In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today editor-at-large and cartoonist Marshall Ramsey sits down with Caitlin Brooking. Brooking is the President & CEO of the Refill Jackson Initiative.
Founded in 2019, the Refill Jackson Initiative is a non-profit, research-based program that empowers young adults 18 to 24 so they are more equipped and motivated to enter into the workforce and be self-sufficient. Its nine-week program teaches soft and technical skills with a combination of classroom instruction and on-the-job training. The most recent graduating class (Cohort 17) had a 100% graduation rate.
Brooking talks about the successes of the program and its graduates. She also talks about how she got to Mississippi and her love of finding ways to make her adopted state better.
Painting of Myles Horton, founder of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, by Robert Shetterly. Credit: Courtesy of Americans Who Tell the Truth
Civil rights leader Myles Horton, whom some called “The Father of the Civil Rights Movement,” was born.
Born to a poor family, he saw the value of organizing while working at a sawmill and similar jobs. As a teenager, he became involved in a strike for higher wages while working at a tomato factory.
In 1932, he founded the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, to bring together people, white and black, to discuss ideas, problems and possible solutions.
“If people have a position on it and you try to argue them into changing it, you’re going to strengthen that position,” he explained. “If you want to change people’s ideas, you shouldn’t try to change them intellectually. What you need to do is get them into a situation where they act on ideas, not argue about them.”
Highlander became a center for training those in the civil rights movement, including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette and Ralph Abernathy.
In 1961, the state of Tennessee shut down the school and seized its land. Highlander officials moved the school from Monteagle to Knoxville. Before his death in 1990, he inspired the founding of the Myles Horton Organization at the University of Tennessee, which organized protests of the Ku Klux Klan and encouraged the university to divest from South Africa.
Based on polling, more people identify as conservative in Mississippi than in any state in the nation.
According to Gallup, which routinely does extensive polling asking people to self-identify as liberal, conservative or moderate, 50% of Mississippians say they are conservative while only 12% say they are liberal in one of the recent polls.
The poll results encapsulate the difficulty facing Democrats in winning elections in Mississippi. In general, white Mississippians who identify as conservative vote Republican. The same might not always be true for Black Mississippi conservatives, who often remain loyal to the Democratic Party based at least in part on the opposition of some in the Republican Party to voting rights and other integration efforts beginning in the 1960s.
Those poll results highlight the headwinds facing Democratic candidates, such as Brandon Presley who is vying this year to be the first Democrat elected governor since 1999.
And the poll results provide insight as to why Democratic candidates, sometimes to the chagrin of Mississippi’s small but vocal liberal community, often campaign as conservative on various issues. The argument that Mississippi Democrats would win if they only campaigned as true Democrats, i.e. liberal Democrats, loses much of its validity when considering the voters of the state.
Based on the poll, Mississippi is the nation’s only state where a majority of its people identify as conservative. Mississippi’s four contiguous states also are among the 10 most conservative, with Alabama being No. 2 with 46% of its population identifying as being conservative and 14% as liberal. All of the top 10 most conservative states have Republican governors and legislatures.
It is important to note that when it comes to actual voting, Mississippi is high but not in the top 10 in terms of the percentage of its population voting for the Republican candidate. Mississippi had a lower percentage voting for Donald Trump for president than did the contiguous states of Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama. What is unique is that based on studies by the FiveThirtyEight blog, which compiles and analyzes data, Mississippi voters are the least persuadable in the country. In other words, it is more difficult to convince people who normally vote Republican to vote Democratic and vice versa.
Is it a surprise that Mississippians are set in their ways?
Despite the daunting data, many in recent years have speculated that Mississippi might be in line to follow Georgia, North Carolina or even Texas and become more electorally competitive. Remember Georgia now has two Democratic U.S. senators, and by a narrow margin voted for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. President Barack Obama won North Carolina.
With the nation’s highest percentage of African American residents (about 38%), many surmise that Mississippi will be the next Southern state to enter swing state status.
A 2021 article in Politico titled, “The Southern state where Black voters are gaining in numbers, but not power,” argued that Mississippi is not — at least not yet — entering swing state status. The article pointed out that Mississippi does not have the population centers and large college-educated suburbs that have trended toward the Democratic Party.
But the article did cite a little hope for Mississippi Democrats. DeSoto County, for years considered one of the state’s bedrock Republican areas, ranked 30th in the nation of counties that swung toward the Democrats in 2020. DeSoto County still voted for Donald Trump, but the drop in Trump votes from 2016 to 2020 was significant.
