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About 40 protesters gathered Monday, Oct. 16, at the International Museum of Muslim Culture in Jackson in protest of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Delana Tavakol, an Iranian-American from Jackson, yelled “Free, free Palestine!” into a bullhorn after wiping away tears. The group’s message was no ground invasion, no occupation, and free Palestine. Speakers from Jackson’s Muslim and Christian communities spoke at the protest, citing the genocide and inhumanity in the conflict.

On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on Israeli towns during a Jewish holiday, causing casualties and abductions. Israel responded with airstrikes and declaring a state of war. As reported by the Associated Press, the Hamas attack resulted in over 1,400 Israeli casualties, with the majority being civilians. Additionally, at least 155 individuals, including children, were taken into Gaza by Hamas, marking the deadliest conflict for Israel since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria.

In Gaza, officials said the Palestinian death toll is at 2,750.

Thirty U.S. citizens also have been killed and 13 remain unaccounted for.

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Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor, got thrown off script Saturday when a DJ, in the maze of tailgating tents at Jackson State University’s homecoming game, grabbed a microphone to cut him off and ask a question.

“Are you going to continue to support HBCUs?” the man asked Presley. “Not just the first year?”

Presley, who also campaigned at an Alcorn State University game last weekend, responded to cheers and applause: “I’ll be back at Alcorn and back here next year, I promise you that.”

The impromptu back-and-forth at one of the state’s largest football events of the year was a highlight of an hours-long campaign Saturday — just 24 days before Election Day. Presley, who faces Gov. Tate Reeves on Nov. 7, shook hundreds of hands and took dozens of selfies at the JSU game in an attempt to supercharge voter turnout for the upcoming general election.

The university is a pillar of the state’s capital city, where more than 80% of the residents are Black. If Presley wants a shot at becoming the first Democrat elected governor since 1999, mobilizing a significant portion of the metro area — and Black voters who make up the base of the Democratic Party — will be crucial.

“Mississippi is 40% Black, and I think as a candidate for governor it’s important that you show up and not expect Black voters to vote for you, but you earn their vote,” Presley told reporters over the weekend.

One hurdle Presley, who has served the past 15 years as north Mississippi’s utility regulator, faces is he’s never appeared on a statewide ballot, and having low name ID in central Mississippi could prove problematic for his electoral chances.

State Sen. Sollie Norwood, a Democrat from Jackson and noted Jackson State alumnus, served as the primary liaison on Saturday between the throng of fans and the Democratic candidate because he believes there still could be capital city residents who don’t know enough about Presley.

“We had an overwhelming crowd of folks that wanted to see him,” Norwood told Mississippi Today. “And I haven’t met anyone today who was not impressed with him or not impressed with his message.”

Presley, a 46-year-old white man from northeast Mississippi who attended Mississippi State University, may be an unlikely figure to rub elbows with the university’s alumni at the homecoming game.

But some JSU fans who interacted with the Democratic nominee told Mississippi Today Presley’s personal story resonated with them. Presley has talked extensively this cycle about growing up with little money to a single mother, and some voters say they hope he’ll enact policies that benefit all Mississippians.

“He’s a small-town guy that grew up similar to how I did,” Stanley Johnson said. “I’ve done my homework on him, and I feel like he’ll keep his word.”

One of those promises to the fans was that if he were elected governor in three weeks, Presley would use his new position to advocate for more state dollars going toward Jackson State University and other Mississippi HBCUs.

JSU’s football stadium sits across from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state’s only academic research hospital. Pointing to both institutions on Saturday, the Democrat said he wanted a capital city where the two organizations helped grow Jackson.

“Those are what could be two economic engines for the city of Jackson, and I believe the state has good reason to invest in both because both are publicly owned institutions,” Presley said. “That is a way we could bring economic development to Jackson, and it’s just the right thing to do.”

Presley’s campaign visit to the game also spurred people to share feelings that the university and other historically Black colleges are getting shortchanged by its current state leaders, who are white Republicans.

Jeff Payne, who took his picture with Presley, said he doesn’t remember many statewide candidates campaigning at JSU games in years past and said he hopes Presley’s visit is more than a one-time photo opp.

“I’m looking for change in Mississippi, and I’m looking for someone who cares about HBCUs in our state. And I think Brandon fits that,” Payne said.

The post At Jackson State homecoming, Brandon Presley pledges to advocate for Mississippi HBCUs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with artist Carlton Turner. Turner works across the country as a performing artist, arts advocate, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant, and facilitator.

Carlton is also founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production. The MCCP (Sipp Culture) uses arts and agriculture to support rural community, cultural, and economic development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife Brandi and three children.

The post Mississippi Stories: Carlton Turner appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Oct. 15, 1883

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 as unconstitutional, saying the government could not control the prejudices of people or companies. 

Black Americans had sued theaters, hotels and transit companies, which refused them admittance, but Justice Joseph Bradley wrote in an 8-1 decision that “legislative power extends only to the subject of slavery … and the denial of equal accommodations in inns, public conveyances and places of public amusement … imposes no badge of slavery or involuntary servitude upon the party.” 

