yeah, I kind of figured it would be a runoff between those two.

WARREN TATUM JR., 25, WARD 2, RURAL CARRIER

Slight disappointment but I’m not surprised because I support Chokwe. Of course, seeing that he wasn’t the favorite or leading candidate was definitely something that was a little disappointing but not surprising because I pay attention to the people and what’s been said throughout different communities. People have grown restless with the current state of the city, which I do understand, and they would like see some leadership they believe that would bring about necessary change that we all want to see.

DARIUS WILLIAMS, 34, WARD 1, IT ANALYST

It was expected. I was not shocked or surprised by the results.

Did the person you voted for make it into the runoff?

Yes:

No:

If not, how will you make a decision about who to vote for in the runoff?

KOREYAN BLACK, 20, WARD 5, STUDENT

I’m going to go back to see all who are running for the runoff and then I’m going to research their campaign and their policies and see who most aligns with me, and I’ll vote for them.

AL BROWN, 69, WARD 3, RETIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

I’m going to vote for Horhn.  I’m not voting for Lumumba. Since the election and since it’s gotten into a runoff, you know, everybody’s drawing up their lines of demarcation and their lines in the sand. But one of the things that I keep coming back to is over the course of his tenure, I can’t determine, or I don’t know, or I just missed it, I just don’t know what he’s done for Jackson. I try to think of things that you could attribute to his leadership, and by that I mean Lumumba, and I can’t come up with anything. Not anything credible or anything concrete or anything that’s real. Crime has not improved. The infrastructure has not improved. Growth in Jackson has not improved. Bringing in new businesses has not gotten any better. I know Amazon just came here recently, but they came replacing infinity or Comcast cable. That’s not growth. I don’t even know if that’s an even swap, but I know it’s not growth. I don’t think another four years of Lumumba is going to be good for Jackson nor is going to provide anything that has not been provided. It’s gonna be more of the same.

WALKER LAKE, 20, WARD 1, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT

I think ultimately it comes down to the next round of campaign finance reports. If John Horhn and (Ward 1 council candidate) Jasmine Barnes both get them in on time, then there’s very little doubt in my mind that I plan to support them. Other than that, I really don’t see anything else changing significantly between now and the General. I think that’s the biggest thing I’m looking for, because there isn’t a lot of information really out there about all the history of some of these candidates, especially for alderman, so the best thing I can do is see how these candidates run their campaigns, and if they run them as they’re supposed to, then that shows me that they can at least do that. They can probably take care of business once they make the office.

CHERI MARSHALL, 57, WARD 6, RETIRED

It’s a hard decision. I am concerned because I don’t know what all the variables are behind John Horhn’s running. John is not clear. The older he gets, he’s hard to listen to. He’s always saying “we”, never “I”, always saying “we”. I’ve been listening to 90.1, and listeners calling in. We’re concerned about that “we” thing. Who are “we”? And I don’t know where John Horhn stands on the zoo, Smith Wills, or our airport because he won’t debate Lumumba. I guess Lumumba is a better speaker, but John Horhn, if you’re gonna be our mayor, you need to be able to speak and articulate. So with that being said, I’m torn. I do know a nonvote is a vote for whoever I don’t want. So I am going to the polls, and right now I’m leaning more towards going back for Lumumba.

LESLYN SMITH, 23, WARD 2, GRADUATE STUDENT

Honestly, even up to the last minute that I went in, I was still second guessing and just wondering if I was going to make the right choice. And when I went in and got the ballot, I just went where I felt led to. It was a very hard decision, because even going into it, I was still uncertain on who I was going to vote for. Now that I know the two options that I have, I think I’m going to go for our current mayor. I just think that would be a better option.

What questions do you still have for the candidates?

KOREYAN BLACK, 20, WARD 5, STUDENT

What all are your plans? Do you have anything that’s going to tackle the issues that you see in Jackson step by step by step, and how do you plan to make them effective for the people who live here?

AL BROWN, 69, WARD 3, RETIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

 The questions that I would have for the candidates, first, is Jackson going to become better? And by that what I mean is, is Jackson going to grow? Is crime going to go down? Is the infrastructure of Jackson going to be improved? Are the things that are obviously wrong with Jackson, are those things going to get better? And what is it that you’re going to do? I want a mayor that’s going to be offended. And what I mean by offended, I mean he sees the issues, when he sees the problems, when he sees what’s going on, I want him to be offended by that enough to make change. I want a mayor who’s going to be able to communicate and work effectively with surrounding communities. I want a mayor that’s going to be able to work with state government, with Tate Reeves. All those things have to occur for Jackson to become better. And if Lumumba retains the mayorship, I just don’t see that happening because we have adversarial relationships with the surrounding communities and also with state government. And I don’t see how that’s going to improve if he remains in office.

