Portrait of Dred Scott Credit: North Wind Picture Archives, via Associated Press
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld slavery in a 7-2 vote. Dred Scott and his family were enslaved, and when he tried to purchase their freedom, they were refused. He and his wife, Harriet, each filed separate lawsuits, calling for their freedom. They noted that they had lived for years in both free states and free territories. A jury ruled in favor of Scott and his family. But on appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans, whether slave or free, had no right to sue. In a stinging dissent, Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis wrote that the claim Black Americans could not be citizens was baseless:
“At the time of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, all free native-born inhabitants of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, though descended from African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but such of them as had the other necessary qualifications possessed the franchise of electors, on equal terms with other citizens.”
He noted that the Declaration of Independence didn’t say that “the Creator of all men had endowed the white race, exclusively with the great natural rights.” The decision drew wrath from many, including future President Abraham Lincoln, who called it “erroneous.”
Two months later, Scott won his freedom when the sons of his first owner, Peter Blow, purchased his emancipation, setting off celebrations in the North. The decision helped lead to the Civil War, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted to counter the ruling.
In 2017, on the 160th Anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, the great-great-grandnephew of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney apologized to Scott’s great-great-granddaughter and all Black Americans “for the terrible injustice of the Dred Scott decision.”
Mississippi Today’s political team breaks down three major bills still pending in the 2023 legislative session — two of them very much expected, and the third a major surprise that no one saw coming.
There’s a preciseness to artist Ellen Langford’s movements as she works on multiple projects in the workplace studio she shares with other artists.
Langford, 55, of Jackson, has been selling her artwork since she was in her twenties. It has been her only source of income for the last 13 years.
Her paintings set forever in time a simplicity often missed or taken for granted by the hustle and bustle of life — a silhouetted figure lost in somersaults, an angler with a dog enjoying a day of fishing or how colors combine to create the sun’s kiss making ordinary leaves extraordinary.
A paused paintbrush is replaced by a gloved finger to smear on more color.
A palette knife replaces the gloved finger, adding a swoosh of another color.
Her creative mind’s eye is three or four steps ahead, guiding brushstrokes effortlessly as she moves from one painting to the next. Not with the jarring quickness of indecision. There’s fluidity at work, like a honeybee darting from bloom-to-bloom sampling the vastness of possibilities that the next flower is as sweet and rewarding, if not sweeter and more rewarding than the next.
“I was a paramedic, which is pretty demanding, and I painted when I could. But after personal bumps in the road, doing my shifts became impossible,” said Langford. “So, I took a ‘leap of desperation,’ instead of faith. And, here I am,” she said with a smile and shrug of her shoulders.
She stands for a moment with brush in hand, wearing paint-splattered coveralls, scrutinizing three paintings in progress. Then, she begins again, on all three.
“The process of painting is this middle space between thought and color you lose yourself in,” said Langford, as she dabs a stroke of paint on canvas before moving to another. “Painting speaks to people, and I want my paintings to be ever-evolving to continue the conversation.”
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
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Dr. T.R.M. Howard, center, escorts the family of Emmett Till, including his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, to his right. Credit: University of Alabama News Center
Dr. T.R.M. Howard was born in Murray, Kentucky. His mother worked as a cook for Dr. Will Mason, a White physician so impressed with the young Howard that he helped pay for much of Howard’s medical education.
After getting involved in civil rights issues, he moved to the all-Black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where he became the first chief surgeon at the hospital. In 1951, he founded the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and mentored young civil rights activists Medgar Evers and Aaron Henry. The council carried out a successful boycott of service stations that refused to let Black patrons use the restrooms, blanketing the area with bumper stickers that read, “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom.” As many as 10,000 attended their annual rallies, where Thurgood Marshall and other national figures spoke.
