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Tammie Mullins last saw her mother 45 years ago when she was 3 years old. Family members told her and her younger sister Christi that Tonya Mullins was missing and, if she were able to come home to them, she would.

Over the years, Tammie held on to happy memories of her mother from when they lived in Simpson County. She always wondered what happened to her or where she was. 

Earlier this year, investigators from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department answered at least one of her questions: For 45 years, Tonya Mullins had been an unidentified homicide victim buried in Pearl under the name “Jane Doe”. Investigators identified her remains using DNA testing and genealogy. 

“That led her back to me and Christi,” said Tammie Mullins, who is 49. 

In 1978, Tonya Mullins was 22 and married to her high school sweetheart, James. They moved from Texas to Mississippi with their young daughters in search of work. 

The couple couldn’t find jobs, so James went back to Texas to find a place to stay for his family, but when he returned to Simpson County, Tonya and the girls were gone. 

That September, Rankin County investigators found the body of a woman –  now identified as Tonya – wrapped in carpet in an illegal dumping site near the old Byram Swinging Bridge. The bridge spans the Pearl River and separates Hinds and Rankin counties.

The woman had been dead for several days. Based on the blunt force head injuries, the coroner ruled her death a homicide. 

Her body was sent to the state forensics lab for an autopsy, and the woman’s fingerprints were recorded and sent to the FBI. Information about her and a composite sketch were released to the public, but nobody came forward. 

Tammie said memories of her mother are limited, such as images of her parents sitting next to each other on the couch as Tonya sewed Tammie’s dress, or jumping on the trampoline together.

With the help of her grandparents and father, Tammie has been able to retell what happened when her mother went missing. 

Three months after Tonya and the girls were last seen, Tammie’s grandmother received a call saying their uncle would bring them to Texas if she and her father met him at the airport. The uncle brought Tammie and Christi and told their father that Tonya would reach out at a later time, but she never did. 

Tammie said her father returned to Mississippi several times to try and find his wife, but was not successful. 

Her uncle had told her father she saw Tonya leave with someone to go to Mexico. The uncle later said Tonya was in Florida. There was supposedly a letter James received from Tonya – which Tammie now knows could not have been possible – but she doesn’t know what it said. 

Tammie said growing up without her mother was an emotional rollercoaster.

She didn’t like Mother’s Day and still doesn’t enjoy it now that she is a mother. At times she felt angry at her mother for leaving. Other times Tammie wished she was there, and that felt like a betrayal of her stepmother who helped raise her. 

“I think those feelings just never go away,” Tammie said. 

Years passed. Tammie and Christi started their own families. Tammie told her children about her mother. She became a grandmother. 

In 2021, Rankin County Coroner David Ruth was reminded about the 1978 Jane Doe case after a detective from Ohio working on an unidentified missing person case reached out. 

Ruth filed a petition with the circuit court to exhume Jane Doe’s body with the hopes of using modern forensic tools to identify her. Once the request was approved, he and Deputy Coroner Clifton Dunlap collected bones to send out for testing. 

Ruth tried three laboratories to help identify Mullins, and one that was successful was Texas-based Othram. 

“There are a lot of homicides that are unsolved because people don’t know who they are … finding out the identity of them is a start,” he said. “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.” 

Carla Davis, a Mississippi native and Othram’s chief genetic genealogist, used DNA from Jane Done’s bones to build a family tree. 

Davis found the woman had a genetic match with a person who was adopted, and she had to find who that person’s family was. Davis identified a possible close relative who agreed to take a DNA test. 

More testing and work by investigators led to the positive identification of Jane Doe as Tonya Mullins. 

“It’s rewarding beyond measure,” Davis said about her genealogy work for Othram. “It’s proof that, with funding, this works.” 

Davis, who is also a philanthropist, funded the costs to exhume Mullins’ body. She has also helped fund analyses for other unsolved cases in Mississippi and previously did genealogy work for Othram as a volunteer. 

Ruth, the coroner, said Mullins’ death is an open homicide investigation. Now that investigators know who she is, they can go back and find out with whom she was last seen and follow leads, he said. 