GEORGIA COHRAN, 73, WARD 5, ACTRESS AND NONPROFIT FOUNDER

 My question is, will we be able to continue what has already been put in place, the progress that Mayor Lumumba has already made? If he happens not to, which God forbid, not to be reelected, is there an assurance, and how can there be an assurance, that what he has already worked for can be continued until it’s brought to fruition, which isn’t impossible?

LUCIE COOPER, 24, WARD 7, ARTIST

I mean, is the community truly at the heart of the campaign? I feel like business and private money is really a big part of John Horhn’s campaign and I’m seeing that the community is being centered on Lumumbas’ campaign, so I’m going back and forth between the two. I cannot ignore the long list of positive things that Lumumba has done for the city in his past two terms.

WALKER LAKE, 20, WARD 1, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT

 My biggest question for Mayor Lumumba and Mr. Horhn is, how will they address the issues with non-compliance and the material weaknesses found in the previous annual audits of the city’s finances. I think that if the next mayor to lead Jackson can’t figure out the finances for the city, I struggle to believe that he can make the best informed decisions in regards to leading the city forward. You would want everything up to date to make the most informed decisions on everything really.

CHERI MARSHALL, 57, WARD 6, RETIRED

I already know what Lumumba said about the airport, Smith Wills and the zoo, but I need to know where John Horhn stands with that. He was on the stage with 20 other people, but he won’t debate Lumumba. Because, you know, I think he’s just afraid. But my question is, “How fast can we clean up the city?” And so I believe with Lumumba being, not even on the top, being on the lower end, if he does get back in, I hope this will be a lesson to him. I’m willing to give him that second chance. But I just can’t go with John Horhn because I do not think he has the correct agenda for me.

SHIRLEY MILLER, 67, WARD 3, RETIRED MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR

One of the questions I have for the candidates is, how are they going to make the city prosperous again? And I mean economic development, cleaning up trash, making sure that people are heard. Sometimes they have public meetings and it’s a good thing to hear from the public, but if nothing comes out of it, what good is it? One of the things I want to know is, are we going to have our water system back? Are we gonna clean up the streets and I mean clean up the streets, and are we going to have roads that you can drive over? I’ve hit so many potholes lately. It is making me angry and I’m trying to watch for them. And at night you can’t tell if there’s nothing up there, and so you get there, and you hit a pothole. I’m just lucky that my tires are still okay.

I want them to really listen to what we want and what we need. And I think people are telling them. But listen to it, and figure out a way, and have people around you who you’re listening to, and those people should be out in the community. The mayor can’t go everywhere. So have some strategic people that can go and talk to the neighbors, talk to any kind of forum. Talk to people at church, not just come and visit us at church right before election. I truly find that offputting because you didn’t see me for four years or eight years. And now you’re here at my church telling me to vote for you, and I don’t even know who you are. So what I want to see is for them to be more involved in the city and actually talking to people and doing things for the constituents of Jackson.

SHAMEKA REED, 44, WARD 1, NONPROFIT DIRECTOR

I guess my question to them would be, in four years, how would Jackson be better than it was before they took office?

PORTIA SCOTT, 26, WARD 4, DEPOSIT PROCESSING ASSISTANT

What set him aside from the other candidate? What are your plans for the youth? What business or opportunities will you bring into the city of Jackson?

JOHN SPANN, 34, WARD 3, NONPROFIT PROGRAM DIRECTOR

The questions I have are, you know, there’s people who don’t trust John Horhn and they’re worried about the airport. And so as long as he is not trying to do that, I think a lot of people will get his vote. We know that Mayor Lumumba is fighting to keep the airport and trying to keep resources in Jackson because of his track record. But right now, with what has happened with the whole scandal — which, everybody’s innocent until proven guilty — that also is, I know, a contingent point for a lot of people as well. Will he be able to be in office? If he wins and God forbid, he’s convicted, then what happens? Do we have to do this all over again? I don’t know what happened and don’t claim to know what happened. … But it’s that too,  those questions, I think everybody is thinking those things. They may not say it, but that’s what people are thinking.

WARREN TATUM JR., 25, WARD 2, RURAL CARRIER

Questions are still the same. I’m going to always feel the same, stay the same, because just because you campaigned, the work still has to be done once you get into office. Just because we’re in a runoff doesn’t mean the issues have changed, it just narrowed the election down to two candidates instead of so many. So everything is still pretty much the same. How are we going to fix water issues? What are we going to do to bring businesses back into Jackson? What are we going to do to better the economy? Those questions are still the same.

