OurTupelo

JUNE 28, 1942

Dorie Ladner was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She and her sister, Joyce, became involved early with the civil rights movement, working with Medgar Evers, Vernon Dahmer, Clyde Kennard and others. 

She and her sister were kicked out of Jackson State University for their support of the Tougaloo Nine, who integrated the all-white library in downtown Jackson. They became even more active at Tougaloo College. They worked with the Freedom Riders, joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped with the 1963 March on Washington. 

Dorie escorted Fannie Lou Hamer to register to vote. Joyce pursued graduate school, earning a doctorate in sociology, becoming the first female president of Howard University. Dorie continued her civil rights work, participating in every major civil rights march through 1968. In Washington, D.C., she earned her master’s in social work, counseling emergency room patients, visiting schools and working with the Rape Crisis Center. 

The sisters were honored at the Kennedy Center, and Dorie received the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy Humanitarian Award. In 2014, she received an honorary doctorate from Tougaloo.

The post On this day in 1942 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

MCCOOL – Teresa Springs looks out at the farmland that her husband Kevin Springs inherited in 2016.

After Kevin’s mother’s health declined, she transferred over the 73-acre farm to him. The Springses had no plans of moving from Florida to McCool, Mississippi, and they had no experience in farming. 

Instead of selling the property, the two decided to take on the task of bringing the farm back to life. They attended conferences, read books and conducted research online to prepare themselves as farmers. Teresa and Kevin’s Oasis, TKO Farming, was born.

“When Teresa and I came here, this wasn’t here,” Kevin said. “The land was here, but there was no one here to steward it. There was no one here to build upon it and create a blossoming future for other people, so we hit the ground running.”

On Juneteenth, they broke ground for their Southern-Agrarian Training Center under their company Ancestral Be-kin, which is located on the farmland. The goal of the center is to preserve the Black agrarian legacy by teaching sustainable agricultural and land-based skills to young Black farmers and youth. Their vision is to bridge the gap between older Black farmers and the next generation of those interested in farming and agrarian living. 

The center will be a space that merges generations of Black farmers and cultural workers. It will give student groups and interns the opportunity to have several days to be mentored and learn about food injustice and sustainable agriculture. The Springses want this to be a learning space regardless of experience levels.

“This little slice of real estate will be here to help other folks,” Kevin said.“This land has liberated us, and it has allowed us to continue to try and give that to other folks.”

In their research, the couple discovered that the farm, which had been in Kevin’s family for four generations, was a central Mississippi farm that was operated cooperatively by Black families. The families shared farming resources and expertise in the early to mid-20th century. 

In 2017, Kevin attended a Winston County Self Help Cooperative meeting and expressed to the local elder farmer that he didn’t know anything about farming and pleaded for help. The couple relied heavily on the group’s experience and wisdom for the successful development of the farm’s operations. 

“We’ve had a lot of support from a lot of people,” Kevin said. “It may seem like it’s just me and Teresa, but it’s definitely a group effort.”

Today, the Springses are growing the farm and sharing information with a younger generation, just as they learned from their elders at the start of their farming journey. 

They have created an “Education Exchange” which allows them to teach college students about Black land stewardship. They also mentor youth groups at a local church and teach them the basics of gardening and farming. 

“A lot of times I apologize to young people because I feel that we are leaving them a wounded world,” an emotional Teresa said. “That’s why TKO Farming started.”

For more information about TKO Farming and to support the build of the Southern Agrarian Training Center, visit GoFundMe.

The post Attala County farmers open training center to teach farming to youth appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi’s former flag with a Confederate emblem in its canton was an issue — sometimes a major one — in state politics and elections for decades before it was officially changed via a vote of the Republican-led Legislature and signature of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in 2020.

The Jim Crow era-adopted banner appears to have faded as a major issue as the new magnolia-themed banner flies over the state.

But in his effort to energize the right wing of the state GOP to oust incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, state Sen. Chris McDaniel appears to be trying to revive the issue.