Sheriff Bryan Bailey did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

Learning what happened to her mother has given her and her family some closure, Tammie said, but she wants to know who is responsible for her death. 

Next week, Tammie, Christi and other family members will travel to the Floral Hills Memory Gardens to have a funeral service for Tonya, which is where funeral home staff laid her to rest as Jane Doe in 1978. 

Tammie said two of her sons who are ordained ministers will lead the service. 

“It’s the respect my mother deserves, and I wish we could have done this 45 years ago,” she said.

The post A mother of two disappeared 45 years ago. She’s been found, buried under the name Jane Doe.  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today has won the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media’s prestigious Silver Em award.

This year marks the first time a news organization has received the award. The Silver Em awards honor Mississippians with notable journalism careers or journalists with notable careers in Mississippi.

“We are very familiar with the prestigious Silver Em award and know full well that it is given to Mississippi journalists with exceptional journalistic contributions to the state or nation,” Editor in Chief Adam Ganucheau said. “We’re immensely proud our organization is now among that number. The UM journalism school has such a rich history of producing impactful journalists and journalism, and we’re proud to carry on that legacy in our home state.”

Ganucheau, CEO Mary Margaret White, Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner, Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields, Health Reporter Devna Bose, Education Reporter Julia James and Community Manager Bethany Atkinson are all UM alums.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for this award, because so many staffers in our newsroom are native Mississippians or went to college here and chose to stay and do local journalism in the place they care about,” said Skinner. “This award feels like a reminder to our newsroom and young journalists across the state that you don’t have to leave to make a difference.”

Mississippi Today was founded in 2016 as the state’s first nonprofit newsroom. Today the organization employs 18 reporters and editors to write about politics and policy across a myriad of beats including education, public health, justice, environment, equity and sports.

“We always strive to use our public service platform to the state’s advantage, offering our work completely for free to readers and to any Mississippi news outlet that would like to republish it,” Ganucheau said. “We see our role as helping bolster the state’s journalism outlets, not competing with them, and we firmly believe that the more sunshine that can be shed on our state’s leaders, the better.”

Mississippi Today will be honored during a ceremony on campus on April 12, at 6 p.m. in the ballroom at the Inn at Ole Miss.

“It is only fitting that our school, which is focused on instilling journalistic excellence in our students, has the opportunity to recognize one of the most innovative and high-quality news sites in the country,” UM School of Journalism Associate Dean and Professor Deb Wenger said in a university press release announcing the award. “The fact that Mississippi Today is producing journalism in service to our state just adds to the pleasure we take in honoring these fine reporters and editors.”

The post Mississippi Today wins University of Mississippi’s Silver Em Award appeared first on Mississippi Today.

When the Mississippi Community College Board unanimously selected Kell Smith as executive director earlier this year, it discriminated against a more-educated Black applicant who had worked at the agency longer, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday. 

In January, the 10-member board, composed entirely of white people, announced that Smith, a white man, would be the sixth executive director of the agency that oversees state funding for Mississippi’s 15 community colleges. Smith, the agency’s longtime director of communications, was elevated to the position over Shawn Mackey, the deputy executive director for accountability who is Black. 

Now Mackey, through his attorney Lisa Ross, is suing MCCB for discrimination and seeking damages for emotional distress. Smith, who is also serving as communications director for MCCB, said the board had no comment on the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Mississippi. 

The lawsuit takes place against MCCB’s 36-year history in which it has never had a Black executive director. There have been just five Black board members of MCCB whose terms did not overlap, according to the lawsuit. MCCB’s counterpart, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, hired its first Black commissioner in 2018 when Alfred Rankins was appointed to the role. 

The executive director serves as MCCB’s representative to the leadership and oversees the day-to-day functions of the agency. Unlike Mississippi’s eight public universities, the 15 community colleges are independently governed. 

According to the lawsuit, Mackey started working at MCCB in 2007 and, in the years since, has served in various “executive leadership positions,” such as the director of career and technical education. With a doctorate degree in higher education administration, Mackey “has supervised every department within the agency, except for the finance division,” the lawsuit says. 

