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Laughter erupts from the kitchen of Stewpot’s Teen Center as rising sixth grader Jamila Jeffries cuts a raw potato into thin slices. It’s lunch time, and she’s surrounded by other campers who are busy digging into french fries and stuffed-crust pizza. 

Jeffries is taking part in the recreational summer camp, and though it’s her first day, she said she’s already making friends.

“ I like how we get to cook and stuff. We get to learn about each other. We get to do new things every day,” Jeffries said. 

Stewpot Community Services is one of Jackson’s main meal kitchens and provider of shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Jeffries is one of about 150 children who are here for the summer camp, and she said spending time at Stewpot allows her the chance to do something other than being at home. 

“ It gives me time to breathe,” she said. “I get to relax and I don’t have to worry about anything happening here. I get to cook stuff. I get to enjoy myself.”

Yolanda Kirkland, Stewpot’s director of teen services, said that’s the point. She hopes to cultivate a welcoming environment where her campers can be comfortable.

“ It’s very important that people have places of rest,” Kirkland said. “I think when they’re in a place where they are loved, they can rest.”

Stewpot has held summer camps for children in west Jackson for more than 30 years. The seven week program is designed for students who are in kindergarten through 10th grade. Here, children from underprivileged communities can go on excursions with peers and take part in educational opportunities, such as weeklong camps at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and biology lessons in the garden behind the Teen Center. 

On this day, volunteers from Brilla Soccer Ministry are teaching a group of middle schoolers the basics of soccer, while others are headed to the Two Mississippi Museums. The next day, the teenagers will be headed to Spinners roller rink in nearby Florence for skating or the Margaret Walker Alexander Library. There’s a well-rounded calendar of activities which keeps them social while also opening their worldview.

“ I want the kids to know they do have a rich community in Mississippi,” Kirkland said. “Some of our students stay in one location. They stay around their neighborhoods. I try to expose them to what’s in Mississippi. I want them to know what they have in their state that’s unique.”

That includes trips all across the state, such as the Grammy Museum in Cleveland or the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum in Vicksburg. 

“We go everywhere if I can get there in our little mini-bus,” Kirkland said. “If I can get there and get back for 3:00, we’re gone.”

Verse Norris, a rising eighth grader, said he finds the summer camp fun because she’s introduced to something new every day.

“It is adventurous. You never know what could happen,” Norris said. “They take you somewhere fun and there’s a lot of other things to do, like cooking and gardening. You just do more stuff than you can at your normal summer camp.”

But Stewpot’s summer camp isn’t just about having fun. Nearby, in a building adjacent to the Teen Center, LaQuita White helps a young camper attach yarn to a craft project. Today, they’re learning about summer fruits. 

“Some of our kids don’t usually have things to do in the summer, and our camp keeps them engaged and thriving because we also do learning,” said White, director of children’s services at Stewpot.  “We do summer reading. We do STEM activities. We do a little math because we have JPS tutors who come weekly and do different educational activities with them.”

Studies have shown that children are at risk of losing vital reading and math skills during the summer months when they aren’t in school. Children who come from lower-income households, like many of the children that Stewpot serves, may find themselves at a greater disadvantage. 

“We are here for them, because some of our parents can’t afford to send them to a seven week summer camp, and so if we were not here, they’d probably more than likely just be sitting at home or at grandma’s house with nothing to do. No learning going on, no reading,” White said. 

White said that she wants her campers to thrive and grow, even as they age out of her program and into the teen group and beyond.

“Our big thing here is graduation. That’s the name of the game,” White said. “Educate, motivate, graduate. That’s our motto.”

Mississippi high schoolers no longer have to pass the U.S. history test to graduate.

The Mississippi State Board of Education voted Thursday to remove the requirement starting this fall. 

Department officials reiterated at the meeting that high schoolers would still have to take and pass history classes to graduate. 

Paula Vanderford, the education department’s chief accountability officer, said the agency has informally discussed releasing test resources to local districts if they want to create their own assessments. 

She said at a previous board meeting that getting rid of the test would save the state money.

