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There was every reason to believe Jackson State football would regress badly after Deion Sanders took his glitzy show — and many of the Tigers’ best players — off to perform in the Rocky Mountains at Colorado.

Not only did Neon Deion depart, but he took much of his coaching staff and nine of his best players with him, including his son Sheddeur Sanders, already established as one of the greatest quarterbacks in SWAC football history. What’s more, 1,100-yard rusher Sy’veon Wilkerson, national No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter and safety Shiloh Sanders headed west to high country. Several other JSU Tigers scattered elsewhere.

To Jackson State alumnus T.C. Taylor fell the daunting task of trying to remake the Tigers’ football roster. Given the mass exodus, the odds were far from favorable.

But guess what? The 2023 T.C. Tigers debuted Saturday night and frankly looked every bit as sharp as any of Sanders’ JSU teams, who won 23 of 26 games over the past two seasons. Taylor’s Tigers slobber-knocked South Carolina State 37-7 in, of all places, Atlanta. The score doesn’t begin to tell you how thoroughly JSU dominated. South Carolina State did not score until the waning seconds. Taylor was nothing if not benevolent. He could have made it 50-0 or worse, had he so decided.

Playing before a national TV audience on ABC, the Tigers were as efficient as they were impressive. They were fundamentally sound and they were exceedingly fast in accomplishing something Deion never did at Jackson State. And that’s to win in Atlanta. Sanders’ Tigers lost two straight times in Atlanta’s Celebration Bowl, first to South Carolina State 31-10 and then to North Carolina Central in overtime last year.

Making Jackson State’s trouncing of South Carolina State all the more impressive is that SC State defeated North Carolina Central 26-24 last season before NC Central defeated Jackson State in the bowl game.

Clearly, Taylor and his staff have done a masterful job of reconstructing the JSU roster. Start with quarterback where nobody in their right mind would expect anyone to come in and replicate Sheddeur Sanders’ brilliance. Enter Jason Brown, a transfer from Virginia Tech, who threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception. Brown completed 26 of 33 throws. His decision-making was as excellent as his passing accuracy. Brown played sparingly at Virginia Tech last season, but you should know he quarterbacked South Carolina to victories over Florida and Auburn two seasons ago before losing the job.

Running back Irv Mulligan, a Wofford transfer, displayed remarkable balance and quickness in rushing for more than eight yards per carry and 109 yards and a touchdown. Spectacularly talented Travis Hunter may be gone, but Brown has several passing targets from whom to choose. He spread his 26 completions around to eight different receivers.

Defensively, the Tigers just dominated, allowing only 201 yards with much of that coming after Taylor began freely substituting.

Nevertheless, the star of the first-game JSU show has to be T.C. Taylor, the Magnolia native who played high school ball for the venerable Greg Wall at South Pike before becoming one of Jackson State’s football greats. At first glance, Taylor appears the antithesis of Deion Sanders. Sanders is flashy; Taylor is far more subdued and even-keeled. At JSU, Sanders was always the center of attention and clearly liked it that way. Taylor prefers to deflect attention to players and assistants.  Sanders was a JSU outsider; Taylor is as Jackson State as they come. When T.C. sings the words “Thee, I love” in the lovely Jackson State alma mater, he means it.

I first saw Taylor play quarterback — and play it well — for Wall at South Pike. He initially played quarterback at JSU, before the great Robert Kent won the job. So Taylor moved to wide receiver and as a senior caught 84 passes for 11 touchdowns. 

Taylor may want to deflect attention, but JSU fans were having none of that in Atlanta Saturday night. They were chanting his name as the final seconds ticked down. 

“This is just the beginning, but I am really excited about where this team in headed,” Taylor said afterward. “I’m not going to let us get complacent. The sky is the limit for this team.

“Yes, we had a lot of turnover on the roster, but we’ve got a lot of good players. These dudes really get along and they enjoy playing the game.”

One game — even a lopsided victory over a respected opponent on national TV — is no guarantee of future success. But, boy, it really was impressive.

The post Deion’s gone and he took his stars, but Jackson State’s T.C. Taylor has reloaded appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Republican Rep. Mac Huddleston, a veteran lawmaker who represented Pontotoc County in the state House, died on Sunday, according to several state lawmakers and an obituary posted online. He was 79. 

Huddleston died from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, according to his wife, Dr. Flavia Huddleston. 

During the past four years, Huddleston served as the leader of the House Ethics Committee and the House Universities and Colleges Committee, and he previously served as the vice chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. 

