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Advocates who oppose the death penalty and are organizing to halt further executions in the state stood outside the Mississippi Supreme Court Wednesday to send a message to the justices and the attorney general: Stand down. 

They said Mississippi is headed down a deadly road with the scheduled June 25 execution of 79-year-old Richard Jordan, the state’s oldest and longest-serving death row inmate. In the past several years, Attorney General Lynn Fitch has also asked the court to set execution dates for Willie Manning, Robert Simon and Charles Crawford. 

“These folks on death row are humans, and we can’t continue to be human if we continue to have a fixation on snuffing them out,” said the Rev. Jeff Hood, a spiritual adviser to death row inmates across the country who has also communicated with those in Mississippi’s death row.

The Arkansas resident has witnessed nine executions since 2022, which is when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they could be allowed into the chamber if the inmate requested it. 

His work is based on meeting the death row inmates where they are and helping members of the public see that executions don’t have to be the answer. He said his faith is centered around the idea of helping “who is ostracized the most” as a way to serve God. 

Hood directly addressed justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court and elected officials like Fitch and Gov. Tate Reeves, saying they can support and approve executions, but they have never had to witness one or carry one out. 

He described the worst execution he witnessed, that of Kenneth Smith in Alabama, who struggled against the restraints and his veins looked like “a million ants under his skin.” That sentence was carried out using nitrogen gas – an execution method Mississippi has allowed if lethal injection is not available. 

For lethal injections, he saw how the drugs flowed in through a line into the person’s body and how their breathing began to labor. Jordan is a lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the drugs used for lethal injection. 

Mitzi Magleby, a Mississippi-based prison reform advocate, began to tear up when she shared how a looming execution weighs heavily on the death row inmates. It’s extremely depressing and it affects their mental health, but she said they try their best to keep their spirits up. 

She said to consider the person Jordan has become since entering prison nearly 50 years ago. He’s held a job for most of that time, he’s stayed out of trouble and has changed for the better. 

“We know his life is worth saving,” she said. 

Abraham Bonowitz, co-founder and executive director of Death Penalty Action, hosted a virtual version of the Wednesday press conference. He noted that Jordan is one of six people who have a scheduled execution in the month of June. 

Bonowitz talked about how Jordan is a Vietnam War veteran with three tours of duty, and with the recent passing of Memorial Day, he asked people to consider the effect of combat. 

Jordan returned from the war and didn’t receive the support and services, which Bonowitz said is an experience of other veterans, some of whom ended up in prison or worse. A 2015 Death Penalty Information Center report estimated that at least 300 veterans were on death row.   

Jordan asked the U.S. Supreme Court in March to hear his case and that petition for writ of certiorari is awaiting a decision. That petition centers around his access to a mental health expert separate from the prosecution to develop and present sentencing mitigation as an indigent defendant, which was established as a constitutional right through the U.S. Supreme Court’s Ake v. Oklahoma decision. 

The petition states he was not diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his combat service in Vietnam, but instead incorrectly as having antisocial personality disorder. 

Hood said he’s built relationships not just with the death row inmates, but also their families and sometimes the family members of victims. He and Magleby said they consider the impact on families. 

“I think 50 years is torture for any family that’s been through this,” Hood said when asked about the family of Edwina Marter, the victim of Jordan’s crime. 

With death penalty cases, families are put through years worth of appeals and recurring news stories, which isn’t always the case for those sentenced to life without parole, Magley and Hood said. 

Death Penalty Action has started a petition to stop Jordan’s execution, and as of Wednesday it has received 840 signatures. It’s a similar petition that the organization uses to collect signatures for all pending executions, including other death row inmates whose executions have not yet been scheduled. 

Bonowitz said the plan is to deliver signatures of the petition to the governor and the organization is encouraging people to call his office asking for him to halt the execution. 

Members of churches and community groups can also take action by ringing bells at the time of the scheduled execution, which is through a project called For Whom the Bells Tolls. 

One of Mississippi’s longest-serving current state senators, who published a memoir about how education helped him move from picking cotton to teaching science to making laws at the state Capitol, is resigning.

