Autherine Lucy in 1956 after she was admitted to the University of Alabama. Credit: University of Alabama Office of Strategic Communications
Overcoming racism and threats, Autherine Lucy became the first Black student to attend graduate school at the University of Alabama. She had previously been accepted to the university, only to be rejected when university officials discovered she wasn’t white.
The NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall represented her on the appeal, and she worked in the meantime as an English teacher in Carthage, Mississippi. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, and she entered the university as a graduate student in library science.
Despite riots and violence, she continued to attend. Three days later, the university suspended her “for her own safety,” prompting the president there to resign in protest.
Feeling dejected, she opened her mail soon after to read a letter from Marshall: “Whatever happens in the future, remember for all concerned, that your contribution has been made toward equal justice for all Americans and that you have done everything in your power to bring this about.”
Her case played a key role in desegregating schools in the South, including the University of Alabama, which admitted its first Black students in 1963. A quarter century later, the university overturned her expulsion, and she entered the graduation program in education a year later.
She graduated with a master’s in 1992. The university named an endowed scholarship in her honor and unveiled a portrait of her in the student union, with an inscription that reads, “Her initiative and courage won the right for students of all races to attend the University.”
In 2010, the university unveiled the Autherine Lucy Clock Tower, which honored those who desegregated the university. When a special marker at the College of Education honored her, she returned to speak.
In 2019, she attended the university’s graduation ceremony, where she received an honorary doctorate. “My response to fear is: do it anyway,” she said. “Let nothing stop you. You have to push forward.”
Sen. Chris McDaniel’s first financial reports for his lieutenant governor campaign and a political action committee he runs leave voters in the dark about where hundreds of thousands of dollars came from and raise questions about whether some donations violated campaign finance law.
McDaniel’s PAC reported it raised nearly $474,000 before it was officially created, failed to list the source of that money, and accepted $237,500 from what’s been described as a “dark money” nonprofit corporation that dumps millions of anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide.
McDaniel’s opponent, incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, on Thursday called for McDaniel, who in the past has called for campaign finance reform and transparency, to “practice transparency as he preaches and release his PAC donor list today.”
“My opponent’s PAC failed to disclose from whom he received more than $473,000,” Hosemann said. “He did disclose that he raised $237,500 from a Washington nonprofit corporation.”
McDaniel this week, the day after announcing his Republican primary run against Hosemann, reported having raised $710,000 last year and having $713,000 cash on hand for his 2023 campaign.
McDaniel’s largest donor to his campaign was the PAC he created in June 2022 called Hold the Line. It contributed $465,000 to McDaniel’s campaign.
McDaniel and Dan Carr, a pastor and political consultant from Gulfport, filed paperwork with the secretary of state’s office in June of 2022 creating the Hold the Line PAC. PACs are required to file organization papers with the secretary of state within 48 hours after they raise or spend more than $200.
Candidates and PACs were required by Tuesday to file their annual finance reports showing donations and expenditures from calendar year 2022.
But despite having been created only in June of 2022, McDaniel’s PAC in the report it filed this week showed a prior year’s balance of $473,962.38. There was no accounting of where this money came from nor an explanation of how the PAC raised money before it was created.
Hold the Line reported that it then raised $244,310 for 2022, and that its largest contribution was $237,500 in August from a nonprofit called American Exceptionalism Institute. The PAC report showed no contributions to account for the nearly $474,000 balance for the prior period.
American Exceptionalism Institute, based in Alexandria, Va., is a nonprofit corporation that says its mission is educating people about national security, the protection of life and tax and spending issues. It’s been described as a “dark money” nonprofit that dumps millions in anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide, often through other nonprofits or PACs.
Mississippi limits corporate donations — including those from nonprofit corporations such as AEI — to candidates or PACs that donate to candidates to $1,000 per calendar year. Individuals, limited liability corporations and PACs can give unlimited contributions to Mississippi candidates.
Speaking generally about campaign laws and not McDaniel’s reports, Secretary of State Michael Watson said on Thursday his office has frequently fielded questions like, “Can you give corporate money to a PAC, and that PAC turn around and give the money to a candidate?”
Citing a 1990s state attorney general’s opinion, Watson said, “I think that would be a violation in my mind,” if a corporation gave more than $1,000 to a PAC, then the PAC gave more than $1,000 to a candidate. He said using a PAC simply to dodge corporation donation limits would possibly be a criminal violation. He said most such enforcement would be up to the attorney general’s office or local district attorneys.
