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Deep South Today, a nonprofit network of newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi, is pleased to announce it has received a $500,000 grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation to deepen and expand investigative and justice-focused reporting to amplify its impact across the region.
“The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation was among the earliest investors in Mississippi Today and Deep South Today, as it recognized the need and potential for impactful investigative journalism in our region,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “We are grateful for the opportunity to build upon that strong foundation and our record of achievement to further scale the reporting on behalf of the communities we serve.”
With this new support, the DST newsroom Mississippi Today will address a critical gap in how courts are covered in the state. Instead of focusing narrowly on proceedings, journalists will cover the broader systems and consequences that shape people’s lives and civic participation.
Building on Mississippi Today’s prior reporting on felony disenfranchisement, the newsroom will develop a justice-oriented reporting beat that examines how court decisions, prosecutorial practices and legal structures impact communities — particularly those historically excluded from the democratic process.
“This work will illuminate where barriers to participation persist, and how systems of justice reinforce or dismantle those barriers,” said Mississippi Today Editor in Chief Emily Wagster Pettus. “By covering the courts through this lens, Mississippi Today will shine light on stories that are too often invisible, while providing the public with a clearer understanding of how power operates within the legal system.”
Resources also will be directed toward increasing impact, which will include dedicating more time and resources to long-term reporting projects, strengthening collaborations across the Deep South Today network and continuing to partner with national outlets to amplify stories that resonate beyond Mississippi. Sustaining and growing the impact of this work requires more than reporting capacity — it requires editorial leadership capable of building systems, guiding strategy and scaling collaboration across multiple newsrooms.
The Deep South remains one of the most consequential and undercovered regions in the country, and Deep South Today is building a network of nonprofit newsrooms designed to meet that challenge by creating infrastructure for investigative reporting and amplifying its reach and influence.
“This kind of reporting doesn’t happen by accident. It takes time, resources and editorial infrastructure built for the long haul,” said Adam Ganucheau, executive editor and chief content officer of Deep South Today. “We’ve already used that infrastructure to expose police torture and the misspending of public dollars, and to dig into how courts shape who gets to participate in our democracy. This grant lets us go further, reaching more communities and strengthening independent journalism in Mississippi and across the Deep South.”
Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now the largest newsroom in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. The Current is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2018 serving Lafayette and southern Louisiana.
With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
About Jonathan Logan Family Foundation
The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, based in Berkeley, California, supports organizations that advance social justice by empowering world-changing work in investigative journalism, documentary film, arts and culture and democracy.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
When Camryn Johnson first heard Mississippi College would become Mississippi Christian University, she wasn’t sure how the name sounded.
Now, she thinks it could help introduce the state’s oldest higher education institution to a new group of students who have never heard of it.
“The only thing was it didn’t roll off the tongue as quickly as I’d like it,” said Johnson, a 2022 alumna. “But, I think still calling it ‘MC’ works.”
The university’s name change and rebranding coincides with the Baptist institution’s celebration of its bicentennial. For alumni such as Johnson, it’s more than changing placards, signs and banners on the private campus in Clinton. It represents their alma mater’s commitment to preserving the school’s heritage, establishing its academic legacy and strengthening students’ connection to their faith.
MC officials say the change reflects the school’s Christian identity and repositions the institution’s future. Across the country, small private colleges are rethinking everything – from athletics to branding – to survive declining enrollment and rising financial pressures. A new report from the Huron Consulting Group, a research firm based in Chicago, estimates that 442 of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges are at risk of closing or having to merge in the next decade. The firm analyzed federal enrollment data, tuition revenue, assets, debt, cash on hand and other measures for the report.
In November 2024, the Mississippi College board of trustees voted to change the name to Mississippi Christian University. The university also dissolved its intercollegiate football program. In another press statement that same year, the school said “it wasn’t immune to the challenges” small higher education institutions faced, but was working to make changes to push the university forward to the next 200 years.
A wall at the intersection of West College and Madison streets shows Mississippi College is now Mississippi Christian University, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Clinton. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
A wall at the intersection of Clinton Parkway and U.S. 80 West shows Mississippi College is now Mississippi Christian University. A banner celebrates the institution’s 200th anniversary, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Clinton. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
A banner celebrates the 200th anniversary of Mississippi College, now Mississippi Christian University, on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Clinton. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
A banner at the former Mississippi College shows the institution’s new name, Mississippi Christian University, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Clinton. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
A banner celebrates the 200th anniversary of Mississippi College, now Mississippi Christian University, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Clinton. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
MC officials said replacing signs on campus will continue throughout the summer. The university currently has a marquee sign at the U.S. Highway 80 and Springridge Road intersection. A banner also stands at the main entrance, “The Gates” on College Street.
“The shift to Mississippi Christian University represents a strategic decision that reinforces our institutional vision – to be known as a university recognized for academic excellence and commitment to the cause of Christ,” said Jenny Tate, vice president of marketing and communications, in a statement to Mississippi Today. “This change was the result of a multi-year process that included university leadership, faculty, staff, alumni and external stakeholders.”
The change also allows the institution to keep its “MC” logo and branding, Tate said.
MC President Blake Thompson said the name change will not impact the institution’s accreditation or academic programs. The Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson also will adopt the new name, but will remain known as the MC School of Law or MC Law, according to the June 1 press statement.