Democratic Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood is a retired educator who has served in the state Senate since 1993. His district serves parts of Leflore, Panola and Tallahatchie counties.

“I hate to leave, but my wife of 71 years … she needs me home,” Jordan, 92, told his colleagues during a special legislative session Wednesday. He said he will resign by the end of June.

As a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, Jordan has pushed to protect voting rights and increase funding for Mississippi’s three historically Black universities. He was also instrumental in legislators’ decision in 2020 to remove a Confederate battle emblem that had been on the state flag since 1894.

Senators gave Jordan standing ovations Wednesday as they adopted a resolution honoring his service.

“Today, we gather to honor a man whose life and career have been a testament to unwavering dedication, profound wisdom and an unyielding commitment to justice,” said Senate Democratic Leader Derrick Simmons of Greenville.

Jordan’s parents were sharecroppers in Leflore County near Greenwood, and Mississippi was strictly segregated during his early years.

Simmons said Jordan has been an inspiration and “a pillar of strength during a time of profound change” in Mississippi and the United States.

Jordan helped secure $150,000 from the state for a 9-foot-tall bronze statue of Emmett Till that was unveiled in Greenwood in October 2022.

Till, 14, was Black and had traveled from his home in Chicago in August 1955 to spend time with relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Wheeler Parker, who was 16 at the time and had traveled with his cousin Till from Chicago, said he heard Till whistle at a white woman shopkeeper outside a country store in Money.

White men kidnapped Till from his great uncle’s rural home four nights later. They tortured and shot the teenager, then tossed his body into the Tallahatchie River, weighted down by a cotton gin fan.

The lynching became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement after Till’s mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago and Jet magazine published a photo of his mutilated body.

In his 2014 memoir, “David L. Jordan: From the Mississippi Cotton Fields to the State Senate,”  Jordan recalled being a college freshman in 1955 and going to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner to watch part of the trial of the two white men charged in the killing of Till. An all-white jury quickly acquitted J.W. Milam and his half-brother Roy Bryant, the husband of shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant.

“I could tell by the actions of the jury that they were not serious,” Jordan said in a 2017 video interview in the Florida State University archives.

Jordan has long been active in the Greenwood Voters League, which works to encourage Black participation in elections.

He became one of the first Black members of the Greenwood City Council when he was elected to that office in 1985. He served 36 years on the council before choosing not to seek reelection in 2021.

He was able to serve in two elected offices simultaneously because Mississippi law allowed one person to hold two offices in the same branch of government. The council seat and the Senate seat are both in the legislative branch.

Three weeks after a medical biller announced it would no longer be working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, moms in the state face out-of-pocket costs of over $100 per session for breastfeeding help – and are calling on lawmakers and the state’s largest private insurer to step up. 

Although Blue Cross has always restricted which lactation consultants it considers in-network – generally only covering services in hospitals provided directly after birth – moms with Blue Cross insurance previously had a workaround. A third party biller called The Lactation Network (TLN), which contracts with lactation consultants, covered the costs for women with the insurance. 

However, on April 30, TLN sent out a letter to consultants saying their organization was not being reimbursed by insurance companies and could not afford to continue fronting the money to cover moms with certain health insurance – including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. 

TLN did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Mississippi Today.

“You’re sitting there like: I’ve got to feed my baby, and something’s not right, and I can’t get help,” said Patience Pierini, a Gulfport mom of two. “… If, more than anything, people need nourishment, why is this not being covered?”

The recent development has prompted moms and lactation consultants to ask why Blue Cross never covered these services directly in the first place – which nurse practitioner and lactation consultant Laken Miller called “even worse” than dropping the coverage. 

“We didn’t know before that the Lactation Network was just bridging the gap, and understandably, it was a cost that they couldn’t continue to absorb,” said Miller, who is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) – the highest form of accreditation in lactation care – in Laurel.

The only in-network lactation consultants currently covered by Blue Cross in Mississippi are physicians, who do not generally operate outpatient clinics focused solely on breastfeeding care. But there’s nothing stopping the insurance company from working with non-MD lactation consultants, explained Marsha Walker, president of the National Lactation Consultant Alliance.

