OurTupelo

A state organization tasked with advocating for and providing legal services to Mississippians with disabilities received its delayed federal funding Wednesday – two weeks after it was forced to stop taking new cases for the first time in its history. 

The federally mandated nonprofit, known as a protection and advocacy organization, was awaiting $700,000 of its federal funding for the current fiscal year. On May 1, it announced it would stop taking new cases as a result of the delay. 

The organization’s leaders said they can see the available funds in the online portal and are resuming all the services that were placed on pause. 

“I was very much elated to see the money had come in this morning,” said Polly Tribble, executive director at Disability Rights Mississippi. “It has allowed us to take a breather, so we aren’t looking at immediate layoffs.”

The organization received no explanation for the delay, DRMS Communications Director Jane Carroll told Mississippi Today. 

The delays affected five of the organization’s larger programs, funded through the Department of Health and Human Services. The programs allowed DRMS to investigate reports of neglect and abuse and to advocate for voter accessibility for those with disabilities – among other services.

However, there are a couple of other top-down changes already implemented or on the horizon, Tribble said.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) launched a “defend the spend” initiative which mandates organizations like DRMS provide line-by-line justification of spending. So far, Tribble says her organization hasn’t received any pushback about its expenditures. 

Tribble and similar organizations in other states still have concerns about future funding, however.  A draft of President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget shows eliminations or significant funding reductions of many of DRMS’ programs. 

“Our concern for FY ‘26 still remains … But for now, we’re celebrating this, and we will keep fighting for our clients this month ahead as they firm up a budget.”

Griffin talks about his Blazers team, which enters the NCAA softball championship tournament this week, and about his famous son who is killing it in his first season of professional baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization. The Clevelands also size up Mississippi teams entering the final week of college baseball season and also discuss next Monday’s Ferriss Trophy presentation.

Stream all episodes here.

Mississippi’s kindergarten vaccination rates, once the highest in the nation, dipped last year as the number of approved religious vaccine exemptions rose. 

The state’s childhood vaccination rates remain high, but public health officials are bracing themselves for possible outbreaks of measles and pertussis among young children as cases of vaccine-preventable diseases have risen across the nation. 

There have been over 1,000 measles cases reported in the U.S. this year alone, compared to 285 cases last year. Three people have died from the virus, once deemed eradicated in the country, including two unvaccinated children in Texas. 

“Our first line of defense is our immunization rates,” said State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney at the State Board of Health Meeting April 10.

Kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen to fourth in the nation. Last school year, the state had 97.5% coverage for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, compared to 99.1% for the 2019-2020 school year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. A vaccine coverage rate of 95% or higher is needed to prevent measles outbreaks.

There have not yet been any reported measles cases in Mississippi, though cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, have accelerated this year. State public health officials say the risk of widespread outbreaks among young children, who are most susceptible to both diseases and severe complications that can lead to death, is low due to high vaccination rates. 

But relying solely on statewide vaccination rates can be deceiving, because it can camouflage clusters of unvaccinated people, said Jana Shaw, a professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University who studies childhood vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy. 

“Transmission of (measles) happens at the community level,” she said. “So if you’re looking at a state level, you may be falsely reassured that the situation is better than what you expect.” 

And vaccine exemptions are the single most important driver of disease outbreaks, said Shaw. 

Parents have requested 5,845 religious vaccine exemptions since they became available in Mississippi two years ago. Over 800 were requested this year. 

Mississippi long permitted only medical vaccine exemptions authorized by a doctor for school entry. That changed in 2023 when a federal judge ruled that parents can opt out of vaccinating their children due to religious beliefs.

The number of exemptions ranges by county, with the highest rates of vaccine exemptions among children in Lincoln, George and Stone counties, using 2023 Census data to calculate child population. 

The lowest rates of religious vaccine exemptions are in Scott, Washington and Leflore counties. 

