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After 14 years of pushing for safer air quality for her Pascagoula neighborhood, 78-year-old Barbara Weckesser is tired of waiting for government officials tasked with such responsibilities to take action. 

In the last seven years alone, she said, over 30 people in her Cherokee Forest neighborhood of just 120 homes have died from heart disease, lung disease or cancer. In 2013, Weckesser started her activist group, Cherokee Concerned Citizens, which has long blamed releases from surrounding industrial operations – including a Chevron oil refinery, a Bollinger shipyard and a Rolls-Royce Naval center – for poor health outcomes in their community. 

“Industry has grown, and chosen to put out more and more and more pollution,” Weckesser said. “And guess what? Our bodies can’t absorb it.” 

Then in 2021, a ProPublica analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data identified the area as one of the nation’s top hot spots of toxic air pollution. Weckesser said that investigation helped boost her cause’s credibility.

Cherokee Concerned Citizens have remained active against potential environmental harms from local industry. Last year, the group sued the EPA for approving a plastic-based fuel experiment at Chevron’s Pascagoula facility that, ProPublica revealed, could have caused cancer to one in four exposed to production emissions. The EPA then in September said it planned to withdraw its approval. 

Weckesser spoke on the phone days before heading to Atlanta to graduate from an environmental justice academy program, through Tuskegee University, that empowered community leaders across the South with knowledge and resources to lead their respective causes. Hearing from former EPA officials, she said the academy taught her a lot, including potential legal avenues for protecting the Cherokee Forest neighborhood. 

In 2022, a year after the ProPublica story, the EPA awarded the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality $500,000 to monitor air quality in Pascagoula, later increasing the amount to $625,000. 

But both agencies have yet to give a timeline for the yearlong study. So instead of waiting, Weckesser partnered with University of Colorado Boulder researcher Caroline Frischmon to do their own investigation, the results of which they published in March. 

“This is the best data that we’ve had,” Weckesser said.

Their study used air sensors to compare “episodes” of pollution – or when the sensors detected rising levels of chemicals such as ammonia or VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) – in the neighborhood with those at another location near downtown Pascagoula, about two miles away. VOCs, the EPA says, can cause liver and kidney damage as well as cancer. 

The episodes in Cherokee Forest, Frischmon found, were much more frequent than at the other location, and in total lasted about four to five times longer over the course of two months. On top of the significant frequency of those episodes, she also pointed to correlating wind direction data suggesting the pollution came from the nearby industry. 

The timing of those episodes, Frischmon added, also lined up with health symptoms and observations residents recorded, such as red or itchy eyes, nausea – all known impacts of exposure to ammonia and VOCs – and strong “chemical” odors. The largest spike in symptoms, the study says, came just after a jump in emissions from the Chevron refinery. 

When asked about the study, MDEQ Communications Director Jan Schaefer said the agency wouldn’t comment on research that didn’t use “EPA-approved methods.” Mississippi Today also reached out to several facilities, including Chevron and Rolls-Royce, who did not provide comment before publication. 

Fischmon admitted the work has its limitations. Most notably, she said, they couldn’t afford calibrated sensors that could say if pollutant levels exceeded public health guidelines. She said her team was set to receive federal funding to expand the study, but in May the EPA said via email, “The agency determined that your application no longer supports administrative priorities and canceled issuance of an award.”

While the EPA-funded monitoring MDEQ is planning would include more advanced measurements, it’s unclear when the state agency will begin its year-long study. 

“We are currently working with EPA to finalize the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) and install two EPA-loaned VOC sensors,” Schaefer said in a May email, over two and a half years since the EPA announced the grant. “Official data collection will begin once those sensors are installed and the QAPP is finalized.”

Meanwhile, Cherokee Forest residents are hoping to pool enough dollars from public and private stakeholders to fund buy-outs of their homes. According to a survey, nearly three-quarters of those living in the neighborhood want to relocate “as soon as possible.” Weckesser said Cherokee Concerned Citizens is proposing to convert the area into a natural buffer since the neighborhood, which was built in the 1960s, sits in a flood zone.  