“Mackey is well respected by the MCCB staff, community college presidents, elected officials and constituents for his expertise, professionalism, and leadership,” the lawsuit says. 

In 2015, Mackey was a finalist for the executive director role when MCCB hired Andrea Mayfield, at the time a president of a community college in Alabama. That search process saw allegations of political inference, according to the Associated Press. It is unclear if Smith also applied for the job that year. 

On July 16, 2021, the day that Mayfield resigned her post, the board appointed Smith to serve as interim executive director. Since he started working at MCCB in 2008, Smith had only held one position — director of communications and legislative services, a job that did not require him to supervise employees, according to the lawsuit. Smith’s highest degree is a master’s of public policy and administration, according to his bio on MCCB’s website. 

About a week later, Mackey requested a meeting with John Pigott, the board chair, “to discuss his interest in becoming the Executive Director and highlight his qualifications and experience for the job,” the lawsuit says. But Pigott, who was appointed in 2012 by former Gov. Phil Bryant, refused to meet with Mackey, instead asking him to “submit a written strategic vision to him.” 

“Mackey was never contacted by Pigott or any other Board members to examine his strategic vision or discuss his being employed as Executive Director,” the lawsuit alleges. 

The lawsuit alleges that when Smith was appointed to the interim role, he met only one of the minimum qualifications of the position — “proficiency in working with federal and state policymakers.” 

“This fact was underscored by Smith himself, who announced to the Board and to colleagues on various occasions that he did not have the knowledge or experience necessary to serve as Executive Director,” the lawsuit says. 

Mackey informed the board in August 2021 that he wanted to apply for the position and submitted “several letters of support,” but the board chose to keep the position open. Then in January 2022, the lawsuit alleges that board members voted to reduce the minimum qualifications for the position from “an earned doctorate degree from a regionally accredited college or university” to “a master’s degree in any field, and evidence of experience in administration, leadership and engagement at regional, state or national levels.” 

The board interviewed Mackey but kept the position open for 18 months, allowing Smith, the lawsuit alleges, “time to shore up his resume to meet the new criterion established by the board.” 

MCCB members are gubernatorial appointments. All three of Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2021 selections were campaign donors. 

The post New lawsuit alleges race-based discrimination by all-white community college board appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is one step closer to having a permanent U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, who is expected to oversee the prosecution of what’s been called the largest public fraud case in state history.

Both Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith have indicated their approval of President Joe Biden’s nominee for the position, Todd Gee, deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Waiting for Gee in Mississippi are five defendants in the welfare scandal who have pleaded guilty to federal charges and have agreed to help the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office with their ongoing probe. These include nonprofit founder Nancy New and her son Zach New, former welfare director John Davis, former nonprofit director Christi Webb and retired professional wrestler Brett DiBiase.

The scandal involves the theft or misspending of $77 million in federal welfare funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, including payments to the pet projects of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

Officials have hinted that the investigation is moving higher up the chain and New has already alleged in civil court that former Gov. Phil Bryant directed her to make one of the largest payments in question — $1.1 million to Favre for a radio ad promoting the state’s anti-poverty initiative called Families First for Mississippi. Bryant, whose office oversaw the welfare department during the scandal, has not faced civil or criminal charges.

Meanwhile, Hyde-Smith announced Tuesday she is blocking the confirmation of Scott Colom, Lowndes County District Attorney, for U.S. District Court Judge in Northern Mississippi. Wicker had already given his approval for Colom.

“I visited with the District Attorney recently, and I recognize that he is smart and well liked in his district,” Hyde-Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “However, there are a number of concerns I have regarding his record. As someone with a strong interest in protecting the rights of girls and women, I am concerned about Scott Colom’s opposition to legislation to protect female athletes.”

Hyde-Smith seems to be referring to a letter Colom signed condemning the criminalization of gender-affirming care, rejecting the prosecution of the families of transgender individuals seeking treatment to help them transition. He and dozens of other prosecuting attorneys made the statement in the aftermath of an onslaught of legislation across the country attempting to block trans youth from receiving the care.