The state board voted to open public comments about the decision in April after the Commission on School Accreditation voted to propose eliminating the test. Ultimately, it received 20 comments in support of the test’s removal, many of them from parents who cited their children’s test anxiety, and 16 against it, arguing that getting rid of the test would diminish the importance of the country’s history. 

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker recently co-authored an editorial advocating against removing the U.S. history state test with board member Mary Werner, who voted against the decision at the meeting. 

“Our state has been making remarkable strides in education, and this progress is equipping the very Mississippians who will lead our state into the 21st century,” the editorial reads. “As they take on our future, we believe they should be as knowledgeable as possible about our past.”

Werner said after the meeting that she was “disappointed” in the board’s decision because the history test provided a measure of accountability for teachers.

Passing the state algebra I, biology and English language arts tests will remain a graduation requirement. The U.S. history assessment was the sole test not required by state or federal law. 

“Though the U.S. history statewide assessment will be eliminated starting next school year, it’s important to emphasize that students will still learn U.S. history and will be required to successfully complete the course to graduate,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education, in a press release. “Having fewer state tests required to graduate should be less taxing on educators, students and families alike.”

The Rev. Jeff Hood is “determined to let people know you’re killing my friend.”

Those are the people he’s grown close to before witnessing their executions — a dozen so far and a number that continues to grow as Mississippi prepares to put 79-year-old Richard Jordan to death and the death penalty continues being handed down in over half of all states, particularly the South.

Hood is a spiritual adviser who accompanies death row inmates to their executions, praying for them and sharing last words with them as a culmination of a months-, sometimes years-long relationship. 

By doing that, Hood said he can bring members of the public as close to the execution chamber as they can get and see the impact of the death penalty.  

To date, he has witnessed 11 executions: four in Oklahoma, three in Alabama, two in Texas,  one in Missouri and one in Florida. 

It’s something he may be called to do one day in Mississippi. Hood is not Jordan’s spiritual adviser, but he has communicated with a member of Jordan’s family and he plans to travel to Parchman to pray outside on June 25 if Jordan’s scheduled execution goes through, just as he did in 2022 for the execution of Thomas Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed a 16-year-old waitress. 

He and advocates have spoken out against Jordan’s scheduled execution, questioning whether it makes sense to see someone who is almost 80 as a safety risk and the fact it’s been 48 years since he was first convicted of capital murder in the kidnapping and death of Edwina Marter in Harrison County. 

He participated in a video released by the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Council in which Jordan shares his story and asks the state to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. In the video, Jordan says he was a model citizen until he returned after three tours in the Vietnam War. His defense has argued that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the war, a view bolstered on the video by Jordan’s younger siblings — brother Houston Jordan and sister Nordeen Jones — who said he was kind and a role model to them. Former schoolmates, ministers and a retired corrections officer also appear on the video, talking about Jordan’s willingness to help others.

‘Whatever you did to the least of these’

Hood grew up in Georgia in a Southern Baptist family and studied theology. As he studied in Atlanta, he was part of organizing against the 2011 execution of Troy Davis, who maintained his innocence to the end in the murder of a Savannah police officer. 

Connecting with death row inmates and being present at their deaths is something he said he was called by God to do, saying the work aligns with Matthew 25:40: “(W)hatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 

Hood can’t think of a group that embodies “the least of these” more than those sentenced to death. He said he shows them the love of God and encourages them to have the courage to live, even if they have weeks or months left and people want them to be executed. 

“It’s my job to make them hungry to live,” Hood said. “I think that is the greatest resistance possible.”

Innocence isn’t a requirement to work with someone, and he said he will love someone “irrespective of what they’ve done.” But Hood said that doesn’t mean there haven’t been difficult interactions or that he doesn’t think about victims’ families and the severity of death row inmates’ crimes. 

Hood sees how nearly 50 years of waiting for an execution has been torture for any victim’s family, especially the Marters. 

Eric Marter, the elder son of Edwina and Charles Marter, was 11 years old and his younger brother was 4 when their mother died. 

He said it’s been so long and he would have preferred Jordan to have been executed years ago. Over the years of his appeals, Marter said he hasn’t made his ongoing legal case and whether an execution happens a priority. 

“At this point in my life, maybe 30 years ago I may have had more interest in wanting him to be executed,”said Marter, who is 59 and lives in Louisiana. 