Fischmon said she hopes the March study can serve as a model for communities elsewhere who may be discouraged by the high costs of measuring air pollutants. She said the sensors they used for this study cost around $1,000 to build, but that there are others commercially available for around $200. 

“ It is becoming more and more feasible, which I think is really exciting because communities can really tailor what they want to measure for what they’re feeling and noticing,” she said. “ We did this project really to demonstrate that there’s still a lot that we can do with these sensors for communities to highlight issues and get the attention of the agencies that do have the resources to do the (more advanced) monitoring.” 

Last Friday, Weckesser graduated from the environmental justice program at a ceremony held in an Embassy Suites hotel in Atlanta. Despite no prior environmental work experience – her only jobs before were in banking and real estate – she said she finished third in her class.

“ The class taught how people need to start holding their own with industry and say, you are not doing this anymore,” Weckesser said, adding she was the oldest student in the academy. “And I only have a high school education. So you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.”

John Horhn, a longtime state senator, is the next mayor of Mississippi’s capital and will inherit a city with crumbling infrastructure, declining population, low economic mobility among residents and untold promise. 

The Democratic nominee received 67% of the unofficial vote Tuesday against five opponents, including a police officer who ran as a Republican and four independents – a businessman with ties to south Jackson anti-violence efforts, a 27-year old musician and frequent city council public commenter, a child care development specialist and a conservative talk radio host who publicly dropped out of the race but still appeared on the ballot.

The general election held June 3 did not come with a possibility of a runoff, meaning whoever secured the most votes won, even if they lacked a majority of votes – a requirement only in primaries.

With an 82% Black population that votes heavily Democratic, Jackson’s general elections aren’t typically competitive. Despite chatter that a white businessman named Rodney DePriest was on Horhn’s heels, Tuesday was no exception. Horhn would have avoided a runoff anyway. Political newcomer DePriest had won 28% of the counted ballots Tuesday night.

About 21% of registered voters visited the polls Tuesday, roughly on par with turnout in the primary.

The senator was favored in the race after he claimed victory over incumbent Mayor Chokwe Lumumba in the April primary, winning almost 50% of votes in a field of 12 Democratic candidates and then besting Lumumba nearly 3-to-1 in a head-to-head runoff.

During the primary, Horhn faced accusations that he was a pawn for white business interests and buoyed by northeast Jackson Republicans, a sliver of the electorate, switching sides to vote in the Democratic primary. But it wasn’t convincing to the majority of Jacksonians across the city who continued to support him in the runoff and general. 

The 2025 municipal election marked Horhn’s fourth attempt at the mayor’s seat after he ran unsuccessfully in 2009, 2012 and 2017. His campaign slogan was “Jackson is ready.” 

The lifelong Jacksonian, now 70 years old with more than three decades of legislative experience, argued during his campaign that he was the best man to both secure outside resources for Jackson’s poorly maintained infrastructure and fight state efforts to strip the city of local control.

“I’ve been the go-to guy in the Senate when it comes to fighting that stuff,” Horhn told Mississippi Today in April. “I’m not all of a sudden going to change my stripes and hand over the city.”

Horhn, son of a labor organizer and public school cafeteria worker, served the state as a program manager at the Mississippi Arts Commission, State Film Commissioner, federal state programs director for the Governor’s Office and State Tourism Director before becoming a state senator in 1993. Among the legislative accomplishments he’s touted during this race are securing $85 million for the downtown convention center, $20 million for the Westin Hotel, and $20 million for the JSU Metro Parkway. 

Horhn has focused his campaign on the need to restore basic services and functionality back to the city. 

“I’ve chaired the Senate Economic Development Committee in the past. I’ve worked on economic development for the past 32 years as a member of the Senate,” Horhn said during a candidate forum in northwest Jackson last week. “But let me tell you something, we’re not going to have economic development if we don’t clean the city up. We’re not going to have economic development if we don’t restore trust in our city government. We’re not going to have economic development if we don’t have a plan. And so those are going to be the things that I’m going to focus on.”

During his victory speech at The Plant venue in west Fondren, Horhn said that his team is working on a comprehensive plan that lays the groundwork for goals his administration hopes to accomplish in the next three, five and even 10 years.