Howard also fought the credit squeeze by the white Citizens’ Council on those who dared to get involved in the civil rights movement. In 1955, he drew national attention when he became involved in investigating the Emmett Till murder. His compound became a safe place, and he escorted witnesses to the trial, including Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, through a heavily armed caravan. After the all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers, Howard spoke across the nation, including an overflow crowd on Nov. 27, 1955, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks heard the speech and four days later refused to give up her seat. She was quoted later as saying she was thinking the whole time about Emmett Till.
Howard later spoke to 20,000 at Madison Square Garden alongside Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Before the year ended, the death threats and economic pressure became too much, and Howard moved with his family to Chicago.
In 1956, the Chicago Defender put him on the top spot on its national honor roll, and he served as president of the National Medical Association. In 1971, Jesse Jackson formed Operation PUSH in Howard’s home, and a year later, Howard founded the Friendship Medical Center, the largest privately owned Black clinic in Chicago. He died in 1976, and Jackson presided at his funeral. Historians David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito have written the definitive book on his life, T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer. Both the Till movie and ABC’s Women of the Movement featured Howard in the series.
Just seconds remained. Louisville’s girls led Pontotoc 36-35. The State Class 4A Championship was the prize. Fans on both sides of Mississippi Coliseum were yelling themselves hoarse. Pontotoc had the ball, holding for the last shot.
Rick Cleveland
Your dutiful reporter glanced up in the Louisville cheering section and there was Biggersville coach Cliff Little stomping his feet, clapping his hands and hollering “DEE-fense” right along with the Louisville fans.
Earlier Thursday afternoon, Little’s own Biggersville team had lost 53-38 to powerhouse Ingomar for the Class 1A championship. Most coaches, having lost the biggest game of the year several hours earlier, would have been long gone from the Big House, probably crying in their beer. You didn’t have to be an intrepid reporter to know there’s had to be a story here.
Back to the game: Pontotoc, playing for the last shot, looks to have a winning layup until Louisville’s MVP, Jacylin Houston, bounds in, leaps high and blocks the shot out of bounds. Seconds later, the final horn sounds and Louisville has won. And now Little really is crying — big ol’ tears of joy.
And, yes, there is a story here. Got a couple minutes?
Fourteen years ago this week, East Webster defeated Durant for the State 1A boys championship. It was Little’s first state title as a coach. He has won four more since. Mitchell McCurry, now the Louisville coach, scored 36 points for East Webster that night.
Turns out, McCurry was much more than Little’s star player and tournament MVP that night 14 years ago. He was more like Little’s son. Still is.
Back to Thursday night: As soon as McCurry had the opportunity amid the postgame celebrating, he trotted over to the sidelines where he and Little shared a long embrace, both in tears. Again, Little has won five of these state championships, including two (boys and girls) last year. It’s difficult to imagine any of those meant more than watching McCurry win his first.
Asked about the relationship, Little said this: “I’m not sure I have the words. Mitchell was just such a special, special kid.”
McCurry was a special player, too. Little moved him up to East Webster varsity when he was an eighth grader and he was a key player then. But it was more about what was going on off the court than on it that drew the coach and player so close.
“My father was never part of my life,” McCurry said. “I lost my mother when I was young and my grandmother, who I lived with, died when I was seven.”
For much of his younger life, McCurry lived with other relatives and even with friends of his family. Little, he said, was like the father he never had. “Coach Little showed me true, genuine love. He taught me how to love again. Not that I wasn’t loved, but he taught me how to feel it.
“Coach Little inspired me to be a coach. I saw the way he cared for his players — not just me but all of us. That’s how I want to be for my players. I want to be there for them, just like he was for me and my teammates.”
When the final horn sounded Thursday night, Little embraced Johnthan Banks, another of his former East Webster players. Yes, that Johnthan Banks, the one who became a football All-American at Mississippi State and then played five years in the NFL. In that state championship game 14 years ago, McCurry and Banks scored 56 of East Webster’s 65 points.
Ever since McCurry and Little have remained close. They talk often, and not just about basketball. The Littles were there when McCurry’s first child was born. McCurry has attended all four of Little’s state championships since he helped win the first one.