A fourth of religious vaccine exemptions approved by the state did not list a county. This is because parents are sometimes unsure in which county a child will attend school or day care when they complete the form, said a spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Only 30% of the state’s approved religious exemptions are for children enrolled in a kindergarten through 12th grade public, private or church school when the exemption was approved. The remaining 70% are for children who were homeschooled, enrolled in day care or not yet enrolled in school.

To request a religious vaccine exemption in Mississippi, a parent or guardian must submit a form and make an appointment at their local county health department to watch a vaccine education video and discuss the benefits and risks of immunization with a nurse. Parents are also informed that if any vaccine-preventable disease occurs or threatens to occur in the community, the child will not be allowed to attend school or day care. 

Religious vaccine exemptions are important because they protect parental autonomy, said Shaw. But they can become a problem when the laws are misused – for convenience or due to misinformation or disinformation. 

Mississippi’s law, which requires parents to go to the county health department and talk to a nurse, helps create safeguards against this, said Shaw, whose research has shown that the easier it is for parents to get a child exempted for non-medical reasons, the higher a state’s exemption rate. 

The health department has made changes to the process, including informing parents with approved religious exemptions that they can choose to vaccinate their children at any time. The agency has also advised providers to continue having conversations about vaccinations with parents who have religious exemptions on file.

Magnolia State baseball fans know well the traditional hardball success of the three largest universities, a tradition that continues in the spring of 2025. Three hundred teams play NCAA Division I baseball. Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Mississippi State all seem likely to make the elite 64-team NCAA Championship Tournament field.

But Mississippi’s college baseball prowess does not end there. Delta State and Mississippi College have both made the NCAA Division II Tournament and will compete in regionals in Florida later this week. Millsaps College, under the leadership of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame coach Jim Page, has made the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 2015. Belhaven University lost in the finals of its conference tournament but takes a 31-13 record into its first-ever NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. William Carey University finished its season ranked No. 10 in all of NAIA baseball with a 38-14 record. The Crusaders hosted an NAIA Regional but lost their first two games Monday and Tuesday.

What follows is a breakdown of what each of those Mississippi teams faces in postseason play:

Southern Miss produced two of the five finalists for the Boo Ferriss Trophy, which will be awarded Monday at a luncheon Monday at Pearl River Resort. The five finalists in alphabetical order:

• Drake Fontenot (Delta State pitcher): A senior right-hander from Bossier City, La., Fontenot was the Gulf South Conference Pitcher of the Year, sporting a 9-2 record, a 2.23 earned run average, 84 strikeouts and 23 walks.
• Luke Hill (Ole Miss third baseman): The Arizona State transfer from Baton Rouge hit .342 with eight home runs and 32 runs batted in.
• JB Middleton (Southern Miss pitcher): A former Benton Academy standout from Yahoo City, Middleton likely will be the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year after producing a 9-1 record, with a 2.0 ERA and 98 strikeouts compared to 22 walks. Middleton is the highest rated MLB prospect among Mississippi college players.
• Nick Monstere (Southern Miss second baseman): The former Northwest Rankin standout and Mississippi High School Player of the Year hit .330 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI.
• Ace Reese (Mississippi State third baseman): A sophomore transfer from Houston, Reese hit .351 with 17 home runs and 60 RBI.

After Marcus Thompson’s announced resignation last week, Mississippi lawmakers and Jackson State University alumni are calling for more transparency and accountability from the state’s governing board that oversees and selects its college presidents. 

The Institutions of Higher Learning Board met in a closed door executive meeting for two hours May 7 to discuss a personnel matter regarding the job performance of an employee at the state’s largest historically Black university – the second time in three weeks the board did so. After the meeting, board officials told media there was nothing to report. 

IHL later released a statement saying Thompson resigned, but provided no information about what happened or why. Mississippi Today asked for a resignation letter but due to state public record laws it cannot be shared publicly. A spokesperson for the board said in an email statement they requested permission from Thompson to release his letter but the request was denied. 