But he’s got to be careful, a little more surreptitious, in his approach as he wants to keep favor with his former political foe turned majordomo, Gov. Reeves. Any slings and arrows Hosemann would face on the flag change would apply to Reeves as well — along with many fellow Republican lawmakers down ticket. They had publicly called for voters, not lawmakers, to decide the issue before doing an about-face and facilitating the legislative change.

Thus, McDaniel appears for now to be letting a surrogate — a fellow state senator — publicly broach the issue.

Sen. Kathy Chism, a Republican from New Albany, appeared outside her district at a political rally “on behalf of … Chris McDaniel” in Tishomingo County in early June. As reported by the Mississippi Free Press, Chism endorsed not only McDaniel, but the old flag, saying “a lot of our people fought and died under that flag.” It’s unclear what fighting, dying or people she’s referring to, as the old flag was adopted in 1894, long after the end of the Civil War. In the past, Chism has also incorrectly claimed the old flag was designed by a Black Confederate soldier in her defense of the state’s Lost Cause banner, which was in fact designed by a white supremacist legislator.

Both Hosemann and Reeves caught some flak after the Legislature initiated the flag change, even though neither took an early leadership role in the effort. Both said repeatedly that voters, not lawmakers, should decide the issue. Old flag supporters said the two Republicans reneged on this policy — Hosemann helping the House-led final legislative push through the Senate and Reeves signing the measure into law.

McDaniel fought the flag change in the Legislature, and after it was changed he helped lead an effort to force a referendum that would have allowed voters to re-adopt the old flag or choose a new one. This “Let Mississippi Vote” effort was led by one of McDaniel’s top political and campaign lieutenants, preacher and political consultant Dan Carr of Gulfport.

But the state Supreme Court in 2021 nullified the state’s ballot initiative process. Two efforts to revive it in the Legislature have failed with many, including McDaniel, blaming Hosemann and one of his top lieutenants for failure to adopt a new process.

McDaniel declined comment on the flag as a campaign issue, or whether he approved of Chism’s stance on his behalf. Hosemann likewise declined comment.

The flag issue has long divided Mississippians, and in recent years the state GOP as well. Any effort by McDaniel to revive it would appear to be aimed at energizing the far right of the party, then hoping for relatively low Republican primary turnout from moderates, independents or party crossover voters.

It’s a divisive strategy, using a divisive issue.

McDaniel in comments on social media in 2017 deemed Mississippi unity on a flag as a lost cause.

He wrote: “The idea that Mississippi ‘needs a flag we can all be proud of’ is ludicrous — it’s an impossible task. Seriously, half the liberals in our republic consider the American flag to be oppressive. Stop trying to pacify them; they will NEVER be satisfied.”

The post Is the Confederate flag still an issue in Mississippi elections? Chris McDaniel campaign tries to revive it appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rankin County deputies accused of beating and torturing two men earlier this year have been fired, Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced Tuesday. 

“We understand that the alleged actions of these deputies has eroded the public’s trust in our department,” Bailey said in a prepared statement shared during a news conference. 

“Rest assured that we will work diligently to restore that trust.”

The night of Jan. 24, six deputies conducting a drug investigation raided a Braxton home where Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker were living. In a $400 million lawsuit against the county and sheriff’s department, the men said they were unlawfully imprisoned and tortured for 90 minutes, culminating in a deputy placing his service weapon in Jenkins’ mouth and pulling the trigger. 

Bailey said the deputies were initially placed on administrative leave pending findings from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. Recent developments and findings from an internal investigation led to the deputies’ termination Friday, he said. 

The sheriff did not name the deputies, but the lawsuit identifies three of them as Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin and Christian Dedmon. 

The county, sheriff and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit have not yet responded to the lawsuit complaint. 

On Tuesday, Bailey said actions have been taken to ensure the sheriff’s office serves and protects the public and ensure that all citizens’ rights are protected. 