“Talk is cheap,” he said. “It is now time for action.”

Reporters Maya Miller and Molly Minta contributed to this report.

With mail-in absentee ballots still uncounted, incumbent Ashby Foote is claiming the victory in the hotly contested Ward 1 council race, even as he leads independent Grace Greene by just 10 votes. 

“I’m gonna say we won, but I mean obviously it’ll probably be contested, I mean it could be contested by the other candidates, and that’s their right to do when you have a really tight vote,” he said. “But for the time being it appears that I won.” 

As of Tuesday night, Foote stands at 1,738 votes with Greene at 1,728, according to an unofficial count that includes in-person absentee votes. Democrat Jasmine Barnes, an auditor at the Mississippi Department of Transportation, is in third with 1,713 votes, a drop off from the 2,465 votes she claimed in the April 1 Democratic primary. 

There will be no runoff as Foote does not need a majority of the vote to win, only a plurality. In Mississippi, municipal general elections do not feature a runoff. 

Election officials will process mail-in ballots until up to five days after the June 3 election, meaning it’s possible the race will not be called until next week. The number of affidavit ballots was not known as of Tuesday night. 

The Ward 1 race was considered the most competitive, with seasoned politicos struggling to predict the outcome due in part to recent demographic changes in northeast Jackson. As of last year’s redistricting, the ward, long considered the city’s “white Republican bastion,” was recorded as having fewer white residents than Black. 

“I’m just thankful for all the voters who showed up and thankful to the competitors for the race that they ran,” Greene, an entrepreneur who runs an online reselling business, told Mississippi Today from a call outside her house, which she said was full of neighborhood kids. 

LaDarion Ammons, Barnes’ campaign manager, said that Barnes is in good spirits but they plan to wait until receiving the number of affidavit ballots before making a decision on whether to concede. 

“We think it’s too close to call right now,” he said. 

Foote, the founder of a financial services company, has represented the ward as the council’s lone Republican since 2014. He ran as an independent this year. 

“What a nutty finish,” he said in the parking lot of Bravo, where he got together with a few friends to watch the results.

Foote said he thought the race would be close, so he stopped by the city clerk’s office yesterday to see how many absentee ballots had been filed. The clerk told him there were about 800 for the city and 187 for Ward 1 — 89 of which ended up going to him, he said. 

“I gotta give a special thanks to the people who went to the trouble of going down to City Hall, filling them out and turning it in so they still had their vote even though they were gonna be out of town,” he said. 

Despite leading with a plurality, Foote said he thought Mississippi should change its laws to force a runoff after a general if no candidate gets a majority of the votes, because that would make governing easier for the victors. 

“In this case, I only have 33.6% of the vote and that’s not exactly a resounding majority to say I speak for the citizens,” he said. 

Former Mississippi Medicaid Director Drew Snyder is stepping down as head of the federal Medicaid agency. 

Snyder, an attorney, was tapped by the Trump administration in January to serve as the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services.

Snyder is resigning due to personal family matters, a source familiar with the situation told Mississippi Today on Tuesday. 

Caprice Knapp, former North Dakota Medicaid director, will take over as interim acting director of the Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), the nation’s public health insurance program for children, pregnant women and people who have low incomes or disabilities. 

“Drew has played an invaluable role leading our Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services as we began strengthening the programs to better serve the nation’s most vulnerable,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a statement. “Caprice is an incredibly talented leader and will help lead the Center through this transition, ensuring we continue building upon Drew’s efforts.” 

Snyder declined to comment to Mississippi Today. Politico first reported the news of his departure. 

Snyder led the Mississippi Division of Medicaid for nearly seven years and was the agency’s longest-serving director. He served under two Republican governors who successfully opposed expanding the Medicaid program to include working low-income Mississippians. 

Snyder also briefly led The Healthcare Collaborative, which represents dozens of hospitals that splintered off from the Mississippi Hospital Association. The Collaborative is housed under Capitol Resources, a powerful multistate lobbying firm that has donated thousands of dollars to Republican officials’ campaigns. 