DARIUS WILLIAMS, 34, WARD 1, IT ANALYST

I’ve always felt like this, but honestly, I’ve had all my questions answered. I feel like there is ample information out there, and both candidates are accessible, so I’m satiated.

What has been the most memorable moment of the campaigns?

AL BROWN, 69, WARD 3, RETIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

 The thing that I was looking at was Lumumba not being able to make the runoff. To me, I thought that that was critical. When it was determined that he was going to make the runoff because Horhn did not have 51% of the vote, then that put him in a position to retain his mayorship, and I’m nervous about that.

GEORGIA COHRAN, 73, WARD 5, ACTRESS AND NONPROFIT FOUNDER

The most memorable moment? I would say Mayor Lumumba’s speech, his integrity, his bravery, his desire to maintain, in spite of how close the race was. I’m so proud of him, him and his family. It’s commendable. And he still didn’t sling any mud, even after the results were out. We were all surprised at how many people voted for Senator Horhn. Where did they come from?

LUCIE COOPER, 24, WARD 7, ARTIST

I actually went to one of Lumumba’s campaign meetings over the weekend just out of curiosity, and I was actually on the verge of tears the entire time. The sense of community, taking me in as a stranger and being given a plate of home-cooked food and holding hands and praying together, I was really astonished and grateful to be a part of that. I’m surprised at how quickly I was able to become involved in politics in my town. It didn’t take long and I’m surprised. Being heard by the mayor and dignified in what I’m doing, it really goes a long way.

WALKER LAKE, 20, WARD 1, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT

 Probably election night, how both Democratic candidates responded to the results of the primary. I was shocked to see that Mayor Lumumba was so surprised at how few people turned out to vote for him in spite of all the really rough things that have occurred during this administration, between the trash issues, the water issues, the state looking into taking over city assets. I mean, there’s just so much stuff that really hasn’t gone right for him, and I don’t think he should be too surprised if the runoff doesn’t go his way either.

SHIRLEY MILLER, 67, WARD 3, RETIRED MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR

When the mayor thought that he should have been in the lead in the runoff. I think he was truly surprised that people didn’t vote for him. I think if he took all the other votes from the 20 people that ran and added them up, he still wouldn’t have won. I think that was the most memorable part. And the other memorable part is that I still don’t think our current mayor has a clue of how to do the job even after eight years. I think he comes to the point where he thinks everybody’s behind him and people are behind him, and that’s fine for them, but he hasn’t listened to the people who are not behind him.

I’ve written the mayor dozens of letters. Has he ever responded to me? No. And I can say never. I’ve been to meetings, and he’ll say something very flippant. If you ask him a question: “Well, that’s not how it goes.” Instead of actually saying, “What is this person really telling me about what the problem is?” He’s not listening. He thinks we’re just gonna fall in line like they did the first time because of his dad’s name. And then the second time, like I did, I voted for him because he was the best person on the ballot. And I don’t do that anymore. If there’s nobody on the ballot that I want to vote for, I won’t vote, or I’ll write something in. One time I wrote in Jesus Christ as a write-in, because I just feel like, for the people who died for my right to vote, I don’t want them to think that I don’t care.

CHERI MARSHALL, 57, WARD 6, RETIRED

When John Horhn said over at the African American museum that the citizens of Jackson should be happy with the crumbs they receive from the Legislature. That is unforgivable to me. 

SHAMEKA REED, 44, WARD 1, NONPROFIT DIRECTOR

The primary election night, and kind of anticipating those numbers. Seeing what the outcome is going to be, seeing how the citizens are really feeling. I think when people go out to vote, they’re really letting you know how they feel about something. As soon as the polls closed, probably about 7:30pm or so, I started checking online to see what results were coming in. So for me, the most exciting part was Election Night.

LESLYN SMITH, 23, WARD 2, GRADUATE STUDENT

I felt like they had a candidate forum or a debate every day of the week. So it was just interesting, just going to all of them. I tried to go to as many as possible, because I know they asked different things at each different one. It was interesting listening to the candidates, but I can’t just say anything has stood out the most really.

JOHN SPANN, 34, WARD 3, NONPROFIT PROGRAM DIRECTOR

 The most memorable moment for me is when it seemed like David Archie always was coming at John Horhn when he wasn’t in front of John Horhn. But in times where he was in front of John Horhn, he didn’t say the thing that he was saying behind his back or at forums John Horhn wasn’t at. That’s the one thing that I thought was wild.  

