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On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Mississippi Mass Choir Executive Director and pastor Jerry Mannery.

Mannery has lived a colorful life that includes being in the first class to integrate Florence High School to being in the Navy. From his time as a Jackson Firefighter, an executive at Malaco Record, a poet, a songwriter, a pastor of We Are One United Methodist Church and a founding member of the world-famous Mississippi Mass Choir, Jerry has done it all.

He discusses his life, the choir, his family and how his faith has influenced it all. This is a great conversation with a Mississippi legend.

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The Mississippi Legislature was in the midst of what was known as “the special session from hell” 20 years ago this month, debating whether to give businesses and medical providers more protection from lawsuits. Legislators ultimately did.

A key player in that special session that spanned a record-setting 83 days was Sen. Bennie Turner, a Democrat from West Point. Turner was respected in the Mississippi Legislature for his thoughtful analysis, civility and even-keeled approach to legislating.

He also had a serious hearing impairment.

A recent NBC national news interview with Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is the Democratic nominee in a closely watched U.S. Senate race, stirred a debate about disabilities and serving in key electoral office.

Fetterman suffered a stroke earlier this year. Because of the stroke, he insisted the NBC interview be done in a manner that allowed him to read the reporter’s questions as they were being asked.

Apparently at times, Fetterman’s comprehension of audio communications can be troublesome, though he said the condition should improve in the coming months.

Whether it does or does not improve, though, should not be viewed as a factor in determining his qualifications to be in the U.S. Senate, some contend. Others argue it should.

The debate was stirred in part because the reporter, Dasha Burns, said it was not clear Fetterman could understand her during a period of small talk before the captioning device that allowed him to read her questions was turned on. How that report was portrayed by some in the national media helped spur the debate about Fetterman’s competency.

But during the actual interview, Fetterman read along as the questions were asked and answered forthrightly and sensibly. He stumbled briefly over the word “empathetic.”

Bennie Turner’s hearing loss happened after he was already serving in the Mississippi Legislature. He was elected in 1992, and in 1999 developed life-threatening meningitis, a disease that causes an inflammation of the brain lining and spinal cord. The disease left Turner with a hearing impairment, though he was never totally deaf.

Upon his return to the Legislature, Turner told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, “My main concern is whether I can give the constituents of the 16th District the representation they deserve. At this point I feel like I can deliver, and I am going to try as hard as a I can to do that.”

He must have delivered in the eyes of his constituents. He was re-elected three times after contracting meningitis. Accommodations were made in the state Senate so that Turner, like Fetterman, could read the ongoing debates on his computer.

He remained an effective member of the Senate until he died in 2012 and was succeeded by his daughter, Angela Turner Ford. On numerous occasions, he would rise to express concern about the wording of a bill that could cause unintended consequences. Because of that keen understanding of legislation, the senators would always listen and often would change bills, based on Turner’s input.

Before Bennie Tuner came to the Legislature, Ellis Bodron served in the Mississippi House from 1948 until 1952 and in the state Senate from 1953 until 1984. Bodron, a Vicksburg attorney, was blind. People who served with him marveled at his ability to comprehend and explain complex and lengthy revenue bills.

He chaired the Senate Finance Committee. His chairmanship of the Finance Committee gave him a powerful position to oppose Gov. William Winter’s historic 1982 special session on education reform. Bodron opposed the legislation, but shepherded it through Finance at the behest of Lt. Gov. Brad Dye, who presided over the Senate.

Interestingly, Turner was the Judiciary chair during the infamous 2002 special session and opposed the legislation but played a key role in the process because of his chairmanship and the respect he endeared. He was one of the negotiators on the legislation.

In other words, Bodron’s and Turner’s roles in two historic special sessions were similar.

During Billy McCoy’s first term as House speaker, he suffered a stroke that left him with partial use of his left arm and with what some would say was a speech impediment.

Yet McCoy finished that term and served another as speaker, presiding during a turbulent time when partisan politics became more of a factor. He still played key roles in passing impactful legislation, including the bill that allowed casinos on the Gulf Coat to move on shore after Hurricane Katrina.  

Voters in Pennsylvania will decide whether John Fetterman is competent to serve in the Senate. Their vote for or against him might not even be predicated on his stroke-induced impairment, though his Republican opponent, a medical doctor, Mehmet Oz, is certainly trying to make it an issue.

Mississippians have already decided, based on results, that a person with a disability can be an impactful member of their Legislature.

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According to the Education Data Initiative, federal student loan debt in the United States averages $29 billion per state, with the District of Columbia having the highest individual average ($54,945) and the highest percentage of indebted residents at 17.2%.