“I had the highest respect for him, and that is why, out of 122 members, I made him the chairman of the Ethics Committee,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said in a statement. “This reflects my view that he was a man of great integrity and character.”

Aafter representing the rural northeast Mississippi county in the Capitol for the last 16 years, Huddleston decided not to run for reelection this year and allow a new face to represent the rural northeast Mississippi county in the Legislature. 

“I’ve had a good time,” Huddleston told the Daily Journal at the time. “I’ve had some health issues, but I’ve had some good friends to help me work through this.” 

A veterinarian and Vietnam War veteran, Huddleston developed a reputation at the Capitol for helping newly elected House members.

“When I got to Jackson, I was a green as a gourd,” Republican Rep. Jon Lancaster of Houston told Mississippi Today. “He took me under his wing, and he taught me how to network and how to get things done for my district.” 

Republican Rep. Sam Creekmore IV of New Albany had a similar experience to Lancaster. When Creekmore was elected to the House in 2019, Huddleston called Creekmore before the newly elected lawmakers had a chance to visit Jackson.

“When we were picking seats, I picked the seat closest to Mac Huddleston intentionally,” Creekmore said. “Any time there was an issue I wanted to talk through, I could go to him and discuss what was good for Pontotoc and Union counties.” 

The four-term lawmaker was also well known for his military service. He flew a helicopter during the Vietnam War, earning the rank of Captain and receiving the Bronze Star and Distinguished Flying Cross medal. 

Huddleston’s House colleagues last year honored him and Rep. Manly Barton, a Republican from Moss Point who also served in the Vietnam War, by passing a resolution, which garnered a standing ovation in the chamber.

“Mississippi lost a great one today,” Republican Rep. Missy McGee of Hattiesburg wrote on social media. “Rep. Mac Huddleston served his country as an army aviator in Vietnam and most recently, his state in the Mississippi House of Representatives. I’m honored to have served with him.”

Because his House seat is left vacant during an ongoing regular election, the governor will not have to call for a special election. Beth Luther Waldo, a Republican, was the only candidate who qualified to run for the House seat, meaning in January, she will begin representing Pontotoc in the Legislature for the next four years. 

The post Mac Huddleston, longtime state lawmaker from Pontotoc, dies at 79 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Shuwaski Young, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, announced on Sunday that he intends to withdraw his candidacy from the general election. 

Young said he recently suffered a “hypertensive crisis,” which left him with “immediate and continuous” health challenges in the middle of the campaign. He said he initially intended to push past the medical episode and continue his campaign, but he can “no longer take this risk,” according to a statement.

“I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of statewide support I have received throughout this campaign,” Young said. 

Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson for now will be the only candidate on the ballot in November. State law, however, allows the Democratic Party to substitute another candidate to fill Young’s potential vacancy. 

To withdraw his name from the ballot, state law requires Young to submit an affidavit to the State Board of Election Commissioners, a three-member group comprised of the governor, attorney general and secretary state. 

The affidavit must spell out a “legitimate nonpolitical reason” for withdrawing his candidacy. If the board accepts the affidavit, they will remove his name from the ballot. The state Democratic Party’s Executive Committee can then put forward a new candidate for the vacancy. 

Young worked in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office under former Secretaries Eric Clark and Delbert Hosemann, where he was responsible for training local election commissioners and working with the state’s public lands.

At a January press conference on the front steps of the Mississippi Capitol, Young said he hoped to lead the agency he once worked for by campaigning for early voting laws and advocating for less restrictive procedures in state elections. 

Mississippi’s secretary of state is responsible for administering elections, providing training to local election commissioners, implementing business regulations and keeping records of charities in the state.

Before campaigning for statewide office, Young, a native of Neshoba County, unsuccessfully campaigned for Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Guest. 

The post Democratic nominee Shuwaski Young withdraws from secretary of state race  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this edition of Mississippi Stories, editor-at-large Marshall Ramsey sits down with the new head of the Two Mississippi Museums, Michael Morris. Morris is a Jackson native and worked with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for seven years. Morris talks about the two museums, some of the plans for their future and how important openly and honestly telling Mississippi’s story is.

The post Mississippi Stories: Michael Morris appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Aug. 26, 1918

Katherine G. Johnson, a pioneer in space missions, was born in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. She began college at age 15 and became the first Black woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown in 1938. 

Johnson became a “human computer” for NASA, with work so accurate that when NASA switched to computers, they would have her check the computer’s calculations for errors. She calculated the trajectories for space flights, including the first American in space, Alan Shepard, John Glenn’s orbit of earth, the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and the Apollo 13’s safe return to earth. In fact, Glenn was so concerned about the accuracy of these new computers that he made sure Johnson checked all of the math. 