This whole thing has been a wild ride, like just to see what, 20 plus people get into the race? Glad we got options, but then that makes it hard. All of these folks have personalities. Some of these folks, they’re running and they don’t need to be running, you know? It brings a comedic relief, for sure.

WARREN TATUM JR., 25, WARD 2, RURAL CARRIER

Probably just being at the Poor People’s Campaign forum and being able to actually hear candidates speak for themselves and get a chance to give the people what they all bring and what they plan to do as mayor.

DARIUS WILLIAMS, 34, WARD 1, IT ANALYST

Tim Henderson’s billboard placement strategically around the Jackson Metro corridor was top notch, I loved it. You couldn’t travel from one part of Jackson to another without seeing his face.

What have you learned so far during this election?

KOREYAN BLACK, 20, WARD 5, STUDENT

People will disappoint you. You’d think they want better for themselves and their children and their community and the people around them, and then you find out that they just don’t. They just don’t care.

AL BROWN, 69, WARD 3, RETIRED ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

The voters don’t care. The people who vote don’t care. I went to vote right at 7:30am and I was number seven at my precinct. And that was disheartening, particularly with everything that’s going on in Jackson right now, with everything that’s going on with the government in Jackson right now. It’s a lot of things that need to be fixed and you only get 20% of the turnout, then that’s not a good sign. That’s not a good sign for the people of Jackson.

GEORGIA COHRAN, 73, WARD 5, ACTRESS AND NONPROFIT FOUNDER

That we don’t get it. African Americans just don’t get it. For all of those men to run, you can look at it both ways: Somebody wanted one person, one candidate, over the other. Either, they brought out the red carpet of defeat. They wanted Horhn to win and wanted to discredit Mayor Lumumba, whether they intended to or not. For all of those candidates to run, they split the vote. And who voted for them? If everybody voted, all the Blacks voted for Senator Horhn, then who voted for them? That was a lot of votes that went their way. But still, that’s more people that votes in Jackson. Where did they come from? Someone crossed over.

LUCIE COOPER, 24, WARD 7, ARTIST

Oh my gosh, so much. The amount of things this man (Lumumba) has done for the city. I knew about the roads that had been paved, I did not know about the $20 million grant to repave Medgar Evers Blvd. During the campaign meetings, I learned that the Republicans in the state wanted the Waste Management contract, and Lumumba was advocating for Richards, a minority owned small company. He was trying to save Jackson $13 million and he did. I also didn’t know he had secured health insurance for all city workers. He saved JPS from a state takeover. From what I’m seeing going back and forth in these campaigns is that Lumumba is pointing us in the right direction and centering the people’s needs.

WALKER LAKE, 20, WARD 1, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT

I’ve learned that Jackson can come together. For several years now, a lot of people have not felt great about the future of Jackson, but with seeing how many people turned out in the primary, in spite of districts being redrawn and it just being a primary, how many candidates have all been involved, that sends a message to me that the people of Jackson are ready to keep on the good fight for a better Jackson, for a better tomorrow.

CHERI MARSHALL, 57, WARD 6, RETIRED

That organization is key. And if we would get together and organize, then we can have better results, results that matter for us. Because there were way too many people running. Somebody should have had the good common sense to say, “Okay, let’s everybody get out, these drop out because you don’t have a chance, and let’s get together, get behind one person.” But that didn’t happen.

SHIRLEY MILLER, 67, WARD 3, RETIRED MENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR

 I’ve learned that other people were as frustrated as I am, otherwise we wouldn’t have had 20 people running for mayor. And I also learned that people think it’s easy to be in office. They are very flip about some of the things that they want to do. And I was like, “You can’t do that.” You know? But I was pleased to see how many people turned out. I think more people should have turned out. But it wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t whereas people weren’t letting people know what’s going on, that they really do care about their city and they’re willing to vote for the person they think is gonna help. And I was impressed with that. Even though there were 20 people running, at least people got an opportunity to cast that ballot in whatever way, shape, form, or fashion that they saw fit.

SHAMEKA REED, 44, WARD 1, NONPROFIT DIRECTOR

I’m not sure I’ve learned anything more than what I knew already. The citizens of Jackson have, to me, always been in tune with what’s going on in the city.

PORTIA SCOTT, 26, WARD 4, DEPOSIT PROCESSING ASSISTANT

The citizens are looking for a change as a whole.

LESLYN SMITH, 23, WARD 2, GRADUATE STUDENT

I can’t say I’ve really learned anything because I feel like it’s nothing new that politicians lie. I feel like it’s just the same game repeated. I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything really.