For Pernell Goodwin, a 2016 MC graduate, removing the “college” from the name and replacing it with “university” can offer more prestige to the institution.
Rather than MC being seen as a “college,” which is often associated with two-year or undergraduate degrees, the university can compete against four-year institutions and attract a more competitive pool of students, he said.
“The change could boost enrollment which in turn can improve the institution’s financial stability,” said Goodwin, who is also vice president of the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Natchez campus.
State Sen. Kamesha Mumford, a Democrat from Jackson, was drawn to MC Law School because of her faith. The university’s rebranding just further ensures it will remain a safe place and community for Christian students, she said.
“I just think that the way things are going right now in this world, we ought to lean more on our faith,” Mumford said. “This change may help draw in students, people and communities to share and celebrate those values and beliefs.”
Founded in 1826 as Hampstead Academy, Mississippi Christian University is the state’s oldest higher education institution and second oldest Baptist college in the nation. MC currently serves roughly 4,250 students. In 2024-25, the university had 340 faculty members, according to the university’s website.
Johnson, who returned to MC in 2024 for her master’s degree in education, said she is feeling more excited about the change. It will be fun to have two diplomas with different names from the same university.
“I’m excited to see (the name change) on my diploma when I graduate again because it looks like I graduated from two different colleges,” Johnson said. “This change gives students like me and the school a new presence in our state and community.”
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
A Q&A with Melissa Winston, Chase Home Lending Manager for the Greater South Region
For most Americans, owning a home has long been considered a cornerstone to building and preserving generational wealth. A home purchase often symbolizes more than just securing a place to live – homeownership can help anchor families, support long-term financial stability and fuel local economic growth.
If you currently own a home or if homeownership is one of your financial goals, it’s important to understand how your home can be a foundational pillar in helping you build and maintain generational wealth. A home can be an asset that appreciates over time as you build equity which can serve as a financial resource for you and your family for decades to come.
Melissa Winston, Chase’s Home Lending Manager for the Greater South Region, shares more about the connection between homeownership and building generational wealth, and how you can make sure your home becomes, or remains, your most important financial asset.
Q: How does a home create generational wealth?
A: There are several perks to homeownership, many of which contribute to building wealth. Owning your home may be cheaper than renting in the long term if you have a mortgage with competitive rates; however, it’s important to keep in mind other home expenses, like insurance and taxes, when considering costs. Plus, since you own the home, that means you can build and tap into your equity for future expenses or profit when your home is sold.
Another way to think of homeownership as it relates to your financial picture is that it can influence your overall net worth. When you make monthly payments, you’re slowly owning more of your home and it can become an asset. On the other hand, if you rent, your monthly housing costs are just an expense for a place to live and you don’t own any of it when you leave. Put simply, owning a home may help you grow your money over time.
Q: Explain home equity and how building equity works.
A: The technical definition of home equity is the difference between the fair market value of your home and how much you still owe on your mortgage. Essentially, think of it as the part of your home’s value that you truly own. It’s made up of the amount you’ve already paid off, plus any increase in your home’s value. So, if you’re home’s value goes up, so does your equity and vice versa. Equity grows as you pay down your mortgage and, as I mentioned earlier, the market value of your home increases.
Q: How can this be beneficial financially? A: There are a few ways. You can borrow against your home equity by taking out a loan, using your property as collateral to secure the loan. There are a variety of ways you can do this such as through a home equity loan, home equity line of credit (HELOC) or a cash-out refinance. You may use these funds to cover other expenses, like high-interest credit card debt, make home improvements, invest in another home or in an emergency. Home equity loans also tend to have more favorable terms than credit cards or other personal loans, potentially saving you money in the long run.
Q: What if you sell your home?
A: The more equity you have, the more you can profit from selling your home if you do so in the future. For example, if you’ve paid off your entire mortgage before you sell, you may get to keep all potential profits. If you haven’t paid off your mortgage, any profits will pay off what you owe and you’ll keep the remaining funds– the more home equity you have, the greater your profit could be.
Q: What other benefits come from owning your home? A. Homeownership offers the potential opportunity for tax deductions. The interest you pay on your mortgage, insurance premiums, property taxes and even improvements to your energy efficiency may provide an opportunity for tax deductions. You can consult with your tax advisor if you’re looking to understand how buying a home may impact your taxes.
There’s no place like home
Homeownership has long been a powerful tool for building generational wealth in communities across the U.S. and can help you secure a solid financial future for yourself and your family. Your home is more than just the place where you rest your head—it can be your greatest financial asset.
For informational/educational purposes only: Views and strategies described in this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third party products, services, or other content.
Deposit products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender.
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Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has indicated he could call the Mississippi Legislature into special session later this year to tackle the contentious issue of redistricting.
It is likely that the Legislature would consider redrawing the 52 state Senate and 122 state House districts in addition to the four U.S. House districts in the aftermath of the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision where the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to significantly limit the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act designed to prevent the dilution of Black voter strength.
Based on comments of Mississippi elective leaders, it is likely they will attempt to redraw political districts with the intent to limit the number of majority-Black districts in a state where the African American population is near 40%.
In any special session, it is likely that the redistricting of legislative districts would be done for the 2027 state elections and that the congressional redistricting would be conducted for the 2028 federal election.
Mississippi tried redistricting in a special session a generation ago, and the majority party – the Democrats – could not agree on a plan. Republicans hold the majority now, and they are likely to get the outcome they want.