McDaniel on Thursday told Mississippi Today he knows scant details about the finances of his PAC or his campaign.
“I can’t even write a check out of my account,” McDaniel said. “That’s just for safety reasons and so no one can ever question anything.”
McDaniel deferred any questions about Hold the Line PAC finances to Carr. Reached by phone on Thursday, Carr gave confusing answers.
“We registered (the PAC) in June, then some money came in in August, then we filed a report January 1. Correct, January 31. I’ll have to get back with you on that (the prior balance of $474,000). We had a clerical error,” Carr told Mississippi Today.
Carr said the report “clearly states” where the prior balance came from. But when challenged that the report does not list where the $474,000 came from, and asked for details of the clerical error, Carr referred further questions about the PAC to a man named Thomas Datwyler. Carr said Datwyler “filled out the report for me,” despite Carr’s electronic signature being on the PAC report filed to the secretary of state.
McDaniel also deferred questions about his campaign account to Datwyler, despite McDaniel’s signature being on the report and another person listed as the contact.
No one answered calls or responded to a message left at the number Carr gave for Datwyler.
A Thomas Datwyler, a national Republican operative and campaign finance consultant, has recently been in the news. After U.S. Sen. George Santos’ campaign treasurer resigned amid the candidate’s campaign finance problems, Santos said Datwyler would be taking over as treasurer. Datwyler’s attorney countered that he told Santos he would not be taking the post.
Also this week, Carr sent out an email fundraising solicitation for McDaniel titled “I AM ALL IN.” It is a letter from McDaniel asking voters to click links to donate $25, $50 or $100 to help him in his race for lieutenant governor. The solicitation, sent from dan@danqcarr.com, says it is “paid for by Committee to Elect Chris McDaniel.”
But no such committee has been registered with the Mississippi secretary of state’s office.
Besides his PAC, McDaniel is one of the largest donors to his own campaign, having contributed $53,000.
Hosemann this week reported having raised $1.33 million for the period, and having $3.5 million in his campaign account.
An amendment to Mississippi’s medical cannabis act passed by the House would keep reports of marijuana businesses breaking regulations from the public — but the health department has already put a freeze on releasing those documents before any changes to the law have been made.
Mississippi Today filed a public records request seeking copies of reports regarding three cultivators that have been cited by the Department of Health’s cannabis program last week. One of the cultivators faced having massive amounts of his cannabis destroyed in penalties.
Department of Health spokesperson Liz Sharlot responded to Mississippi Today’s request saying the agency is “withholding all documents in our ongoing investigative files” pending a decision from the state’s Ethics Commission on “certain exemptions.”
Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Hood, however, said his office currently has no complaint open regarding whether investigation reports and other related materials from the medical cannabis office are subject to public record laws under the current cannabis act.
Mississippi Today asked the Department of Health what language in the current cannabis bill pointed to possible exemptions. The agency did not immediately respond Thursday.
Mississippi Today had already received citation records regarding Mockingbird Cannabis through a public records request in the fall. A Jackson-based blog – Jackson Jambalaya – posted a copy of records it obtained from the health department in December showing cultivator Southern Sky faced the possibility of having to destroy upwards of $700,000 in marijuana plants for not tagging them properly.
Mississippi Today was denied copies of that same report; a copy of the corrective action plan made with Mockingbird; and the citations made against a third cultivator.
Rep. Lee Yancey’s proposed amendments to the cannabis act were passed in the House on Wednesday. Among his suggested tweaks was explicit language to keep investigative reports in-house at the health department.
“Any investigation, fine, suspension or revocation by a licensing agency shall be considered confidential” and exempt from the state’s public record laws, the amendment says.
Yancey did not return a request for comment.
The decision to keep these reports out of the public eye is at odds with what the Board of Health’s own medical marijuana program committee recently recommended. Head of the committee, Jim Perry, said he hoped the program would post enforcement actions it has taken to its website during a meeting on Jan. 26.
“Other regulatory agencies … they post online when there is an enforcement action,” Perry said at the meeting. “As much as we can, we should err on the side of transparency… because it will tell people what they can learn from the lessons of others.”
Perry said it could help ease the onslaught of questions the health department is regularly receiving related to interpreting regulations.
“I think that if there is a corrective action plan, it should be out there,” Perry said.
A recent Mississippi Today investigation found that the cannabis office is still dealing with a massive backlog in applications and regularly takes weeks to answer questions. Cultivators told Mississippi Today that the type of structures being approved by the health department to grow marijuana were not being consistently regulated.