Blue Cross operates independently in each state, and the restrictions on lactation services vary significantly. In Tennessee, they are slightly more lax than Mississippi, with the insurance company working with certified lactation consultants who also have nursing degrees, two consultants told Mississippi Today. 

Blue Cross also did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today about why it does not cover non-physician lactation care in Mississippi or if it has plans to in the future. 

Insurance companies are required by federal law to cover breastfeeding support, counseling and equipment. But they’ve been allowed to meet this requirement while offering limited access to few providers, or only covering virtual consultations, explained Walker, who is also a registered nurse and IBCLC.

“The (Affordable Care Act) does say that breastfeeding counseling needs to be covered, but it doesn’t say how – and that’s the problem,” Walker said. “It’s general in scope, leaving it up to the insurers to figure out how to adhere to that.”

There were 97 IBCLCs in the state in 2023, but the vast majority of those work in hospitals and provide support to mothers during their stay following birth – which is typically long before mature milk comes in and various breastfeeding problems surface, Miller, the lactation consultant and nurse practitioner, explained. 

Miller said she only knows of four IBCLCs besides herself working outside of hospitals in the state. 

Last week, Miller and her colleagues sent a letter to state lawmakers asking that the Legislature ensure insurance companies are adequately fulfilling their obligation under the ACA to cover lactation care.

“We recognize that BCBS supports breastfeeding … However, the reality is that thousands of mothers in Mississippi will no longer have access to no-cost lactation services from private practice IBCLCs due to no available in-network or out-of-network providers,” the letter read.

Covering lactation services yields a huge return on investment for insurance companies, explained Walker, if it prevents even one infant’s stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for a condition like necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a severe gastrointestinal condition in premature infants that is made more likely by a diet of formula. 

“If you do not cover breastfeeding, it comes back to haunt you later on with the increased amount of money they’re going to spend on diseases and conditions that are preventable by breastfeeding,” Walker said.

One study estimated each baby who is breastfed for three months saves private insurance companies $750 compared to those who are never breastfed. 

For new moms, whether they have access to timely care will make or break their decision to breastfeed, explained Erin Mattingly, a Jackson-based IBCLC who also signed the legislative letter.

“When parents run into trouble in that 10-day to two-week period, if they don’t have access to help, the vast majority of them will quit breastfeeding,” Mattingly said. “Because it’s very difficult to push through a situation that feels dire when you are postpartum and recovering from a birth and learning a new baby.”

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday it is investigating Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes’ campaign for Gulfport mayor after allegations that residents had received meal vouchers in exchange for voting.

In a letter addressed to Barnes, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said her office “has reason to believe” the candidate violated several state campaign finance laws.

Mike Hurst, chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, said Wednesday he has asked District Attorney Crosby Parker and Fitch to investigate the alleged “vote buying.”

“This is something that strikes at the heart of our democracy,” he said in a news conference across the street from the Gulfport Police Department. “Votes should not be for sale.”

Barnes did not immediately return messages on Wednesday. In a statement posted to social media, she said she is committed to “voter engagement, civic responsibility, and ensuring that everyone participates lawfully.”

“I am not affiliated with, nor do I support, any illegal voter activity of any kind,” she said. The accusation of vote buying came less than a week before the election and intensified an already contentious race between Barnes and Republican Hugh Keating.

The Rev. Eddie Hartwell Sr., a pastor at St. James Baptist Church, said the voucher idea was his. The group behind it is called All Souls to the Polls and members say they want to increase voter turnout. Hartwell said he is not a member of either mayoral campaign and denied the efforts were illegal.

“All we’re doing is saying, ‘Go and vote,’” he said. “As far as me telling somebody who to vote for? No, sir.”

The accusation of vote buying came less than a week before the election and intensified an already contentious race between Republican Hugh Keating and Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes. Mississippi Sen. Joel Carter of Biloxi alleged last month that “cronies” of Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who in 2018 nearly defeated Georgia’s Republican governor, were “highly involved” in the election. Barnes said she alone is responsible for running her campaign and called the statement divisive.