“But at this particular point, I don’t really want to waste my time thinking about him.” 

A ‘moral sacrifice’ to be in that chamber’

Spiritual advisers like Hood have been allowed to be in the room and stand alongside the condemned since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with a Texas death row inmate who sued for the right to have his pastor beside him.  

June 10 was the executions of Anthony Wainwright in Florida and Gregory Hunt in Alabama. As both of their spiritual advisors, Hood said the states put him in a position to have to choose whose to attend and break a promise. He was with Wainwright at his execution. 

The week before that, he was on the road and traveled from his home in Arkansas to Alabama and Florida to be with the men and organize against the death penalty with local advocates. From a virtual event streamed from his car June 6, Hood raised issues about violations of Hunt’s and Wainwright’s spiritual liberty and constitutional rights. 

Like Mississippi, most death penalty states use lethal injection, but others are starting to use lethal gas and firing range. Since 2022, Mississippi allows those methods along with the electric chair, but lethal injection is the state’s preference.

Jordan continues to challenge the constitutionality of the drugs Mississippi uses for lethal injection through a federal lawsuit. 

Last year, Hood witnessed the “horror show” execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama by nitrogen gas. The pastor remembers seeing Smith start to heave back and forth violently as soon as the gas hit his face, his veins looking like ants under his skin. Smith thrashed against the restraints, and Hood remembers crying – something not typical for him. 

Even if an execution has not been scheduled, Hood stays in contact with two dozen people on death rows around the country. Some call him several times a week and on specific days. 

His contact includes seven in Mississippi, including Willie Manning – for whom the state is seeking an execution date – and others who are still pursuing legal challenges such as Willie Godbolt and Lisa Jo Chamberlin. 

Chamberlin, convicted of two counts of capital murder in 2006, is the only woman on death row in the state, and Hood said he reached out to her knowing a bit about her story and that she needed help. What he found was someone who “desperately needed a friend” and whose mental health suffers because she is isolated. 

Unlike death row in Parchman where most of the men are together, Chamberlin is kept on her own in a maximum security unit in the women’s prison at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Hood said that often means Chamberlin spends hours in her cell or time in the dayroom on her own. 

Ahead of Jordan’s execution, Hood has called out elected officials like Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court for allowing executions to happen but not having to attend or witness them. 

“There’s a moral sacrifice it takes to be in that chamber,” Hood said. 

When he stands beside the condemned, Hood prays and tells them how sorry he is that he wasn’t able to stop the execution. And each time he leaves, he said it’s as if he leaves a piece of his soul behind. 

The next execution might be scheduled in a matter of days, weeks or months, so he doesn’t have much time to recover. Continuing to intervene in executions and speak out against the death penalty also makes him the target of threats and potentially puts his family at risk. Hood is married and the father of five children.

But Hood takes on the risks to his wellbeing and health and sees it as a privilege to work with people on death row and do something he cares about. 

“The spiritual adviser can either be silent about what is happening,” he said. “… (Or) they can speak up and resist the evil that is happening.”

The state of Mississippi and technology giant Nvidia have reached a deal for the company to expand artificial intelligence training and research at the state’s education institutions, an initiative to prepare students for a global economy increasingly driven by AI, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday.

The memorandum of understanding, a nonbinding agreement, between Mississippi and the California-based company will introduce AI programs across the state’s community colleges, universities and technical institutions. The initiative will aim to train at least 10,000 Mississippians using a curriculum designed around AI skills, machine learning and data science.

Mississippi now joins Utah, California and Oregon, which have signed on to similar programs with Nvidia.

“This collaboration with Nvidia is monumental for Mississippi. By expanding AI education, investing in workforce development and encouraging innovation, we, along with Nvidia, are creating a pathway to dynamic careers in AI and cybersecurity for Mississippians,” Reeves said. “These are the in-demand jobs of the future — jobs that will change the landscape of our economy for generations to come. AI is here now, and it is here to stay.”

The agreement does not award any tax incentives to Nvidia, but Reeves said the state would provide funding for the initiative. Still, he did not foresee having to call a special legislative session in order to pay for it. Reeves said officials and Nvidia were still determining the exact dollar figure the project would require, but the state would spend as much as it took to reach its goal of training at least 10,000 Mississippians.