Those actions include a detailed analysis of policy, procedure and training of staff. The department has also hired a full-time compliance officer to monitor daily operations and ensure compliance with state and federal law, he said. 

“It is my privilege to serve the citizens of Rankin County as Sheriff and it has been my daily goal to run one of the best departments in the State of Mississippi,” Bailey said in the statement. 

“I believe in my heart that this department remains one of the best departments in our state and I am committed to doing everything in my power to keep this department on a correct path moving forward.”

The post Rankin sheriff fires deputies accused of beating, torturing two men appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hospital CEOs are leaving at increasingly higher rates in Mississippi since the pandemic.

The state’s hospital CEO turnover rate was 17% in 2021, according to the most recently available data from the American College of Healthcare Executives. 

The percentage has been creeping upward since 2019. It went from 10%, considered a “low” turnover rate by the ACHE, to 13% in 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and shot up 4 more percentage points the next year.

Now, Mississippi’s turnover rate is “high,” according to the organization. 

The percentage of hospital CEO turnover has fluctuated over the past decade — Mississippi’s highest turnover rate was 27% in 2014. But Tim Moore, president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said recent numbers are concerning. 

“Mostly, I think it’s a testament to how difficult the job is now,” he said. 

Just this month, the CEOs of Singing River Health System on the Gulf Coast and St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson, two of the biggest hospital systems in Mississippi, resigned from their positions to lead hospitals elsewhere. 

Moore, who was a hospital executive himself for more than two decades, said the job is nonstop and has only gotten more demanding since the pandemic.

“There’s no question it had a huge impact, and a lot of that goes back to the financial perspective,” he said. “You can't get to the position where your revenues exceed expenses. There's no business that can survive that. So that's the situation they’re in currently and trying to figure out.”

Hospitals are struggling in Mississippi and across the country, decimated by the pandemic. The Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform puts a third of the state’s rural hospitals at risk of closure within a few years. 

And as the state of health care gets increasingly precarious, one study found that CEO exits nationwide hit a four-year-high in January of this year.

Data from the ACHE show that nationally, hospital CEO turnover rates have generally remained steady from 2012 to 2021, aside from 2013 when the percentage shot up to 20%. In 2021, the most recently available year, the rate was 16%. 

The organization also found that hospital CEOs were most concerned about workforce challenges, which includes personnel shortages and staff burnout. 

Doctors and nurses have gotten more expensive, Moore said, and harder to come by. Data from Moore’s organization show that Mississippi’s nurse vacancy and turnover rates have skyrocketed in the past decade.

“You're just … you're up against another wall,” he said. 

The post The revolving door at Mississippi’s hospitals: CEO turnover rate is high appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dear Reader,

Mississippi, our home state that showcases plenty to be proud of and celebrate, also faces some pretty dire and complex problems.

Federal and state prosecutors are still investigating the state’s welfare scandal, what some have labeled the largest embezzlement scheme in state history in which tens of millions of dollars intended for our poorest residents were misspent or squandered by powerful, wealthy and politically connected people.

Our state’s already weak hospital system is continuing to show signs of impending failure, with many rural hospitals on the brink of closure and even large metropolitan hospitals forced to cut critical health care services and lay off employees to make ends meet.

Residents of Jackson, our state’s capital and largest city, lost running water for days last fall and may never be able to trust the safety and reliability of the water system again. The state as a whole has the highest homicide rate in the nation, our state’s young people are moving away at a troubling pace, and our economy is struggling to keep up with our immediate neighbors.

Voters this year have a chance to address all of these problems and more at the polls in August and November. Candidates for the state’s most powerful elected positions are already sharing their ideas for how to create a better future for all Mississippians.

Mississippi is one of just three states with gubernatorial elections this year, meaning we’ll get lots of national attention in the campaign for governor. But we also have seven other crucial statewide offices up for grabs, two key regional commission elections, as well as 174 legislative races and district attorney races. All of these people will be elected by Mississippians later this year to positions where they absolutely could improve problems and lives across the state.