Hurst said he became aware of the allegations Monday night and believes vouchers are still being handed out to absentee voters.

The vouchers, according to photos provided by the Republican Party, give voters “one entry” to Ms. Audrey’s Southern Kitchen and Catering in Gulfport for a “special prepared meal now through June 3.”

Hurst also said he had asked state authorities to investigate an event on Saturday that was advertised by Barnes’ campaign. The event, called “Project 35’s Vote & Vibe,” encouraged voters to meet at City Hall then attend brunch together.

Mississippi law says it is illegal to try to influence absentee voters through money, rewards or any item of value. Anyone convicted of doing so can face fines between $500 and $5,000 and between one and five years in prison.

Hurst also said he believes the efforts violate a law that forbids offering money or “anything of substantial value” for a vote. Hartwell said the vouchers are worth about $10.

By Wednesday, city officials said they had received 805 absentee ballots. There were just 177 absentee voters in the last mayoral election four years ago, according to the city.

The Gulfport mayoral race has drawn some national attention and spending from outside interests, with Democrats seeing a chance to flip the seat leading the state’s second-largest city from red to blue and Republicans working to keep it.

Dirt Road Democrats, a PAC initially started by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and now supported by former Mississippi gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, is helping Barnes and a separate Presley PAC has contributed to Barnes’ campaign. Barnes has also received endorsement by her childhood friend, national Democratic operative and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams.

State Republicans are fearful that Gulfport’s changing partisan makeup make it less a GOP stronghold than it was in years past, and worry about a low Republican voter turnout in a June general election.

Records show Mayor Billy Hewes, a Republican who is not running for office again, won the 2021 general election with 2,680 votes. Barnes won the Democratic primary this spring with 3,316 votes. Keating had no Republican opponent in the primary.

Keating has recently received endorsements and advertisement appearances by current and former state leaders, including former Gov. Haley Barbour, and South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott is headlining a rally for Keating.

The Sun Herald said this is a developing story and will be updated. To see updates, visit the Sun Herald here.

Sun Herald reporter Anita Lee and Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender contributed to this report.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After beating Arizona twice in the Tucson regional and Arkansas twice in the Fayetteville super regional, Ole Miss softball begins its national title hunt Thursday at its first-ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series.

Ole Miss, unseeded going into postseason play, faces the No. 12 seed Texas Tech Thursday at 6 p.m.

Action across the eight-team double-elimination bracket begins Thursday at Devon Park. The final two teams will play for the title in a best-of-three series starting June 4.

In other opening-day matchups, second-seeded Oklahoma plays No. 7 seed Tennessee, third-seeded Florida will play No. 6 seed Texas and No. 9 seed UCLA meets No. 16 seed Oregon.

Although No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M was knocked out in regional play, the SEC has five teams in the field — Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Ole Miss.

Florida beat Georgia in three games to advance. The Gators won national titles in 2014 and 2015 and lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals last year.

Texas has reached the best-of-three championship series in two of the past three seasons, with both losses coming to Oklahoma. The Longhorns are also in their first season in the SEC.

Texas Tech and Ole Miss are first-time qualifiers.

Texas Tech beat host Florida State in a super regional. Pitcher NiJaree Canady, last year’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, led Stanford to the national semifinals two straight years before transferring to Tech. She led the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles.

UCLA and Oregon will meet in a matchup of former Pac-12 teams that moved to the Big Ten this year.

Oregon, the Big Ten regular-season champion, defeated upstart Liberty to advance. Liberty stunned Texas A&M in regional play, but couldn’t get past the Ducks.

UCLA was down to its last out against South Carolina in Game 2 before winning, then took Game 3. The Bruins could add to their record 12 World Series titles.

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a campaign this month to seek accountability from law enforcement departments undergoing federal investigations that the Justice Department under the Trump administration has abandoned. 

Through the “Seven States Safety Campaign,” the ACLU across seven states filed coordinated public records requests seeking to uncover police excesses in those departments. The records requested include Use of Force reports, records of Taser use, and complaints of racial discrimination and profiling. 