In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Taraji P. Henson portrayed her in the 2016 film, “Hidden Figures”, which told the story of Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who worked as “human computers.” 

Just months before she died in 2020, NASA dedicated a West Virginia facility in her honor, and Northrop Grumman named its cargo spacecraft “S.S. Katherine Johnson” to recognize her critical contributions to spaceflight. The University of the District of Columbia has created The Katherine G. Johnson Math Teacher Training Institute, which is partnering with the Southern Initiative Algebra Project to implement programs for teachers who teach STEM-related courses in the public schools there.

The post On this day in 1918 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The governing board of Mississippi’s public universities has formed a task force to study accessibility for possibly the first time since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed 33 years ago. 

The initiative by the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees comes at a key moment for disability in higher education. Even before the pandemic, college students have been disclosing disabilities at increasing rates, specifically mental disorders such as depression or post-trauma stress disorder, which are covered by the ADA. 

And the U.S. Department of Education is expected to drop new rules this month for a key law that prohibits schools that receive federal funding from discriminating against students with disabilities. 

It’s also an effort of personal significance for Jeanne Luckey, an IHL trustee from Ocean Springs appointed by Phil Bryant in 2018. Luckey has been in a wheelchair since she was in a car accident 18 years ago. 

Luckey said that last year she found an article ranking the country’s colleges with the best programs for students with disabilities. She wanted to see Mississippi universities on that list. 

“I pay attention to those things maybe a little bit more than everybody else does,” she said. “You only pay attention to things when you need them sometimes.” 

The 19-person task force comprising representatives from each campus and the Department of Finance and Administration plans to produce a report with recommendations for enhancing accessibility services across the university system by June 2024. 

At the top of the agenda, said Alla Jeanae Frank, an IHL assistant commissioner of operations and a co-chair of the task force, is data gathering. 

“That’s the main goal,” Frank said. 

There is a dearth of data on the number of enrolled students with disabilities, the accommodations they receive, and the rate at which they graduate in Mississippi. 

“This is going to be a fact-finding process for us,” said Marcus Thompson, IHL’s deputy commissioner. 

That information is available from each university’s disability services office, but each office tracks this data differently, according to records Mississippi Today obtained earlier this year. And it is not reported to IHL, which couldn’t provide the total number of students with disabilities in the university system or their graduation rates. 

But that is far from unusual, according to a national expert. 

Most colleges across the country do not collect detailed information on students with disabilities because the federal government doesn’t require it, unlike other demographic information such as race or gender, said L. Scott Lissner, the ADA coordinator and 504 compliance officer at Ohio State University and the past president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability, a national organization.

Lissner said he’d urge the IHL taskforce to recommend ways the system can collect better data on students with disabilities for two reasons. It shows how much tuition dollars come from students with disabilities, which in turn helps universities budget for accommodations like real-time interpreters versus real-time captioning. 

Data collection also makes it easier to identify if accommodations are working to help students with disabilities graduate at similar rates to able-bodied students. 

“The bottom line on whether or not we’ve been nondiscriminatory, equitable and inclusive would be similar graduation rates,” Lissner said. “If those rates are differential, then presumably there’s a flaw in the system some place.” 

Also at the top of the task force’s list is improving staffing at disability service offices across the campuses. Some offices have as little as two staff members, Frank said, which can impact response times. Oftentimes, those offices have services available, but students aren’t aware. 

“Finances always come up,” she said. “How much do we put into actual funding for our institutions to be equitable?” 

The task force will also be looking at possible infrastructure improvements. Frank said that as more students disclose disabilities and receive accommodations such as extended test-taking time, universities are running out of classroom space. 

Another issue is ensuring campuses are suited to emotional support animals. 

“You’ll hear everybody screaming right now about ESAs,” she said. “You have to have accommodations for the animals, too.” 

State funding, which has historically been a barrier to infrastructure projects for the public universities, may be less of an issue this year, as IHL has received more legislative support for real estate projects in recent years. 

Thompson said he believes that generally Mississippi universities have successfully used institutional funding to ensure buildings are in compliance with the ADA. 

“They’ve done a pretty good job over the last 10 years really working to make enhancements,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk with curb cuts.” 

Luckey agreed. She said she has visited most of IHL’s campuses and has generally found them to be accessible. But she hopes the task force will be able to bring more uniformity to the university system. 