JOHN SPANN, 34, WARD 3, NONPROFIT PROGRAM DIRECTOR

 That the mayor’s job is a truly hard job. Things like getting roads paved and bridges serviced and the water situation that we’ve been having under control, the school situation, I’ve learned that Mayor Lumumba is not in an easy position. I’ve learned that the mayor of Jackson position, without the funds needed to the necessary infrastructure work, and the necessary funding towards schools, and things like that, it’s hard to do the job without the money. It’s hard to do the job without resources. And then also I’ve learned during this campaign, there’s been a lot of misinformation out there on both sides. A lot of people are saying one thing, but it’s really another. And some of the truth has came out in these different mayoral forums. So I’m glad that I’ve been a part of them and been an active citizen and trying to make sure that I’m aware.

WARREN TATUM JR., 25, WARD 2, RURAL CARRIER

I have learned basically that just because you’re a Democratic city, you still need a bipartisan relationship between the state and the city in order for things to prosper, and it’s going to be a hard task no matter who sits in that seat, whether it be any candidate, if they’re Democratic versus being a Republican.

DARIUS WILLIAMS, 34, WARD 1, IT ANALYST

That northeast Jacksonians have finally decided to not be resigned in the election process in Jackson. I thought that was pretty interesting. I just found it interesting that this was the election that they recognized that they have collective input.

Mississippi Today identified Jackson voters to speak for this piece by attending several candidate forums throughout the city, from northeast Jackson to southwest Jackson, and places in between, and by talking to attendees of Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade, one of the city’s largest annual events. We also found voters through a survey, distributed through social media and direct text messaging. We selected voters from across all 7 Wards and aimed to represent the demographics of Jackson in race, gender, age and education, though this group skews more educated. The initial interviews were conducted between Mar. 25 and Mar. 31. The interviews above were conducted between April 8 and April 17. For this story, our role was not to fact-check interviewees, but to present voters’ points of view as they currently exist. Therefore, some of the statements expressed above may not be accurate.

The post Jackson voters will return to the polls April 22. Here’s what they said. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Speaker Jason White sent a strongly worded letter to Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Thursday, saying House leaders are frustrated with Senate leaders refusing to discuss a “Christmas tree” bill spending millions on special projects across the state. 

The letter signals the two Republican leaders remain far apart on setting an overall $7 billion state budget. Bickering between the GOP leaders led to a stalemate and lawmakers ending their regular 2025 session without setting a budget. Gov. Tate Reeves plans to call them back into special session before the new budget year starts July 1 to avoid a shutdown, but wants them to have a budget mostly worked out before he does so.

White’s letter to Hosemann, which contains words in all capital letters that are underlined and italicized, said that the House wants to spend cash reserves on projects for state agencies, local communities, universities, colleges, and the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

“We believe the Senate position to NOT fund any local infrastructure projects is unreasonable,” White wrote. 

The speaker in his letter noted that he and Hosemann had a meeting with the governor on Tuesday. Reeves, according to the letter, advised the two legislative leaders that if they couldn’t reach an agreement on how to disburse the surplus money, referred to as capital expense money, they should not spend any of it on infrastructure. 

A spokesperson for Hosemann said the lieutenant governor has not yet reviewed the letter, and he was out of the office on Thursday working with a state agency. 

“He is attending Good Friday services today, and will address any correspondence after the celebration of Easter,” the spokesperson said. 

READ MORE: Mississippi lawmakers end 2025 session unable to agree (or even meet about) state budget: Legislative recap

Hosemann has recently said the Legislature should set an austere budget in light of federal spending cuts coming from the Trump administration, and because state lawmakers this year passed a measure to eliminate the state income tax, the source of nearly a third of the state’s operating revenue.

Lawmakers spend capital expense money for multiple purposes, but the bulk of it — typically $200 million to $400 million a year — goes toward local projects, known as the Christmas Tree bill. Lawmakers jockey for a share of the spending for their home districts, in a process that has been called a political spoils system — areas with the most powerful lawmakers often get the largest share, not areas with the most needs. Legislative leaders often use the projects bill as either a carrot or stick to garner votes from rank and file legislators on other issues. 

A Mississippi Today investigation last year revealed House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Sentobia, has steered tens of millions of dollars in Christmas tree spending to his district, including money to rebuild a road that runs by his north Mississippi home, renovate a nearby private country club golf course and to rebuild a tiny cul-de-sac that runs by a home he has in Jackson.