While it did condemn anti-trans legislation generally, the prosecutors’ statement did not discuss “legislation to protect female athletes,” which refers to attempts to prohibit trans women from competing in women’s sports.

Hyde-Smith’s statement also criticized Colom for campaign donations he’s received from George Soros, a New York billionaire who has long contributed to criminal justice reform causes, such as legalization of marijuana and progressive sentencing. Hyde-Smith’s statement came on the same day Trump appeared in court on a 34-count indictment for falsifying business records in a scheme during his 2016 presidential campaign to conceal that he’d had an affair with an adult film star.

Following the charges, Trump and his supporters attributed the probe to Soros, who supported the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg leading the case.

“The significant support his (Colom’s) campaign received from George Soros also weighs heavily against his nomination in my view,” Hyde-Smith said in her statement Tuesday. “I simply cannot support his nomination to serve on the federal bench in Mississippi for a lifetime.”

In Colom’s 2015 race for district attorney, Soros funneled money into a Political Action Committee called Mississippi Safety & Justice, which ran ads for Colom. The PAC contributed $716,000 to the race, New York Magazine reported, almost five times what Colom himself raised. But Colom said at the time that he didn’t know and never communicated with Soros, Clarion Ledger reported. He successfully ran again in 2019 without support from the PAC, which filed its termination in 2016 after the race.

Mississippi is also awaiting confirmation of two U.S. Marshals.

Wicker and Hyde-Smith were able to hold up both nominations for several months, or indefinitely, because of a longstanding tradition in the U.S. Senate called “blue slips” – the piece of paper a senator returns to the judiciary committee to indicate they’ll approve the candidate when it comes time for a vote.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, could choose to suspend the blue slip process — as the Republican-controlled Senate did when former President Donald Trump made his judicial appointments to the circuit courts of appeals — and bring Colom and others to the committee for a vote. Because of the make-up of the committee, the nominations could pass with only Democratic votes.

The post Biden’s pick to lead welfare investigation gets approval from Mississippi senators appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The college basketball season is in the books after another exciting Final Four, but the focus this week is on Augusta National and the 2023 Masters. The Cleveland boys break down the favorites, and Rick gives his perspective from years of playing the course and covering the tournament.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: A tradition unlike any other. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

APRIL 5, 1856

Booker T. Washington was born in Virginia. He became a leading voice from the last generation of Black leaders who had once been enslaved. He promoted Black businesses and helped found the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. 

While lynchings were rampant across the South, he delivered an 1895 speech known as the “Atlanta Compromise,” calling for Black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than challenging the Jim Crow system that barred Black Americans from equal citizenship. 

“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly,” he said. 

His speech gained him support from white leaders but criticism from a number of Black leaders, including W. E. B. Du Bois, who believed protests were a vital way to change the Jim Crow system. Six years later, he released his autobiography, “Up From Slavery”, which became a best-seller and remained the most popular Black biography until “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” was released in 1965.

In his book, Washington recalled the day his family was set free: “After the reading (of the Emancipation Proclamation), we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.” 

In 1915, he died on the campus of Tuskegee and was buried there. In the decades that followed, he continued to be honored — with a postage stamp, a coin, a liberty ship bearing his name and his childhood home, which was declared a national monument.

The post On this day in 1856 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and any state senator with an opponent for reelection this year can expect to field lots of questions and campaign-ad jabs about the Senate killing a measure to restore voters’ right to sidestep the Legislature and put measures on a statewide ballot.

Senate Accountability Efficiency and Transparency Chairman John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, let a ballot initiative measure die without a vote. A last-minute Hail Mary attempt to revive it led by Hosemann in the final days of this year’s legislative session failed.

READ MORE: Senate kills Mississippi ballot initiative without a vote

Now, the soonest a right guaranteed Mississippians in the state constitution could be restored would be November of 2024 — provided lawmakers next year pass a measure and put it before voters for ratification in the federal elections.