Perry said posting the actions the agency takes to correct businesses in the program would also show that it is treating everyone fairly.
The Senate must pass the cannabis act amendments before the bill is sent to the governor to be signed.
What you might not have known is this: Mississippi will have more natives playing in the 2023 Super Bowl than any other state. And, as you may notice, there’s no mention of per capita there. The Magnolia State will have more players in the game than any other state. Period.
Eight native-born Mississippians dot the rosters of the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, who will play Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz.
Texas, Georgia and Ohio all tie for second in representation in this year’s Super Bowl with seven players each. The figures were provided by BetMississippi.com, citing ProFootballReference.com.
What you should know about all that is this: Texas has a population of just under 30 million. Georgia and Ohio have populations of more than 11 million. Mississippi’s population is just under 3 million.
Florida, with a population of more than 22 million, has six players in the Super Bowl. The nation’s most populous state, California (over 40 million population) is next with five.
Mississippians who play for the Philadelphia Eagles include All Pro defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and running back Kenneth Gainwell, both of Yazoo City; quarterback Gardner Minshew of Brandon; wide receiver A.J. Brown of Starkville and linebacker Nakobe Dean of Horn Lake.
Mississippians who play for Kansas City include All Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones of Houston, Willie Gay of Starkville and linebacker Darius Harris of Horn Lake.
Amazingly, the towns of Horn Lake (population 28,000), Yazoo City (10,000) and Starkville (24,500) all boast two players each on football’s biggest stage.
All will follow in the footsteps of so many small-town Mississippians who have made their marks in the Super Bowl, including the likes of Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Brett Favre, Lance Alworth, L.C. Greenwood, Kent Hull, Sammy Winder and so many more.
In addition, the Eagles’ Cameron Tom (Southern Miss by way of Baton Rouge), Quez Watkins (Southern Miss by way of Athens, Ala.) and Darius Slay (Mississippi State by way of Brunswick, Ga.) played college football in Mississippi.
Democratic candidates have filed paperwork to challenge Republican incumbents for all eight statewide offices.
The deadline to qualify to run for office in the November 2023 elections was Feb. 1. Democrats, who have suffered an ongoing string of elections losses in Mississippi, have candidates to challenge all eight Republican statewide office incumbents.
But whether the Democratic candidates, who are mostly unknown statewide, can garner the voter support and financial resources needed to run competitive campaigns remains to be seen.
Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley of Nettleton announced last month that he would challenge incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves. Pundits believe Presley is the favorite to win the Democratic primary in August and advance to the November general election. But Presley will first have to defeat Democratic primary challengers Bob Hickingbottom and Gregory Wash, both of Jackson.
Reeves is being challenged in the Republican primary by John Witcher and David Grady Hardigree. Independent Gray Gwendolyn also will be on the November general election ballot for governor.
State Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville already has announced he is challenging incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in the Republican primary. Also entering the primary will be Tiffany Longino and Shane Quick.
D. Ryan Grover of Hattiesburg has qualified to run for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.
For attorney general, Jackson attorney Greta Martin will challenge Republican incumbent Lynn Fitch.
In other races:
Secretary of state: Democrat Shuwaski Young will challenge Republican incumbent Michael Watson.
Treasurer: Democrat Addie Green will challenge Republican incumbent David McRae.
Auditor: Democrat Larry Bradford will challenge Republican incumbent Shad White.
Insurance commissioner: Democrat Bruce Burton and Republican Mitch Young are both vying against Republican incumbent Mike Chaney.
Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce: Four Democrats — Terry Rogers ll, Bradford Hill, Robert Briggs and Bethany Hill — will compete for the right to face Republican incumbent Andy Gipson in the November general election.
Democrat De’Keither Stamps will square off in the second consecutive election with Republican incumbent Brent Bailey for the Central District Public Service Commission post. Bailey defeated Stamps, now a state House member, in 2019 in a closely contested election.
Three Republicans but no Democrats are running to replace Presley for the Northern District Public Service Commissioner: Mandy Ganasekara, Tanner Newman and Chris Brown.
Incumbent Southern District Public Service Commissioner Dane Maxwell will face Nelson Wayne Carr in the Republican primary.
For the open seat of Southern District Transportation commissioner, Republican state Rep. Charlies Busby will face independent Steven Brian Griffin in November.
And Democratic Central District Commissioner Willie Simmons will face Republican Rickey Pennington Jr.
