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Attorneys for Jackson Women’s Health Organization announced Tuesday it was dropping its legal efforts to continue to perform abortions in Mississippi.
Rob McDuff, an attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice who represented the clinic, said the failure of the state Supreme Court to hear the case “on an emergency basis” led to the decision for Jackson Women’s Health Organization to drop the lawsuit and to relocate to another state where abortions are not banned.
The clinic was the last abortion provider in the state.
The clinic had filed an emergency petition with the state Supreme Court asking the justices to prevent from going into effect state laws banning most abortions in Mississippi. The clinic pointed out that in 1998, the state Supreme Court had ruled that abortion was a right protected by the Mississippi Constitution. That ruling, the clinic argued, would supersede the state laws passed in later years to ban abortions.
But in a statement Tuesday, the Mississippi Center of Justice said that because of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the abortion clinic appeals in an expedited matter, the lawsuit was being dropped. Diane Derzis, the owner of the clinic, recently sold the building in Jackson’s Fondren neighborhood where the clinic, known as the Pink House, was located. She is continuing with plans to open a clinic in New Mexico.
“In recent years, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Paul Weiss law firm have filed several lawsuits to keep the clinic’s doors open, and to preserve and expand access to abortion in Mississippi,” said Vangela Wade, chief executive officer for the Mississippi Center for Justice. “We will continue to work for the day that right is restored and that every Mississippian has the resources to make their own reproductive and family planning decisions.”
With the decision to drop the lawsuit, left unresolved is the 1998 state Supreme Court decision in Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Kirk Fordice that recognized the right to abortion as part of the Mississippi Constitution. After that decision was issued, the state Legislature in 2007 passed a law saying most abortions would be banned in Mississippi if the U.S. Supreme Court ever stripped away the right to an abortion as part of the federal Constitution. And in 2019 the state Legislature passed a ban on all abortions after six weeks except in cases of medical emergencies.
State officials said those laws took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in late June overturned Roe v. Wade, which granted the right to an abortion, in a case involving Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
But Jackson Women’s Health Organization filed a lawsuit to block those laws from taking effect based on the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling. The lawsuit argued that the Supreme Court ruling, which was based on the Constitution, trumped state law. But Chancellor Debbra Halford of Franklin County rejected the clinic’s arguments. The clinic appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, but on Tuesday decided to drop the appeal.
While that appeal was pending before the Supreme Court, doctors at the clinic stopped performing abortions opting not to risk the punishment doled out in state law – a possible prison sentence and a loss of medical license – even though in the lawsuit they argued they still had the right to perform abortions based on the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling.
Mississippi Today could not get a definitive answer from the Supreme Court on whether it could take up the lawsuit even though it was dropped and reconsider the 1998 ruling granting a constitutional right to an abortion.
Theoretically, a doctor could perform abortions in the state and argue in court he or she had the right based on the 1998 Supreme Court ruling. But the doctor would be risking his or her livelihood based on how the court ruled on the issue of the Constitution versus state law.
In a statement, McDuff said, “Diane’s work is not done, and we applaud her commitment to continuing to ensure people can exercise their right to abortion. As she has stated, she is working to open a clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she can provide abortion care without fear of being put in prison for 10 years. We thank Diane; the clinic’s executive director, Shannon Brewer; and its medical director, Dr. Carr-Ellis; all of the clinic’s employees; and the Pink House Defenders, for the heroic work they have done so Mississippians could make their own decisions about pregnancy and childbirth.”
Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.
Maggie Bowen will become the first Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer who will be inducted as a competitive swimmer.
Editor’s note: On July 30, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inducts its Class of 2022. Today, we begin a series detailing the achievements of the eight inductees, beginning with world champion swimmer Maggie Bowen.
Little Maggie Bowen, future world champion swimmer, was six years old — two years younger than older sister Mimi, who already was winning medals for the Jackson Sunkist swim team.
Baby sister wanted no part of it — the swim team, that is. Seems Maggie didn’t want to get her face wet. She would not put her face under the water, which was fine with her parents who never forced the issue.