There is little oversight on how these funds are spent, and there is no requirement that lawmakers disburse the money in an equal manner or based on communities’ needs. 

In the past, lawmakers borrowed money for Christmas tree bills. But state coffers have been full in recent years largely from federal pandemic aid spending, so the state has been spending its excess cash. White in his letter said the state has “ample funds” for a special projects bill.

“We, in the House, would like to sit down and have an agreement with our Senate counterparts on state agency Capital Expenditure spending AND local projects spending,” White wrote. “It is extremely important to our agencies and local governments. The ball is in your court, and the House awaits your response.”

The post Speaker White wants Christmas tree projects bill included in special legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

As the world recently watched the successful return of Blue Origin’s historic all-women crew from space, Jackson stands grounded. The city is still grappling with problems that no rocket can solve.

But the spirit of that mission — unity, courage and collective effort — can be applied right here in our capital city. Instead of launching away, it is time to launch together toward a more just, functioning and thriving Jackson.

The upcoming mayoral runoff election on April 22 provides such an opportunity, not just for a new administration, but for a new mindset. This isn’t about endorsements. It’s about engagement.

It’s a moment for the people of Jackson and Hinds County to take a long, honest look at ourselves and ask if we have shown up for our city and worked with elected officials, instead of remaining at odds with them.

It is time to vote again — this time with deeper understanding and shared responsibility. Jackson is in crisis — and crisis won’t wait.

According to the U.S. Census projections, Jackson is the fastest-shrinking city in the United States, losing nearly 4,000 residents in a single year. That kind of loss isn’t just about numbers. It’s about hope, resources, and people’s decision to give up rather than dig in.

Add to that the long-standing issues: a crippled water system, public safety concerns, economic decline and a sense of division that often pits neighbor against neighbor, party against party and race against race.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has led through these storms, facing criticism for his handling of the water crisis, staffing issues and infrastructure delays. But did officials from the city, the county and the state truly collaborate with him or did they stand at a distance, waiting to assign blame?

On the flip side, his runoff opponent, state Sen. John Horhn, who has served for more than three decades, is now seeking to lead the very city he has represented from the Capitol. Voters should examine his legislative record and ask whether he used his influence to help stabilize the administration or only to position himself for this moment.

Blaming politicians is easy. Building cities is hard. And yet that is exactly what’s needed. Jackson’s future will not be secured by a mayor alone. It will take so many of Jackson’s residents — voters, business owners, faith leaders, students, retirees, parents and young people — to move this city forward. That’s the liftoff we need.

It is time to imagine Jackson as a capital city where clean, safe drinking water flows to every home — not just after lawsuits or emergencies, but through proactive maintenance and funding from city, state and federal partnerships. The involvement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the effort to improve the water system gives the city leverage.

Public safety must be a guarantee and includes prevention, not just response, with funding for community-based violence interruption programs, trauma services, youth job programs and reentry support. Other cities have done this and it’s working.

Education and workforce development are real priorities, preparing young people not just for diplomas but for meaningful careers. That means investing in public schools and in partnerships with HBCUs, trade programs and businesses rooted right here.

Additionally, city services — from trash collection to pothole repair — must be reliable, transparent and equitable, regardless of zip code or income. Seamless governance is possible when everyone is at the table.

Yes, democracy works because people show up. Not just to vote once, but to attend city council meetings, serve on boards, hold leaders accountable and help shape decisions about where resources go.

This election isn’t just about who gets the title of mayor. It’s about whether Jackson gets another chance at becoming the capital city Mississippi deserves — a place that leads by example and doesn’t lag behind.

The successful Blue Origin mission didn’t happen by chance. It took coordinated effort, diverse expertise and belief in what was possible. The same is true for this city.

We are not launching into space. But we can launch a new era marked by cooperation over conflict, and by sustained civic action over short-term outrage.

On April 22, go vote. Vote not just for a person, but for a path forward because Jackson deserves liftoff. It starts with us.

Pauline Rogers is a longtime advocate for criminal justice reform and the founder of the RECH Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated individuals as they reintegrate into society. She is a Transformative Justice Fellow through The OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship.

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Mississippi school districts are grappling with the fallout of the Trump administration’s decision to freeze roughly $137 million in federal money and are hoping the U.S. Department of Education will reverse the decision. 

Around 70 school districts were relying on the federal Department of Education’s decision under the Biden administration to allow them to spend federal pandemic grant money through next year. 

But new U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon notified state and local officials last month that the Trump administration was immediately cutting off the money. 

Schools were already spending the money on a range of initiatives, including literacy and mathematics programs, mental health services, construction projects for outdated school facilities, and technology for rural districts.