Thompson’s departure marks the university’s third leadership turnover in ten years. It was deja vu for many who had watched the board let Thompson’s predecessor, Thomas Hudson, resign two years ago with no public explanation. 

The news came as a disappointment to JSU alumni, including Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. Speaking about the repeated resignations creates a double-bind for JSU alums: It can bring unwanted, negative attention to the university, but staying silent could lead to IHL repeating the same mistakes.

“We got a lot of great things going on at Jackson State University,” Bell told Mississippi Today in a phone call this week. “It just speaks again to the need for transparency and accountability through the presidential selection process and IHL.” 

In 2020, Bell was one of 10 Democrats who introduced a bill to abolish the IHL board. The bill would have allowed the state’s eight public universities to appoint their own board of trustees to oversee the universities finances and executive leadership. The board is currently appointed by the governor with the advice-and-consent of the Senate.

If established, each 12-member board would include three representatives from the following groups associated with the respective university: members of college alumni association, student government and university faculty senate and state residents to serve a five-year term. It would have also established those boards to keep a detailed history of meeting minutes and vote history of potential candidates. 

The bill was tripled-referred, a rare legislative tactic used by House Speaker Philip Gunn at the time, to ensure the bill’s death. 

A dog and pony show

Mississippi Today reached out to Jackson State University National Alumni Association President Patrease Edwards for a comment. 

Leaders of the group did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication but shared a statement with other publications that in part asked alumni to only speak positively about the university. 

Mark Dawson, a lifetime member of JSU National Alumni Association, was one of many who sat on an open panel for the university’s presidential candidate process in spring 2023, which ultimately resulted in Thompson. 

Dawson said it did not seem like IHL took the panel’s feedback into account. Rather than using alumni on these panels as a “dog and pony show,” Dawson said, there’s a need for a “unified approach” for stakeholders and supporters of the university to be more involved in the search — so they can help IHL select a president who will last more than a couple years. 

“It’s about the opportunity to come together and get some things right,” Dawson said. “How can you have a vision for long-term stability for student housing, fundraising, academic programs and a new stadium when you have a new administration every few years. It needs to be corrected.” 

State Senate Minority Leader, Derrick T. Simmons said the board’s lack of diversity hurts JSU. The state’s 12-member board currently only includes one alumnus from a Mississippi HBCU. The state has a 38% Black population. JSU and other universities play a pivotal role in educating Black professionals, many of whom are Mississippi natives, Simmons added. 

“This underrepresentation raises concerns about equitable decision-making and inclusivity,” Simmons said. “By embracing these principles, the IHL can better serve all Mississippians, uphold the legacy of its educational institutions, and ensure a more equitable future for higher education in the state.” 

Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, said he doesn’t have confidence with IHL when it comes to selecting the university’s presidents. In the last three presidential processes, the board has continued to overlook recommended resumes, stakeholders and supporters choices for president. 

Hudson’s predecessor, William Bynum, was gone after three years following his arrest in a prostitution sting at a Clinton hotel. Bynum was appointed Jackson State’s president in 2017 after serving as president of Mississippi Valley State University president for about four years. He was not a popular pick. The board’s announcement of his selection inspired several Black lawmakers to file a lawsuit to prevent his appointment. 

“They’ve wasted taxpayers and the JSU family’s time, energy and resources,” Frazier said. “Three strikes and you’re out. I have no confidence in this board and its commissioner.” 

A spokesperson for the board said the trustees have not held any formal discussions regarding a presidential search for Jackson State University.  

“The Board of Trustees is committed to a clear and transparent process,” a spokesperson for the board said in an email to Mississippi Today. 

IHL hired Thompson in November 2023 after Thomas Hudson. The board had placed Hudson on administrative leave, but did not share with the public the reason for the personnel issue that motivated its decision. 