In the early 2000s, Mississippi lost one of its five congressional seats based on the results of the 2000 U.S. Census.
The most obvious choice for the candidates who would be placed in the same district were Democratic Rep. Ronnie Shows, who represented southwest Mississippi up to parts of metro Jackson, and Republican Rep. Chip Pickering, who represented portions of east Mississippi, extending over to portions of metro Jackson.
Like ongoing redistricting efforts, the 2001 Mississippi redistricting special session drew national attention. After all, in the early 2000s, just as now, the two parties were fighting for control of the U.S. House.
But the special session highlighted what already should have been obvious – Mississippi Democrats held control of the state Legislature but were not in lockstep with national Democrats.
State House leaders, including Speaker Tim Ford, were the most aligned with the national Democrats. But House leaders said what was presented as a pro-Democratic plan did not favor Democrats, but instead would create “a competitive” district where both Shows and Pickering would have a 50-50 chance.
The Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Tuck, who was still a Democrat, offered a plan that most agreed would give the Republican Pickering a distinct competitive advantage over Shows.
A lot of factors went into the rift between the House and Senate. Many officials in Tupelo and northeast Mississippi opposed the House plan – deemed the tornado plan after one funnel-shaped proposed district – because they did not want to be in a district with parts of suburban Jackson. In addition, Tuck had allegedly made a commitment not to split relatively populous Lauderdale County into two districts.
Opposition to the tornado plan and to the splitting of Lauderdale County made it difficult to draw a district where both Pickering and Shows had a fighting chance.
While Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove would have had to sign into law any plan passed by the Legislature, he held little ability to sway either the House or Senate.
So the House and Senate redistricting committees met and exchanged plans, but essentially sat and stared at each other. The hearings evolved into a comedy routine where Senate Redistricting Chair Hob Bryan and House Chair Tommy Reynolds, perhaps the two most literate members of the Legislature, regaled onlookers by quoting Tennessee Williams, the two Williams – Shakespeare and Faulkner – and, of course, the Bible.
Finally, Musgrove had had enough, and he opted to use a little known gubernatorial constitutional power and end the special session.
The issue ended up in court. When Republicans did not get the outcome they wanted in the state court, they turned to the federal judiciary, where they got a favorable ruling.
The next election cycle, Pickering handily defeated Shows. And before winning a second term as lieutenant governor, Tuck switched to the Republican Party.
The special session was perhaps one of the many precursors of the state’s by then ongoing embrace of the national Republican Party.
When the Legislature meets in the next redistricting special session, Republicans will have significant majorities of the House and Senate and a resident of the Governor’s Mansion.
It is unlikely that they will disappoint national Republicans to the extent that Mississippi Democrats did their national counterparts in that 2001 special session.
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Today is Father’s Day, and just as everyone else, I have one. My father, Robert Hayes “Ace” Cleveland, died just over 31 years ago.
And still, not day goes by I don’t think of him. Not a day goes by I don’t want to pick up the phone and call him. Sometimes, I’d like his advice about something important. But most times, I’d just like his company. Maybe I can’t get “44 across” in the New York Times crossword puzzle. Maybe I can’t think of the right word for something I am writing. Or perhaps I want to make sure he saw the home run some Atlanta Brave just slammed on TV.
Rick Cleveland
Trust me, Ace Cleveland was a character. He was great fun to be around. He came from humble beginnings. His father was a dairy farmer who cared little if any about sports, but Dad played everything. He was a four-sport letterman in high school who earned his nickname in football. The Hattiesburg American once referred to him as Hattiesburg High’s “ace kicker.” And from then on, Robert Cleveland was Ace Cleveland. The only people I knew who called him Robert were his parents.
Funny thing: The newspaper that gave his nickname was the paper that years later made him a professional journalist. There’s a story there.
This was years after high school, and a couple years after Ace had served his country in the Navy during World War II. He was still playing semipro baseball and was being interviewed post-game by the newspaper’s executive editor, Leonard Lowrey. Ace asked Mr. Lowrey how come Lowrey was covering the game instead of the sports editor. Lowry said the sports editor had quit.
“I’d be interested in that job. You hiring?” Ace asked
“Can you type?” Lowrey asked back
“Yes,” was the answer
“Can you write?” was the next question.
“At least as well as that other guy,” Ace answered.
The job was his. He had the three other essentials for the job: 1) he could spell, 2) he could breathe, and 3) he was willing to work for next to nothing. (About 25 years later, I got the same job for the same reasons.)
Turns out, Ace could really write. He knew sports inside and out. He was really, really smart, and he was a natural storyteller.
Ace and Rick Cleveland at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta, circa 1994. Credit: Rick Cleveland
A marriage and two sons later, Ace needed to make more money. The Jackson Daily News called offering a job. He took it. A couple years later, Mississippi Southern College offered a slightly higher paying job that also came with campus housing in his hometown. As much as he loved writing sports, he couldn’t turn it down.
So it was that my formative years – and those of my younger brother, Bobby – were spent on a college campus. In fact, for three years, my parents were proctors of the Southern’s East Stadium dormitory, known as the Old Rock, which housed the jocks. Our backyard was the football field. Directly across the street was the gymnasium. Just to the north was the baseball field. Our playmates and babysitters were the school’s athletes. We learned to love sports. We also learned words we had no business knowing.