Some of the funding may come from $9.1 million in grants to state institutions of higher learning through the Mississippi AI Talent Accelerator Program, which Reeves announced last week.

Nvidia designs and supplies graphics processing units (GPUs), and the Mississippi program will focus on teaching people to work with GPUs. The company has seen growing demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power AI applications.

Now the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Nvidia announced in April that it will produce its AI supercomputers in the United States for the first time.

Louis Stewart, head of strategic initiatives for Nvidia’s global developer ecosystem, said the Mississippi program is part of a larger effort to bolster the United States’ position as the global leader in artificial intelligence.

“Together, we will enhance economic growth through an AI-skilled workforce, advanced research, and industry engagement, positioning Mississippi as a hub for AI-driven transformation to the benefit of its communities.”

JXN Water manager Ted Henifin told U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate Tuesday that the utility plans to sue the neglectful apartment complexes that owe millions between them on their water bills and left tenants with little choice than to move immediately.

During a two-day status conference this week where the utility proposed to raise rates for the second time in as many years, residents and city officials told Wingate that JXN Water should first have to raise its collections rate — which is around 70%, far below the national average — before charging more to those who do pay.

“To inflict another rate increase on the people who are playing by the rules is onerous to the city and its economic development,” Jackson Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said.

Henifin emphasized repeatedly that even with 100% collection, the current rates would leave the utility about $33 million short of its annual budget needs when accounting for paying off debts and building reserves.

The utility announced the proposal earlier this year after realizing it would soon run out of the $150 million in federal funding it received for operations. Henifin said he’s hoping to tap into some of the $450 million Jackson received for project spending, but added that will only cover operations for the short term. Wingate has the final say over the rate proposal, and said he would make a decision as early as next week.

JXN Water initially said the average single-family residence would see a roughly 12% increase, or about $9 a month, although it came out during the status conference that renters in apartment complexes may see a steeper rate hike.

In one exchange, Wingate asked Foote where else the money could come from. The recently reelected councilman shrugged, suggesting JXN Water look for other sources.

“That sounds really good,” the judge replied sarcastically. “What miracle do you have in mind?”

Hearing Foote’s and others’ concerns, though, Wingate asked Henifin how the utility plans to collect unpaid water bills from those who owe the most. There are 15 apartment complexes, largely run by out-of-state landlords, that owe a combined $5.7 million, JXN Water said. Henifin said he plans to sue them to force payment before considering shut offs. He estimated there are roughly 7,500 residents living on those properties, and said the landlords are “calling our bluff” as far as shutting off water to that many people.

In total, Henifin added, about 15,000 of the city’s water accounts — or about one in five — are still not paying.

An “affordable” combined water and sewer bill, according to Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendations, is no more than 4.5% of a person’s income. The proposed increase, Henifin said, would bring bills to 2.4% for the median Jackson household, but 5.7% for the city’s bottom quartile of earners.

The utility’s SNAP recipient discount, which the utility hasn’t fully applied due to a legal roadblock, would bring that number down to 3.7%, he said, and he hopes to partner with the Mississippi Department of Human Services to boost enrollment in the benefit.

Robert Ireland, an attorney with Jackson law firm Watkins & Eager PLLC who said he represents tenants in several apartment complexes, presented data during Monday’s status conference suggesting such customers would see a much steeper increase with the new rate hike than the average resident JXN Water described.

The utility uses a tiered rate structure that charges more per gallon for higher levels of water consumption. Because tenants in those complexes share a meter with the rest of their building, Ireland explained, their consumption is grouped together and is thus more expensive than it would be if they had separate meters. Ireland estimated for the 15,000 accounts at Jackson’s largest apartment complexes, they would see an average increase of $21, or more than double the increase JXN Water presented.

“I’m trying to push back on the notion that this is just going to be a small increase,” he told Wingate.

Aisha Carson, the utility’s communications officer, said JXN Water didn’t have an average for how much tenants of complexes would be paying under the new rates. Rates for complexes are calculated differently depending on the size and number of meters there, she explained.