Said McCurry of Little, “I wouldn’t be here if not for him.”
Said Little of McCurry, “I’m so proud of him, I…” He didn’t finish. He couldn’t.
The family of a Jackson homicide victim said they want answers and for members of the criminal justice system to be held accountable for releasing the man accused of killing their son from prison this week.
Anthony Tyrone Lindsey Jr. allegedly was shot to death on June 3, 2021, by Jocquiez Williams, who was on parole and on house arrest at the time of the shooting, according to Lindsey’s family. Williams later returned to prison to serve time for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Lindsey’s parents said Thursday that Jackson police, the Hinds County district attorney’s office and the Department of Corrections all played a role in Williams’ release.
“You had him in your custody but you just let him go,” said Anthony Tyrone Lindsey Sr. “It’s more than one person who dropped the ball.”
Williams, 24, had been in custody at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility to serve a sentence for a different crime, according to a Thursday statement by Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain.
He was released Wednesday, but MDOC cannot hold a person after they complete their sentence unless a detainer is attached to their file, which usually happens if they are accused of another crime. Policy allows MDOC to hold a person with a detainer up to 48 hours, and then MDOC would release them into the custody of the authorities who asked for the detainer.
“In Mr. Williams’ case, there was no detainer or warrant in Williams’ file. Without such detainer or warrant, MDOC could not lawfully detain Mr. Williams,” Cain said in the statement.
Spokespeople from Jackson police and the Hinds County district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday after Williams’ release, Hinds County Senior Circuit Court Judge Winston Kidd issued a bench warrant asking for Williams to be found and taken into custody from his last known address in Lexington.
“Jocquiez Williams was released inadvertently by MDOC and was not returned to the Hinds County Detention Center as proper protocol,” Kidd wrote.
Once found, Kidd said Williams will be held at the Raymond jail until he is brought before a judge to address the unindicted charges relating to Lindsey’s shooting death.
Williams has not been indicted for murder in Lindsey’s death or additional charges for the alleged kidnapping of a woman and her son and possession of a weapon as a convicted felon, according to court records. The woman, a former girlfriend of Williams and Lindsey, and her son were later found safe, local media reported.
In Mississippi, there is no timeline for a district attorney to seek indictment by a grand jury.
A spokesperson from the Hinds County District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment about why it had not sought to indict Williams.
Anthony Tyrone Lindsey Jr.was killed in 2021 in Jackson, Miss., a week after celebrating his 24th birthday. Credit: Photo courtesy of Carolyn Lindsey
When he died, Lindsey Jr. had just celebrated his 24th birthday about a week earlier and was applying for jobs as a recent graduate of truck driving school.
Carolyn Lindsey said her son was the youngest of five children and the only boy. He liked to spend time with family, and he liked to ride horses and his four wheeler. Her son was kind and didn’t have a mean heart.
She said justice won’t bring her son back, but it could potentially bring closure for her family.
“He will be truly missed,” Carolyn Lindsey said. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.”
Jackson State University President Thomas Hudson has been put on administrative leave with pay, the Institutions for Higher Learning announced Thursday.
Thomas Hudson Credit: JSU
The news came in a press release from IHL and did not detail the circumstances which required the Board of Trustees to place Hudson on leave.
Hudson did not return a call or text message sent by Mississippi Today on Thursday.
The IHL board met twice Thursday for a special called meeting to discuss “a Jackson State University personnel matter.” Both times the board immediately went into executive session. None of the members were present at IHL’s office in Jackson where the public meeting took place; all who attended did so via zoom.
JSU spokespeople said the university does not comment on personnel matters and directed questions to IHL.
Elayne Hayes-Anthony will serve as temporary acting president, according to the release. Anthony currently chairs JSU’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies.