Quick story: Once we were sitting down to a dinner of my mama’s fried chicken. I was 6, brother Bobby was 5. We both preferred drumsticks. I got one and Bobby got one. While Ace was telling a story after saying grace, Bobby quickly ate his and snatched mine off my plate.
My reaction was to say what I thought my friends down the hallway might say: “Bobby, you S.O.B., you take a bite of that drumstick, and I’ll kick the shit out your scrawny ass.”
The next thing I knew, Mama was about to cry and Ace was trying, without success, not to chuckle. My memory of that evening is made all the more poignant by the unforgettable taste of Ivory soap that has lingered for nearly seven decades. A couple months later, we moved off campus.
At age 13, I told Ace I wanted to the a sports writer. He told me I was nuts. He said if I was smart enough to do that and do it well, I could make a lot more money doing something else. As usual, he was right. But he also told me to call the newspaper and volunteer to cover games. I did. And he drove me to most of the games I covered before I was old enough drive myself.
Ace gave me the best writing advice I ever received when I couldn’t get started on my very first game story. “If I was you,” he said, “I’d write it the way I’d tell it.”
And so I did. And so I do.
One last story on Dad. This was near his end. He had suffered a series of evilly debilitating strokes. He was in the hospital’s intensive care unit, hanging on.
Bobby and I went for one of the few short visits we were allowed. Ace asked if we had the newspaper. We did. He asked if we had worked the crossword. We had not. This was a Friday, and then, as now, Friday’s New York Times crossword was a bugger.
“Read ‘em out to me,” Ace said, and so we read the clues. He worked the puzzle without opening his eyes. The nurse on duty stopped what she was doing.with all those machines and just listened.
Later, she asked us: “What does he do for a living?”
Bobby, who became Ace made over as he aged, had the perfect answer. “He’s just an old retired sports writer,” Bobby proudly said.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
For decades, various Mississippi and Coast leaders have pushed to deepen the Port of Gulfport. Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a report recommending the project for congressional approval.
The report, which is a result of a three-year study, recommends deepening the port from 36 feet to 46 feet and widening it by 50 feet. The work is estimated to cost $548 million. According to a statement from Gov. Tate Reeves, 75% of the project would be funded by the federal government and 25% by the state.
“We are making a quantum leap forward for the Port of Gulfport,” said U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker. “A deeper, wider channel will unlock even more growth for our bustling maritime economy. Mississippians will benefit for years to come.”
Proponents now hope Congress will approve the project in the 2026 Water Resources Development Act, and fund it.
“This milestone reflects years of collaboration, and it positions the Port of Gulfport for long-term competitiveness, stronger supply chain resilience and expanded economic opportunity across Mississippi,” said Port CEO and Executive Director Jon Nass.
The port was established in 1902 and quickly became the world’s largest exporter of yellow pine, harvested in the Mississippi Pine Belt and surrounding states. As this business declined, in the 1970s the Port of Gulfport shifted to importing bananas and other tropical fruit from Central America. It remains the second-largest port in the nation for importing green fruit.
But the port is not deep enough for today’s larger, more efficient ships. Particularly since the Panama Canal was expanded in 2016, international shipping has shifted even more to the use of mega-ships. For years, officials have said that if the Port of Gulfport were deepened, it could attract bigger ships and more container cargo would pass through the port.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Gov. Haley Barbour said he wanted to see the port deepened to 50 feet using federal recovery funds, but he could not secure federal approval. He later recommended BP oil disaster settlement money be used for the dredging, but still failed to get approval for the dredging.
A 2013 report under Gov. Phil Bryant’s administration noted that deepening the channel would ensure the port’s “long-term competitiveness for decades to come.” The port was expanded and modernized using federal disaster recovery funds, but its channel wasn’t fully dredged to 36 feet until 2015.
A 2010 report from Mississippi State University noted that the port has had a “long history of sediment problems.” Even when it has been dredged to approved depths in the past, keeping it to that depth has been problematic, with sediment filling back in.
To maintain the current depth the port needs to routinely be dredged, overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers with money usually coming from the federal government. In 2012, WLOX reported the port had not had a full maintenance dredge since 2009 because of federal budget constraints.
Officials see the port as an important part of Mississippi’s economy. A 2022 report found that the port provided $3.8 billion in economic value to the region, $62.5 million in state and local taxes and 3,600 jobs.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
As a young Presbyterian minister serving a church in Davenport, Iowa, Rims Barbour accepted a call to come to Mississippi in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Movement to help register Black Mississippians to vote.
As part of that effort, he rubbed shoulders with legends of the Civil Rights Movement. Now 89, Barber is something of a legend himself as he and his wife of almost 50 years, Judy, continue to advocate for the needy.
Judy, who went to the same Chicago high school as Rims, also ventured to Mississippi to be a social worker for the state Department of Health. Together, they never left Mississippi. They raised a blended family and never stopped working to improve the lives of Mississippians.
Over a two-day period, Judy and Rims Barber answered questions from Mississippi Today Ideas. The first day of the interview was in the sanctuary of Fondren Presbyterian Church in Jackson, where the Barbers remain active. The second day was at their home in Jackson.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Mississippi Today Ideas – I appreciate you taking a few minutes. It’s a real honor to sit down and discuss issues with y’all. First of all, tell me a little bit about what y’all have been doing. I mean, what do you do, and why do you do it?