When the board began its search a few months later, members of the JSU community asked the board to “stop hiring your friends.” The board conducted a national search, interviewing 79 applicants, but Thompson was the epitome of an internal hire having worked at IHL since 2009. 

Moving forward 

Denise Jones Gregory, former provost of vice president of academic affairs at JSU, shared a personal statement  on the university’s social media this weekend. 

“I ask for your patience, your partnership and most of all, your prayers as we move Jackson State University forward together,” Jones-Gregory said. 

Lisa Ross, a Jackson-area employment attorney and JSU alumnus, said IHL needs to better prepare the presidents to lead a complex organization like a university. She would know: Ross has repeatedly sued IHL and JSU on behalf of female administrators and faculty who have alleged gender discrimination in the workplace from male superiors.

Ross, who has sued over Thompson and Hudson’s appointments, noted neither man had led a university before IHL selected them. 

“It seems like they’re sending these people over there and they’re just letting these people go,” she said. “I don’t know if they gave Marcus the support that he needed.”

Ross cited something Thompson told her soon after he became president, that he had never read “To Survive and Thrive: The Quest for a True University.”

The memoir recounts John Peoples’ time leading Jackson State amid civil rights demonstrations and the 1970 shooting, as well as his relationships with the IHL board. Peoples is widely regarded as the university’s most renowned president.

“He did tell me ‘oh, I went out and bought the book,’ but you don’t even know the history of the university?” she said.

Going forward, the repeated resignations could make it hard for the state Legislature to invest in the university. It could also lead to a less qualified candidate pool, Frazier added. 

“This turnover is going to have a chilling effect on someone who wants to apply for the job,” he said. “It’s sabotaging the growth and reputation of my alma mater.”

Molly Minta contributed to this report.

Rural hospitals across the country are shuttering their labor and delivery doors, leaving millions of women – including Mississippians – without maternity care. 

The growing epidemic of closures hasn’t affected Mississippi as much as other states in recent years – but most of Mississippi’s rural hospitals already don’t deliver babies, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, an organization that focuses on solving health care problems by reforming insurance payments. 

Only one rural hospital in Mississippi closed its labor and delivery unit between 2021 and 2025, the report found. However, the vast majority – 68% – of rural hospitals in the state do not have a labor and delivery unit. Most of the 50 rural Mississippi hospitals not delivering babies never did, or stopped long ago, while four have closed their delivery services within the last 15 years. 

Now, the problem that has plagued Mississippi is spreading across the U.S., where nearly two rural hospitals each month have stopped delivering babies since the end of 2020, and more are announcing closures for 2025. That’s more than 100 rural hospitals in just under five years.

Addressing rural maternity care is key to mitigating maternal mortality in America – which continues to have the highest rate among high-income nations, the report’s authors argued. 

“Over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable with appropriate prenatal, labor & delivery, and post-partum care,” the report read. “Although improvements in maternity care are needed in all parts of the country to reduce mortality rates, one of the greatest challenges is in rural areas, because most rural hospitals are no longer providing maternity care at all.”

Across the country, less than half – 42% – of rural hospitals currently offer labor and delivery services. 

The study also looked at travel times to labor and delivery units for women using the distance from hospitals without labor and delivery services to hospitals with those services. It found that in most urban areas, the travel time to a hospital with labor and delivery services is under 20 minutes. In rural areas, women face travel times of at least 30 minutes, but often 50 minutes or more. 

At 35 minutes, Mississippi’s median travel time is similar to the country as a whole. 

The rural hospitals that have stopped delivering babies in Mississippi since 2010, according to data from the Mississippi State Department of Health, are: the south campus of Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian; the community campus of Merit Health Natchez; Magee General; and Greenwood Leflore.

Despite Meridian being one of Mississippi’s larger cities, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) defines it as rural. 

Authors of the study offered several recommendations to stakeholders, most of which centered around reforming payments to hospitals. 