We’re already becoming overloaded with rhetoric from both sides of the political aisle, making it difficult to understand which ideas from candidates are real or feasible. We have critical questions for those seeking office, but it’s often impossible to sift through talking points to understand which of those ideas could be most effective for us.

That’s why we wanted to create this voter guide, where you can find most everything you need to know about our 2023 statewide elections. We’ll keep asking every major candidate for office this year key questions about how they would use their positions of power for good, and we’ll present their answers in an easy-to-digest way.

Here, you will also find basic information about how to vote, as well as critical voting deadlines. We believe that civic engagement is the most effective way we can help move Mississippi forward. We hope this will be a helpful resource as you navigate these next few weeks before Election Day, but we want to know how it could be improved.

If you don’t see something you’d like to know, view our full coverage. There, you’ll find the most robust, comprehensive coverage of Mississippi politics. If you still have questions or suggestions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

And don’t forget to vote on Aug. 8, and then again on Nov. 7!

Adam Ganucheau,
Editor-in-Chief

The post Letter from the editor: Your guide to the 2023 Mississippi election appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Department of Education says its hands are tied when it comes to the $100 million in additional funding allocated to school districts this year because of disagreements in the Legislature about how to distribute it. 

After a push this 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, there has been confusion regarding exactly how to calculate enrollment, leading to questions for superintendents as they make budgets for the upcoming school year. 

“We have not been given a clear direction on how it is that we are to calculate how we divide up the $100 million,” Interim state Superintendent Mike Kent told Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Department of Education defines enrollment as the “number of students belonging to a school unit at any given time.” The definition goes on to explain that enrollment is an “ever-changing” number, meaning that calculations of enrollment are tied to a specific time period. 

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 said he originally thought the extra $100 million was to be distributed based on enrollment in months 2-3 of a school year, similar to how students are counted for the public school funding formula. However, when he followed up with the Legislative Budget Office after the session ended, the office said it needed to check and would get back to him. Two proposals emerged, one from the Senate to count enrollment using months 1-8 of the school year, and a plan from the House to count it based on months 2-3. 

“Our intention with the $100 million language in the appropriations bill was to disburse this money to school districts on the average daily enrollment,” said Senate Education Chair Dennis DeBar, R-Leaksville. “I think the language as we crafted it was clear, and our intention on the Senate side is to follow the language in the law. I don’t believe we should be deviating from what the language in the statute says.”

During the session, House leaders refused to add additional money to the school funding formula after the Senate brought forward a proposal to rework it. Though on Tuesday, a source close to House leadership told Mississippi Today it was always the intent of the House to distribute this separate money using the same method as the school funding formula, which uses months 2-3. The source said there is a standard that has always been followed and the Legislature needs to continue to follow that precedent. 

Kent said MDE ran calculations multiple times to show legislators how the different proposals would play out. He said the difference between the options was “negligible.” 

Despite this, Kent said the department cannot proceed without official guidance from the Legislative Budget Office. 

“We are, to a great extent, a flow-through agency … and there are always strict guidelines about how that money flows,” he said.  

He added that, while the difference between the options is small, it’s enough that if the department “arbitrarily” made a decision, “there would be people that would have a problem with it.” 

Budget bills take effect July 1, giving the Legislature just a few days to resolve the matter before the education department is supposed to start distributing the money. 

“The language in the statute in the appropriations was clear that the money should be disbursed based upon the number of students throughout the school year,” said DeBar, the senate education chair. “I expect that the Department of Education will follow the law and disburse that money as of July 1.” 

Kent said this delay was a point of stress for district superintendents because it limits their ability to budget for the upcoming school year and get new projects approved by their school boards. To address this, Kent wrote an email earlier this month to superintendents explaining the dueling proposals and gave them an estimate of $236 per student. 

“The districts were so eager to know the number because there are programs and projects and personnel that every district wanted to do, but they needed to know, am I talking about hiring two additional teachers or three? Can I build six classrooms or twelve classrooms?” he said. 