Mississippi, although it falls toward the middle with an average of $36,902 per borrower, has the fourth-highest per capita rate of student borrowers, 14.8%, following Ohio, Georgia and D.C.

View the data:

The Biden administration opened applications for federal student loan forgiveness this week, with a cap of $10,000 to $20,000 per borrower, according to Higher Education Reporter Molly Minta.

READ MORE: Biden’s student loan forgiveness application officially opened on Monday. Here’s how to apply

Minta also reports that loan forgiveness, billed as an attempt at addressing the country's racial wealth gap, could greatly benefit Black borrowers in Mississippi, who have higher undergraduate debt than other races and more loans taken out during 2017-18 than the average Black borrower across the U.S.

However, Minta also reported in September that a state tax provision could make Mississippians eligible for debt forgiveness responsible for up to $1,000 in state income taxes in 2023.

"Under guidance from the Internal Revenue Service," Minta writes, "student loan servicers are not providing 1099-Cs – the tax form needed for filing debt cancellation – to borrowers or to state tax departments.

This means that many Mississippians will likely never receive the proper form to file student debt relief on their taxes. And while the Department of Revenue said it may send bills to those who try to skirt the additional tax, without 1099-Cs, it likely has no way of knowing if a Mississippian actually received student debt relief.

'That’s the big question, right?' said Angela Gonzales, a tax manager based in Gulfport who specializes in student loan taxation. 'If you received student loan forgiveness, there’s gonna be no transactions through your bank history, no tax documents. So how far are they going to look into this?'"

READ MORE: Mississippi plans to tax student debt relief. But Paycheck Protection Program loans are tax exempt.

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World War I veteran Lamar Smith knew the risk of registering Black residents to vote and encouraging them to exercise that right. His civil rights work led to his fatal shooting in 1955 on the lawn of the Brookhaven courthouse by three men who were never prosecuted for the crime. 

Nearly 70 years after his 1955 slaying, a historical marker will commemorate the Black farmer’s civil rights work and life at the site of his death. The Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History approved the marker at its Friday meeting. 

“The board approved a group of markers, including one for Mr. Lamar Smith recounting his story,” said Katie Blount, director of MDAH. 

She said the historical marker program is one of the department’s most popular and a way for people to get involved with history in a grassroots way. 

Family members of Smith have supported the placement of a historical marker at the courthouse in his honor. 

Some have wanted officials to go further. Several family members have gone before the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors multiple times to ask for the courthouse to be renamed in Smith’s honor, but the board has not done that, the Daily Leader reported.

“Any time we talk about [this], the pain comes up like it was yesterday,” said Alma Pittman, Smith’s step-granddaughter, at an April board meeting. “I saw my grandmother suffer. She never got over it. It would be nice to have recognition of my grandfather’s [sacrifice] by the state my grandfather was murdered in.”

On Aug. 13, 1955, 63-year-old Smith went to the Brookhaven courthouse to drop off absentee ballots for a county supervisor runoff election between an incumbent and a challenger he worked for. Three white men approached him outside and shot him in front of at least 50 people, according to FBI documents. 

Noah Smith, Mack Smith and Charles Falvey were arrested for Smith’s death, but they were never tried. Two grand juries were convened and did not take action because witnesses refused to testify, according to FBI documents. 

The FBI reopened Smith’s case in 2008 as part of an initiative for unresolved civil rights era murders. It closed his case in April 2010, saying the three men were dead and unable to be prosecuted.

In its decision to close Smith’s case, the FBI said it did not find a prosecutable violation of federal civil rights statutes and noted there was a five-year statute of limitation on non-capital civil rights violations before 1994. 

The FBI also noted the local coroner’s jury ruled that “probably other parties unknown” were involved with Smith’s death but were never identified. 

Of the 161 civil rights cases the FBI reopened, 53 of them were killings that happened in Mississippi between the 1930s and 1970s. To date, a majority of the cases have been closed. 

One of those cases was that of the Rev. George Lee who was killed in Belzoni months before Smith for registering Black people to vote. Like Smith’s case, the FBI closed Lee’s case because the man accused of shooting him was already dead. 

In interviews for an episode of the 2008 television series “Murder in Black & White,” family members of Smith remembered him as a good man who wanted to help others vote, even when he was told not to. 

“He said he would die for the sake of others,” said Smith’s niece, Jinnie Lee Wallace.

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Thomas Frederick “Fred” Wicker, a former circuit judge and state senator and father of U.S Sen. Roger Wicker, died Friday morning at a Memphis hospital. He was 98.