Rims Barber – Well, I came to Mississippi in 1964 with the National Council of Churches to support Freedom Summer work, and really got involved with some of the local people who were brave in the face of the terror that was there, and was impressed with the work they were doing and wanted to be supportive of them. And so I’ve been trying to support local community groups.
We did a lot of voter registration. We did, you know, community organizing. And out of that came programs like the Child Development Group of Mississippi. The Head Start program in our state came out of those community meetings where people said one of the main things they wanted was better education for their children. And one of the main things we worked on was healthcare.
It’s interesting that Mississippi was the last state to get in the Medicaid program in January of 1970. They put the children in Medicaid, but didn’t put their mothers on. And it was a very limited program, and we were working with community groups who wanted to expand that program and ended up filing a suit to get the mothers involved, to make the state offer services to those mothers, and won that lawsuit. We worked over the next number of many years in expanding that program from its base, which was probably 70,000 people in the state, to 700,000 (enrolled in Medicaid), which is what it is currently.
Judy, my wife, when she was working with the Health Department, had contacts in all the counties, and we could get stories from them about what their needs were and why they should be eligible for Medicaid and why they should get transportation services and housing services and things like that, and advocated for public policies that would try and meet their needs.
One of the early things I got involved with was the election of Robert Clark as the first Black legislator in the (20th) century. Robert was the only Black legislator in the Mississippi Legislature for eight long years. He was elected in 1967, and the next Black to get elected was in 1975. And I worked with (state Sen.) Henry Kirksey on developing the plans that enabled the increase in Black people getting elected, and it’s made a great difference.
We’ve had a strong Black legislative caucus, and I’ve tried to help them whatever way I could to fashion pieces of legislation that would meet the needs of their folks, and they could identify the needs.
Mississippi Today Ideas – I forget the exact phrase, but behind every great man, there’s a great woman, and you and Ms. Judy have been a team for a long time.
Rim – We’re a team.
MT Ideas – How long y’all been married?
Judy Barber – Almost 50 years, in September, yeah.
MT Ideas – You’re a social worker by training?
Judy – Yep. And they needed a director of social work in the Health Department although they did not know what to do with her.
MT Ideas – And then y’all sort of teamed up, got married, and made your life in Mississippi for a long time. What made you decide to stay here?
Judy – The people, the local people.
Rims – So impressed with the local people and what they were doing and trying to make life better in their community. You know, through the political process change the way the Democratic Party selected its leaders across the nation and helped bring about the Voting Rights Act, which made a big difference for many communities
MT Ideas – You were part of so many historic moments in the Civil Rights Movement. You were involved in the march after James Meredith was shot, You were also at Selma when people were killed.
Judy – You were still in Iowa, but you came down. You were sent down to house the people who actually made the march. Actually, that was significant for me because Viola Liuzzo was shot to death (in Selma) and she left two kids at home and was trying to help people do the right thing. And I thought, “That should’ve been me. I should’ve been doing that.” And that sort of triggered my getting more involved in things.
MT Ideas – You’re a Presbyterian minister by training. What made you want to get involved?. What made you decide to come to Mississippi?
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, right, hugs friend and fellow civil rights veteran Rims Barber of the Mississippi Human Services Coalition before the Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights gala Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, in Jackson. Lewis, who died in 2020, and four other civil rights veterans were honored. Lewis traveled to Mississippi in 1961, was arrested and jailed with other Freedom Riders, Black and white, who challenged segregation in a bus station. He continued working for racial equality in Mississippi and across the South in the 1960s, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Rims – I was at a church in Davenport, Iowa, and involved in some of the local events. You know, even in that area there were questions about residency. As some of the big companies in that particular area brought in Black executives, they needed to find a place to live, things for their children, et cetera, and I got involved with that sort of stuff.
And then we had a call from the National Council of Churches that came out and invited ministers to come to Mississippi for Freedom Summer to assist in the programs, and I bought into that, and I came and was so impressed with the people working to make changes in their lives and in their communities that I have stayed for the rest of my life. (He briefly returned to Iowa to get his personal financial matters in order before moving permanently to Mississippi.)
It’s been my life’s work. I worked for the Delta Ministry from ’65 to ’76, and then with the Children’s Defense Fund from ’77 to ’89, and then I’ve kind of been on my own with a nonprofit organization to work with local people on public policy issues. And now I’m getting old and going blind, so it gets harder and harder to keep doing the work.
MT Ideas – And Ms. Judy, you help him.
Rims – She’s my eyes. Seeing eye person.
MT Ideas – I would just say in a general sense you advocate for the needy.
Rims – We worked closely with the development of the Coalition for (Citizens With) Disabilities and for the Mississippi Immigrant Alliance, I was there for the formation of the ACLU chapter and the League of Women Voters. We offered office space for them, and also for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
In (1983), I guess it was when Bill Allain was running to be the governor, somebody said he had a boyfriend encounter. And since I had the Gay Alliance in my office, the telephone was ringing. People would say, “Is Bill Allain there?” You never know. And I’d say, ‘“No, he has his own office.” So we’ve had that kind of fun stuff.
MT Ideas – And your training, as we talked about, was as a social worker, and you came here to work with childcare and initiating some of those programs in Mississippi. I mean, I guess your beliefs were just – sort of – simpatico. So y’all were a natural fit?
Rims – Yeah. I fell in love. It’s been a wonderful time together.
