Most impressive sports statistic of all-time? In my mind, Bill Russell owns it.
Get this: Russell played in 21 winner-take-all basketball games in his career. Those include college, NBA and Olympic championship games. In those games, Russell’s team was 21-0.
Rick Cleveland
“Bill Russell was the greatest basketball player who ever stepped onto the court,” Bailey Howell, Russell’s teammate for three seasons with the Boston Celtics, said Tuesday morning, two days after Russell’s death at age 88. “He was a winner. He was all about winning. In my mind, Russ was the Most Valuable Player of all-time. I think the record bears that out.”
The record does: Russell led the Celtics to 11 NBA Championships – two of those as a player-coach. In those 11 championship-deciding games, Russell averaged 29 rebounds.
Speaking from his home in Starkville, Howell continued, “There were other players who were bigger, could shoot it better or had more basketball skills. But there was nobody who made his team better than Russ. He made everyone around him better. He was the leader of 11 championship teams. Without him, the Celtics would not have won a single one of those.”
Today, most fans argue between Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the greatest-ever basketball player. Jordan won six championships, James has won four. Again, Russell won 11. Eleven!
Russell stood 6 feet, 9 inches tall but played much taller. Said Howell, “His arms were so long that he had to find shirt sleeves that were 41 inches long. Plus, he could jump so high and his timing as a jumper was unbelievable. That’s why he was such a great shot blocker and rebounder. When he blocked a shot, he didn’t swat it out of bounds or up in the stands like so many do. He blocked it and then controlled it, and usually started a fast break that ended up with a bucket on the other end.”
Howell knew Russell as an opponent before they were teammates. Howell went to the Detroit Pistons as the NBA’s second overall draft choice out of Mississippi State in 1959. Russell played against Russell for seven seasons, both as a Detroit Piston and a Baltimore Bullet.
“A couple times I heard Russell tell his teammates to keep me off his back,” said Howell, who averaged 12 rebounds per game in those seven pre-Celtics season. “I’d battle him as best I could. I didn’t get as many as he did, but I battled him.”
For sure, Howell earned Russell’s respect. Red Auerbach, the Celtics’ Hall of Fame coach and general manager, retired as a coach after 1966 season and promoted Russell to the role of player/head coach. The Celtics then traded Russell’s back-up center, Mel Counts, to the Bullets for Howell.
“I was told that Russ had his choice of Gus Johnson (another Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer) or me, and he chose me,” Howell said. “I guess he had some respect for me or he wouldn’t have taken me over Gus Johnson, who was a Hall of Famer.”
Howell’s rebounding average dropped by two per game over his time with the Celtics. That figures. Said Howell, “I remember Russ told me one time that with him and me on the same team, there weren’t any rebounds left for anyone else,” Howell said.
When promoted, Russell became the first Black head coach of any professional sports franchise. That first season (1966-67), the Celtics were beaten by Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the championship series.
Bailey Howell
“Most people don’t know this but Russ had some sort of leg or ankle injury in that series,” Howell said. “The Sixers were a great team and might have beaten us anyway but it would have been tougher for them. Russ played hurt.”
The next season with Russell healthy, the Celtics were back on top beating the Sixers in a seven-game championship series. Boston won again the next season as well, before Russell retired
NBA fans of a certain age – and I am one – will remember the age-old argument: Who’s better? Wilt or Russell?
“You might not know this but Wilt and Russ were good friends,” Howell continued. “They often shared a pre-game meal when they played against each other.”
As for who was better, Howell said, “I think you just look at the championships. Wilt averaged a lot more points and a few more rebounds, but look at who won the championships. Russ made the game easier for his teammates. He made us all better.”
No doubt about it: Twenty-one winner-take-all games, 21 victories. It does not get any better than that.
It’s now been three years and counting since investigations began into the largest public fraud case in Mississippi history — a case that involves powerful public officials, former pro football stars and pro wrestlers, and tens of millions of dollars.
And to date, authorities have provided scant information on those investigations, and judges have tried to stifle those involved. Most public information about the case has come from investigation and reporting by Mississippi Today, often to the chagrin of state officials.
State officials have assured that federal authorities will run the case to ground, and that punches are not being pulled on any powerful or famous people involved in the theft or misspending.