The Jackson City Council has passed a resolution asking the Defense Department to reverse its possible plans to remove Medgar Evers’ name from a Navy ship, and his niece plans to urge the president to change course on this decision.

In its resolution, the council noted that a long list of presidents have praised Evers, who served as field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP until his 1963 assassination, including President Donald Trump.

In 2017, Trump attended the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and praised Evers, his widow, Myrlie Evers, and his brother, Charles Evers, who supported Trump in his campaign for president.

He noted that Medgar Evers “loved his family, his community, and his country.  And he knew it was long past time for his nation to fulfill its founding promise: to treat every citizen as an equal child of God.”

After his assassination, “Sergeant Evers was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors,” Trump said. “In Arlington, he lies beside men and women of all races, backgrounds, and walks of life who have served and sacrificed for our country. Their headstones do not mark the color of their skin, but immortalize the courage of their deeds.

“Their memories are carved in stone as American heroes. That is what Medgar Evers was. He was a great American hero. That is what the others honored in this museum were: true American heroes.”

Three years later, the Trump administration’s Interior Department established the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home as a national monument.

But after Trump started his second term in 2025, he signed an executive order to eliminate all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

In the wake of that order, Evers was erased from a section of the Arlington National Cemetery website that honored Black Americans who fought in the nation’s wars, although not from website itself.. 

A week after Pentagon leaders announced their intention to possibly rename the USNS Medgar Evers, christened for the World War II veteran and civil rights leader, his family urged the Department of Defense and the Navy to not do so.

The ship is one of eight vessels named after activists – among them Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harriet Tubman – that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to rebrand in a large offensive against “wokeness” and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the military to reestablish the “warrior ethos.”

Jackson City Council member Aaron Banks said, “It’s unfortunate that our politics have gotten to a place where we are moving away from people like Medgar Evers. It was rough enough that they took his name out of Arlington Cemetery, but this is an even bigger blow.”

On Tuesday, Evers’ niece, Hinds County District 2 Supervisor Wanda Evers, told the council that this is heartbreaking to her.

“You do this for a man who fought for our country?” she asked. “It’s nothing but the devil working, and we’re going to let him play in his playground, and after that it’s over.”

She plans to meet personally with Trump regarding the matter, she said. “We are fighting this.”

A screening of the award-winning film “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” will be held June 21 at 7 p.m. at the Strand Theatre in Vicksburg as part of a fundraising event for the Mississippi Humanities Council. 

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion exploring Hamer’s enduring legacy with the film’s producer and Hamer’s niece, Monica Land, and activist and Humanities Council Board Chair Leslie Burl McLemore. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC, will moderate the discussion. 

Admission is free. But donations are welcome and encouraged. Donations can also be made online for those who cannot attend.

“I am really excited to be a part of the screening on the life of Fannie Lou Hamer,” McLemore said. “She was a personal friend of mine, and I remember when I first met Mrs. Hamer back in 1963. We were riding a bus from Cleveland, Mississippi, to Dorchester County, Georgia, to participate in a Citizenship Education Workshop.

“We were talking about our background and what we had been doing in the movement, and Mrs. Hamer, in less than a year,” he continued, “had been evicted from the W.D. Marlow III plantation in Sunflower County. And as she told her story about that eviction, the history of Sunflower County and the history of her family, there were about 25 to 30 of us in the room, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Mrs. Hamer really impacted my life profoundly.” 

Organizers said the event is also a call to action. The Department of Government Efficiency eliminated National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The Humanities Council is turning to the community to help sustain the programming that federal support once made possible. DOGE’s cuts jeopardizes more than 35 grants that the Humanities Council already had awarded for programs like an oral history of former Gov. Kirk Fordice’s time in office, a museum exhibit on Mississippians who fought and died in the Vietnam War, and lectures about the work and legacy of artist Walter Anderson.

Proceeds from Saturday’s screening will directly support the Mississippi Humanities Council’s ongoing work to bring public programs, educational opportunities and cultural initiatives to communities across the state.  

“The Mississippi Humanities Council gave us our first grant and several grants after that to fund our mission to preserve and amplify Aunt Fannie Lou’s voice,” Land, the film’s producer, said. “Without their support, there would be no Fannie Lou Hamer’s America.” 