Bishop Henry McNeil Turner raged that the “world has never witnessed such barbarous laws entailed upon a free people as have grown out of” this ruling, which “has made the ballot of the black man a parody, his citizenship a nullity and his freedom a burlesque. It has engendered the bitterest feeling between the whites and blacks, and resulted in the deaths of thousands, who would have been living and enjoying life today.” 

In a dissent, Justice John Harlan decried such discrimination, saying the goal of government is to “mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political.” Harlan called such discrimination a “badge of servitude, the imposition of which Congress may prevent under its power, through appropriate legislation, to enforce the 13th Amendment.” 

Black Americans would have to wait eight decades before Congress passed another civil rights law barring discrimination in public accommodations and employment.

The post On this day in 1883 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Gov. Tate Reeves and legislative leaders, especially House Speaker Philip Gunn, did a lot of chest thumping with the passage of a personal income tax cut in 2022.

The tax cut appears to be doing what was projected, at least in terms of generating less revenue to fund the state’s vital services.

Through nine months of calendar year 2023 — the first year of the phase-in of that much ballyhooed tax cut — the state has collected $276.9 million less in personal income taxes than were collected during the same period in 2022.

In 2022, the tax cut was touted as the largest in state history: a $525 million cut in the personal income tax over a four-year period. Based on tax collections during the first nine months of the phase in of the tax cut, it appears that the impact on state revenue might be more than the estimated $525 million.

The only problem with the tax cut at the time of passage, Reeves and Gunn argued, was that it was not big enough. They wanted the total elimination of the income tax, which accounts for about one-third of the total state general fund revenue. Some, most notably Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate Finance Committee Chair Josh Harkins, successfully resisted efforts to eliminate the tax.

Granted, other factors might be contributing to the reduction in income tax cut revenue this year. But with record unemployment, which Reeves also likes to tout, and personal income growth that has occurred not only in Mississippi but nationwide, it is difficult to think of many reasons other than the 2022 income tax cut as the reason for the decrease in income tax collections.

Even as that massive tax cut is being phased in, the two candidates for governor, the incumbent Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, already are proposing more tax cuts. Reeves still wants to phase in a complete elimination of the income tax, an estimated cost of $2 billion annually in today’s dollars. Presley wants to eliminate or reduce the 7% sales tax on groceries, which is the nation’s highest statewide sales tax on food. Research in 2019 by the campaign of Jim Hood, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor that year, estimated that the complete elimination of the grocery tax would cost the state $327 million annually.

As the state approaches the Nov. 7 general election, perhaps a closer examination of the 2022 tax cut is warranted.

Leading up to the 2022 tax cut, Reeves and Gunn argued that cuts in the personal income tax would result in more and not less state revenue. They contended Mississippians would use the money from their tax cuts to buy items, thus resulting in more state revenue from the 7% sales tax.

Through nine months of the phase-in of the tax cut, it does not appear that is happening. While the state has collected $276.9 million less in income tax revenue than was collected during the same time in 2022, only $83.3 million more in sales tax revenue has been garnered. That is a net loss of nearly $200 million in revenue for calendar year 2023, based on a compilation of the monthly revenue reports from the Legislative Budget Committee staff.

If that trend continues, at some point the next governor and Legislature will be grappling with where to make budget cuts.

According to reports published by the University Research Center in 2021 and 2022, the more effective way to grow state revenue, the economy and the state population is by expanding Medicaid instead of by cutting taxes.

Comparing the numbers from two separate reports, expanding Medicaid — which would result in significantly more than $1 billion annually from the federal government to provide health insurance to primarily the working poor — would have a much greater impact in Mississippi than eliminating the income tax. It should be pointed out the study at the time specifically probed a House plan being considered to not only eliminate the income tax cut but also reduce the grocery tax and car tags while increasing the sales tax on other items.

Expanding Medicaid would result in higher wage growth, more state revenue, a stronger economy and even more population growth, based on a comparison of the two University Research Center reports.

Just looking at jobs and wage growth by comparing the two reports, by the fourth year of Medicaid expansion, 11,081 jobs with an additional $812.4 million in personal income would be generated. For the tax cut plan, 1,815 new jobs and an additional $85.8 million in personal income would be generated.

As often has been reported, Reeves touts he is a numbers guy. Those are the numbers.

The post That historic income tax cut has yet to provide economic growth that supporters predicted appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that Sophia Paffenroth has joined the community health team at Mississippi Today.

Paffenroth, a native of New York, will report on women’s and children’s issues in Mississippi.

Earlier this year, she graduated with a master’s in journalism from Northeastern University, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Boston Scope. Her multimedia work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association and the New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

She has also worked for the global nonprofit Girl Rising and the documentary group The Disability Justice Project.

