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.”
Mississippi Supreme Court Justices heard arguments Thursday that will help them decide the constitutionality of House Bill 1020 – the controversial law that places appointed judges in Hinds County and sets up a separate court system within Jackson.
Attorneys for a lawsuit challenging HB 1020 say it violates the Mississippi Constitution by preventing county residents from electing circuit court judges, and that the Capitol Complex Improvement District court created by the law doesn’t meet constitutional requirements.
The state’s attorneys say no constitutional issues exist and that a lower court’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit should stand.
“This simply boils down to policy disagreement,” said Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who is representing the attorney general and governor.
Cliff Johnson, an attorney for the appellants from the MacArthur Justice Center, said there are limited exceptions of when circuit court judges are not elected by the people, such as when the governor appoints someone if the judge is disqualified or unable to serve.
He argued that state statute has been used to appoint judges, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, but appointing temporary judges alongside elected ones in Hinds County is not constitutional.
Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who is representing the attorney general and governor. pleads his case regarding HB1020 before the Mississippi Supreme Court, Thursday, July 6, 2023 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Stewart said an appointed judge is not the same as an elected circuit judge, so they don’t have to be elected nor do they receive the same protections given to circuit court judges.
HB 1020 has been discussed as a response to addressing a court backlog in Hinds County, but Johnson said the law makes no claim that a crowded docket exists. Regardless, the reason for the law doesn’t matter because the circumstances don’t justify the actions the Legislature is taking – even in an emergency situation.
“This is exactly the type of situation we should be careful of,” Johnson said.
He noted that the Legislature can address an overcrowded docket without violating the constitution and taking away Hinds County residents’ ability to elect judges, such as by adding elected judges or having the county court help. The Supreme Court can also play a role, Johnson said.
Attorney Cliff Johnson speaks to the media after presenting his case regarding HB1020 before the Mississippi Supreme Court, Thursday, July 6, 2023 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
A “far reaching” implication for siding with the state would be taking power away from Hinds County voters and giving it to the Legislature, Johnson said, and he wondered what precedent would be set for its ability to approve appointed judges in other circumstances.
Another topic raised during oral arguments was about the legitimacy of the Capitol Complex Improvement District court.
State constitution places limits on inferior courts created by the Legislature, including requirements that the court be supervised by another and they have the ability to appeal, which the appellants argue is not the case for the CCID court.
Stewart argued the CCID court resembles a municipal court and meets constitutional requirements, including the ability to appeal.
Justice James Kitchens asked where in HB 1020’s language does it address that the CCID court has appealability, and Stewart replied that existing state law for municipal courts grants the right for appeals to the county court.
Kitchens asked whether municipal courts currently operate like the CCID court, including having the power to send people charged with misdemeanors to the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.
Justice David Ishee, a former municipal judge, said the requirement is for the court to sentence those charged with misdemeanors to a county jail.
Absent from the oral arguments was Chief Justice Michael Randolph, who recused himself Monday from the appeal because he is a named party in the lawsuit.
HB 1020 directs Randolph to appoint four judges to a Capitol Complex Improvement District court within the Hinds County circuit court. The law was set to go into effect July 1, but it has been paused in another lawsuit in federal court.
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
During oral arguments, his attorney Mark Nelson said the chief justice’s only interest is to protect his office and the court as an institution.
Nelson said Hinds Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas and U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate were correct to remove Randolph from the lawsuit being appealed and a separate federal one on the basis of judicial immunity, which is the idea that judges can’t be sued for doing their jobs.
Nelson said appointments are a judicial act covered by immunity. Stewart, the attorney for the state, told the justices to think about the consequences of their ruling, which could mean that the chief justice can’t make any appointments and that past ones could be ruled invalid.
Johnson said the judicial immunity doctrine applies to protection from liability for monetary damages, but not for lawsuits seeking prospective relief such as declaratory or injunctive relief.
Dorothy Triplett, one of the three Jackson women who are appellants in the case, said today was the first time she had ever visited the Mississippi Supreme Court, and she didn’t expect the lawsuit she joined to go so far.
“I just know I believe in the right to vote and elect judges as stated in the constitution,” she said after the oral arguments.
A day that began with clear, blue skies for LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney ended with destruction during nightfall, when a March 24 tornado swept through Amory.
A nightmare followed the terror of that night as Gladney soon realized her path to recovery would not be easy. After experiencing insufficient help from her insurance company, and little from the federal government, she became one of thousands who have relied on volunteer assistance to recover from a disaster.
The night of the storm, Gladney sat in her brown recliner listening to the weather forecaster track the storm. She assumed the tornado would not cause substantial damage to Amory based on past times when the tornado did not touch down.
But once the forecaster started praying for Amory, reality sunk in. Gladney’s granddaughter called, asking if Gladney could make it to her house. Then the power went out.
Gladney, who had knee surgery just a week before, struggled to move to find shelter in her home.
Soon her grandson, Rafael, rushed into the house and assisted her, along with her cane, behind a couch. He placed her on the floor and threw a mattress off a bed to cover Gladney, her husband and her younger son, Leonard.
A couple of minutes after Rafael left to protect his own family, sirens blared, high winds roared outside, and the carport’s tin roof in the backyard began to crumble. Leonard gripped Gladney’s hand for comfort as an unsettling atmosphere lingered over the family.
“After a while, it was all over,” Gladney said as her voice trailed off. “It was all over.”