In 2016, Trump won DeSoto County by 67% to 31%. In 2020, Trump won 61% to 37%. Hey, DeSoto County still went big-time Republican, but the Democratic inroads in the Memphis suburban county in northwest Mississippi did garner some national attention.
Democrats also performed better in 2020 than in the 2016 presidential election in what has been another Republican suburban stronghold: Madison County.
And one year earlier in 2019, former Attorney General Jim Hood became the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate to win Madison County since 1987. The south Madison County area has a high number of college-educated suburban voters who have tilted Democratic in other areas of the nation in recent election.
While the Hood performance in Madison County provided a glimmer of hope for Mississippi Democrats, it is still worth noting the area still tilts conservative. South Madison County is home of the largest congregation in the state to leave the United Methodist Church because the local church members viewed the denomination as too liberal.
In other words, Mississippians of a broad spectrum of class and education level view themselves as conservative.
That is the headwind Mississippi Democrats will be facing this November.
This historical marker recognizes those who were killed in the Hamburg Massacre. Credit: Photo courtesy of Larry Gleason.
The Hamburg Massacre took place in South Carolina after Black members of a militia marched on the Fourth of July.
Two white farmers, temporarily obstructed from traveling through town, brought a formal complaint, demanding the disbandment of the militia. When the trial began, hundreds of armed white men known as “Red Shirts” descended on the small Black community, and militia members retreated to a warehouse they used as their armory. The attackers fired a cannon at the armory, eventually killing seven Black men: Allen Attaway, Jim Cook, Albert Nyniart, Nelder Parker, Moses Parks, David Phillips and Hampton Stephens. Also killed was Thomas McKie Meriwether, the white victim.
The Charleston News and Courier denounced the white participants as “cowardly, cruel and murderous.” The newspaper was flooded with canceled subscriptions.
Eventually, 94 white men were indicted for murder, only to be cheered by throngs of white citizens along the way, who promised, “What we did in 1776 we will do in 1876.”
It was the beginning of the “Redemption,” reinstituting white supremacist rule, just as Mississippi had done a year earlier.
In 2016, the names of the Black men killed were finally recognized in a historical marker.
took place in South Carolina after Black members of a militia marched on the Fourth of July.
Two white farmers, temporarily obstructed from traveling through town, brought a formal complaint, demanding the disbandment of the militia. When the trial began, hundreds of armed white men known as “Red Shirts” descended on the small Black community, and militia members retreated to a warehouse they used as their armory. The attackers fired a cannon at the armory, eventually killing seven Black men: Allen Attaway, Jim Cook, Albert Nyniart, Nelder Parker, Moses Parks, David Phillips and Hampton Stephens. Also killed was Thomas McKie Meriwether, the white victim.
The Charleston News and Courier denounced the white participants as “cowardly, cruel and murderous.” The newspaper was flooded with canceled subscriptions.
Eventually, 94 white men were indicted for murder, only to be cheered by throngs of white citizens along the way, who promised, “What we did in 1776 we will do in 1876.”
It was the beginning of the “Redemption,” reinstituting white supremacist rule, just as Mississippi had done a year earlier.
In 2016, the names of the Black men killed were finally recognized in a historical marker.
Some days you never forget: This was August of 1979. I was new to the Clarion Ledger where my first job was to cover Mississippi State. The football Bulldogs were in two-a-days, and it was a brutally hot, humid morning workout when I first saw Johnie Cooks, shirtless and in shorts, glistening with sweat, running through drills.
Johnie Cooks will be remembered as one Mississippi State’s greatest football legends. He died July 6, 2023, after a long illness. Credit: MSY athletics
“My God,” I remember thinking, “who is that?” As I wrote that day, “Cooks has more muscles in his neck than most humans have in their arms.” He was a sculpted 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds, slim in the waist, huge through his chest and shoulders. His trapezoid muscles, the ones between his neck and shoulders, were insanely huge and seemed to ripple as he ran. He was as fast as the fastest running backs and cornerbacks.
Some plays you never forget: This was October of 1980, Orange Bowl Stadium, Miami. State was playing the mighty Miami Hurricanes, quarterbacked by future first ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. The game was tied, and Miami had the ball. Kelly went back to pass. Defensive ends Tyrone Keys and Billy Jackson hit Kelly from either side just as he threw. The ball fluttered down the field until Cooks snatched it, and headed for the end zone, knees pumping high. Two Miami players hit him en route, but Cooks did not so much as acknowledge them. He shrugged them off like pesky gnats and never broke stride. His pick-six gave the Bulldogs the lead in a game they would win 34-31.