Rick Cleveland
Mimi apparently had other ideas. One afternoon, the two were playing on the shallow end of the pool. Maggie was perched on her older sister’s shoulders until … Mimi went under water, taking Maggie with her. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Maggie Bowen, now Maggie Bowen-Hanna, went on to become the greatest swimmer in Mississippi history. Yes, and on July 30, 36 years after her sister dunked her and 21 years after she became a world champion, she will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
“I feel so honored and so blessed,” Bowen-Hanna said in a phone conversation from Louisville, Ky., where she now lives. “It’s been so long ago that I was a competitive swimmer. And I know swimming is not one of the really popular or well-publicized sports in Mississippi. To be remembered in this way after all those years, well, it just feels like a huge, huge compliment.”
Another way to look at it: This probably should have happened years ago. We could spend the rest of this column – and this week – listing all the awards, medals and competitions Maggie Bowen won. So let’s just hit the highlights:
In 2001, swimming at the world championships at Fukuoka, Japan, she won the gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley and silver in the 400 medley. She was the best in the world at what she did. How many Mississippians can say that?
At Auburn, where she swam with older sister Mimi, who was also an NCAA champion, she was a 21-time All American and SEC Women’s Swimmer of the Year three times.
In 2001, she was the Clarion-Ledger’s Mississippi Sports Person of the Year.
She came hauntingly close to making the U.S. Olympic team three different times, missing by as little as 15 hundredths (0.15) of a second. That was when she was a freshman at Auburn.
Bowen-Hanna, on the winner’s stand in 2001.
“That was such an intense moment of frustration for me,” Bowen-Hanna said. “At the same time, I don’t think I would have had the same amount of success that I had as a college swimmer – or been a world champion, for that matter – had I not experienced that profound disappointment. I had a whole new level of drive and motivation after that.”
Understand, even before that bitter disappointment, Bowen-Hanna was an intensely competitive person. “As strong-willed as they come,” her mother, Marty Bowen, says.
Bowen-Hanna came by it honestly. Her father, Bo Bowen, was an outstanding running back and a captain of the Ole Miss football team in 1969. Said Maggie of her father, “He is one of the most competitive people I have ever known. I would say both Mimi and I got a lot of that will to win and work ethic from him.”
Bo Bowen’s father, Buddy Bowen, was a standout on John Vaught’s 1947 SEC Championship team at Ole Miss and was drafted by the Washington Redskins. Maggie’s maternal grandfather, Johnny Black, played college football at Southeastern Louisiana.
“I definitely benefitted from a long line of athletic and competitive genes,” Bowen-Hanna said.
There’s also no overstating how much sister Mimi (now Mimi Bowen-Crush) has meant to Maggie’s success.
“I always wanted to go anywhere Mimi went. I would have followed Mimi anywhere,” Maggie said.
In fact, she did follow Mimi to Louisville, Ky, where both live and both actively support Mimi’s four children, all talented competitive swimmers.
Maggie Bowen-Hanna says she rarely swims these days. She runs for fitness and says her swimming career seems long, long ago.
But, she says, “It’s so nice to be remembered all these years later.”
•••
The 2022 Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class includes Bowen-Hanna, basketball coach Kermit Davis, Sr., baseball great David Dellucci, golf champion Jim Gallagher Jr., football star Eric Moulds, and football coaches Bob Tyler and Willis Wright.
Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or dial 988. Local resources include the Mississippi Department of Mental Health DMH Helpline at 1-877-210-8513.
After 121 summers in the Mississippi Delta, the state’s oldest and largest prison is getting air conditioning.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said 48 air conditioning units have been installed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman buildings so far, covering 40% of the prison population.
The process is expected to be complete in the spring, and then air conditioning will be installed at the state’s other prisons, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and Southern Mississippi Correctional Institution.
“It feels good to get it done,” Cain said in an interview with Mississippi Today. “It’s just the time to do it.”