Snyder’s resignation comes as the Medicaid program faces monumental changes under what Trump calls a “big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives and will begin making its way through the Senate this week. 

The bill directs states to impose work requirements for Medicaid, lowers the federal match for states that have expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act and requires agencies to conduct eligibility checks more often.

Ty Grisham, John’s son, grew up going with his famous dad to the old Dudy Noble Field, sitting in the Left Field Lounge, gorging himself, he says, on “barbecue, crawfish and college baseball.”

“I thought that was the way college baseball everywhere,” Ty Grisham says.

Years later, Ty Grisham played baseball for Brian O’Connor, the new Mississippi State baseball coach, during O’Connor’s first two seasons at Virginia. Ty Grisham, who graduated from law school at Ole Miss, still lives and works as a lawyer in Charlottesville. So, yes, he seemed the perfect guy to talk to about State’s new baseball coach.

“Brian’s a first-class individual, savvy, intelligent, extremely thoughtful,” Ty Grisham said in a phone conversation Tuesday morning. “I live in Charlottesville, love college baseball and pull for Virginia, so I really, really hate to see him leave. It’s a tough loss for us, but at the same time it’s a home run hire for State.”

In this case, the numbers — and O’Connor’s resume — do not lie. In 22 years with O’Connor at the helm, Virginia has made the NCAA Tournament 18 times, won nine NCAA Regionals, played in seven College World Series, and won a national championship (2015). O’Connor’s overall record: 917-388-2, a winning percentage of better than 70%. Little wonder, at age 54, he already has been inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

“He’s just an incredible baseball coach,” Ty Grisham says. “He’s top five in the country if he’s not No. 1.”

Ty Grisham, an outfielder, was inherited, not recruited, by O’Connor. Dennis Womack, O’Connor’s predecessor, recruited the younger Grisham to Virginia from St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, where Grisham was a standout baseball and football player. Womack had a losing record over 23 seasons at Virginia. Things changed quickly under O’Connor, who had been an assistant under Paul Mainieri at Notre Dame.

“Things changed quickly. There was instantly an expectation to win,” Ty Grisham says. “You could just feel things shifting in the locker room. Brian was a gifted motivator. He was very thoughtful, but he was all about making us tougher and more competitive. I well remember the early morning wind sprints.”

That was 2003. O’Connor was 32. Ty Grisham was 19. Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina and Georgia Tech were the teams to beat in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia was a middle-of-the-pack ACC team. That changed abruptly. In 2004, O’Connor’s first season, the Cavs won 44, lost 15, finished 18-6 in the ACC and hosted an NCAA Regional. 

“He was definitely a players’ coach,” Ty Grisham says. “I would describe him as savvy, extremely intelligent, just very impressive all around. You don’t get a ton of coachspeak from him. He’s genuine and thoughtful in everything he says.”

I will echo that last part about “thoughtful.” O’Connor brought his 2009 Virginia team to Oxford for a memorable Super Regional. Ole Miss won game one 4-3 in 12 innings. Virginia won by the same score in a second game nail-biter and then clinched the series 5-1 the next day. I approached O’Connor after a press conference for one more question that turned into a 15-minute give-and-take. A week later after a College World Series press conference, he was every bit as engaging and interesting. Put it this way: I have not been surprised by his success in the decade and a half since.

Ty Grisham says he doesn’t know why O’Connor chose to leave Charlottesville for Starkville.

“I can’t speculate,” Grisham said. “He was here 22 years. He’s a legend. I would guess maybe he just wanted a new challenge. The facilities at UVA are good, but not the Mecca you have at Starkville. I don’t know… We haven’t talked since the change.”

So I asked Ty Grisham how he thinks O’Connor will fare in this new age of NIL and the transfer portal. After two consecutive CWS appearances in 2023 and 2024, Virginia faltered to 32-18 (16-11 in the ACC) this past season, missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.

“Brian was really, really good at finding transfer guys well before NIL and transfer portal opened up,” Grisham said. “He was gifted at evaluating talent, spotting lower level guys who came to UVA and contributed. I will be shocked if he doesn’t win big at State.”

Who will win? In some Jackson council races, not even seasoned politicos know, but one thing is for sure: It all comes down to who votes.