Rick Cleveland
Some games you never forget: 1980, Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, Alabama vs. Mississippi State. No. 1 ranked Bama, coached by Bear Bryant, hadn’t lost in forever, certainly not to Mississippi State, and was a 20-point favorite. Cooks, from his middle linebacker position in State’s 4-3 defense, was everywhere that day. He made 20 tackles and at one point in State’s landmark 6-3 victory, Cooks challenged the Bear himself. Bama had called timeout on a fourth and one situation. Cooks took a few steps toward the Bama sideline and shouted, “You got to go for it. You know you got to go for it. You are Bear Bryant, you know you got to go for it.”
And this one from 1981, also at The Vet: Southern Miss vs. State, both nationally ranked. Emory Bellard, the State coach, called it “a hoss and and a hoss.” The next week, Southern Miss would put up 58 points on Bobby Bowden and Florida State. Not this day. Southern Miss, with the remarkable Reggie Collier at quarterback, eked out a 7-6 victory in a game that was stopped intermittently as players from both teams were helped off the field after violent collisions, many involving Cooks. The great Orley Hood dubbed it, “The Limp Off Bowl.” “Cook was a monster,” Collier told me years later. “What a great, great player. I’ve never been hit so hard in my life.”
All these memories flashed Thursday when I heard the news that Leland native Johnie Earl Cooks, age 64, had passed away following a long illness. Johnie and I ran into each other often over the years, and I know this to be true: A proud warrior on the field, he was kind, caring and funny off it. I always enjoyed his company. How could you not?
Glenn Collins, the Jackson native and superb defensive tackle who played six NFL seasons after his State days, knew Cooks better than most. “Johnie was such a tremendous linebacker but an even a better person and teammate,” Collins said. “He kept us all laughing all the time.”
Cooks will go down as one as the greatest players in Mississippi State football history, despite missing most of that 1979 season with a severe knee injury that required surgery. It was the first of many football afflictions that would take a terrible toll on Cooks in his later years. We will get to that.
Johnie Cooks
But first we should talk about all Cooks did achieve, which is to become a first team All American in his senior season at State, the second overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft, a Super Bowl champion in 1991 with the New York Giants, and a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer in 2004.
Prior to his 2004 induction Cooks talked about growing up poor – but very much loved – in the community of Long Switch, out from Leland in Washington County. He was the sixth of nine children. Entering the ninth grade, Cooks, bigger and faster than his classmates, decided he wanted to play football. One problem: A physical exam was required and the exam cost five dollars, which the Cooks family did not have. Minnie Bell Cooks, his mother, improvised, as Johnie would explain: “My mom borrowed the five bucks from her bossman so I could play. Her only requirement was that I couldn’t quit.”
And Cooks didn’t quit until at age 33, in 1991, a series of injuries forced the issue. The cumulative effect of all those injuries took a much greater toll later in life. In 2008, Billy Watkins and I wrote a project for The Clarion Ledger about the myriad physical issues former Mississippi NFL football stars were facing later in life and how little the NFL was doing to help them.
Cooks’ was among the worst-case scenarios. At age 49, he was afflicted with arthritic knees, severe lower back issues, numbness in his legs and feet, the near total loss of vision in his left eye and several other lesser ailments. He said he couldn’t remember the last time he had slept through the night.
As the years have passed, those ailments worsened considerably, a sad reminder of the price many football warriors pay later in life for the glory of their younger years. Few pay a more painful debt than did Cooks from so many hits in four years of high school ball, four years at State and 10 in the NFL playing a position in which violent collisions are part of the job description. Again, few hit harder than Cooks, but in football the guy delivering the hit often suffers as much damage as the guy he hits.
Better, today, to remember the Johnie Earl Cooks of 1979, with a physique as chiseled as a Greek statue, a broad smile, a quick laugh, and with the speed to run down the fastest backs.
The Mississippi Department of Education has decided to distribute the $100 million in additional funding allocated to school districts this year, despite previously saying they were unable to do so because of a lack of clarity from the Legislature.
After a push last session to fully fund public schools, school districts ultimately received $100 million outside of the regular school funding formula to be distributed by student enrollment. But in the months since the Legislature adjourned, confusion ensued regarding exactly how to calculate enrollment, with the House and Senate offering different proposals.
On June 30, his last day as interim state superintendent, Mike Kent announced to local school superintendents in an email that the department would proceed with distributing the money based on his interpretation of the funding bill. Kent said they did this so districts would not experience a delay in receiving the funding.