Cell blocks at Parchman, located in the scalding fields of the Delta, are made out of concrete. A U.S. Department of Justice report about poor conditions at Parchman said temperatures inside the prison sometimes reach up to 145 degrees. With air conditioning, Cain said, the goal is to get temperatures to a comfortable 78 degrees.
Multiple courts have ruled incarceration in extremely hot or cold temperatures is unconstitutional, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative. But despite court rulings, there isn’t a national standard for managing extreme temperatures in jails, she said.
A 2019 report by the Prison Policy Initiative found 13 southern states including Mississippi lacked central air in their prisons. Years later, most southern states still lack air conditioning in their prisons, Bertram said.
It’s often older prisons like Parchman that are least likely to have air conditioning throughout their facilities, she said, and that is often because infrastructure needs have piled up. However, there are some newer facilities that don’t have air conditioning.
“States are choosing not to provide this, often or not,” Bertram said.
Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility, which is privately operated for MDOC, has a central air conditioning system, including in all housing units, contractor Management and Training Corporation said in a statement.
Cain said the Parchman air conditioning project is $650,000 from MDOC’s budget. He also expects to use American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The state prisons commissioner also sees adding air conditioning as a way to address issues raised by the federal government and attract people to work in the state’s prison system.
In an April 2022 investigation report, the Department of Justice listed high temperatures as one of many issues that exist at Parchman. The report talks about extreme heat in restrictive housing units,which is also known as solitary confinement.
One of the report’s examples about conditions in restrictive housing is about a man who had been on death row for about 20 years and had no indication of mental health issues. In February 2021, he began expressing suicidal ideation and the week before his death by suicide, he had been seeking relief from excessive heat in his unit.
An investigation report found temperatures that week reached 124.5 degrees, and temperature logs from MDOC for the same timeframe showed temperatures between 95 and 145.1 degrees, according to the report.
“Incarcerated persons in prolonged restrictive housing in egregious conditions at Parchman can and do suffer mental harm, and this harm is evidenced by self-injurious behavior,” the DOJ report states.
People with chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, mental illness, poor blood circulation and obesity are more vulnerable to extreme heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Certain medications and old age can also affect a person’s ability to regulate their body temperature.
Heat-related illnesses are preventable, according to the CDC, but if untreated they can result in potentially fatal conditions such as heat stroke and dehydration.
One of the remedies the Justice Department recommended to fix constitutional violations is to ensure sanitary and safe conditions, including proper temperature regulation, in restrictive housing. Air conditioning isn’t specified as a specific remedy.
In addition to addressing extreme temperatures at Parchman, Cain said installing air conditioning can help recruit people to work in the prison system and promote a safer environment.
Adequate staffing is another recommendation by the Justice Department to allow for better supervision, safety and protection from harm.
The Department of Corrections is looking to hire 600 people, Cain said.
Correctional officers and case managers received a 10% pay increase earlier this month, with a starting pay of about $17 an hour or $35,500 with benefits. When he first became commissioner in 2020, starting pay was $14 an hour.
“We’re going to have to work to get there,” Cain said about completing air conditioning installation, staff recruitment and other ongoing projects through the corrections department.
Is there any legislation currently that puts existing rights and liberties in jeopardy?
Answer:
Some local governments in Mississippi have passed resolutions to protect LGBTQ+ rights, and recently proposed legislation attempting to restrict transgender people’s rights died in committee during the 2022 legislative session. However, there is concern about the lack of legislation that explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender and sexual identity.
A Timeline:
View the timeline and historic details below for a brief history of state legislation.
In 1802, Mississippi adopted a code that made sodomy a criminal offense. In 1890, when Mississippi created its new state constitution, it included the sodomy law. This law remains on Mississippi’s books but was invalidated by the federal law enacted from the Lawrence v. Texas case. However, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas included in his opinion that the Supreme Court should reconsider the validity of Lawrence v. Texas.
A state law prohibited same-sex couples from being able to adopt. It was only on March 31, 2016, that Chief United States District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III issued a preliminary injunction striking down Mississippi’s ban on same-sex couples adopting, ruling that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause.