Conventional wisdom holds that in Jackson, race, class and political party are linked. The city’s population is roughly 82% Black and 14% white, with Black Jacksonians historically backing Democrats. Other races make up the remaining 4%.

In the following interactive, you can test your hypothesis of where each candidate’s votes will come from and view the election results based on their support.

To use the tool, type in the portion of the total turnout you think will be made up by Black and white voters in each race and the portion of the Black and white vote you think each candidate will receive to make a result projection. Toggle between elections at the top of this interactive to make projections in council races for Ward 1 and Ward 7.

Some caveats before you get started: The following interactive only deals with turnout by Black and white Jacksonians. We don’t have data to quantify the race of Jackson’s registered voters or the rate of turnout among Black and white voters in past elections.

Considering that turnout is linked with socioeconomic status and has historically been higher in Ward 1 — Jackson’s whitest and wealthiest ward — compared to the rest of the city, you might make the assumption that whites will make up a larger portion of the city’s turnout than their population rate. But how much will that affect the outcome?

With Black residents outnumbering white residents more than 5-t0-1 citywide, higher turnout among affluent whites does not necessarily translate to electoral success for their candidate. But in Wards 1 and 7, where Black residents only slightly outnumber white, voting along racial lines takes center stage.

Several efforts to address some of Mississippi’s most urgent problems — its high risk of HIV transmission, the addiction and overdose crisis and the country’s leading rate of babies dying before their first birthdays — have suffered setbacks since the U.S. Health and Human Services agency rescinded over $230 million of public health dollars from the state this spring. 

Unlike other attorneys general, Mississippi’s top lawyer, Lynn Fitch, has not joined a lawsuit that recouped billions of these dollars across the country. 

In early April, a few days after the federal government withdrew $11.4 billion of promised public health funds, Democratic governors and attorneys general representing 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit alleging that the clawback was unlawful. In mid-May, the judge hearing the case granted temporary relief for the states and ordered the country’s health agency to restore funds. 

But the federal judge limited the ruling to states that had joined the lawsuit, and Mississippi is not one of those states. 

When Mississippi Today asked Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Fitch, why Mississippi didn’t join the lawsuit, she said she didn’t know which lawsuit the newsroom was referring to and would have to look at it before commenting. After Mississippi Today emailed her the judge’s ruling, she did not respond. 

The Mississippi State Department of Health and the Department of Mental Health were administering the funds. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told lawmakers that his agency would lose about $230 million, and the mental health department estimated its federal funding loss from the decision to be just over $7.5 million.

Health Department spokesperson Greg Flynn said in an email that “while we would love to have our federal funding that was allocated restored, we are still providing mission critical services to the public.” 

He went on to say the department understands this will likely not be the last court ruling related to these funds, and the case could end up in U.S. Supreme Court. 

Adam Moore, Flynn’s counterpart at the mental health department, emailed Mississippi Today that while the federal government’s decision caught his agency off-guard, the rescinded dollars were set to expire in September. He said recipients of federal health grants do not always spend all their funds, and there’s no guarantee the $7.5 million cut would have been fully used. 

“It’s simply difficult to speculate on the overall impact and whether they all would have all been utilized before the planned expiration date,” Moore said. 

Five months into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Mississippi is already seeing the consequences of cuts to these and other promised public health dollars. 

Community mental health centers have had to scale back their efforts like those to address addiction in new and expecting parents, local health departments and partnering organizations have had to shut down free testing for sexually transmitted infections, and the nonprofit administering the state’s safety net family planning program has been forced to lay off half its staff. 

In emailed statements, spokespeople for the federal health and mental health departments have told Mississippi Today that the public health problem these funds addressed is no longer a threat, and the agencies will prioritize the health of Mississippians in a new agency called the Administration for a Healthy America.

It all started with a question: Why didn’t Clarksdale, the Mississippi Delta city where “Sinners,” one of the biggest motion pictures in the world right now, is set, have a theater where local people could watch the movie that featured their hometown?

That question inspired an idea: What if Warner Brothers, the studio that produced the film, brought a special screening to the town?