The department later clarified that Kent’s interpretation of the law was using months 1-9 of the school year to calculate enrollment, which most closely matches the Senate proposal.
The text of the law says the money is to be distributed based on “average daily enrollment or the total number of students enrolled for each day in each public school district or charter school divided by the total number of school days.”
Kent also said in his email that the state department will continue to work with the Legislature “to clarify the intent of the language in the appropriations bill,” and will make necessary changes later if the Legislature directs it to do so.
Kent previously told Mississippi Today that the difference between the proposals was “negligible” but that the department could not “arbitrarily” make a decision as “there would be people that would have a problem with it.”
In a rare and dramatic emergency meeting, the Mississippi Democratic Party’s 80-member executive committee voted Thursday night to remove its leader and appoint a new one in the middle of a major election year.
After attendees spent more than an hour screaming over one another, threatening lawsuits, and lobbing personal accusations about fellow party officials, 46 of the party’s 80 committee members voted to remove Chairman Tyree Irving following several days of public calls for his ouster.
A few minutes later, committee members voted to elect state Rep. Cheikh Taylor of Starkville as permanent chairman of the party.
The rare midterm removal and replacement of a major party boss comes in a key statewide election year as Democrats up and down the ballot are vying to wrangle any little bit of power back from Republicans, who have dominated every level of state politics this century. In election years, party leaders often guide political strategy and programming in addition to leading fundraising efforts.
Calls for Irving’s removal began on June 26 after Mississippi Today published Irving’s emails that included a nasty personal attack of the No. 2 leader of the state party. In response, some party officials said they feared Irving’s unprofessionalism could jeopardize a $250,000 donation from the national Democratic Party as they called for his removal.
Irving then announced on July 2 that he was resigning as chairman effective July 22. But dozens of executive committee members who had already been working for days to call an emergency meeting to remove him from office immediately moved forward with those plans, scheduling the special meeting for Thursday night.
The stated purpose of Thursday’s emergency meeting, according to documents shared with Mississippi Today, was to “address the long standing and repeated actions of malfeasance and misfeasance of the Chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party.”
But the drama Thursday commenced even before the 7 p.m. meeting began.
At 5 p.m., Irving emailed every executive committee member and rescinded his resignation. That move came after a couple days of backroom accusations and whispers that Thursday’s emergency meeting had been called improperly.
Still, the 7 p.m. emergency meeting went on as scheduled. The meeting, held virtually on Zoom, devolved immediately into chaos following an opening prayer. Even for the Mississippi Democratic Party’s typically crazed meeting standards, the drama on display Thursday evening was extreme.
One committee member, while votes were being counted, loudly exclaimed: “This is a shame, a charade, a joke.” Amid more than half an hour of screaming and unintelligible bickering among dozens of committee members at one time, one committee member’s comment came through clearly on the Zoom feed: “This (Irving’s ouster) is a lynching.” Another moment, as leaders were trying to determine who made a motion, someone piped up: “The devil made that motion.”
Several times during the meeting, Irving, a former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge, threatened to file lawsuits. At least once, he said he’d file a defamation lawsuit. Another time, he said he’d file a suit for “lack of due process.”
When asked to vote on whether or not to remove himself from office, Irving replied: “This meeting is illegal, and I won’t vote in an illegal meeting.” (He later clarified that he wanted to be marked down as voting “no.”)
After the 46 members of the committee voted to remove Irving from his seat, they then moved on to choosing his replacement.
Taylor, a second-term state representative from Starkville and executive director of a nonprofit that serves residents of the Golden Triangle, was nominated by several committee members to be their new chair. The only other nominee submitted was Irving, who minutes before had been removed from that exact role.
When asked by the committee’s secretary if he was voting for himself or Taylor, Irving replied: “My vote is to make you a defendant.” The secretary did not reply to Irving and continued moving down the roll and counting votes.
After he was elected chairman, Taylor took the floor to make some remarks. He first thanked Irving for his service: “It’s thankless work, and he served this party for three years.” Taylor then talked about his priorities as chairman.
“More than anything else, I’m a faithful and concerned Democrat,” Taylor told committee members. “I’m here to ensure that finances and resources flow to the state of Mississippi. This could be for us, as Mississippians, a very transformative time … I commit to all of you that we work well with laser focus on these important upcoming elections … I look forward to serving all of you.”
Taylor closed his remarks with a not-so-subtle reference to the events of the past few days.
“I commend all of you for taking the hard stances and doing this hard work,” he said. “Let’s always be sure we keep the party above individuality. If we can do that, we can go into the elections with our heads held high and spread resources around to support all our candidates.”