This injunction followed the 2015 landmark decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which same-sex marriage was federally legalized and protected. In a swift response, the Mississippi Legislature in 2016 passed House Bill 1523 (H.B. 1523), also called the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act or Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.
H.B. 1523 states “The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that:
(a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman; (b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and (c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
This piece of legislation was a roundabout attempt to enable discrimination of LGBTQ+ citizens to continue under a thin veneer of expression of religious freedom.
After the passing of H.B. 1523, many state and local city governments, such as Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington banned government employees from non-essential publicly funded travel to Mississippi. The bans were intended to illustrate the widespread dissent with Mississippi’s law.
No provision of Mississippi law explicitly addresses gender identity-based discrimination. State non-discrimination laws extend to categories of “race, religious principles, color, sex, national origin, ancestry and handicap.” Miss. Code Ann. §§ 43-33-723 (2001); 25-9-103 (2001).
According to the Human Rights Campaign, no provision of Mississippi law addresses discrimination based on sexual orientation or addresses gender identity-based discrimination.
Various resolutions passed by local city governments protect LGBTQ+ rights. Hattiesburg, Oxford, Bay St. Louis, and Jackson are among the few cities that have all passed non-discrimination resolutions to support LGBTQ+ residents.
Mississippi has not prohibited the use of the gay or transgender panic defense as a legal strategy. This legal strategy is employed by lawyers who try to excuse their defendant’s crimes, such as murder or assault, by claiming that the victim being gay or trans caused the defendant to react violently.
While Mississippi does not protect people’s sexual orientation or gender identity in its existing hate crime law,the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act allows the federal government to prosecute hate crimes, including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Recently, “Real You Act of 2022,” which died in committee,was introduced by Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, to limit some people from changing their name and gender. This piece of legislation is aimed at curtailing transgender rights, as it would disallow incarcerated individuals from petitioning the court to legally change their name or update their gender marker during their sentence. The bill also makes it impossible for minors to change their gender marker if they so desire.
Another stressor for Mississippi LGBTQ+ minors is that they are not protected by state law against conversion therapy, where minors could be subjected to harmful practices in an attempt to change their sexual orientation.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey visits with golfer Ethan Mangum. Mangum is a graduate student and member of the golf team at the College of William & Mary. He’s also a former Jackson resident who was recently named the inaugural Genesis Invitational tournament Pathway Player, awarded to a player with a minority background who is excelling on the golf course and academically.
Mangum tells about how he started playing golf at the age of two, his pathway of success, how his parents influenced him and how he trains to be the world-class athlete and student. His is an inspirational story and a blueprint for anyone who wants to be successful. His story is a perfect blend of talent and hard work.
Despite the current abortion ban imposed by state law, a brave doctor could theoretically perform the medical procedure and argue in court that she was acting based on what the Mississippi Supreme Court said was legal.
Of course, a doctor challenging the law might be labeled as foolish instead of brave since the physician would run the risk of losing her medical license and face the specter of being sentenced to prison under conditions of the state law banning abortion. No telling how judges in Mississippi might rule on the issue.
But the fact remains that Mississippi is in this strange place where abortions no longer are being performed because of state law yet there is a Supreme Court decision saying the Mississippi Constitution provides abortion rights. And a ninth grade civics student learns that the constitution supersedes state laws.
Based on that 1998 Supreme Court ruling in Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Kirk Fordice, Jackson Women’s Health Organization — what had been the state’s only abortion clinic — recently filed a lawsuit asking that the state abortion ban law be blocked. Many assumed that the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit would be that a lower court would grant, perhaps reluctantly, the motion to postpone the ban and then the state would appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which would issue a ruling reversing the 1998 decision that said there was a constitutional right to an abortion.
But Chancellor Debbra Halford of Franklin County, appointed by state Supreme Court Justice Michael Randolph to hear the case, took a different path. She refused to block the abortion ban.