The post Legislative back and forth creates confusion about the additional $100 million for public schools appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After Mississippi Today published an emailed tirade by state Democratic Party Chairman Tyree Irving that some fear could jeopardize $250,000 in funding for the state party, one of the top Democratic statewide candidates is calling for Irving’s removal as party boss.

Shuwaski Young, the lone Democrat running for secretary of state this year, said the state Democratic Party’s executive committee should promptly remove Irving from his post.

“It is my hope — and I hate it has to come to this — that Tyree Irving will be removed as chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party for the sake of Mississippi and the collective futures of our residents,” Young told Mississippi Today in an interview late Monday. “I don’t see any other path forward.”

Emails published Monday showed that Irving sharply criticized Andre Wagner, the state party’s executive director and No. 2 leader of the party, in a note that was sent to three Democratic National Committee staffers. Shortly before Irving sent the email, the DNC officials had committed to sending the state party $250,000 to boost political programs and support candidates “up and down the ballot.”

READ MORE: Democrats fear state leader’s tirade will jeopardize $250K commitment from national party

Wagner had sought in an email to clarify Irving’s previous comments about how the state party should spend that $250,000 from the national party. Then Irving, a 77-year-old former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge who has been party chairman since 2020, insisted that he alone ran the state party and that Wagner was “out of order.”

“Mr. Wagner, you do not speak for the chair, and you are out of order,” Irving wrote. “I am an accomplished jurist. I know and understand things that you cannot know or understand because: you do not have the education level, you do not possess the personal or vicarious experience that I have, and you know nothing about the historical political landscape of Mississippi. You are not in a position to speak for the Mississippi Democratic Party or say how the Mississippi Democratic Party will spend any funds without being granted that authority to speak, and it has not been granted to you. You are a salaried employee and nothing else. You need to find your place and stay in it.”

Wagner, in response, forwarded the exchange to other state party leaders and predicted that the national party would pull its commitment to send the money to the state party. Several other Democratic Party officials told Mississippi Today they shared Wagner’s concern.

Young, who faces incumbent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson in November, said on Monday that Irving’s comments were “shocking and unacceptable,” and that several high-ranking state Democratic officials felt the same way.

“The chairman’s main job is to fundraise and to support candidates up and down the ticket,” Young said. “When you have a chairman acting in this outrageous way, it makes people not want to invest into the party. It makes people not want to donate to candidates. And politically, it makes it harder for Democrats to win. When we can’t operate in a coordinated fashion because our leader can’t respect other people, it hurts every Democrat in the state. We have to be able to have our house in order, and that’s clearly not the case.”

The process of removing Irving from the chairmanship would not be easy. The party chair is the only individual who can schedule meetings of the 80-person Democratic executive committee. Currently, there is no scheduled executive committee meeting on the books. However, 25% of the committee (21 members) may call a meeting with or without the chair’s approval.

The Mississippi Democratic Party constitution does not specify the process for removing a party chair mid-term, but changes to leadership or the party’s constitution itself can be made with a two-thirds vote of all present members. If all 80 members showed up to any special meeting, 54 votes could remove the chairman.

Young, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022, said Irving “is not doing the job Mississippi needs from him.”

“As far as I can tell, Tyree Irving is a man who has never said one single positive word about any candidate on the ticket, myself included,” Young said. “He does not reflect all Democrats in Mississippi. He sure doesn’t reflect me and who I am. It’s important to have someone in that position who respects people. But the party itself is not being led with the party’s own principles, when it comes to respecting all people and being able to properly conduct business without fear of being sabotaged. How can we win like that?” 

The post Statewide candidate calls for ouster of Mississippi Democratic Party chairman appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Food Fight! appeared first on Mississippi Today.

JUNE 27, 1991

Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced his retirement from the high court. President George H.W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to take Marshall’s place. 

Two years later, Marshall died and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of previous justices. 

“I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust,” he said in an interview before his death. “We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.”

The post On this day in 1991 appeared first on Mississippi Today.