That idea inspired action: A community activist posted an online petition for the major studio to screen the movie in Clarksdale. Within hours, thousands of people had signed.

That question, that idea and that action inspired Aallyah Wright, a journalist for the nonprofit newsroom Capital B and Clarksdale native, to write a story about it. Her story quickly went viral and captured the attention of Warner Brothers and “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler.

The rest, as we can say literally in this case, was history. That series of events brought about a few days that Clarksdale will never forget.

Last week, Coogler, the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson, actor Miles Canton and others who worked on the film attended a special screening at the Clarksdale Civic Auditorium. Hundreds of locals packed the room, watched the film and stayed for a Q&A with the big names in attendance.

Fittingly, the moderator of the post-screening panel was Aallyah. She led a profound conversation that got Coogler and others talking very emotionally about Clarksdale and Mississippi. True to her life’s work, she focused the discussion on the ideas, concerns and experiences of people in the local community.

After Hollywood left town and things settled down, I caught up with Aallyah about how she was feeling about it all. I’m beyond proud to share that Aallyah is a former colleague and friend. Before she started changing lives across America as a journalist at Capital B, she was changing lives across Mississippi as a journalist at Mississippi Today.

Here’s our conversation, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: I know things have been so crazy, but what have these past few days really been like for you?

 Aallyah: I think I’m still processing all of it. It just feels so wild that this has actually happened. I mean, it’s been super emotional for me, too, because folks have all of these misconceptions, perceptions and narratives they want to share about the people in Mississippi and the state as a whole. And we all know a lot of negative narratives don’t necessarily tell the holistic story of people there.

I just think it’s been super rewarding for Clarkdale to be in this spotlight, not just because of the movie but for people to see (the city) in all its glory and beauty. It’s been really important to me to amplify the people who have always been on the ground doing this work for years, some folks even decades. I think that it was just such a heartwarming moment that I couldn’t have imagined to happen in this way. And for me to be a part of that is just so profound, and I’m so proud. I’m just so happy that Mississippi is in the spotlight for something that’s so beautiful. Yeah. And pure and centered on the collective organizing of its people. So yeah, I love that.

Can you give me a sense of what this has been like for Clarksdale from your perspective as a native of the city? You know that place as well as anyone. What has all this meant for the city?

I  go back to Clarksdale often because my family is still there. Of course, I’m always doing reporting and stuff. But honestly, this time and trip home felt so different. There was this renewed sense of energy, purpose, hope and inspiration. I was emotional, I’m not gonna lie. It felt like the tide was changing, and I think it’s because a lot of the young folks are now stepping up in the spirit of our ancestors and people who were part of these instrumental movements. We all know young folks have been at the forefront of leading that charge, and I think that’s the connection with seeing that and why it was so meaningful for me.

Even though there were some negative comments and people saying that this wouldn’t work, it proved a lot of those folks wrong. Now people are just trying to figure out how to build on this momentum. Could we do a cultural festival every year? Could this become an annual thing? I know folks are figuring out how to do a Clarksdale Day event on Labor Day weekend. That can be really cool. People are having conversations about how to build up a creative arts economy there, especially around Blues tourism. How can we allow these folks who are the musicians and creators to benefit from this profitable economy? There are a lot of these different festivals, but a lot of that isn’t created by folks who actually live there. So I think there’s a lot of different questions people are asking in terms of what they can do to not only build on this momentum and sustain this arts and culture, but also create financial stability for folks.

There’s a lot of good things happening in Clarksdale. They just renovated J’s Grocery, the only Black-owned supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood. People should check out Griot Arts. They’re working to renovate the Paramount Theater, which was once a segregated theater in downtown Clarksdale. So there’s a lot of different things that are happening, and people are just trying to figure out what partnerships and collaborations need to happen to create that financial stability, job security and creative arts economy piece.

I want to ask you about those negative comments. Of course there are naysayers who have questioned why anyone spent time on this for Mississippi’s sake. A lot of people love hating on Mississippi, they’ve loved hating on Clarksdale and the Delta these past few days. What do you say to them now, after helping do this amazing thing for the city and the state and helping get the spotlight on this place?