Halford pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court had reversed Roe v. Wade, which provided the federal constitutional right to an abortion. She reasoned that the 1998 state state Supreme Court ruling was made because the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Roe v. Wade that abortion was legal based on rights under the U.S. Constitution.
But Halford could not cite where the Mississippi Supreme Court said in the 1998 ruling that abortion was a right under the Mississippi Constitution contingent on Roe v. Wade. The state Supreme Court majority opinion said in 1998 abortion was a right under the Mississippi Constitution, separate and apart from Roe.
Further, Halford, proving she was a soothsayer as well as a legal scholar, said that when the case got back before the state Supreme Court, it would reverse the 1998 ruling. She most likely is correct, and we’ll find out soon because the clinic appealed her ruling to the state Supreme Court.
But what if the abortion rights supporters stopped their lawsuit after the Halford decision? The state would have been left in the aforementioned strange place where there was a law banning abortion even though there was a constitutional right to an abortion as stated in the 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court ruling. Halford’s ruling did not overturn that 1998 Supreme Court ruling.
It could be argued that Jackson Women’s Health Organization is doing the state a favor by appealing the Halford decision, giving the Supreme Court the opportunity to reverse the 1998 decision or proclaim unequivocally the state constitution provides abortion rights.
In 1996, then-U.S. Judge William Barbour of the Southern District of Mississippi prevented some restrictions placed on abortion clinics by the state from taking effect.
Barbour of Yazoo City, a relative of former Gov. Haley Barbour, said at the time he was personally opposed to abortion and the decision he was making pained him, but it was the only decision he could make since Roe v. Wade was the law of the land.
Late last month, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision reversed Roe v. Wade, meaning abortion rights no longer are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. That ruling led to the current abortion ban in Mississippi.
But while Roe was the law, scores of federal judges, even those who opposed abortion like William Barbour, issued rulings protecting abortion rights because, they said, they did not have the authority to overrule the U.S. Supreme Court.
Just like Roe v. Wade was the governing authority for Barbour and all those lower court federal judges, Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice was and is the precedent for all the lower court state judges in Mississippi.
Just as the U.S. Supreme Court can and did overturn Roe v. Wade, the Mississippi Supreme Court can and most likely will overturn Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice.
But William Barbour pointed out in 1996 that is a decision for the Supreme Court, not for the lower courts.
Andrew Aydin listens back to old voicemails from John Lewis.
Andrew Aydin Credit: Mississippi Book Festival
To Aydin, the congressman wasn’t just a mentor and collaborator. He was the closest thing the former congressional aide had to a father.
Lewis’ voice was booming and deep, even when playful: “Andrew?” the voicemails play. “Where are you, young man?”
Aydin recorded phone calls as the two were at work on their historical non-fiction graphic novel series. Lewis would fall asleep talking, the recordings capturing his snores. The two would later joke about those snores during book talks for their work on the “March,” a trilogy covering the lead-up to the voting and civil rights acts.
“I guess the John Lewis I knew is not the John Lewis everyone else knew,” he told Mississippi Today.
Lewis died on July 17, 2020, from pancreatic cancer. He was 80. His latest graphic novel, “Run,” published the following year picking up where the March trilogy left off.
Nate Powell Credit: Mississippi Book Festival
Now Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell, who worked closely with Lewis on the books, are faced with a new challenge: touring and speaking about their work without Lewis at their side. When the two come to speak at the Mississippi Book Festival on Aug. 20, it will likely be the first in-person talk they have given since the pandemic began – and since Lewis died.
“I’m excited to go to Mississippi,” Aydin said. “I’m excited to be back. I’m excited to get to talk to people about this work. These experiences that I’ve had to help keep John Lewis, the human being, alive for people. I don’t want him to become a mythic figure or something that seems unreachable.”
The two told Mississippi Today that continuing promoting and explaining the comics and their influence is vital. Especially now, when materials used to teach about the civil rights movement in schools are threatened under so-called critical race theory laws across the South and in Mississippi.