Judy – You have so many interesting people that come to your office. Well, the office is now closed, but it was just a hub for people wanting to know what’s going on in Mississippi.
MT Ideas – Do you have any stories about some of the people you met along the way?
RIms – I had a long relationship with Robert Clark doing some of his legislative work. We gave him an office on Farish Street with a secretary and a typewriter and that sort of stuff. And people would come. Black folks across the state thought he was their legislator because he was the only Black one there, and people would call and ask him for help. And we worked together for those eight years.
You know, we used to have two state teachers associations. One was the Black Teachers Association and the other was the white Mississippi Education Association. They got merged, and we worked with the merger of the Black and white Democratic Party folks, and I was on the committee that was involved in that merger in 1976 when we finally put it all together and got the blessing of the national Democratic Party.
MT Ideas – Was Ms. Hamer involved in that?
Rims – Absolutely. Oh, yes. Ms. Fannie Lou, I remember sitting in her carport shelling peas. Shelling peas. and talking about voter registration.
MT Ideas – You didn’t learn to shell peas in Chicago, did you?
RIms – No, I didn’t.
Judy – Probably from your immigrant grandmother.
MT Ideas – As you said the Democratic Party was split and work was done to bring it together.
Rims – Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer and others worked from ’64 to ’76 in order to get that accomplished. Everything takes a long time. You can’t do anything quickly in this state, but you can persevere.
I helped Robert Clark initiate kindergarten legislation and compulsory attendance legislation back in 1968, and those didn’t pass until William Winters’ 1982 Education Reform Act. So it just took forever, but we got it accomplished. And it made a difference and people are better off today than they were back then.
MT Ideas – Going back to Robert Clark for just a second. He was there as the only Black legislator for eight years. Did he ever just want to give up?
Rims – Well I don’t want to say give up, but it had to be a difficult transition. He didn’t have a seatmate. Everybody else in the House of Representatives had a seatmate, but he was on his own, in a desk all by himself and didn’t have assistance of any type in getting legislation put together. So that’s why we set up an office that he could come to, and just to get out of the Capitol and do some real work before he went back.
MT Ideas – And then there were the legislative lunches?
Rims – He’d go to those luncheons and nobody else would sit at the table with him, so he ate all the desserts. And his wife wasn’t happy about that. His wife was not happy that he gained so much weight. But his sons are now – one is a judge up in Holmes County, and the other took his seat in the Legislature.
MT Ideas – I’ve known y’all for a good long while. Now there’s a lot more people in the Capitol who advocate for needy people. When y’all were doing it in the mid-’90s there weren’t a lot of people doing it.
Rims – When we started doing it in the ’60s and ’70s, there was nobody else. And eventually more people got involved, and we put together a coalition of folks who would share their goals and we could help each other. So that was very important.
MT Ideas – Y’all may not remember this, but the first time you caught my attention, it was in the mid-’90s. It was a joint legislative hearing, a public hearing, and you testified. I can’t remember the issue, but I’m sure you testified on behalf of needy people. I remember the chair looking at you and saying, ‘Mr. Barber, you’re not from Mississippi, are you?’ Do you remember that at all?
Rims – Oh, yeah, I remember that.
MT Ideas – And you said?
Rims – You’re right. I’ve only been here at the time it was over 20 years. Yeah. I was a carpetbagger.
MT Ideas – Ms. Judy, when y’all first got married, which would’ve been in 1976 right here in this church, you just kind of jumped right in and worked with him on all these issues from the onset? Did you continue to have a day job?
Judy – Somebody had to pay the bills. But besides that when you have two children and he had two children, and there’s meals to cook and food to fix.
But I worked for a community health center, and now I’m on the board for Dr. Robert Smith’s Community Health Center, and that’s a real pleasure. And that’s important. The community health centers have made a real difference in the state.
MT Ideas – People who participated in the Civil Rights Movement were arrested or suffered violence. Were you ever arrested?
Rims – Yeah. I was arrested a half a dozen times, I guess. I was only beaten once. There were other incidents of people throwing Molotov cocktails at our house. Not here. It was in Canton.
MT Ideas – Where were you beaten?
Rims – The Madison County Jail. It had to do with taking young Black children to public schools to desegregate the white schools in Madison County. That was illegal. And I got a ticket for that. And I remember that a couple of times when I’ve got traffic citations, what they did was they would put me in jail until they could get a justice of the peace to come and set bond or that sort of thing. I would sit there for hours waiting for something to happen.
And I guess part of the concern that people have today with the immigration issues is that all the police people in the state of Mississippi have to cooperate with the immigration service. That’s part of a new law passed this session. People getting a traffic ticket may have to sit in jail and wait for ICE to come and check their documents.
So that could be going back to some of the same old things that we had in the ’60s. You know, what my button says, “Nobody is free until everybody is free.” You have to be able to work with everybody who has been discriminated against in order to free everyone. We must be together. You can’t separate us one from the other. And so we work with the LGBT people. We work with the immigrants, we work with the disabled – and anyone else who’s been oppressed.
MT Ideas – Y’all have any plans to slow down?
Rims – I can’t help but being slow in many ways because my eyesight is going, and I have to slow down. And we go up to Baptist Fitness Center every day
MT Ideas – When you were in the Madison County Jail, did you have any lingering impact from that?
Rims – No. It just was interesting to watch, you know, the sheriff had to work himself up to be mean, and then he had to work himself back down to go home and pet the dog and hug his wife and stuff. Just came across as an average, ordinary guy. Yeah, it’s not easy being the oppressor.