One of the biggest challenges for small hospitals providing maternity care is that physicians and staff must be standing by 24 hours a day, but are only paid when they deliver a baby – even though rural hospitals may experience many days when there are no deliveries.

Another problem with payment methods, according to the report, is that insurance companies often pay more for C-sections, meaning hospitals and clinicians that support natural childbirth may lose money – even though there have been national efforts to reduce C-section rates, which are highest in Mississippi. 

The report stressed that the biggest problem is not with Medicaid or uninsured patients. The primary cause of overall losses on patient services at rural maternity care hospitals is private insurance companies paying rural hospitals less than what it costs to deliver services to patients. 

“Rural maternity care is in a state of crisis, and more women and babies in rural communities will die unnecessarily until the crisis is resolved,” the report stated. “Federal and state government officials and private employers must take immediate action to ensure that all health insurance plans are paying adequately to support high-quality maternity care in every community.”

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.

For the past six years, I’ve had a front row seat to some stunning achievements in Mississippi public education.

I moved from New York City to Jackson in 2019, which was just in time to witness Mississippi trailblazing a new approach to literacy instruction and becoming number one in the nation in fourth-grade reading gains.

With the onset of COVID-19, Mississippi continued to impress by affirming the state’s commitment to public schools as the gold standard in education. At a time when many states began redirecting taxpayer dollars to fund private school choice schemes, Mississippi instead chose to prioritize public education with a $230 million investment in a new, more equitable public school funding formula.

But from my vantage point of conducting education research and occasionally lobbying the state Legislature, there is one particular achievement I think deserves a second look.

In 2022, state lawmakers made an historic investment to combat Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage. The idea was simple: incentivize the recruitment and retention of educators by passing the largest teacher pay raise in state history.

The strategy worked. Going into the 2022-2023 school year, the average teacher salary increased by $5,452 annually, a raise of about 11%. That year, according to federal data, the Mississippi Department of Education issued 4,520 teaching licenses to new educators, a 63% increase over the prior year and higher than any year since at least 2009-2010 (the earliest year for which data is available). This influx of new talent helped reduce the number of statewide teacher vacancies from 3,036 in 2021-2022 to 2,593 in 2022-2023.

Three years later, Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage is resurgent. Vacancies are once again near the peak of 2021-2022 (MDE reported 2,964 vacancies in 2024-2025), and about two-thirds of Mississippi school districts are now classified as “geographical critical shortage areas.” According to data from the Southern Regional Education Board, teacher turnover in Mississippi has spiked and is now well above the regional average. 

As policymakers seek solutions to address the chronic shortage of educators in Mississippi classrooms, they would do well to learn from their own previous success.

There are a number of overlapping factors that influence teachers’ career plans. But researchers and public education advocates have long argued that the educator pipeline isn’t rocket science. Like professionals in any other industry, teachers are rational economic actors who respond to monetary incentives. After years of offering the lowest teacher pay in America, lawmakers reasoned that a significant pay raise in 2022 would make a dent in Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage. They were right.

But while legislators rightfully campaigned on this investment during the 2023 state election cycle, they have since governed with the opposite approach.

One problem is inaction. Lawmakers have not passed a teacher pay raise since 2022. As a result, the buying power of that raise has since been erased by inflation. In that time, neighboring states have also passed significant pay raises of their own. Mississippi may have briefly outpaced the Southeastern average for starting teacher pay in 2022, but first-year teachers in Mississippi can now cross the river into Arkansas and immediately increase their annual salary from $41,500 to $50,000. The average teacher salary in Mississippi is once again the lowest in the nation.

Another problem has been an intentional effort to reduce teacher compensation. Tucked in House Bill 1, the tax overhaul bill that passed the Legislature last month, was a landmark reform to the Public Employees’ Retirement System (known as PERS) that will offer less retirement benefits to future public employees, including teachers. According to an analysis of the changes made to PERS in House Bill 1 by the nonprofit Equable, the newly created “Tier 5” public employees hired after March 1, 2026, who work for at least 20 years, will receive, on average, a 23% reduction in projected retirement benefits (a decrease of roughly $168,382) compared to current employees.