“I was for ballot initiative and I didn’t get it,” Hosemann said on Monday, after lawmakers ended the 2023 legislative session on Saturday. But many political observers, and Hosemann’s primary challenger Sen. Chris McDaniel, lay at least some of the blame on Hosemann for it failing for the second year in a row. Hosemann routed the bill to Polk’s committee again, knowing Polk himself is against reinstating the initiative, and that he would play hardball demanding restrictions on its use in any negotiations with the House.

In a statement, McDaniel said: “Delbert Hosemann chose yet again to silence the voices of Mississippians and protect his own power by obstructing our ballot initiative process. Delbert’s actions are both disgraceful and unconstitutional.”

Democratic lawmakers slammed the GOP statehouse leadership as “out of step … with each other and the vast majority of Mississippians — including their own voters.”

Brandon Presley, Democratic challenger to Gov. Tate Reeves, is even trying to make hay of the issue in gubernatorial race, saying, “Tate Reeves and his allies in the Legislature didn’t lift a finger to restore the people’s right to petition their government because the status quo gives them and their lobbyist pals more power.” He said that if he were governor he would have pushed lawmakers to pass it, and would call the Legislature back into special session to restore the right after it failed.

Hosemann, when the measure died, said he was for it but he lets his Senate chairman make their own decisions. But then he pushed the Senate to take the relatively rare step of suspending rules and deadlines with a two-thirds vote to allow it to be revived in the eleventh hour of the session. This vote passed, but it would have required the House to do likewise, then a new bill would have to be introduced, agreements haggled out, then passed by both chambers.

READ MORE: Senate, in 11th hour, tries to revive ballot initiative measure it previously killed

House Speaker Philip Gunn on Monday said Hosemann’s last-ditch effort with the ballot initiative was too little, too late. He said having an agreement would have been worth suspending rules to pass a bill, but the Senate was only proposing another counter offer and wanting to haggle more, and lawmakers were having to focus on passing a state budget and finishing the session.

“We tried,” Gunn said. “The House passed it two years in a row. Our position has been pretty well stated. What we passed twice was pretty close to what it was originally, and the Senate was not willing to take that … If they wanted to do the initiative they had every opportunity.”

The main sticking point — besides the Senate chairman in charge of handling the initiative being against it — between the House and Senate was the number of signatures of registered voters required to put a measure on a statewide ballot. The Senate’s original position would have required at least 240,000 signatures. The House version would have required about 106,000, nearer the previous threshold required for the last 30 years.

The Senate’s last-minute counter offer, Gunn said, would have required more than 150,000 signatures, a figure he said was still too high.

Otherwise, both chambers’ proposals would have greatly restricted voters’ right to ballot initiative compared to the process that had been in place since 1992. Under both, the Legislature by a simple majority vote could change or repeal an initiative approved by the electorate.

Recent polls have shown Mississippi voters across the spectrum want their right to put issues directly on a statewide ballot restored. A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll showed 72% favor reinstating ballot initiative, with 12% opposed and 16% either don’t know or have no opinion. Restoring the right garnered a large majority among Democrats, Republicans, independents and across all demographic, geographic and income lines. 

The state Supreme Court nullified Mississippi’s ballot initiative in 2021, in a ruling on a medical marijuana initiative voters had overwhelmingly passed, taking matters in hand after lawmakers dickered over the issue for years. Legislative leaders, including Gunn and Hosemann, vowed they would restore the right to voters, fix the legal glitches that prompted the court to rule it invalid.

READ MORE: Is ballot initiative a ‘take your picture off the wall’ issue for lawmakers?

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The Mississippi Legislature, for the first time since 2016, did not restore voting rights to any person convicted of a felony.

Mississippi is the only state in the nation that requires people convicted of certain felonies to petition the Legislature to restore their voting rights. Most years the Legislature passes a handful of bills — normally about five — to restore voting rights to individuals convicted of felonies.

Seven bills restoring voting rights died on the Senate calendar when the 2023 session ended on Saturday around 2 a.m. Senate Judiciary B Chair Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said he opted to let the bills die instead of bringing them up for a vote because he did not think he could garner the two-thirds majority needed to pass each bill.