Premiering on PBS and WORLD Channel in February 2022, “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” allows the late activist and humanitarian to tell her own story in her own words – spoken and sung – through archival audio and video footage. In December 2022, the film was named “Best TV Feature Documentary Or Mini-Series” by the International Documentary Association and in 2023, it won the “Best Documentary” award by The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications.  

The goal of the film and its website, www.fannielouhamersamerica.com is to teach others about Hamer’s work, accomplishments and legacy, and to serve as a clearinghouse of all things Fannie Lou Hamer. Its K-12 Educational Curriculum, Find Your Voice, features original lesson plans written by educators in the Mississippi Delta, a children’s book, an animated BrainPOP movie and a free STEM program, the Sunflower County Film Academy for high school students in Hamer’s native Mississippi Delta. 

The MHC has funded each element of the curriculum and in March 2022 awarded the project the Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award at their 25th annual gala. 

“Participating in this event is so important to me because of the work the MHC has done to continually support our vision,” Land said. 

Hamer’s educational website will soon feature a digital library and museum.  

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at the Strand Theatre, 717 Clay St., Vicksburg, with the screening at 7 p.m. followed by the panel discussion.

This week’s pod touches on a number of subjects: the grit of J.J. Spaun, Cam Akers to the Saints, the College World Series, the NBA playoffs and tomato pie.

Stream all episodes here.

Tucked away in west Jackson right off Capers Avenue are the remains of what used to be housing for people transitioning out of the Mississippi State Hospital. Now, it’s fallen into disrepair, its brick building crumbling and overcome by plastic waste and graffiti. 

Putalamus “Tala” White, executive director of the Jackson Resource Center, has a vision for the space and what it could become for people who are experiencing homelessness. 

“Almost the entire street is 18 acres, and on this end is where the tiny homes are gonna be,” she said, pointing to an overgrown patch of weeds and debris. “Then on down, you got the rest of the campus.” 

This spot, supposedly the future home of The Junction, is the place where White intends to build a village of 80 tiny homes and a community hub. But the project has been delayed after White’s organization received less funding than it anticipated. 

In 2021, the city of Jackson accepted just over $3 million in HOME Investment Partnerships – American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) Program funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those funds are dedicated toward reducing homelessness. 

In September of 2023, the city published a request for proposals for the Safe Space: Safe Place tiny home development, a 30 unit pallet shelter village. Jackson Resource Center was the only respondent, said Melissa Payne, Director of Constituent Services and Communications. 

On February 13, 2024, the city allocated an amount “not to exceed $2.87 million” of those HOME-ARP funds to the Jackson Resource Center. 

But last month, the Jackson Resource Center received a memorandum of understanding from the city of Jackson for just over $1 million.

“Since approval, the City and JRC have worked with HUD to draft a compliant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). However, JRC repeatedly altered its plans — doubling costs, expanding to 80 units, purchasing modular homes from China at significantly larger sizes, and proposing rental use—changes far beyond the scope of the original RFP, and created additional HUD compliance issues,” Payne said. “In May, the City offered JRC an MOU with $1,086,440 in funding and access to additional grants if needed. Despite this, JRC is now demanding a $2.5 million guarantee to begin the project.”

Jackson Resource Center issued a statement in response to “correct the record for the sake of public trust, our partners, and—most importantly—the hundreds of unhoused individuals in Jackson still waiting on relief.”

“…While the modular homes are comparable in cost to earlier models, it is the site infrastructure—sewer, water, electrical, environmental remediation, and ADA compliance – that represents most of the budget increase,” the statement reads. “These are unavoidable costs that have continued to rise over the past year and a half we’ve been waiting.”

Jackson Resource Center secured an additional award of $2 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas for a project involving 80 homes, hence the expansion from the original proposal, the statement said.

“This was a net gain for the City, not a deviation,” the statement reads.

White said JRC can’t make any movement on The Junction because the lender won’t disperse its funds until the city of Jackson does. 

“When we wrote that grant to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, it was as a subsidy to the original grant. So we can’t do everything that we proposed to do with the Federal Home Loan Bank until we have those funds as well.”