 To be honest with you, I don’t care about the naysayers. I care about the people of Clarksdale, the people of the Delta, the people of Mississippi, and whether or not they trust me to tell the authentic lived experiences and the authentic truths of what’s happening in these communities.

One thing that I would do is challenge folks outside of Mississippi to come to Mississippi, explore the history, talk to the people, sit in these places where these things are happening. A lot of times people will go online who have never even set foot in Mississippi and are taking from these narratives or histories that are steeped in the 1930s or like pre-Civil Rights Movement and think that Mississippi has not progressed in any sense. People have a lot of ignorant comments, and Mississippi is in the news often for very bad and valid reasons. But every single place has its challenges. Mississippi is not the only place with these things that are going on. Mississippi is just always in the spotlight for it because of a very troubling and dark history, right? But again, I challenge people to actually talk to folks there, to actually go there and actually see the progress that Mississippi has made outside of these clickbait headlines that they’re always reading.

So much of the conversation these past few days has been focused on what more needs to be done for communities like Clarksdale. These places are contributing so much to the world, and they’re not getting a ton of support in return. At Capital B, you’ve covered this far beyond just Clarksdale or Mississippi. From your perspective, what needs to be done?

That’s a tough question to answer.  I can say definitively that I feel like everyone has a part to play. Whether you’re a journalist, a schoolteacher in the Mississippi Delta or elsewhere, a local business owner, you work at a chamber of commerce or tourism office, maybe you’re in the state legislature or even work in the federal government, everyone has a part to play to ensure these places have the resources and access they need to thrive.

Too often people feel like regular, everyday people can’t make change or they can’t make some sort of impact. But I’d just like to suggest people to think about the simple things that you can do to support your community. Sometimes it’s just going to the local coffee shop, like in Clarksdale, for example, going to Meraki to purchase some coffee that goes back into the youth nonprofit of Griot Arts. That’s something very simple that you could do to support the work that they’re doing with workforce development. Or maybe it’s just showing up to a community event to learn about what Higher Purpose Hub is doing for economic development and entrepreneurs in the Mississippi Delta.

So it’s how can folks just simply think about what they can do to support what’s going on in their community? How can you vote folks into office who you think could make some important changes? We know that when it comes to folks showing out and going to the polls, it’s not always high voter turnout, so how can you activate people to go to the polls? You know what I mean? All of these things have to work together if we want these places to continue to thrive and not continue to die out. And so without trying to point the blame at any particular person, industry or institution, I just think that we all have a part to play in moving the needle forward.

With this major thing still so fresh on your mind, what would you tell young journalists or really anyone about the potential and power of the work we do?

 Some folks put emphasis on the awards, the accolades and the impact, which could mean a lot of different things. But it’s really important to keep your ear to the ground and be in community with the community. The reason this came about was because of the relationships I’ve cultivated with the people of Clarksdale, not just being a native of Clarkdale. It’s listening and being observant and utilizing my power to amplify voices often overlooked or dismissed. I always have the mindset of community first. I would just charge young folks, people who really want to make a difference, just do that. Learn all that. You can learn so much about the people, the place by just listening and being present. A lot of the work that I’ve done is just showing up at community meetings and going to events and reaching out to folks to have a coffee in person or virtual, just doing all of the things that don’t necessarily manifest in a story right away, but really pouring into folks and cultivating those relationships. You’ll get the impact, you’ll get the awards because it’ll show in the reporting that you do when you do a lot of that groundwork.

Last question for you. I know it wasn’t just one or two people who made all this happen, but it was a coalition of a lot of different people doing a lot of different things. I want to make space for you to shout out those people if you’re willing.

Oh yeah, for sure.  I would shout out Dave Houston and Jaleesa Collins, who were two of the Clarksdale natives who basically threw out the idea like, “Hey, we should have a screening.” Tyler Yarbrough, of course, who then jumped on that and did this open letter to invite the casting crew down. You have folks like Yasmine Malone who’s been part of the planning committee. Jasmine Williams of ‘Sipp Talk Media and her team. You have folks like Justin Hardiman, the phenomenal photographer out of Jackson, Mississippi. A lot of Clarksdale folks like Mark Webb, who’s a pastor, and Christopher Coleman, who works for the city. Tim Lampkin, who was also a part of the planning, with Higher Purpose Hub. Rebekah Pleasant-Patterson with Griot Arts, Storyworks Theater. Mayor Chuck Espy was a huge help in making this happen. There was a huge steering committee of folks that made sure, from idea to execution, that this was able to happen. So many people ended up sponsoring the events. 