“To cover a beat I care so deeply about in a state that needs it now more than ever is a joy and an honor. I couldn’t be more excited to be making connections on the ground and settling into a community I hope to serve,” Paffenroth said. “Mississippi Today is filling in the gaps in coverage statewide on topics with profound social impact, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to join this team.”

Community Health Team Editor Kate Royals oversees the health team.

“Sophia is a talented journalist with a real passion for her beat. I am so excited for her to join our team and cover this crucial topic in a state where health indicators for women and children rank at the bottom,” Royals said. “I know she will do a great job telling the stories that need to be told.”

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HERNANDO — Gov. Tate Reeves rolled up in his blacked-out SUV to a DeSoto County church earlier this month to meet with conservative voters who felt uninspired about his first term in office.

The closed-door meeting, held in a traditionally GOP stronghold county where Reeves earned 61% of the vote last election, provided some of those voters a chance to quiz the governor about his decisions the past few years and his ideas for the future. But importantly, it offered the governor an opportunity to mend relationships with members of a critical voting bloc he must win over to be reelected in November.

Reeves, in a chaotic first term in the Governor’s Mansion, has regularly drawn criticism from right-wing Republicans — voters he’ll need support from to win reelection in November. Their list of frustrations with the governor has grown quite extensive.

First, he issued mask mandates and partial business lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, a move medical experts recommended but voters in the right wing of the party thought was unnecessary and a ploy to force the government’s will on the people.

Next, after years of promises to let voters decide whether to change the state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem, Reeves gave a half-hearted apology to his uber-conservative supporters before signing a bill that furled the old flag for good.

And perhaps most relevant to this bloc of voters today, Reeves mostly rode the fence in the 2023 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, when longtime conservative icon Chris McDaniel was challenging Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the Republican incumbent who many conservatives panned as a Democrat in disguise. Hosemann eventually won that bitter race, and right-wing conservatives lost their leader in McDaniel.

READ MORE: Top GOP brass works to keep peace after Gov. Tate Reeves opines on lieutenant governor primary

Reeves, first elected to statewide office in 2003, was not a product of the Tea Party movement like McDaniel, and now that the Jones County legislator isn’t appearing on the November ballot, it could give the far-right bloc a reason to stay home on Election Day. Low turnout among that base of Republican voters could spell disaster for Reeves, who faces a formidable challenge from Democrat Brandon Presley on Nov. 7.

Inside the closed-door meeting at The Summit Church on Oct. 2, a handful of conservative voters quizzed Reeves on his track record and other issues. Don Abernathy, one of the meeting’s organizers, told Mississippi Today that Reeves was there to meet with so-called “McDaniel conservatives” to energize far-right voters ahead of the November election.

“The purpose was to get some of those people in a room with the governor,” Abernathy said. “People, of course, are going to get disenfranchised a bit after going through a bitter primary like we had.”

One attendee, according to Abernathy, asked the governor a question about the former state flag at the meeting, though he said the flag was not a major component of the event and couldn’t remember how the governor responded to the question.

“The guy who asked the question said he wasn’t upset about the new flag — he was just upset about the process that replaced it,” Abernathy said.

Other discussed topics in the meeting, Abernathy said, included medical marijuana, the state income tax and how Reeves would work with the supermajority of Republicans in the House and Senate — all major priorities for the ultraconservative faction. 

Clifton Carroll, a Reeves spokesman, said in a statement that the governor is traveling all over the state and meeting with a “wide range of Mississippians who are worried that Brandon Presley has sold out our state to get $10 million from out of state liberals to run his campaign.”

It’s unclear what $10 million figure Carroll is referencing, and he didn’t answer questions asking how the governor responded to the question about the state flag or if the governor felt like he had a positive relationship with the far right faction. 

But with the election less than a month away — and with some polling indicating Reeves is still under the 50% mark — the governor must feel some urgency to boost enthusiasm among conservative voters.

In an interview this week with Mississippi Today, McDaniel said that he believes conservative voters are generally dissatisfied, but he chalks it up to the “strange political environment we’re in” nationally and in the state, not specifically about Reeves or any other candidate.

“I am supporting the Republican in the race, obviously,” McDaniel said of the November election. “As far as any official endorsement or anything, Gov. Reeves and I have not discussed that. The last time I talked with him was about three weeks ago.”

Less than a month from the Nov. 7 election, though, Reeves’ schedule is revealing. He’s waited weeks to announce plans to participate in a televised debate with Presley, and he waited months to unveil a plan to address financial woes with Mississippi’s hospitals.

Instead, the first-term governor has spent time trying to shore up support among a conservative base that suffered a stinging defeat during the August Republican primary. 

The pressing questions now are: Will those voters turn out, and how badly could it hurt Reeves if they stay home?

“There is an overall unease about everything,” McDaniel said. “There’s some dissatisfaction out there, but not necessarily with him but just the political climate … There is a chance that could equate to lower turnout (of conservative voters). Low turnout would be trouble for everyone. Our models are usually based on having good turnout.”

Mississippi Today reporter Geoff Pender contributed to this report.

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