While the organization hasn’t received any of the city funding for the tiny home project so far, it has received over $350,000 from the city in the last two years for other programming, including workforce development and operation of its permanent supportive housing campus called Langley. 

Now, White said she’s waiting to meet with the city’s new administration and gain what she said are necessary funds to start work on the development.

“That’s where we are, hoping that after the new administration gets in office, we can sit down, have a conversation, and finally get this ball rolling,” she said.

The Junction, a multi-phase project, includes the tiny homes and the creation of a community complex complete with a pet kennel, a medical wing, a detox center, post office and a food court. White hopes that in creating The Junction, she’ll cultivate a safe space where people who are experiencing homelessness can have a place to thrive.

“Having all of those services right there in the community on the campus would assist in them changing their mindset,” she said. “We’ve got to come in and be able to give them the help they need to get back on the right track.”

The Junction project has many detractors in local government, some of whom said the creation of the tiny homes will lead to more homeless people in Jackson. Jackson’s city council was divided on the vote 4-3, with Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley voting against the project.

 ”We need to have a program in the city with a coordinator that can coordinate with nonprofits to help manage this issue, but just to create 60 homes? That’s one more thing for other municipalities to do with the shuffling them off on Jackson, because now it’s like we got another program,” Hartley said in an interview with Mississippi Today back in February. “Build it and they will come. Build it and municipalities will send them to Jackson.” 

White said that she’s tried to have conversations with city leaders about the project, and a few have understood her vision. She points to unaffordable housing as one of the leading factors in Jackson’s homelessness statistics. 

“You say you don’t want the homeless in the community. You say we’re gonna bring more homeless people into the community, but they are already here and if we don’t give them somewhere to go and something productive to do to help, then it’s not gonna change,” she said.

According to the annual Point in Time Count, a national census of homeless populations, Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of homelessness, though some advocates have said the local count is likely artificially low. White agreed that in the downtown area, there may be close to 1,000 homeless individuals. 

“My biggest hope is that this campus will be a light in Jackson and that it will assist individuals that feel like they’ve been forgotten, and that it will assist the city as a whole in being able to bring more revenue to the city, so that we can be a thriving city so that we can take care of the least of these. We have to take care of the least of these,” White said.

Marla Demita could hear the screams of her 9-month-old son as soon as she entered Little Blessings Daycare in Yazoo City. When she got to the room where he was kept, baby Dean was crying inconsolably – unusual behavior for him.

She said that most days, Dean “lights up” with a smile when he sees her. But on the afternoon of May 20, “it’s like he looked straight through me, like he didn’t know who I was.” 

The troubling behavior escalated that night. Demita shared a video with Mississippi Today that showed her husband Johnathon holding Dean while standing, bouncing up and down to try to comfort their child. But Dean screamed and thrashed from side to side. After a call with his pediatrician offered no solutions, the parents took Dean to the Children’s of Mississippi hospital in Jackson. 

Dean jerked his head from side to side and screamed the entire hour and a half drive from their home, another video shows.

A drug test administered at the hospital showed Dean had methamphetamine in his system. A doctor told Demita the baby had ingested the substance somewhere between noon and 4 p.m., she told Mississippi Today. Dean was at Little Blessings Daycare during that time.

The Mississippi Department of Health, which is responsible for regulating and licensing day care centers, fined Little Blessings $50 after the incident. The agency could not confirm the baby ingested methamphetamine while at day care, according to its investigative report.

The department cited Little Blessings because the center’s director, Lisa Martin, did not report what happened as required by agency regulations. Martin did not respond to questions for this article. 

Demita said the $50 fine felt like a “punch in the gut” after what happened to her son, who is now 10 months old.

She said he screamed as though in terrible pain from 7:45 p.m. on the day of the incident until 4 the next morning.

“And I’m not talking about fussy crying. I’m talking about blood curling screams,” Demita said. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

The Health Department did not respond to Mississippi Today’s detailed questions about the investigation into the incident and past allegations of abuse at Little Blessings. Two complaints filed with the agency in 2023 and 2024 accused workers and the director of “whooping” and hitting children and locking them in dark rooms.

Mississippi Today obtained the documents detailing the earlier allegations through a public records request. None are available on the Health Department’s public database, a tool parents can use to research a child care facility’s history. It is unclear why. 