Honestly, I also want to shout out Ryan Coogler, the cast, the crew and Warner Brothers because they didn’t have to decide to act on this thing that we did. They could have just seen it and moved on, but they really appreciated the invitation and really wanted to come down and then just learn and soak up the history and be in community with Clarksdale, the Delta and all of those who came. I gotta say that if I missed anybody, charge it to my head and not my heart. Those are just the top people that come to mind.

Former state Sen. Philip Moran and his son Alan have each been arrested and charged with orchestrating a scheme to cover up a crime, according to the Sun Herald.

A grand jury indicted Philip Moran, 64, and Alan Moran, 37, each on one count of bribery of a witness and one count of conspiracy.

The arrests come six months after police arrested two teens for bribing a witness in a stalking case against Alan Moran, a former Diamondhead councilman.

The teens were acting at the direction of the Morans, police say.

Waveland police worked with FBI agents to identify the Morans as being involved in an offer to pay $20,000 to a teen employee at Lowe’s to drop his stalking case against Alan Moran. The Morans allegedly recruited the teens to offer the money to the teen Moran had been stalking.

The arrests come one week before Alan Moran’s June 6 scheduled release from the Hancock County jail. Alan Moran has been serving a sentence for violating his probation in another case as a result of his stalking arrest.

That case is related to his misdemeanor conviction of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for buying beer for a teen on Valentine’s Day in 2022. In the same case, he was convicted of child exploitation for enticing a teen to come to him for sex.

Attorney Donald Rafferty, who is representing Alan Moran, said Friday that his client is innocent and “looks forward to our day in court.”

Attorney H. H. Tracy Klein in Hattiesburg is representing Philip Moran. Philip Moran’s total bond on the charges is $35,000.

Organizers of the Medgar Evers at 100 Weekend have announced that Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, Bettie Dahmer and Reena Evers-Everette will headline a June 26 conversation titled “Daddys’ Daughters.”

The session unites the daughters of civil rights martyrs Malcolm X, Vernon Dahmer and Medgar Evers, for “a rare and intimate dialogue rooted in love, memory, and legacy,” organizers said.

The women will speak during a VIP Reception at 6 p.m. June 26 at the Jackson Convention Complex, 105 E. Pascagoula St. in Jackson. The conversation will mark the opening of the Medgar Evers’ 100th celebration.

“The panelists will share personal stories that illuminate the joys and heartbreaks of growing up in the homes of men who gave everything for justice,” organizers said. “They will reflect on the fierce love that shaped their childhoods, the losses that redefined their lives, and the legacies they now carry forward through their own work and voices.”

Evers-Everette, executive director of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, said, “This conversation is a tribute to Malcolm X, Vernon Dahmer, and my father, Medgar Evers — not just as giants in the fight for justice, but as devoted fathers who poured love into our lives. To sit beside these two courageous women in Mississippi, where our families’ stories are so deeply rooted, is both an honor and a moment of healing. We come together not only to remember, but to continue their unfinished work.”

Shabazz, an ambassador at large for Belize, is a writer, diplomat and human rights advocate. She is the eldest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. 

Dahmer, daughter of Vernon and Ellie Dahmer, is an advocate for civil rights education. She regularly speaks to students to try and keep her father’s story alive for the next generation.

Evers-Everette has served as executive director of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute since 2012. She is the daughter of Medgar and Myrlie Evers.

The Medgar Evers’ 100th will take place from June 26-29 to commemorate the 100th birthday of the civil rights pioneer.

“Through keynotes, panels, performances, and spiritual gatherings, the weekend will celebrate his life and legacy while inspiring new visions for justice, democracy, and freedom across the South and the nation,” organizers said.