At a time when Mississippi school districts already struggle to recruit and retain educators, whittling away at their compensation package has troubling implications for Mississippi’s critical teacher shortage. Of particular concern is the impact of weaker retirement benefits and stagnant pay on teacher turnover and districts’ ability to retain veterans of the classroom. 

This has become the “leakiest” point in Mississippi’s educator pipeline: teacher turnover has spiked since the pandemic, and schools—particularly in lower-performing districts—are increasingly relying on a revolving door of relatively inexperienced teachers to staff their classrooms.

Teaching is a difficult job with a steep learning curve. Effective teachers don’t just know their subject; they know their students and their community. That takes time. Unsurprisingly, research shows that additional classroom experience translates to increased effectiveness and improved student outcomes. But Mississippi school districts are now losing, on average, nearly 1 in 4 teachers each year (the average district turnover rate was 23.3% in 2022-2023). Cutting retirement benefits under “Tier 5” may soon accelerate this trend. Without the prospect of a guaranteed pension with a cost-of-living adjustment, the next generation of educators have lost a major incentive to spend their career in a Mississippi classroom.

Like many Mississippi teachers, I am also preparing to pursue a professional opportunity elsewhere.. I was recently offered a job in my hometown of Montpelier, Vermont, and I will soon be making a very bittersweet departure from the Magnolia State.

But before I leave, I want to emphasize the most pressing takeaway from six years of education policy research: The number one obstacle preventing Mississippi from becoming a national leader in education is a critical shortage of teachers across the state. It is true that Mississippi has made progress with curricular reforms such as requiring instruction rooted in the science of reading. But policies like this only go so far. Human capital is the most important resource in education, and here the state is failing. With neither competitive pay nor competitive benefits, it’s easy to see why.

To unlock the potential of Mississippi public schools, state leaders need to give teachers a reason to call Mississippi home.

Toren Ballard, a former teacher, spent the last six years as an education policy researcher and an advocate for public schools in Mississippi. He is joining the Vermont Agency of Education as the director of communications and policy. 

Johnnie E. Walls Jr., former circuit judge, longtime state senator and chairman of the state Democratic Party, died on Saturday, according to city of Greenville and state party officials.

He was 80.

Walls served as a Bolivar County Circuit Court judge from 2011 until his retirement in 2016. He served in the state Senate representing District 12, Bolivar and Washington counties, from 1993 to 2011, and served two terms as chairman of the state Democratic Party.

As a senator, Walls was involved in criminal law and civil justice revision and reform and workers’ rights legislation.

Walls received a degree in biology from Jackson State University and his law degree from the University of Mississippi and began practicing law at the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services in Greenwood. He was promoted to director of litigation for the organization before starting private practice.

In a social media post, Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons said Walls was “a dedicated public servant and a distinguished legal mind.”

“Judge Walls leaves behind a powerful legacy of integrity, wisdom, and dedication to public service,” Simmons said. “Please keep his family, friends, and all those whose lives he touched in your thoughts and prayers.”

The state Democratic Party in a statement said Walls served “with fairness and distinction,” and was “recognized for his fierce advocacy and commitment to the law.”

“Judge Walls’ life was marked by unwavering commitment to his community and the principles of justice,” the statement said. “His contributions to Mississippi’s legal and political landscape will be remembered for generations.”

Arrangements for Walls were incomplete late Tuesday morning.

Two Black men tortured by white “Goon Squad” deputies are considering a lawsuit against Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines for calling them “dopers” and rapists.

“He will be held legally accountable. He has to be,” said Malik Shabazz, a lawyer for the two men, Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. “Some of what [Gaines] said is obviously defamatory.”