The taskforce, Luckett said, is a positive, not punitive, effort. 

“It’s not an effort to say you’re doing this wrong or you’ve been slacking on this,” she said. “It’s an effort for us to share ideas and make sure everybody can do it the best way they can.” 

The post IHL taskforce to study disability compliance across public university system appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch is asking the full U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an earlier decision that Mississippi’s lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of felonies is unconstitutional.

In a surprise decision, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that Mississippi provisions preventing some people convicted of felonies from voting is cruel and unusual punishment.

Now Fitch, through a motion filed by Justin Matheny, an attorney in her office, is appealing to the entire 5th Circuit, which could result in consideration by as many as 20 judges.

Matheny argues in the motion that the felony ban on voting incorporated in the Mississippi Constitution “is a nonpunitive voting regulation … Even if disenfranchisement were a punishment, it is not cruel and unusual.”

Fitch’s court filing points out that in past rulings the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the authority of states to permanently disenfranchise people convicted of felonies.

The ruling by the three-judge panel finding Mississippi’s felony voting ban unconstitutional was a 2-1 decision. While there is court precedent allowing lifetime voting bans, the majority opinion of the three-judge panel said the nation is evolving on the issue just as it did on allowing minors to be executed, which is now prohibited.

The majority said Mississippi is among about 10 states still imposing a lifetime ban.

The majority said, “By severing former offenders from the body politic forever, Section 241 (the lifetime ban provision of the state Constitution) ensures that they will never be fully rehabilitated, continues to punish them beyond the terms their culpability requires and serves no protective function to society. It is thus a cruel and unusual punishment.”

The case eventually could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. If so, it would be the second case dealing with felony suffrage in Mississippi to go before the Supreme court this year.

In June the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear another case seeking to find Mississippi’s lifetime felony voting ban unconstitutional. That case sought to have the felony voting ban declared unconstitutional because it was originally adopted as part of the 1890 Constitution in an attempt to prevent Black Mississippians from voting.

The framers at the time admitted they placed the lifetime ban in the Mississippi Constitution as a tool to keep African Americans from voting. Those crimes placed in the constitution where conviction costs a person the right to vote are bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and burglary.

Under the original language of the constitution, a person could be convicted of cattle rustling and lose the right to vote, but those convicted of murder or rape would still be able to vote — even while incarcerated. Murder and rape now also are exclusionary.

In the 5th Circuit ruling, the majority pointed out that the state constitution granted the Legislature the authority to restore voting rights, presumably, to ensure that white Mississippians were not permanently banned from voting. In modern times, the Legislature usually restores voting rights to a handful (usually no more than five people) each session.

The lawsuit that was addressed by the three-judge panel was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and others on behalf of Mississippians who have lost their voting rights. 

The post AG Lynn Fitch appeals ruling that prevents lifetime ban on voting appeared first on Mississippi Today.

HATTIESBURG — Back in my earliest days of sports writing, back in the dark ages, Oak Grove was a sleepy little country school, a few miles from Hattiesburg just across the Lamar County line.

The Warriors, as they were called then and now, played in the smallest classification of MHSAA football. To be nice, they were not particularly proficient at the sport. Indeed, they were often the other team’s homecoming opponent. Petal, Purvis, Bassfield and Collins were the Pine Belt’s small-town high school football powers. Oak Grove? The Hattiesburg American newspaper, for which I worked, rarely even sent a staff reporter to cover their games. We had an Oak Grove correspondent, who brought in his stories written in long-hand. He often struggled to make 35-0 defeats sound like valiant efforts.

That was then. This is now: The 2023 Oak Grove Warriors opened their season Thursday night with a resounding 49-0 victory over perennial power Wayne County. The drubbing was worse than it sounds. Oak Grove, with several big-time college prospects on display, led 42-0 at halftime and rested starters in the second half, which was played with a running clock.

This is also now: Kickoff was postponed one hour, back to 8 p.m., because of the blasphemous heat wave we are experiencing. Even so, the temperature was a humid 93 at kickoff and 84 at game’s end. There were mandatory water breaks midway through each quarter. The water boys were especially busy. Didn’t seem to bother the Warriors – or the visiting Wayne County War Eagles for that matter. I noticed one player limp off the field with cramps. Otherwise, the game was played without heat-related incident, a credit to the conditioning of both squads.

So much about high school football has changed over the decades. The players are so much larger and yet faster. The backs now are bigger than the linemen then. They throw the ball much more often. They play on plastic, not grass. The Oak Grove football stadium is double-decked on the home side. And, of course, the teams – and the stadiums – are integrated.