Dr. Elayne Hayes-Anthony. Dean of the School of Journalism at Jackson State University
“I am so pleased to lead the university that launched my career. I plan to work with faculty and staff for the betterment of the students, alumni and community we serve,” Hayes-Anthony said in a text message to Mississippi Today after her appointment was announced Thursday evening.
Hayes-Anthony is a Jackson native who spent 17 years at Belhaven University before moving to back JSU in 2015 (she spent 10 years at the university prior to her time at Belhaven).
“We are grateful that Dr. Hayes-Anthony has agreed to serve as Acting President,” Board of Trustees President Tom Duff said in a statement. “As alumnus and long-time administrator and faculty member at the university, she understands the campus, its students, its challenges and opportunities.”
Weeks before the resignation, JSU’s faculty senate voted “no-confidence” in Hudson and his administration in January, a rare but ultimately symbolic move taken to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the president because of a “continuous pattern of failing to respect” shared governance and other professional norms of higher education. At the time, Hudson said in a statement he was proud of the work his administration had accomplished and he was “committed to continuing the work to collaboratively execute the strategic plan to make Jackson State the best institution it can be.”
Hudson is a JSU alum and Jackson resident who was appointed president by the IHL board in November 2020. Prior to that, he was leading the university in an interim position after former president William Bynum resigned in February 2020 after he was “charged with procuring the services of a prostitute, false statement of identity and possession of marijuana,” according to a Clarion-Ledger report. A Clinton municipal judge convicted him of all misdemeanor charges.
Hudson receives $300,000 a year in salary from IHL plus a $5,000 annual bonus from the university foundation. It was not immediately clear Thursday what Hayes-Anthony’s salary would be as acting president.
IHL said the board will “discuss the future leadership of Jackson State” at its next meeting on March 23.
Brett DiBiase, a former professional wrestler and son of WWE’s “Million Dollar Man,” pleaded guilty Thursday to a new federal charge that involves his brother, Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., as an alleged co-conspirator.
The plea signals that DiBiase may act as a witness in the federal government’s ongoing investigation into the Mississippi welfare scandal, in which officials misspent or stole tens of millions of federal welfare funds under the administration of former Gov. Phil Bryant.
But Brett DiBiase, who admitted to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, doesn’t appear poised to testify against his brother. Teddy DiBiase and the men’s parents, Ted and Melanie DiBiase, sat in the courtroom for the plea hearing Thursday. All three DiBiase men are facing charges in Mississippi Department of Human Services parallel civil lawsuit, which demands they return over $5 million in welfare funds they received.
“Teddy and Melanie and Ted Sr. love Brett and are here to support him like they always have and always will,” Teddy DiBiase’s attorney Scott Gilbert said at the courthouse.
While Teddy DiBiase has not been formally charged, federal authorities hinted they were zoning in on the older brother when they attempted to seize his $1.5 million Madison home in 2020. Teddy DiBiase was also included as an alleged co-conspirator in the bill of information that former welfare director John Davis pleaded guilty to in September.
Both Davis and Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to a document called a bill of information, which occurs when the defendant opts against a grand jury indictment. They are the only people who have faced federal criminal charges related to the welfare scandal.
Davis’ combined 20 felony counts come with a total possible prison sentence of decades, but his plea agreement assures he’ll only serve time for his two federal charges, which have maximum sentences of five and ten years. In exchange, Davis is also cooperating with prosecutors.
Davis was Bryant’s direct subordinate, and he could have the most knowledge of Bryant’s role in the scandal.
“As I have said before, this case is far from over and both the State of Mississippi and the U.S. Government will continue to pursue all those involved in this fraud, regardless of their position or standing,” Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens said in a statement after Brett DiBiase’s plea hearing.
Davis brought the DiBiase family into the administration of the state’s welfare agency and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program for several purported purposes, such as employee training and motivational speaking, opioid abuse awareness, youth mentoring, development of a phone app to track teens, and workforce development. While they received payment up front, many of the programs never came to fruition.