Residents are still in the process of rebuilding, 95 days after a series of deadly tornadoes and strong thunderstorms swept across Mississippi – killing at least 25 people and leaving a 100-mile trail of destruction.
Gladney is one of those residents in Amory.
The morning following the storm, her daughter, Tujuana Hampton, pleaded with Gladney to leave her home, but she refused. It took Hampton two days to get Gladney out of the house, insisting she could either walk or be carried.
“When we got outside, she turned and looked at the damage to her house. She almost passed out,” Hampton stated.
Two unrooted trees rested on top of Gladney’s home, parts of the ceiling were damaged, and the foundation of her home had shifted.
LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney at her Amory home on Thursday, June 15, 2023, where a recent tornado caused a large tree to fall on and severely damage her home. Gladney is in the process of moving out of her tornado damaged home. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
She said she found herself stuck with little to no assistance from FEMA and her insurer.
“FEMA told her since she has insurance and, if the company gave her over $40,000, then there was nothing they could do to help her. But $40,000 wouldn’t even cover half of what her house and yard (repairs) would cost,” Hampton told Mississippi Today.
FEMA spokesperson Mike Wade confirmed that if a survivor receives $41,000 from insurance, any further FEMA support is considered a duplication of assistance, which is not allowed.
FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program meets basic needs and supplements disaster recovery efforts, but it cannot replace insurance or compensate for all disaster losses. Therefore, the amount of financial assistance an individual or household may receive under FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program is limited.
Michael Richmond-Crum, the director of personal lines for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said insurance companies have a responsibility to their customers to act urgently for covered losses following a disaster. However, many states are facing a growing affordability and availability crisis in property insurance markets.
“2022 was the eighth consecutive year in a row that the U.S. suffered at least 10 catastrophes, causing more than a billion dollars in losses each. Natural disaster losses from 2020-2022 in the U.S. exceeded $275 billion in 2022 dollars, which is the highest ever three-year total for U.S. insurers,” Richmond-Crum told Mississippi Today.
Even in federally declared disaster areas like Amory, residents like Gladney are left to rely on volunteer organizations for help in recovering.
On March 27, Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based evangelical Christian relief organization, deployed one disaster relief unit to Rolling Fork and another to Amory to assist homeowners impacted by the destruction.
Through its mobile home replacement program, 38 families from Mississippi towns and surrounding areas have been approved as of June 7. Six mobile homes were delivered to the families two months after the tornado, and others are actively in the application process.
“A lot of the families we are helping are severely underinsured or don’t have the resources to get back into their house. They are still eligible to apply for the mobile home program,”Luther Harrison, vice president of North America Ministries, told Mississippi Today.
Partnering with local churches in the community, the organization was directed to residents in the neighborhoods that needed assistance. The organization tarped damaged roofs, cut up fallen trees, and cleared debris from yards.
“We know they lost most if not everything they had, and we’re just trying to show them Christ-like love as we go out into the community and help them,” Harrison said.
In Mississippi, Samaritan’s Purse was able to help 402 families with cleanup through the assistance of 1,145 volunteers that came out to serve.
Hubbard was one of them.
“The Samaritan’s Purse came and cleaned up the yard for her. People that we don’t know came and fed us and made sure we had water,” Hampton said.
Operation BBQ Relief, a Missouri nonprofit established in May 2011, has provided over 10 million meals throughout the United States and internationally following natural disasters. They have served close to 85,000 meals in Mississippi deployments.
During the organization’s deployment to Amory on March 26 – April 3, they provided the community with 4,355 meals to the town of about 6,360 people.
Heather Williams, the director of communications for Operation BBQ Relief, said the organization tries to relieve the burden and stress residents experience when uncertain of their next meal, as a result of the closure or damage to stores and restaurants.
“We want to provide one thing that they can count on when their life has been turned upside down: a hot meal,” Williams continued. “We value them.”
Head of Volunteer Services for Operation BBQ Relief Brian Polak said the organization fuels the residents both literally, with a hot meal, and figuratively, through a sense of community.
Providing disaster relief is “one of the hardest things volunteers will ever love doing,” Polak said. There’s a willingness to help others which is what gets volunteers involved, but it’s the experiences that keep them involved, he said.
The organization has over 18,000 volunteers nationwide.
“Volunteer agencies bring varied services to those in need, instead of those in need having to seek out the assistance, which can be difficult for a multitude of reasons during those first hours, days, or weeks,” Polak stated.
In Mississippi areas, where resources are already stretched thin after natural disasters, it is often difficult to contact someone who can help. And even when assistance is provided, it can be insufficient.
Tujuana Hampton (left) with her mother LeeOtis Hubbard Gladney at Gladney’s tornado damaged home in Amory, Thursday, June 15, 2023. . Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Gladney has been able to move into a temporary residence of her own, after leaving Hampton’s home – 83 days after the storm.
Gladney’s home is cleared on the outside, but it remains unlivable on the inside, she said. Even though she received assistance from volunteer organizations, she refused to let them clean inside her home because of her reliance on insurance.
“I’ve been hoping and praying for Alfa to come around and do me right,” Gladney said of her insurance company.
According to Gladney, Alfa Corp. won’t condemn the home – determine the home is no longer fit for human inhabitation – because insurance would have to pay for the estimated value to rebuild her home. Instead, it is stating the conditions of the house were “pre-existent,” Gladney said.
An Alfa Corp. spokesperson stated the claims department couldn’t comment on individual claims.
“Now, she’s stuck,” Hampton said. “Her whole life was in that house. And now, that’s it.”