The westward migration of Hattiesburg into Lamar County has made Oak Grove into one of the state’s largest public schools. The Warriors play in the MHSAA’s new and largest Class 7A. Clearly, they are a force to be reckoned with, and we can measure just how good they are next Friday night when they play at Alabama powerhouse Hoover in Birmingham.

Those who haven’t followed the Oak Grove story over the last half century might ask: How did such a tiny country school become such a large school powerhouse? The migration is part of it. Mississippi Coaches Hall of Famer Nevil Barr is another. Barr, who played football at Purvis and then Southern Miss, coached at Sumrall and then Petal before taking the Oak Grove job in 2001. He instituted the spread offense back when few other high school teams were running it. His teams threw the ball over the field. All that passing and scoring coincided with Hattiesburg’s westward migration. Victories and championships followed.

Drew Causey, who played for Barr at Petal and then served him first as a line coach and then as offensive coordinator at Oak Grove, now heads the Oak Grove football juggernaut. Again, he could have named the score Thursday night against a Wayne County teams that annually is among the state’s Class 5A powers. My guess is – and I can’t confirm it – the 49-0 defeat is the most lopsided since Wayne County schools consolidated in 1988. The War Eagles aren’t nearly as bad as Oak Grove made them look Thursday night. (Last season, Oak Grove needed a last-second field goal to beat Wayne County.)

“We’ve got a really good football team, we’re excited,” Causey said. “And Wayne County’s a whole lot better than they looked tonight. They had five turnovers, we didn’t have any. They’ll win some games.”

Oak Grove has stamped itself as one of the favorites to win the first Mississippi Class 7A championship. The Warriors are loaded. Start with senior quarterback A.J. Maddox, who has committed to Texas A&M and plans to enroll there in January. Tall and muscular, he is the step-grandson of Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Reggie Collier and has a Collier-like throwing arm. His 39-yard dart of a touchdown throw to fellow senior Damari Jefferson began the onslaught. With a lineman in his face, Maddox threw perfectly into tight coverage, a big-time throw.

A.J.’s brother, junior Andrew Maddox, already a four-star recruit, teams with Southern Miss commit Caleb Moore to give the Warriors a fearsome interior defensive line that is as dominant as you will see in high school football. They could have qualified for homestead exemption in the War Eagles’ backfield.

There is speed everywhere you look on the Oak Grove team, especially at the offensive skill positions and in the defensive secondary. As always, Causey’s team is fundamentally as sound as can be.

On top of all else, senior Oak Grove kicking specialist Luke Stewart was stupendous with both placekicks and punts. He was seven-for-seven on extra points, eight-for-eight on touchbacks on kickoffs and his breathtaking punts threatened to bring badly needed rain. Stewart will be kicking for somebody at the next level.

It was all so impressive, especially for an observer who remembers the Oak Grove of old.

The post Oak Grove football then and now: The transformation is astounding appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Coronavirus cases appear to be rising in Mississippi again.

There were 121 hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the state during the week ending on Aug. 12, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a 21% increase from the previous week.

That same week,1,413 Mississippians reported coronavirus-like illnesses, according to the state Health Department. 

The number of COVID-19-like illness visits has been on the rise since June. August is the first time the number has gone over 1,000 since March, and it hasn’t been this high since late January. 

While the state Health Department no longer reports daily coronavirus cases, the agency uses syndromic surveillance, or the number of COVID-19-like illness visits at hospitals and urgent care clinics throughout the state, to track coronavirus prevalence. The chart is typically updated every Friday.

Interim State Epidemiologist Dr. Kathryn Taylor said the increase is likely related to school and colleges starting classes again, in addition to the record high temperatures forcing people indoors more often.

Other nearby Southern states, including Tennessee and Louisiana, are seeing similar increases in recent COVID-19 hospitalization.

Taylor said an increasing number of coronavirus hospitalizations could put further burden on Mississippi’s health care system, which was financially decimated by the pandemic. The state agency is monitoring hospital and ICU capacity.

She said Mississippians should remain vigilant against COVID-19 and protect themselves and their families. 

The state health department’s overall recommendations safeguarding against coronavirus have not changed: Stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines, practice good hand hygiene, stay home if sick and get tested as needed. People at higher risk of severe outcomes might consider wearing a mask in public spaces, Taylor added.

“Mississippians should continue to be aware that COVID-19 is a concern,” she said. 

COVID-19 vaccinations and testing continue to be available at the county health departments, according to Taylor.

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