“We’re really counting on all of our state and federal leaders to understand the predicament that we’re in as local school districts and do whatever it takes to get the federal government to honor this extension,” said Lawrence Hudson, the superintendent of Western Line School District in the Delta. 

Hudson told Mississippi Today that his school district had already utilized federal money to renovate the heating and air systems in three old buildings in the district — two former Army barracks and a double-wide trailer — which had inferior ventilation. 

The district also planned to use the money to improve ventilation in another building. However, it was unable to complete the project by the original deadline because it needed to take place during the summer break when the kids were not in the building. 

Now those plans have been disrupted. Hudson said the district will have to find other money to pay for the project. 

Lance Evans, the Mississippi Superintendent of Education, wrote a letter to McMahan saying the federal government failed to provide adequate notice that it would cut off access to money committed to schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the action has put school districts like Hudson’s in a bind. 

Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications for the federal education department, told Mississippi Today in a statement that the COVID-19 pandemic is over and “school districts can no longer claim they are spending their emergency pandemic funds on ‘COVID relief.’” 

“The Department will consider extensions on an individual project-specific basis where it can be demonstrated that funds are being used to directly mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on student learning,” Biedermann said. 

Jackson Public School District, one of the largest districts in the state, has approximately $4.5 million in encumbered funds at risk due to the federal government’s decision, according to Earl Burke, the district’s Chief Operations Officer.

Of that amount, JPS had $3.6 million allocated for critical construction projects and just under $1 million designated for instructional support. 

“That said, despite our best efforts, it is important to note that some construction projects may not be completed by the start of the school year due to this shift in funding availability,” Burke said. 

The funding crunch also comes on the heels of Mississippi legislators voting to end their 2025 session without setting an annual budget. 

Mississippi is one of the most federally dependent states in the nation, and the Trump administration, through its Department of Government Efficiency, has made slashing government spending one of its priorities. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said in recent interviews that legislative leaders might consider assisting state agencies that have been affected by federal funding cuts.

Whatever decisions federal and state leaders make, smaller school districts that received the federal money will be impacted. 

The Benton County School District, located in rural northeast Mississippi, completed a heating and air conditioning project for one of its buildings, according to Superintendent Regina Biggers. The district paid for the project but was banking on the federal government reimbursing it around $166,000, something that may not now happen. 

“This was a tremendous amount of money for a district our size,” Biggers said. 

The post See how much your Mississippi school district stands to lose in Trump’s federal funding freeze appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Twenty-seven percent more rape kits were sent to the state crime lab in 2024 than the year before in Mississippi.

The increase is thanks in part to a law passed in 2023 to streamline rape kit processing, which officials say resulted in more rape kits making it to the crime lab. However, because Mississippi has no complete rape kit inventory, it’s impossible to tell what impact it made on the backlog.  

While variation from year to year is normal, the crime lab has not seen an influx that large in previous years – likely signifying the legislation’s effect, explained Commissioner Sean Tindell of the Department of Public Safety. 

But Tindell added that he could not say how many kits, if any, are still getting stalled along the way.

House Bill 485 mandated law enforcement pick up rape kits from hospitals within 24 hours of being contacted, and that they transport the kits to the forensic lab within seven calendar days. It also created a sexual assault task force, whose members designed a system for survivors to track their rape kit as it changes hands. 

The tracking system went into operation September 2024, Tindell said. Any rape victim who had a kit done after then can track the status of the kit by putting its serial number into the online system. 

The idea was that rape kits could would no longer sit indefinitely in hospital refrigerators or in the trunks of cop cars, and that survivors would be kept in the know – the way patients are for any other hospital procedure.

“They leave the hospital and they don’t know where their kit is, they never hear anything. Can you imagine getting a cancer test and nobody ever calls you back to tell you what it was? For months or years or ever?” asked Ilse Knecht, policy director at End the Backlog, an organization seeking justice for sexual assault survivors through policy work around rape kits. 

Backlogged rape kits have long been problem across the U.S. – one that first sparked public outcry in 1999 when it was discovered that New York City was sitting on 17,000 untested rape kits. 

“What happened later was that the mayor decided to test them all, which was a years-long process, and there were very important and interesting cases that came out of that,” explained Knecht. “And it started to catch on, the other states started to look at what they had. And we started to get a sense of what was going on across the country.”

The root of the problem isn’t as simple as underfunded crime labs or a lack of resources in law enforcement agencies, Knecht said. It’s also a matter of culture, with some kits never being tested because victims aren’t believed. 