The Health Department launched the database following a 2016 investigation by The Hechinger Report and The Clarion-Ledger found that, unlike other states, Mississippi had no such system. 

The agency submitted a statement to Mississippi Today by email calling what happened to Dean “distressing” to both the Demita family and others, and said it is coordinating with law enforcement and the state Department of Child Protection Services. 

“Consequently, the investigation and determination of abuse or neglect by a caregiver fall under the authority of those agencies,” the statement said. “Our goal is to ensure that children are safe in licensed childcare programs.”

When the Demitas arrived at the emergency room with Dean, the baby was inconsolable and “tachycardic,” or had an irregularly fast heart rhythm, records state. 

The medical staff thought he had a fracture and checked him for hair tourniquet – a painful condition that occurs when a piece of hair wraps tightly around a baby’s finger, toe or other body part, restricting blood flow. 

“Patient placed in C-collar. Patient cried for the upwards of 4 hours straight,” the records say. 

The hospital emergency room ran a battery of tests, including a drug screen. Dean’s initial screen came back positive for amphetamines.

A follow-up confirmation drug test, a more specific and accurate screen, was ordered. Demita received results of that test about a week later, which showed the baby tested positive for methamphetamine, a lab-made stimulant commonly known as crystal meth. The drug can cause paranoia, anxiety, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat or death. 

Dean stayed in the hospital about 12 hours. Before he was released, Marla and Johnathon Demita submitted to drug screens themselves, and medical records show those were negative. 

His mother said for the next week, Dean remained irritable and had little appetite. 

She has since pulled Dean out of day care altogether. He is an active and crawling baby, and he spends the day with Demita at a veterinary clinic where she is the office manager. She said it is stressful. 

“So, I’m having to do my everyday job and keep up with a child all day from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” she said. “He has to sit in a playpen 90% of the day.”

Day care’s corrective plan involves ‘shoe coverings’

The Health Department’s investigation consisted of interviews with the day care director and caregivers, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today. Two investigators with the  Health Department also noted they reviewed pictures of formula and breastmilk bottles in the facility refrigerator.

Notes showed the day care did not have cameras in the rooms, which surprised Yazoo City Police Department officers who came to the facility. 

The Little Blessings director, Martin, told health officials a police officer told her “it could be something as (sic) a someone coming into the classroom and has residue on their shoes,” Health Department records show. The director would be “purchasing shoe coverings for individuals” that enter and exit the infant room as part of its corrective plan approved by the agency, the records say. 

Health Department officials did not answer Mississippi Today’s questions about whether the agency reached out to the baby’s medical team, other parents of children at the facility or former employees of Little Blessings.

Demita said after she told the Health Department what happened to her son, she did not hear back from anyone at the agency.

Yazoo City Police Chief Terry Gann on June 11 said the investigation continues, but he had been unable to reach Demita. After Mississippi Today relayed Gann’s cell phone number to Demita, the two met the next day to discuss the case.

Gann was unaware of past allegations of abuse against the day care, and told Mississippi Today the day care was closed down. A photo taken of the facility on June 12 around 5 p.m. showed what appears to be parents picking up children.

Health Department records contain two complaints accusing the day care workers and director of abuse in 2023 and 2024. 

“They hit children on the hands and butts and grab them very roughly,” said a March 2023 complaint from a former employee of Little Blessings. 

Another complaint accused employees of locking children in dark rooms. The agency, after interviewing the employees and director, could not substantiate either complaint. 

However, video footage later received by the Health Department revealed a day care teacher threatening to bite a child, and Martin, the director, was heard referencing “the ones that do get spanked.” The documents do not specify whether the video footage was from the facility’s cameras or if someone submitted footage to the agency.

Martin did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about Demita’s son and past allegations against her and other employees of the day care, including one asking what she meant by her statement. 

The facility’s corrective action included holding a meeting with caregivers about not hitting or spanking children. The Health Department provided “technical assistance” to the day care on discipline and positive redirection, according to records. 

No fine or other action was administered, records show.

Demita continues keeping her son by her side at work. 

“I’m taking it day by day,” she said. “I know he won’t be going back to a day care.”