Former University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones said that Gov. Tate Reeves once told him in a meeting that he understood how Medicaid expansion would benefit the state but couldn’t agree to champion it for political reasons.
Jones, who led the state’s largest hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, before he served as chancellor from 2009-2015, divulged details of the 2013 or 2014 meeting during a Thursday press conference with Democratic legislative leaders about the Republican leadership’s inaction on addressing the state’s hospital crisis.
“A little while after I began explaining the benefits of Medicaid expansion, he (Reeves) put his hand up and said, ‘Chancellor, I recognize it would be good for Mississippians, good for our economy, good for health care if we expanded Medicaid,’” Jones recalled. “I had a big smile on my face and said, ‘I’m so glad to hear you’re going to support expansion.’ His response, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to support it because it’s not in my personal political interest.’”
The revelation about Reeves’ closed-door expression to Jones directly counters the governor’s long-held public stances. Reeves, who previously spent eight years as lieutenant governor and leader of the state Senate, has defiantly opposed Medicaid expansion for more than a decade.
Even earlier this week, the governor tripled down on his opposition to expansion in a speech.
“Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare, and socialized medicine,” Reeves said during his annual State of the State address on Monday. “You have my word that if you stand up to the left’s push for endless government-run healthcare, I will stand with you.”
Reeves unleashed on Jones — and journalists — in a Twitter thread after stories about Jones’ claim published.
“This is obviously a lie,” Reeves tweeted on Thursday afternoon. “I’d bet I hadn’t talked to this dude since well before he was fired by Ole Miss, and I never would have said this … The liberal media will print a lie about me all day, so Democrat activists lie.”
Lawmakers, working in Jackson until early April, face growing pressure to address the state’s worsening hospital crisis. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney warned them in December that 38 hospitals across the state are in danger of closing in the short-term because of budget concerns. Meanwhile, Mississippi has the highest percentage of uninsured residents who cannot afford health care, so hospitals often have to cover those care costs themselves.
One hospital funding solution that 39 other states — including many Republican-led states — have implemented is Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Economists estimate Mississippi would receive more than $1 billion per year in new revenue, and hospitals would benefit directly.
Meanwhile, public sentiment for Medicaid expansion is growing. A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll conducted in early January 2023 found that 80% of Mississippians, including 70% of Republicans, support expansion.
Despite the growing popularity of the measure, Republicans who run state government have not budged. More than 15 different bills that would have expanded Medicaid — all filed by Democrats in early 2023 — died in committee earlier this week without receiving a vote or even a debate by Republican committee chairs.
Speaker of the House Philip Gunn has been in lockstep with Reeves in his opposition of expansion, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who has said in the past he is open to some version of expansion, has not made the issue a priority this session.
“The governor and the party he leads have deflected, distracted, and attempted to discredit the merits of programs that have made real, positive impacts on health outcomes in other states that have adopted them — some, even, just as red as Mississippi,” Rep. Robert Johnson, the Democratic House leader, said at the press conference on Thursday. “They’ve downplayed the severity of the crisis, not only diminishing just how dangerous the lack of access to care is becoming across our state, but ignoring the economic damage closing hospitals will cause in communities.”
In 2010, Congress adopted President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid program that allowed states to opt into to draw down large amounts of federal funding to provide health coverage for mostly poor, working people.
One year later, then-state Treasurer Tate Reeves ran for his first term as lieutenant governor, and in 2015 ran for a second term. During Reeves’ first term is when, Jones said, the meeting occurred at the chancellor’s office in the Lyceum administrative building.
Jones, during the press conference on Thursday, said he was sharing details of the Reeves meeting now because the state’s hospital crisis has reached a critical point. In calling for immediate action from legislative leaders, Jones shared three imperatives to expand Medicaid: a moral one, an economic one, and a political one.
“Shame on us, shame on us, for allowing the citizens of Mississippi to have health care problems and not have access to health care solutions … it is immoral,” Jones said. “… It’s time for us to put the pressure on leaders of our state to move past the personal political interests and consider the interests of every Mississippian who needs access to health care.”
U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Credit: Courtesy of U.S. House
Less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court desegregated public schools, U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. rose on the House floor.
A Baptist preacher in Harlem, he was one of only three Black Americans in Congress. Since getting elected to Congress a decade earlier, he had introduced many civil rights bills.
None had passed.
After introducing legislation to desegregate the armed forces, then-President Harry Truman wound up doing it through an executive order. As Powell stepped to the microphone, he chastised Congress for failing to make a difference.