Two days after the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department announced it was paying Parker and Jenkins $2.5 million, Gaines told the 100 people gathered at the sheriff’s breakfast that the department’s lawyer, Jason Dare, “beat the pants off of those guys — the dopers, the people that raped and doped your daughters. He beat their pants off.”

Neither of the two men have been convicted of felony drug or rape charges in Rankin County or neighboring Hinds County, according to court records. In 2019, Parker was convicted in Alabama of drug possession with intent to sell.

In 2023, six Rankin County law enforcement officers, some of whom called themselves the “Goon Squad,” tortured the two men with Tasers, used a sex toy on them and shot one of them in the mouth. Deputies planted a BB gun and drugs on the men to try and cover up their crimes, but they were caught. They are now serving between 10 and 40 years in federal prison.

In an emailed response, Gaines said his 22-minute speech covered “a wide range of issues facing Rankin County.

“I want to be clear that my comments wre not aimed at anyone personally, and I did not name any individuals,” Gaines said.

“Law enforcement and safety in Rankin County are topics of deep concern to me because much of my career has been dedicated to protecting the safety and wellbeing of our community. I take my role as supervisor very seriously, and I strive to serve each and every Rankin County citizen in my district. If there was any confusion, I want to clarify that my focus — then and now — is supporting the ongoing efforts by law enforcement in Rankin County to keep our community safe and strong.”

On Friday, Angela English, president of the Rankin County NAACP, asked Gaines to step down: “There is no way you can effectively do your job with the kind of racial hatred you have in your heart.”

Behind the scenes, some local power brokers are urging Gaines to resign. “It’s devastating to us trying to rebuild trust in the community, which was already destroyed,” said one elected official, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “It’s infuriating, because we’re the ones having to pick up the pieces.”

Pressure on the sheriff’s department has been mounting since the torture allegations emerged. The local chapter of the NAACP has repeatedly called on Sheriff Bryan Bailey to step down. 

But at the May 3 breakfast gathering, Gaines and other county officials threw their support behind the sheriff. “Bryan’s got his legs back under him,” he said. “You can’t go through what he’s went through with all the fake news and false information and stay together like Bryan has.”

Bailey thanked Gaines and said, “My board of supervisors stood behind me  110%.”

The sheriff said he thought about stepping down over the past 28 months. “I was ready to quit, give up,” he said, but his mentor and former father-in-law, Irl Dean Rhodes, urged him to stay, saying, “You don’t quit. You’re going to run again.”

In 2023, Bailey faced no opposition, but that won’t be the case in 2027.

Retired Sgt. Ronnie Moore, 58, said he plans to run for sheriff because “everybody wants a change.” In the 72% white county, he served among the small number of Black deputies for three decades before retiring last year from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.

“You have to love everybody. You’ve got to have a heart for people,” he said. “It ain’t all about wearing a badge and carrying a gun. It ain’t all about Black and white, but about what’s right and wrong.”

He doesn’t believe in “throwing dirt,” he said, “but if you do wrong, karma will come back and get you.”

Moore said of Gaines’ remarks, “Instead of putting out the fire, they’re pouring gas on it. God sees them people.”

Bailey has insisted he knew nothing about what deputies did to Parker and Jenkins and denied these former deputies’ accusations that there was a culture of violence in the department. He said if he had known, he would have stopped it.

After recently announcing his candidacy at the Briar Hill Baptist Church and the Exchange Club of Richland, Scott Womack, 57, has spent his days attending civic events, shaking hands and asking for votes.

He worked for 27 years as a special agent at the state auditor’s office, serving as lead agent on the investigation into the Mississippi Beef Plant, a $55 million, taxpayer-funded debacle, which ended in prison sentences for some. He also served as a chief deputy for Simpson County.

“Our team’s campaign will focus on restoring the trust, integrity, pride and confidence in the position of sheriff in Rankin County,” he said.