MT Ideas – I would be remiss if I didn’t talk a little bit about what’s going on now. But before I do that, let’s go back to ’64. In ’64, you left your home in Iowa to come down here to Mississippi to work for civil rights and to help register people to vote. And the Voting Rights Act was passed in ’65. It’s made a tremendous difference. What did you think when the Voting Rights Act passed?
Rims – Oh, I was just really excited. Soon after it passed, the federal government set up an office to register people to vote in Canton on Peace Street. And we registered hundreds and hundreds of people through that office because they had been turned away by the sheriff at the courthouse in times past. And being able to go in there and just register, my gosh, it was wonderful. And they made a great difference.
You know that soon we had a Black mayor, Black city council, Black superintendent of schools, Black police chief, you know, and that made all the difference in the world to the people. And it eventually led to a point where Mississippi had, I think, the highest percentage of Black elected officials in the nation.
MT Ideas – But now we recently had the Louisiana decision from the United State Supreme Court that has been in the news and by most accounts guts the Voting Rights Act. What do you think about what’s going on now?
Rims – I think it’s awful. I had a conversation yesterday with one of the lawyers who had helped draft parts of that bill, and he was pretty upset about the whole thing. You know, I mean, it was a well-written bill that enabled people to get real change, make it come. And if they do away with that. I mean, I remember in ’64, I think it was, when the state government moved all the congressional districts from east to west rather than north and south, so that it divided up the Delta into three or four different districts, and there was no way you could get anyone elected who would represent the Black population. But we got that changed.
Then Robert Clark ran for it and lost. The incumbents had these ads on TV saying, “He’s not one of us.” Oh, dear. Well, then Mike Espy ran for it and won. And then when Bill Clinton became president, he made Mike Espy secretary of agriculture, and so that seat was vacated, and Bennie Thompson won that year.
MT Ideas – So how did you know the attorney who helped draft the legislation?
Rims – Herman Derfner worked here for a while in the late ’60s, and I worked with him when he was doing election law. He’s living now in Charleston, South Carolina. And he said that the South Carolina Legislature wants to do away with the one Black congressman from South Carolina, but they’re liable to mess up and end up with two Democrats instead.
MT Ideas – Anything else you want to add?
Rims – I’ve been so blessed to have been able to work with really great people who live here and have worked to change their communities. And in fact, through the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, changed the way the United States elected people to office.
MT Ideas – And you’ve been blessed to have a partner for all those years. Yes.
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
“Voter Voices” is a series of Mississippians sharing their thoughts on voting rights, the state’s history of voter suppression and the new gerrymandering push embroiling Mississippi, the South and the nation after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Louisiana case gutted the federal Voting Rights Act’s requirements for majority Black districts.
For Margaret Ann Niven, 72, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais induces nothing less than raw fury.
Niven, who is white, views the ruling and subsequent calls from some Mississippi Republicans to gerrymander electoral maps as an extension of a public policy agenda that harms Blacks residents.
Niven. Credit: Margaret Ann Niven
“They intend not to have any Black representation in the state,” Niven said. She said she believes the Legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid is also a policy that disproportionally harms Black Mississippians.
Both chambers of the Republican-dominated Legislature passed bills to expand Medicaid in 2024, but they ultimately couldn’t agree on a final proposal amid fierce opposition from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
The potential elimination of majority Black electoral districts should the state Legislature choose to redraw electoral maps is a gut punch to those raised under a certain progressive optimism, Niven said while recounting her childhood.
Niven was born in Greenville before her family moved just over 35 miles east to a tiny unincorporated community in the Arkansas Delta called Jerome. She often spent summers back in Greenville with her grandmother, and the family became devoted readers of Hodding Carter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning progressive journalist who covered Jim Crow-era Mississippi.
“That especially influenced my mother in the way she dealt with us, concerning race relations and voting,” Niven said.
In Jerome, her grandfather owned a store that served as the town’s only polling location. On the morning Niven’s mother set out to vote during the 1960 presidential election, she dressed herself and her children in their fanciest attire.
As they approached the sidewalk outside the store, they passed several Black men standing outside. Her mother paused and said, “I want you all to know that I will be voting for Mr. Kennedy.”
Before settling in Jackson as an adult, Niven became a librarian in the Arkansas Delta. Most of the students she interacted with were Black, an experience she believes most proponents of the current redistricting push lack.
“I worked in the Arkansas Delta, which was very poor, and at some point, over 90% of my students (were) Black. And I had grown up in the little town, and my parents had told us we had to speak to every single person on the street that we passed, so we had to treat Black people as well as white people with respect,” Niven said. “I realized how lucky I was.”
Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story.
While Mississippi’s Republican leaders are considering state-level redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that reduced protection for minority voters, the decision could also have an impact on Mississippi’s smallest governing bodies, including school boards.
The Louisiana v. Callais decision gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which required states to draw districts to provide more minority representation. Now, Gov. Tate Reeves and other Republican leaders say they want to gerrymander Mississippi’s electoral districts.
But the Callais decision will likely touch all levels of government. Attorneys and advocates warn that the state’s education system could also be affected if legislative and county districts are redrawn.
In the South especially, race and political parties are correlated. That means, in many cases, weakening Democratic voting power in Mississippi also means narrowing the pathway for Black people to get elected.