These are only some of the agreements — what prosecutors have called “sham contracts” — that make up the largest public fraud case in Mississippi history. Others include the $8 million worth of welfare-funded projects inspired by NFL legend Brett Favre. In the investigative series “The Backchannel,” Mississippi Today found through private text messages that Bryant and Favre had discussed these projects, and that Favre even enticed the governor by offering shares in one of the companies that received stolen welfare funds. Favre is a civil defendant but has not been charged criminally.
Bryant has faced no charges. Instead, the official who initially investigated the case, State Auditor Shad White, whom Bryant originally appointed to his position, describes Bryant as the whistleblower of the case.
“I’m pleased that our work uncovering the largest public fraud in state history continues to result in convictions,” White said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to assist the prosecutors, who decide who faces criminal charges.”
While the state originally arrested six people in 2020 — five of whom pleaded guilty and one who received pretrial diversion — Davis and Brett DiBiase are the only ones to be charged with federal crimes related to the welfare scandal. Nonprofit operators Nancy New and her son Zach New, whose nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center facilitated much of the theft or misspending, pleaded guilty to separate federal charges that they defrauded the Mississippi Department of Education.
Since no one has been sentenced in the either the state or federal cases, no one is currently serving a prison sentence.
Davis hired Brett DiBiase at the welfare agency in 2017, then secured for him a six-figure job at Mississippi Community Education Center, where Davis was increasingly outsourcing the TANF program. Federal prosecutors say DiBiase was not qualified for the job. In 2018, DiBiase entered a $48,000 contract with the welfare department provide opioid addiction education, but after slipping back into his own addiction, he failed to perform the service. Davis and New then used $160,000 in federal funds to pay for Brett DiBiase’s four-month stint at a luxury rehab facility in Malibu, Davis and New admitted in their state guilty pleas.
During the Thursday plea hearing, prosecutors described how they would prove the charges against Brett DiBiase. They cited a text in which Brett DiBiase asked Davis what the name of the nonprofit he worked for was.
While pleading guilty, federal prosecutors allowed Brett DiBiase to “substantially agree” with the “essential facts” of the bill of information against him, but not the prosecutor’s narrative in its entirety. He did not specify which parts he contested.
Brett DiBiase’s single conspiracy charge comes with a maximum sentence of five years and fine of up to $250,000.
“I applaud our federal partners for continuing to pursue federal charges for each and every individual responsible for stealing from Mississippi’s most needy and vulnerable citizens,” Owens said in his statement.
Singing River Health System will stop offering labor and delivery and other obstetric services at its Gulfport hospital starting April 1, joining two other Mississippi hospitals that have recently done the same.
Singing River announced the cut to the Harrison County hospital Thursday, blaming staff shortages. Employees received a 30-day notice and have the option to transfer to other jobs within the hospital system.
“Like many health systems across the nation, we currently face a shortage of OB physicians,” the statement from the hospital said. “While the decision to suspend services was not something we wanted to do, we are hopeful it is only temporary and that we can reinstate services in the near future.”
Patients can still receive obstetric care – including labor and delivery – at Singing River hospitals in Pascagoula and Ocean Springs.
Singing River and Ochsner Health announced a partnership in 2020 to acquire the 130-bed Gulfport hospital from another owner.
The cut in OB service comes as hospitals across the state say they’re struggling to keep up with rising costs and scaling back on specialized services as a result.
“We will continue to search for long-term solutions to bring back OB services to Singing River Gulfport and our community,” the statement said.
Singing River isn’t facing an imminent financial crisis, but announced it was seeking a buyer in the fall. The hospital’s CEO, Tiffany Murdock, has said partnering with a larger system would help bring down costs because the system would be able to negotiate on a larger scale with insurers and suppliers.
Murdock told Mississippi Today in November the hospital system had 200 open staffing positions and was continuing to struggle with a nursing shortage.
Clarification 3/2/2023: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect that the hospital says it has suspended, not ended, obstetric and labor and delivery services, though it has no firm date of when the services will resume.