“We know we’re under attack,” Aydin said. “It’s why it’s so important that Nate and I get out on the road and go speak and tell this story. As the congressman would say: ‘Go preach the gospel.’ Because we have to keep these works in schools.”
The three “March” books follow a young John Lewis and organizers using nonviolent civil disobedience in the fight for civil rights and end to segregation. They chronicle a slew of events, from Lewis first meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the Mississippi Freedom Summer and Bloody Sunday. “Run” shows the conflicts that arise in the aftermath of the movement’s victories.
They’re comic books – the same medium as classics such as “Amazing Spider-Man.” There are no super powers, but real-life high stakes. Aydin, Powell and Lewis went to great lengths to make the works historically accurate, down to the dialogue. The panels move quickly and create something easy to digest despite the amount of historical context, which is why they’ve been lauded as an incredible teaching tool.
In the lead-up to working on the graphic novels, Lewis recalled a comic book about King published in the late 1950s that covered the Montgomery bus boycotts. The comic was sold out of car trunks and passed out in churches. It inspired nonviolent protests across the South. Lewis saw the accessibility comics offered.
“Congressman Lewis’ context for the power of comics, in educating contextualized nonviolent movements, absolutely not only set the precedent for the book and the mandate for the book,” Powell said, “but it was, by itself already, kind of a proof of concept in John Lewis’ mind.”
Powell has used the books in his personal life to teach his own children history. They’ve also helped him re-examine the gaps in his own education and the sensitized version of the civil rights movements often delivered in classrooms.
The books have won several awards – the third “March,” a National Book Award – and spent six weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
The last time Aydin was in Mississippi it was alongside Lewis. The two were part of a distribution program for “March” that gave the books to students in the Delta.
“When the congressman and I would tour places like Mississippi or Georgia, or North Carolina, he would often comment about how close we were – or drive by – many of these places that he was either beaten or arrested or where he staged protests,” Aydin said. “And it really drove the importance of what we were doing and being there.”
“Now doing it without the congressman,” he added, “it’s really hard.”
It might be a challenge emotionally, but Aydin said it’s not only the best way to protect Lewis’ legacy but also ensure he’s remembered as a full person not an untouchable historical figure.
“What is so powerful about his story and his life is that it is a model for any of us,” Aydin said.
In the Deep South, folks tend to fry everything. The list of fried items is like a rendition of legendary gospel singer Shirley Caesar belting out a litany of Sunday soul food dishes — “beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb,” and everything else from A to Z, including okra, fish, chicken, pickles, and, yes, even watermelon.
Visit outdoor events like the Mississippi State Fair or any backyard cookout, and load up on fried oreos, turkey legs, funnel cakes, alligator, Snickers candy bars and even Kool-Aid.
All that fried food is quick to make, tasty and inexpensive. But, the far-reaching results — Mississippi ranks at the top of the nation in obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
“In this area, you don’t have to go far to find fast-food. And, more often than not, it’s something fried,” said Christopher Deans III, operator and co-owner of Loaded Lettuce, located in the Westland Plaza restaurant in west Jackson. “It’s not just the fast-food restaurants, even the convenience stores and gas stations offer something deep fried.”
Deans III is a former teacher at Provine High School in Jackson. Raising his growing family on a teacher’s salary convinced him to go full-time with the business. His former students work at the restaurant, and he hires from the community with plans to open a second restaurant near Jackson State University.
Loaded Lettuce opened in September 2021, and is the brainchild of Deans’ father, Christopher Deans, Sr., a local physical therapist. The business was first called Simply Salad, but trademark issues resulted in the change to Loaded Lettuce.
“My dad has been in health care for over 20 years. He’s seen the long-term effects of an unhealthy diet, a bad diet,” said Deans. “He gets you after you’ve had that stroke, so he knows. And he cares. Loaded Lettuce is the result of his caring.”
“Here at Loaded Lettuce, we offer a nutritious alternative. Our goal is to bring a hearty, healthy, and convenient choice to the community,” Deans explains. “Our customers tell us that we are a breath of fresh air,” he says with a huge smile.