John. Spann, program and outreach officer for the Mississippi Humanities Council, speaks during an unveiling ceremony for a freedom marker that honors civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman in Philadelphia, Miss., on Friday, June 14, 2024. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
“Everybody’s talking about Congress and Republicans trying to maintain a majority,” said state Rep. Bryant Clark, a Democrat from Pickens. “One of the things going unseen is that this goes all the way down to school boards.”
A majority of school board members in Mississippi are elected, not appointed. The elected school boards most at risk of losing Black representation are those in areas without a majority-Black population or areas with slim majorities.
“It won’t be the most immediate thing, and it’s not going to happen with fanfare, but … I would expect over the next few years, we’ll see local bodies redistrict school boards,” said Amir Badat, a voting rights lawyer based in Mississippi.
John Spann, a historian who focuses on civil rights, said the future of the state’s public school students — 45% of whom are Black, the largest single demographic — are at stake.
Mississippi’s fourth-grade reading gains over the past several years have drawn national attention. But part of what makes those gains so pronounced is that improvements have been shared across demographics.
That means if Mississippi’s Black students fall behind, Spann said, the state falls behind.
“When the school board is representative of the areas in the counties and communities they represent, you see more resources for the children who are enrolling in public schools,” he said. “Our education system is not at the bottom anymore because of the investment over time in these children.
“We see there’s progress happening, and I would love to see Mississippi continue to rise. We can’t do that if we allow different things to distract us and move us back.”
The most direct impact of the Callais decision on schools, Badat said, is that it removes protections against racially discriminatory redistricting applied to school boards.
As of 2024, about 12% of lawsuits across the country pertaining to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are related to schools, according to the University of Michigan law school’s database.
One such case is in DeSoto County, a fast-growing area in north Mississippi that borders Tennessee. The Legal Defense Fund is arguing that the way the county’s current districts are drawn splinters Black representation. The result is that none of the 25 county offices, including the school board, are currently held by a Black representative, even though the Black population has grown from 12% to 36% since the 2000 Census, according to the organization.
“What we heard from testimony around Black representation on the school board is that there are huge disparities in discipline, graduation rates and test scores,” Badat said. “Voters said the school board isn’t responsive to the needs of the Black community.”
The makeup of city councils and county boards of supervisors also impacts schools because schools are partially funded by property taxes. These boards decide those rates.
Spann worries about similar scenarios in other up-and-coming areas across the state.
Civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes speaks of the history of redistricting and his legal work in helping to create majority-Black legislative districts in Mississippi during an interview at the state Capitol on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“Budget priorities, consolidation, curriculum, and disciplinary policies could all be affected by a lack of representation,” he said. “I’m worried about places like Gluckstadt, Hernando and Olive Branch. If things were to change in Mississippi, would Black children there have a voice?”
Mississippi school boards that don’t represent their student bodies don’t always make decisions in the best interest of their schools, Spann said.
“Historically, all-white boards were making sure that funds were being halted and making sure schools in some ways remained desegregated,” he said. “You see funding going to private schools. You see this in the Delta, where in the past money has literally been diverted from building new schools for predominantly Black areas.”
Some counties in the Mississippi Delta where private academies popped up after desegregation orders in the 1970s still have majority-white school boards governing majority-Black student bodies.
Carroll Rhodes, an attorney who has spent most of his career litigating redistricting cases in Mississippi to help elect more Black candidates to office, said if local bodies redraw voter lines in the favor of white voters, it could undo decades of progress.
“It would be regressive,” he said. “Not just for education, but regressive for our society if that were to happen.”
State education policy in the balance
School boards aren’t the only government bodies that make decisions about education.
If legislative seats are redrawn without considering Black voters’ representation, it could mean fewer Democrats at the state Capitol and an easier pathway for conservative education policy.
Democratic State Rep. Bryant Clark stares at a projected slide of budget numbers during a Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, meeting of the Mississippi Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Credit: (Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
This past legislative session, Republican House Speaker Jason White’s push for school choice barely succeeded in his chamber because of pushback from a few members of his own party and strong Democratic opposition, and died in the Senate.
“We’ve already heard from state Republicans that they want to redistrict,” Badat said. “With fewer Black lawmakers fighting against defunding public education, expanding school choice would be more achievable. You worry the gains we’ve made might be eroded.”
Clark, who’s been in state government for more than two decades, said if some of the Republican-backed education policies proposed this past session had succeeded, it would’ve wreaked havoc on the public education system.
Now, with the potential of losing Democrats at the state Capitol, Clark said, “I’ve lost sleep thinking about the repercussions of this decision and the far reaching effects it can have.”
Clark’s father, the late former Rep. Robert Clark, was the first Black lawmaker elected to the Mississippi Legislature in the 20th century. Clark said his father decided to run for the Legislature after unsuccessfully trying to make improvements in Holmes County schools, where the majority-Black student body was led by an all-white school board.
A former teacher, Robert Clark was later made the House Education Committee Chairman, ushering in an era of education reforms alongside then-Gov. William Winter. Under Clark’s decade of leadership, the House passed the historic 1982 Education Reform Act that led to a number of improvements to public schools.
“There’s a saying: A rising tide lifts all boats,” Rep. Bryant Clark said. “When Mississippi made those big investments in education in the ’80s, that’s when we made tremendous strides economically in the state. This could take us backward.”