“It seemed like there was not enough support,” Fillingane said. “They barely passed out of committee on close votes. And before the full Senate, it takes a two-thirds vote instead of a majority vote to pass. Instead of embarrassing anyone by calling them up and having them defeated, we decided not to call them up.”

Fillingane said he spoke with the senators who he thought would be on the fence, and they all indicated they would be “no” votes.

Mississippi is among a handful of states — fewer than 10 — that do not restore voting rights at some point after people complete their sentence. And Mississippi is the only state requiring people to navigate the cumbersome legislative maze to have their voting rights restored.

The most suffrage bills passed in one session during the 2000s was in 2004 when 34 were approved, according to a Mississippi Today analysis. In 2009, 2012 and 2016, like this past session, no felony suffrage bill was approved. In 2021, there were five approved and in 2021 two were passed.

A lawsuit is pending before the U.S. Supreme that argues Mississippi’s felony suffrage provisions are in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit argues that the provision was placed in the state’s 1890 constitution as one of many devices to prevent Black Mississippians from voting. The thought at the time was that impoverished African Americans might be more prone to commit certain crimes like theft and embezzlement, so those specific crimes were determined by the writers of the state constitution to be disenfranchising crimes. Meanwhile, the framers deemed people did not lose the right to vote for many more serious crimes such as murder and rape.

In 2022, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals conceded that the provision was placed in the state constitution as a deterrent to African Americans voting. But the appeals court ruled in a split decision that because the state constitution was amended later to make murder and rape disenfranchising crimes, that the 1890 provision was no longer unconstitutional.

The Mississippi Center for Justice and others are appealing that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rob McDuff, an attorney with the center, said the fact that the Supreme Court has not yet dismissed the case could be a good sign and suggest the justices “are continuing to look at it.” The case was appealed to the Supreme Court in October 2022.

McDuff said it was disappointing that the Legislature did not restore any voting rights this session, but stressed that there are “thousands of people who have served their sentence and the fact that the Legislature generally restores voting rights to a few each session is another indication that the provision in the 1890 Constitution should be repealed in its entirety.”

Fillingane said the Senate in recent years has normally restored voting rights to only those convicted of crimes that would be considered non-violent, such as embezzlement. He said those convicted this year were convicted of crimes that could be considered more violent, such as robbery. One of the people under consideration had been convicted of using public property illegally. The Senate has routinely refused to take up cases where people were convicted of stealing or embezzling public funds.

But Fillingane said as chair of the Judiciary B Committee he wanted to give those people an opportunity this year but opted not to bring them up before the full Senate because he did not think there were enough votes to pass them.

The original list of crimes deemed to be disenfranchising has been updated by official opinions from the Attorney General’s office through the years to coincide with modern criminal law.

The crimes on the list via the opinions are arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, theft, timber larceny, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, statutory rape, carjacking and larceny under lease or rental agreement.

The post Legislature restores no voting rights during 2023 session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Destiny Miles of Clarksdale felt more alone than ever.

She was pregnant. She had just ended a toxic relationship with the baby’s father. And she felt lost about the idea of parenting. 

“At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was very depressed,” said Miles, 22. “Knowing I had to be a single mom, it took a toll on me for a minute.” 

She was scrolling Facebook when she stumbled upon parenting classes under the name “Baby U.” That’s how she met Chelesa Presley, who not only changed her outlook on parenting and motherhood, but her life. 

“I feel like Miss Presley helped me more than family,” said Miles, who is now eight months pregnant.

Presley is the director of Clarksdale Baby University – often called ‘Baby U’ – a free eight-week parenting class for families with children under 3 years old in the Delta, the most rural region of the state. 

Families in Clarksdale are often trying to make do with less. Nearly 42% of its residents live in poverty, and the median household income is about $30,700 per year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Coahoma County and the Delta at large have rates of teen pregnancy that surpass the national average.

In a region that’s already spread out and lacking resources, Baby U has provided a stable community for new parents since 2014. But during the pandemic, a lot of the personal touches of the program were strained because classes were online only.