“My father spent his life in service to our country and our family,” Sen. Roger Wicker said in a statement. “A World War II veteran, a public servant, a dedicated husband and father, and faithful Christian, he was a role model for many – and he was my hero. Our family is devastated to lose him, but we are grateful for a life well-lived, the wisdom he instilled in us, and the many years we spent together. On behalf of the entire Wicker family, Gayle and I deeply appreciate the expressions of sympathy and prayers we have received.”

Fred Wicker was born in Hickory Flat and attended Holmes Junior College on an athletic scholarship. He was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1942. He served in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, Luxemburg and most noteworthy in Normandy earning four battle stars.

Fred Wicker received his law degree from Ole Miss in 1948, married Wordna Threadgill and opened up his law practice in Pontotoc. He served as a city attorney, county prosecutor and served in the Mississippi Senate for three years before being appointed by Gov. John Bell Williams as circuit judge for the 1st Judicial District in 1970. He served in that seat for 20 years and retired in 1990.

Judge Wicker is survived by three children, a foster daughter, five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.  

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The Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a letter Thursday that it is opening a civil rights investigation into the state of Mississippi’s role in the breakdown of Jackson’s water system.

The letter is in response to a complaint the NAACP filed on Sept. 27 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint alleges Mississippi has discriminated against the city on the basis of race, and that the state has “deprived” Jackson of federal funds intended for maintaining safe drinking water systems.

Mississippi, which has no Black statewide elected officials, is 38% Black and 59% white. Jackson is 83% Black and 16% white.

The EPA specified in the letter that it will investigate whether the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Mississippi State Department of Health discriminated against Jackson in their funding of water programs. It will also investigate whether the two state agencies have safeguards and policies to protect against discrimination as required by Title VI.

“The Mississippi State Department of Health is a regulatory agency that ensures compliance, offers education and guidance, and protects the public health safety of all Mississippians,” Liz Sharlot, a spokeswoman for the state health department, said in a statement. “The Agency also works with all eligible public water systems needing funds to improve their plants through the State Revolving Loan Fund. Extensive information can be found on our website.”

MDEQ didn’t respond to requests for comment by the time this story published.

READ MORE: Lumumba, Reeves continue to point fingers as Congress calls for probe of Jackson water spending

The Health Department oversees Mississippi’s drinking water revolving loan fund, a program that lends municipalities federal money to make water infrastructure upgrades. But the agency, NAACP argued in its complaint, has limited the benefits of those loans by capping loan forgiveness at $500,000 and enforcing a stricter repayment period than what Congress allows for.

The letter says that the EPA’s Office of External Civil Rights Compliance (OECRC) will contact MSDH and MDEQ in the next 10 days to explain the investigation and potential resolutions.

The NAACP also requested that the EPA include the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration in the investigation, but the federal agency declined.

Today’s letter comes days after U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney announced their own investigation into the state’s spending, in which they’ve asked Gov. Tate Reeves to provide information on the state’s allotment of recent historic federal infrastructure funding.

Reeves’ office did not yet have a comment on the EPA’s letter when this story published.

Earlier on Thursday, Jackson announced it released its own request for proposals (RFP) for a contractor to operate the city’s water plants, tanks, and well system. On Monday, Reeves accused Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba of withdrawing from the state’s unified effort to fix the Jackson water system because the mayor wouldn’t participate in the state’s contract procurement. Lumumba responded that city should have the final say on the RFP before it’s published.

While the state’s request “accurately reflects the scope of work,” the city said in a statement, Jackson’s request includes “specific terms” from the EPA that weren’t in the state’s request.

READ MORE: Mayor Lumumba says ‘paternalistic, racist’ Legislature failed to help Jackson despite having extra billions

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Nothing sucks the fun out of an event quite like venting your spleen.

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Nonprofit founder Nancy New and former welfare director John Davis, defendants in the state’s civil litigation over the misspending of millions of federal grant funds, have asked the court to stay the case until the criminal investigation concludes.

Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency that administers welfare programs and is bringing the suit, is objecting against the stay, arguing that defendants are attempting to “avoid, or at least delay, liability for their actions.”

Now, the attorney representing New and her son Zach New is questioning the motives of the state agency, which was responsible for managing the funds in question, especially since it omitted at least one key recipient of improper welfare payments from the defendant list.

“Of course, MDHS would love nothing more than to rush this case through discovery with the cloud of criminal prosecution looming large, thereby muzzling witnesses who would reveal the depth of its wrongdoing,” wrote the News’ attorney Gerry Bufkin.

Both New and Davis have pleaded guilty to charges related to the welfare scheme and have agreed to aid officials in prosecuting other individuals “up the ladder,” Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said after Davis’ plea hearing in September. They have not been sentenced.