“We’re at the beginning of the investigation,” said Joshua Tom, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi. “Once we fully investigate, we can decide then what exactly we’re going to do.”

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on the same day as ACLU’s launch had announced the closure of its investigations into law enforcement departments in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City;, Oklahoma; and the state of Louisiana. This came alongside an announcement that its lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis police departments were going to be dismissed. An investigation into the Lexington, Mississippi, Police Department had been concluded, also, but no consent decree was issued.

In February, the Civil Rights Division had announced that it was pausing all litigation – notably an announcement that did not impact federal oversight of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department as the investigation into it had only been opened, not concluded, and not accompanied by litigation. 

The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment. This article will be updated if they respond. 

“The purpose of the Seven States Campaign is to try to fill the gap that the Department of Justice under President Trump has left by abandoning the eight investigations that were identified last week,” Tom said. 

The Justice Department is yet to confirm if it is ceasing its patterns and practices investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi, which was opened in 2024, the year after five deputies from the department, who were part of a self-described “Goon Squad” went to prison for their role in the torture of two Black men – one of whom they shot in the mouth.

Tom said that accountability could take various forms, such as consent decrees, damage awards and settlements for victims, and for officers who have engaged in misconduct to lose their jobs. 

“Policing is obviously an important public service. It’s also important that when police do their jobs that they respect people’s civil and constitutional rights, and to the extent that they’re not doing that – such as with the Goon Squad – that they be held accountable.” 

La Sasso becomes the second Rebel ever to win the NCAA golf title, which qualifies him for the U.S. Open in two weeks and next April’s Masters. Also, the Clevelands discuss how Mississippi’s baseball coaches should address pitching in the upcoming NCAA Regionals.

Stream all episodes here.

Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Tuesday that he will call lawmakers into a special session beginning on Wednesday to adopt a $7 billion state budget for the coming budget year that starts July 1. 

Reeves, a Republican, said he and legislative leaders agreed to a budget that keeps most government agencies level-funded, with only small increases for employee insurance costs and pension contributions and “staying true to our conservative principles.” This will leave the state well over $1 billion in untapped cash, which Reeves and some legislative leaders is a good idea given uncertainty on federal spending.

“S​​ince it became apparent that a budget would not be passed during this year’s regular session, I’ve been clear that we should prioritize funding core government functions and keeping spending under control,” Reeves said. 

Mississippi lawmakers must return for a special session because they adjourned their 2025 regular session earlier this year without passing a budget. Lawmakers were mired in political infighting over tax cuts and increases and capital projects, including many pet projects lawmakers wanted for their districts.

Legislative leaders, after the regular session ended, continued to bicker over spending on projects for weeks, pushing the special session closer to the end of the fiscal year. In order to have the Legislature quickly pass a budget and hopefully avoid prolonged argument, Reeves said legislators wouldn’t consider special projects or other major issues during the special session. 

The state constitution gives the governor, not the Legislature, the sole power to call a special session and set its agenda. He had to call them back into session before June 30 to prevent much of state government from shutting down.

The governor said he hopes legislators can quickly pass the budget, but Democratic leaders have criticized the rushed nature of setting a budget in recent years and said they have not received advanced copies of the bills that direct the spending. 

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, and House Minority Leader Robert Johnson III, a Democrat from Natchez, in a joint statement criticized the rushed nature of the special session and urged legislative leadership to provide members sufficient time to vet the 100-plus budget bills. 

“Withholding finalized legislation from duly elected lawmakers jeopardizes the integrity of the legislative process and erodes public trust,” the two leaders said. 

For years, rank-and-file lawmakers have complained that they often don’t have time to read the lengthy budget bills because of the rushed nature of Saturday-night budget negotiations in regular session. This hurry-up has also caused lawmakers and staff attorneys in previous years to make mistakes in legislation.

The governor said he believes lawmakers will have sufficient time to review the budget. He also dismissed the Democratic leaders’ concerns about the schedule, saying he doubts they read every bill during the regular session. 