He and others had introduced civil rights bills, “pleading, praying that you good ladies and gentlemen would give to this body the glory of dynamic leadership that it should have, but you have failed, and history has recorded it,” he said. “This is an hour for boldness. This is an hour when a world waits breathlessly, expectantly, almost hungrily for this Congress, the 84th Congress, through legislation to give some semblance of democracy in action. … We are derelict in our duty if we continue to plow looking backward.”
He noted that when a House committee was considering legislation to end segregation in interstate travel, Lt. Thomas Williams was arrested and jailed, even though the Supreme Court had told bus carriers to end such segregation.
“About two weeks ago, while flying a jet plane, he was killed serving his country before he had a chance to see democracy come to pass,” Powell said.
Although his push for legislation failed, his words helped inspire change. The civil rights rider he introduced eventually became part of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped change America.
Though they haven’t been given the chance to vote on it, a majority of House members want to extend health care coverage for moms on Medicaid from two months to one year, a Mississippi Today survey shows.
Mississippi Today is polling all 174 lawmakers on the issue, which health care leaders say would save countless lives across the state that consistently ranks near last for maternal mortality and last for infant mortality.
More than a voting majority in both the House and Senate — including numerous Republicans — told Mississippi Today they support extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to 12 months.
Additionally, several lawmakers who said they were still officially undecided on the issue and would not give a direct “yes” or “no” answer appeared willing to consider it.
“I’m undecided, but the reason I’m undecided is that the leadership, for whatever reason up to this point, has prevented that from being brought up so we can ask questions,” said Rep. Jay McKnight, R-Gulfport. “I have some questions both ways on it that I would like to hear the answers.”
Though the support is evident, House members may not get the chance to vote on it.
Last year, the measure overwhelmingly passed the Senate, with Republican leaders in that chamber calling it “a no-brainer.” But it was killed by Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, who continues to say he has not seen data about how it would help save lives.
Gunn remains noncommittal this year about whether he will bring the issue to a vote, and he says he wants the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to take a position. State Medicaid officials, including executive director Drew Snyder, have refused to answer questions about the topic.
Several lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate — filed bills early this year to extend the coverage to one year. If passed, it would put Mississippi on the same page as 29 other states, including most of the Southeast. Eight additional states are currently considering full extended coverage or a limited extension of coverage.
The Senate, like last year, passed a postpartum extension bill out of committee before a key Jan. 31 deadline. But a similar House bill, filed by Republican Rep. Missy McGee, died in committee on deadline day without receiving a vote.
Rep. Joey Hood, a Republican from Ackerman who chairs the House Medicaid Committee, did not convene a single meeting of his committee before the Jan. 31 deadline, so the House bill died without a vote or even debate. Hood on Wednesday refused to say whether he supported the postpartum Medicaid extension.
The Senate bill, however, is expected to pass the full Senate chamber in coming days and move to the House, where Gunn and his leadership team will decide whether to bring it up in committee.
The Senate last year passed similar measures three times, and fairly broad Republican support in that chamber remains, according to the Mississippi Today survey.
“I’m pro-life, and I think being pro-life means you take care of these mothers and children,” said Sen. Chad McMahan, a Republican from Guntown. “I have voted for it three times and I plan to do so again.”
Gunn, who exerts broad control over the House chamber and legislation that moves through it, will have to designate the Senate bill to a House committee. Gunn’s hand-picked committee chair — perhaps Hood, the House Medicaid Committee leader — will then get to decide whether to take up the bill in committee. They could choose to let the bill die on the House committee calendar without consideration, or they could take it up in committee.
If a House committee passes the Senate postpartum bill, it would then move to the House floor for consideration and debate there. House leaders, including Gunn, could again decide to let the bill die on the House calendar without debate.
Mississippi Today is polling all 174 lawmakers on a measure to extend health care coverage for moms on Medicaid from two months to one year.
Health care leaders say passing the postpartum Medicaid extension bill, as 28 other states have done and several others are considering, would save countless lives across Mississippi, which consistently ranks near last for maternal mortality and last for infant mortality.
More than a voting majority in both the House and Senate — including numerous Republicans — told Mississippi Today they support extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to 12 months.
Editor’s note: The House and Senate vote charts below were last updated on Feb. 1 at 5 p.m. We have spoken with most lawmakers in person as well as emailed all 174 lawmakers about the postpartum extension, but we have not yet reached all of them. We labeled those we have not yet heard from as “no response,” and we labeled those who refused to answer our question as “refused.” We will update the charts as we hear from additional lawmakers.