“If they’re not the perfect victim, the case is going to be closed before it’s even opened.”

The Mississippi Prosecutors’ Association did not respond to a request for comment on whether the increase in submissions to the crime lab has led to an increase in prosecutions. 

Knecht, who has 25 years of experience working in this area, joined End the Backlog in 2015, when she helped develop the group’s policy directives. After collaborating with dozens of sexual assault survivors and various professionals handling rape kits, her team came up with six pillars intended to guide states toward policies to enact meaningful and feasible change.

Mississippi’s 2023 legislation led to the adoption of three of the six pillars End the Backlog recommends: mandating the timely testing of all new kits; implementing mechanisms for survivors to easily find out about the status of their kits; and creating a tracking system for victims. 

The other three pillars, which Mississippi does not have, are: implementing an annual statewide inventory of kits; mandating submission and testing of all backlogged kits; and allocating funding to submit, test and track kits.

The timeline the 2023 legislation imposed on law enforcement is more than reasonable, according to Ken Winter, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police.

“It absolutely has not taken more staff or resources,” Winter said. “The only thing it’s taking is somebody paying attention to the process and making sure the evidence is handled in a timely manner – and they should be doing that anyways.”

House Bill 485 was a bipartisan effort led by Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia, and co-authored by Reps. Dana McLean, R-Columbus; Jill Ford, R-Madison; and Otis Anthony, D-Indianola.

McLean said she believed the legislation was the first step to getting justice for sexual assault survivors. 

But she later became aware that some rape victims have trouble earlier in the process – getting a rape kit done in the first place. McLean fought to change that this past session, and successfully oversaw the passage of a bill requiring hospitals to stock and perform rape kits. 

What makes the problem still more complicated in Mississippi – and four other states – is that the state has not mandated an inventory of rape kits. There is no way to tell the extent of Mississippi’s backlog – or at what point in the process the kits are getting backlogged.

McLean said she hopes to make a mandatory statewide inventory her focus next legislative session. 

The issue is dimensional, said Knecht. But the message of the movement is simple: to tell survivors that what they did by receiving a rape kit mattered. 

“All of this was created to keep a promise to survivors,” Knecht said. “And to society because guess what – these kits represent dangerous people on the street. And when they’re not tested, we have 100 pages of stories of crimes that maybe could have been prevented if a rape kit had just been tested.”

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The Mississippi Board of Education voted to receive public comment on whether to eliminate the state U.S. history test as a high school graduation requirement.

The Commission on School Accreditation had voted in a special meeting on April 15 to eliminate the test. Chief Accountability Officer Paula Vanderford argued the benefits of eliminating the test, noting scores from the U.S. history test aren’t included in the Mississippi Department of Education’s accountability report cards. 

If approved, the statewide U.S. History Mississippi Academic Assessment Program test would no longer be a graduation requirement beginning this fall. Mississippi students would still be required to take and pass U.S. history class to graduate from high school. Those who had to repeat senior year of high school would have to take other options. Vanderford suggested requiring a college and career readiness course as an alternative.

Getting rid of the test, she said, would save the state money and add more weight to the other three state assessments: Algebra, Biology, and English.

The board voted to open the move to public comment period. After that, it will come back to the board for a final vote in June. 

“One point that we talked about in the subcommittee and have talked about at great length with the accountability task force is that we’re one of the few states with high stakes assessments or high-stakes end-of-course assessments for graduation, so it’s been quite a number of years since we’ve taken a look at that to see if we wanted to go with a different route,” said Vanderford.

Some members of the board expressed concern that taking out the history test would have a negative impact on students’ historical knowledge. 

Mary Werner, who voted against removing the test, stated “I think history is so important, and American history is just…even from a former English teacher’s point of view, if you don’t have the history, you have a hard time understanding the literature,” said Mary Werner, who did not support removing the test. She voted not to move the issue to public comment.

Vanderford explained that passing the history course would be enough to demonstrate mastery of the subject.

Board of Education Chair Glen East was also expressed concerned, but said he was confident that Mississippi’s history curriculum was strong. He ultimately voted to move the issue to public comment. “I do not see us going backwards based on the plain increase in the curriculum and the rigor we have placed on it.”

Kelly Riley, executive director of Mississippi Professional Educators, commented that she wasn’t surprised by the decision. “I think due to the evolving accreditation model as well as the amount of time that is required to be spent preparing for and administering state tests, I can’t say that I’m surprised by today’s decision,” she said.

Correction 4/17/24: This story has been updated to reflect that the decision to drop the U.S. History assessment still must go through a public comment period.

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