There must be a focus on restoring trust with Rankin County employees and citizens through safety and excellent service, he said. In addition, “we will explore ways to work with county leadership to minimize civil litigation, and I will utilize my relationships with local, state and federal agencies to help restore confidence,” he said.

Another lawsuit alleging abuse is pending in federal court against the department, and plaintiffs’ lawyers have discussed bringing other possible cases.

An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies, but the six officers are the only ones who have been charged.

Another story by Mississippi Today and the Times revealed that the sheriff spent more than $150,000 in taxpayer money on equipment and supplies that were allegedly used at his mother’s commercial chicken farm. State Auditor Shad White is now investigating these allegations.

Jessica Pishko, a lawyer and national expert on sheriffs, said it’s rare for sheriffs to get removed by petition, but Mississippi’s statute makes it tougher than most other states.

Under state law, the governor is the only one with the power to remove the sheriff and can only act if he or she receives a petition demanding the sheriff’s removal signed by at least 30% of the qualified voters.

English said NAACP officials gathered thousands of signatures for a petition to remove Bailey but stopped last Thanksgiving when they ran into roadblocks under Mississippi law that requires them to gather all the signatures within 180 days. In addition to that, any signatures collected more than 60 days before the petition is filed are considered invalid.

Rankin County has more than 102,000 registered voters, which means any such petition would require more than 30,000 signatures. In contrast, 10% of voters can sign a petition to trigger a recall election of a sheriff in California counties with more than 100,000 registered voters.

In Mississippi, there is no requirement in the law for sheriffs to be certified law enforcement officers, but they can’t be atheists. 

In many states, sheriffs have to violate their oath to get removed from office, said Pishko, author of “The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.” 

That oath requires sheriffs to uphold the federal and state constitutions as well as obeying the laws. “Unfortunately,” Pishko said, “there are a lot of bad things that sheriffs can do that don’t violate their oath.”

Updated 5/13/25: This story has been updated to include a response by Rankin County Supervisor Steve Gaines.

A panel of three federal judges has approved a revised legislative redistricting plan from the Mississippi Election Commission, which will allow special elections to move forward this year for 15 legislative seats.

The court in April had ordered state officials to develop yet another legislative map to ensure Black voters in the DeSoto County area have a fair opportunity to elect candidates to the state Senate.

The panel, comprised of U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan, U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden and U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick, previously ruled that when lawmakers redrew their districts in 2022 to account for population shifts, they violated federal civil rights law because the maps diluted Black voting power.

To remedy the violation, the court allowed the Legislature to propose a new House map redrawing House districts in the Chickasaw County area and a new Senate map redrawing districts in the DeSoto County and Hattiesburg areas.

Earlier this year, during the 2025 session, the Legislature attempted to comply with the order and tweaked those districts. However, the plaintiffs still objected to parts of the Legislature’s plan.

The plaintiffs, the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters from around the state, did not object to the Hattiesburg portion of the Senate plan. But they argued the Chickasaw County portion of the House plan and the DeSoto County portion of the Senate plan did not create a realistic opportunity for Black voters in those areas to elect their preferred candidates. 

The judges accepted the Chickasaw County redistricting portion. Still, they objected to the DeSoto County part because the Legislature’s proposed DeSoto County solution “yokes high-turnout white communities in the Hernando area of DeSoto County to several poorer, predominantly Black towns in the Mississippi Delta,” which would make it hard for Black voters to overcome white voting blocs. 

The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.

The court in its latest ruling set deadlines and a schedule for special elections for Mississippi legislative seats impacted by the new maps.

The deadline to publicize and share the maps with local election officials is May 12. Candidate qualification to run will run from June 2-9 and the slate of candidates will be submitted by June 13. Absentee voting for the Aug. 5 primaries will begin June 21.

Absentee voting for general elections will begin Sept. 20 and general elections will be Nov. 4.