The program only started back in-person at the beginning of this year, and Miles was in that cohort. The appetite for in-person, hands-on instruction was obvious, according to Presley. This last session of 15 families was the first time ever that everyone who started the program on day one made it to each class and to graduation. 

“What this class provides, a lot of families in the Delta do not get,” Presley said. “It’s nonjudgmental parenting support. A lot of (other) programs come from a model – whether they realize it or not – that the parents are deficient.” 

Presley said parenting classes can often take an approach of “what’s wrong with you” rather than “let’s support you on your parenting journey to have the best outcome for every child.” 

Graduates have told Presley the class made them feel valued, and that they needed to learn, but weren’t a bad parent. They needed that affirmation.

Miles went into the classes feeling like she wasn’t ready to be a mom. She doesn’t feel like that anymore.

She has learned about safe sleep, breastfeeding, childhood brain development, nutrition, and how to appropriately discipline – rather than just punish – a child. 

Baby U is part of Clarksdale-based nonprofit Spring Initiative, which is funded by donations and grants. Spring Initiative aims to help children in the Delta succeed in school and life. Baby U specifically gets the bulk of its support from the Coahoma County Early Learning Collaborative, which receives money from a state pre-K tax credit program. 

Bianca Zaharescu, the CEO of Spring Initiative, said Baby U is different from most of its other programs because it’s not following children from pre-K to graduation, but helping build a foundation before the child reaches the classroom. 

“Participants feel so much it’s a safe space where they can really share and talk personally and openly,”  Zaharescu said. “It’s not like throwing a bunch of information at parents, it’s a communal relationship-based space where you can explore together. It’s about enjoying parenthood.” 

Parents who already have young children were able to bring them to the class. That helped future parents like Miles see parent-child dynamics at work.

They even practiced reading stories aloud. Miles has continued reading to her belly at home, as she waits for her quickly approaching due date.

When she gives birth, Presley will visit Miles in the hospital and put a special “Baby U” hang tag on her door, a beloved tradition. During the class, Presley also does home visits with each family participating. She does follow-ups months later.

The Delta has a shortage of pediatricians, so Presley steps in where she can. She’s trained to do development screenings to make sure Baby U babies are hitting milestones and helps families access specialists if needed.

She’s also an intermediary for mental health needs. She checks with new mothers to make sure they’re not experiencing postpartum depression. If they are, she knows how to get them in touch with the help they need.  

More than 77% of Coahoma County is Black and so are most of Presley’s students. Mississippi is known for being one of the worst states for racial health outcome disparities. So, Presley steps up in hopes of guiding new mothers and their kids away from any pitfalls.

Presley has been with the program since 2014 and took over as its director in 2018. She fills gaps and acts as a lifeline many families struggling with finances and health care access wouldn’t have otherwise.

She removes all the barriers she can to get people inside her lime-green classroom on C. Ritchie Avenue. No car? Someone will pick you up. The program provides a full dinner for the participants and their young children when they meet every Monday night over the eight-week session – a draw in itself. 

“We talk about life and actual practical things in their life,” Presley said. “My whole thing is, if the mom is not well or the dad is not well, they can’t expect the child to be well.”

Presley said she’s always working to enlist fathers to attend the program – and she makes sure the ones who do participate understand the active role they should have in parenting, even during their partner’s pregnancy. 

Miles says friends who once judged her for seeking out parenting classes are asking how they can get involved. 

“I told myself if you get in that class, you learn,” Miles said. “You’re not just coming for the free Pampers.”

Now as a proud graduate, Miles gives her friends the same advice: to join and be ready to engage.

She wants to keep in touch with her classmates, a group of like-minded and supportive parents who have become part of a community network she didn’t have just over two months ago.

At the beginning of April, a new eight-week session began. 

A handful of mothers, mostly under 25, filed into folding chairs. At first, the group was quiet and reserved. 

But Presley is an expert at getting her new classes to open up. Her energy is contagious, even as she asks for each parent to introduce themselves – a game including paper airplanes – or speaks about what to expect in the third trimester.

Soon there was chatter, smiles and the beginnings of a budding support network for another  group of young parents.

Mississippi Today photographer Eric Shelton contributed to this report.

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