Last year, lawmakers passed a little over $7.05 billion state budget. Reeves said lawmakers will likely provide around $100 million more in deficit spending for the current fiscal year, putting the total spending for the current fiscal year around $7.15 billion. 

If lawmakers follow through with the agreement legislative leaders reached with Reeves, the governor said the budget for the next fiscal year will be roughly $7.135 billion. 

Ole Miss’ softball team is playing in the College World Series and the baseball team is hosting an NCAA Regional, but the Rebels already have claimed one national championship this spring.

Ole Miss junior golfer Michael La Sasso recovered from two double bogeys on his first nine holes to shoot a final round 72 to win the NCAA Golf Tournament’s individual championship Monday at Carlsbad, California.

La Sasso, from Raleigh, North Carolina, carded a 72-hole total of 11-under par 277 for a two-shot victory over Phichaksn Maichon of Texas A&M. What’s more, La Sasso’s par 4 on the 72nd and final hole of the stroke play tournament put Ole Miss in the eight-team match play finals for the NCAA Team Championship. It marked the first time in school history the Rebels have made the match play finals.

La Sasso, who transferred to Ole Miss after a freshman season at North Carolina State, becomes the second Ole Miss player to win an NCAA title, following Braden Thornberry who won in 2017 and now plays on the PGA TOUR. Ole Miss, which has never won the team championship, was slated to play Arizona State in a quarterfinal match Tuesday morning.

Sasso, ranked No. 11 in the world among amateur golfers, shot rounds of 68, 67, 70 and 72 to win the championship. The two double bogeys and a bogey on the front nine left him two shots behind Malchon after nine holes. He steadied himself over the last nine holes, playing bogey-less golf.

Afterward, Sasso said he was most proud of the way he won, coming back from so much adversity early in the round, telling reporters: “I’ve personally fought a s— ton of stuff these last two years since I’ve been at Ole Miss. I feel like I’m a pretty gritty guy.”

While La Sasso earned individual honors with his resiliency, Tom Fischer, a a junior from Birmingham, was the Rebels’ star on Sunday. After shooting a 77 on Saturday, Fischer rebounded with a 68 on Sunday, tied with Malchon for low round of the day. Fischer’s final round included six birdies and only two bogeys.

Fischer tied with Rebel Cohen Trolio of West Point to tie for 44th in the individual standings with 293 totals. Cameron Tankersley was next at 302, followed by Key Meeks at 309.

The Ole Miss golf program has made steady progress under 11th year coach Chris Malloy, a former Rebel golfer himself. This was the eighth consecutive year the Rebels have achieved an NCAA Regional appearance.

La Sasso, a first team All American, won his third and by far the biggest title of the season on the North course at Omni La Costa at Carlsbad, near San Diego. The victory qualifies him for the U.S. Open in two weeks and for The Masters next April. He is expected to turn pro later this spring and becoming immediately eligible for the PGA’s Korn Ferry Tour.

The award-winning musical “Come From Away” lands in Jackson, Mississippi, at a time when its true, uplifting story of cross-border bonds and international unity may feel more like a relic of days gone by. Perfect timing to inspire the hope and connection that is at the show’s heart, cast members say.

New Stage Theatre is among the first regional theaters, and first in the Southeast, to mount a production of the hit Broadway musical, which ended its North American tour just weeks ago. Performances are May 27-June 8.

The musical is based on actual events in the immediate aftermath of the shocking tragedy of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the shut down of U.S. airspace forced hundreds of planes to divert to Canada. Thirty-eight flights were forced to land in Gander in Newfoundland, a small town facing the sudden influx of about 7,000 people stranded far from home. Their hospitality and volunteer efforts are at the core of a joyous musical.

“Come From Away” unfolds in storyteller fashion, as an ensemble cast of 12 morphs into some 50 characters in dozens of scenes over the fast-paced musical’s 90-minute run time. The Celtic-inspired folk rock score links to Newfoundland’s musical heritage, and scrims hand-painted by Scenic Designer Braden Graves evoke the province’s landscape. A dozen chairs and a few tables are about the only props, as the actors, through costume bits, accents, physicality and sheer skill, sweep audiences along.