Under the leadership of Davis and the politician who appointed him, former Gov. Phil Bryant, officials stole or wasted at least $77 million in federal grant funds, many of which flowed through Nancy New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center to the pet projects of celebrities and politically connected figures. Some of the purchases were criminal while others simply violated federal spending regulations. Communication obtained by Mississippi Today reveals Bryant’s involvement in many conversations about the projects.

In its Oct. 11 response to the News’ motion to stay, MDHS shot back a fiery response to the defendants’ claims that the welfare agency is also responsible for the misspending.

“The New Defendants nevertheless seek to have the Court and the public absolve them of liability by pointing the finger back at MDHS, despite the fact that the New Defendants admit that they bribed MDHS’s Executive Director,” the filing reads. “But no public official or employee can approve fraudulent payments or waive statutory requirements. This strategy may generate media attention, but it is no legal defense to civil liability.”

Bufkin has argued his clients have already taken responsibility for their actions. But in response to the state Tuesday, he said the threat of an ongoing criminal investigation hinders the News from providing testimony in the civil case.

“The civil suit is the best opportunity the New Defendants have had in years to tell their story. The evidence will show that politicians, MDHS bureaucrats, and well-connected powerbrokers funneled tens of millions in welfare funds to pet projects in a series of sad and disturbing examples of TANF-flexibility gone wild,” Bufkin wrote. “The New Defendants look forward to telling their story, but unfortunately the opportunity is premature.”

Gov. Tate Reeves, who is overseeing the state’s civil lawsuit, said in July that civil cases should come after parallel criminal cases.

In the civil case — filed more than two years after the state auditor’s initial findings — the state is attempting to recoup roughly $24 million from 38 individuals or companies that misspent or received improper welfare payments. 

“The aim of MDHS’s civil suit is the same as any civil tort case: to recover damages, whether through settlement or through obtaining and executing on a judgment. It is in the public’s best interest that MDHS do so without unnecessary delays,” MDHS argued in its response.

Bufkin argued delaying the civil litigation until the criminal cases have concluded is necessary “to ensure the thorough, complete and efficient discovery of one of the most sprawling and complex cases in Mississippi history.”

The single largest purchase within the misspending scandal is the $5 million in welfare money that Mississippi Community Education Center paid the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation to build a volleyball stadium at the university on behalf of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre. MCEC also paid Favre’s company an additional $1.1 million, which texts indicate was also intended for the volleyball project, bringing the possible total to $6.1 million. Reeves’ office and the welfare agency chose not to include the athletic foundation as a defendant when it filed the complaint in May.

MDHS then terminated the private attorney it had contracted, former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott, who spent a year crafting the case, after Pigott filed a subpoena on the athletic foundation in July. Pigott was attempting to examine the events surrounding the volleyball stadium project, including Bryant’s involvement.

“Not only has MDHS refused to pursue recovery of this $6.1 million in welfare funds, but it has actively thwarted its former counsel’s efforts to uncover facts related to the expenditure of these funds,” Bufkin wrote.

If the purpose of the state’s civil suit is to recover as much welfare money as possible, Bufkin questions why it would not pursue the single largest purchase, which has already resulted in a criminal conviction. Zach New pleaded guilty in April to defrauding the government by paying for the volleyball stadium construction under a sham lease agreement.

“MDHS argues it ‘aims’ to recover money damages, and, therefore, Defendants should not be concerned with allegations of criminality in the Complaint. Whatever motives lurk beneath the civil suit, in the post-termination of former counsel Brad Pigott era, the efficient recovery of welfare money is not one of them,” Bufkin wrote.

Current MDHS Director Bob Anderson answered questions about Pigott’s firing Tuesday during the Mississippi Legislative Democratic Caucus hearing on the scandal. He told lawmakers that the agency terminated Pigott because the attorney subpoenaed the athletic foundation without discussing the filing with him first and while he was out of town. Pigott did email a copy of the subpoena to a MDHS attorney before filing it, but Anderson said that was not sufficient notice as he was not copied on the email. Anderson also said that the agency felt that Pigott did not have the capacity to handle the breadth of the case, which includes hundreds of thousands of pages of discovery documents.

Bufkin also represents the nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, that Nancy New founded and ran alongside Zach New.

Bufkin stated in his Tuesday response that even though MDHS filed the complaint in May, it did not request discovery from the nonprofit until October. He also said MDHS has not produced documents that MCEC requested through discovery in August. The court will address several motions and filings in the case, including multiple subpoenas on Bryant, at a hearing in early 2023.

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