The custom motorized and programmable turntable on stage, newly engineered and built from scratch by the theater’s production team, keeps the story in motion. At 24 feet in diameter at its max, the turntable also adds a significant asset to New Stage’s drama toolkit, available for future productions and possible rental. “The stars aligned for me this season” and for this show, Technical Director Richard Lawrence said, with a crew that included three welders and an engineer. He chuckled, recalling nightly worries whether it would work. Once they mounted it, he rounded up a dozen crew members to stand on it, to test. “We turned it. And it worked. And I cried,” he said, laughing in relief.

About a week before opening night, actors had just finished a run-through, but had yet to experience their first “ride-through” on the turntable set. “This is magic!” veteran actor Ray McFarland (here in his 51st New Stage show) gushed as he eyed the stage’s new feature. “I’ve never seen this except on, like, Broadway — this big of a turntable. Hats off to the tech crew.”

With the emotional peaks and valleys of “Come From Away,” fresh in mind, actors reflected on memories and feelings its stories call up, from the anguish and scary confusion of the 9/11 attacks to the way this fleshes out a historical event some were too young to understand in the moment.

Actor John Howell saw the Broadway production, the same day he visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in 2018. “It really brought it to life in a way that a museum can’t do, because it was the personal stories of these people who actually experienced this — all these different points of view … and all of them have different reactions and needs and losses. Very powerful.”

Actor Hosea Griffith, a French Elementary first-grader in 2001, said the news arrived just after students finished their Pledge of Allegiance and “You’re a Grand Old Flag” morning routine. The principal told teachers to turn on their TVs. He saw the adults slump, their energy evaporate. “The whole mood of class and of that day — the life was sucked out of it.”

For Lauren Parkinson, 2 at the time with no firsthand memory of 9/!!, “This show has revealed a lot to me about that day that I could never learn from watching videos on YouTube. … This is making it real for me in a brand new way.”

McFarland, who had returned to Jackson after a 15-year stint in New York, thought of people he knew who worked in the Word Trade Center and had the searing thought, “We’re at war.” 

“If you’re old enough to remember, it will grab you in a very personal moment,” he said of the show. “You will remember things that happened that day, as clear as a bell. It will also help you remember all of the good that came out of it, because, as we watched on the TV, the world came to take care of us. We took care of each other, and that’s what this show is about.”

The show is more about the aftermath of 9/11, and how people banded together and coped. Many times, people cope with humor, “and there’s some stuff in this show that’s just downright funny,” McFarland noted.

“You have all these people from all these cultures from all around the world stuck here in this teeny tiny Canadian town, and it’s hilarious what happens because of that,” Parkinson said.

The musical lands in Jackson at a time when President Trump’s musing about Canada as a 51st state, tariff talks and more in recent months has eroded relations between the two nations. It delivers real-life historical perspective and a reminder of the healing power of strong bonds that can last years.

“It could not be at a better time,” McFarland said. “We need to take care of each other and come together more than we have in decades right now.”

“I think this show might be a tonic to audiences,” Howell said. “It might be something that they need right now.”

Said McFarland: “It’s not just about taking care of each other, personally. It’s about taking care of America. We took care of America back then.”

“And Canada helped us,” Howell was quick to add. 

“On the individual level, people care about each other,” he said. “Whatever their political leanings may be and where that takes them, when it comes down to the wire and people are in a crisis, they will come to each other’s aid, regardless of where they live, regardless of who they’re having to assist.”

Griffith said, “People just see humanity on that stage, just humanity, and realize that there is humanity in all of us. And though we are different, we’re not too much different.”

Performance times are: 7 p.m. May 27-31 and June 3-7; 1 p.m. June 4; and 2 p.m. June 1 and 8. Tickets are $50 adults, $45 seniors/students/military. Visit newstagetheatre.com, email tickets@newstageheatre.com or call 601-948-3533. The theater is located at 1100 Carlisle St. in Jackson.