But to date, to quote former Gov. Phil Bryant about his own role in the scandal, “It doesn’t look good,” and there appear to be many incongruities about the case and investigations.
Brad Pigott fired from case
State leaders can’t get their stories straight on why attorney Brad Pigott was dismissed from leading the state’s lawsuit to try to recover millions in stolen or misspent welfare dollars.
First, Mississippi’s welfare agency chief said officials were blindsided by Pigott’s subpoena of communications between the USM Athletic Foundation, former Gov. Phil Bryant and others over $5 million in welfare money spent on a USM volleyball stadium. But then emails showed Pigott gave them a draft of the subpoena 10 days before he filed it.
Gov. Tate Reeves, who said he signed off on Pigott’s dismissal, first said Pigott, as a semi retired sole practitioner, wasn’t up to leading such a lawsuit (despite having done so for a year). Then later he said Pigott also had a “political agenda” and was seeking the media spotlight.
Pigott said it was because he was looking into the roles of Bryant, the USM Athletic Foundation and other powerful and connected people or entities Reeves and others didn’t want him looking at.
State Auditor Shad White spearheaded the initial investigation and charges with a local district attorney — for eight months — without contacting federal authorities. Federal investigation experts said this seems odd, given the case involved tens of millions of federal dollars, and federal authorities have more resources to fully investigate and prosecute such a case.
At the time the auditor and Hinds County DA charged six people in early 2020, the then-U.S. attorney for Mississippi complained he was surprised by the move and only learned of it from media reports.
Subsequent reporting by Mississippi Today that former Gov. Phil Bryant — a close friend and former boss of White — was set to accept stock from a company involved in the fraud scheme in the days before White made arrests. Announcement of the arrests prevented the deal from going through, a Mississippi Today investigation showed. Did the decision to bring charges stymie or delay federal intervention, or give others involved a chance to take cover?
White has said that after the initial arrests, his office and the DA turned everything over to the FBI and have been working closely with federal authorities.
Auditing firm was limited in what and who it could examine
The Mississippi Department of Human Services and auditor’s office hired prominent national accounting firm Clifton Larson Allen for up to $2.1 million for a forensic audit to get to the bottom of where the money went.
But CLA was limited in what and whom it could examine. In its findings, it noted it was not given access to the former welfare director’s computer hard drive or financials and it was limited in whose emails it could examine — initially just those of the welfare director, then later a few more lower level employees. CLA noted in its reports that it perhaps would have found more misspending had it not been severely limited in where and at whom it could look.
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Bryant as the ‘whistleblower‘
Since the 2020 arrests, White has called Bryant the whistleblower in the case — though the fraud tip White says Bryant turned over to his office pertained to a small portion of the larger welfare scheme.
But more recently, communications obtained by Mississippi Today between Bryant and others — including Bryant agreeing to accept stock from a company involved in the scheme — cast doubt on the idea of Bryant being the whistleblower.
Here’s a text exchange between Bryant and the company’s owner around the time of the alleged whistleblowing:
“Is this your company mentioned in the second paragraph (of a news article on arrests)?” Bryant wrote.
The company’s owner said yes, that he’d been subpoenaed and “just gave them everything.”
Attorney General Lynn Fitch has been mostly silent about the largest public fraud case in state history, and her involvement appears to have been limited to signing off on a civil case attempting to recoup misspent money.
Asked recently whether she had any interest in leading a state investigation into the case, Fitch said: “Certainly the AG’s office is very engaged, but that’s pending litigation and I cannot comment … We are very invested in it. I just cannot comment any further.”
Auditor White initially said he took the case to the notoriously understaffed and backlogged Hinds County district attorney’s office for expediency — to quickly halt the fraud and misspending.
More recently, White said he brought in the Hinds DA, a Democrat, to bring bipartisanship to an investigation that might involve powerful Republicans.
Many known recipients not included in civil recovery case
MDHS is suing 38 people or companies trying to “claw back” $24 million of the at least $77 million in stolen or misspent federal welfare money.
But those not named in the lawsuit to date have been the subject of much discourse. The lawsuit, for example, doesn’t address the largest purchase made in the scheme — $5 million in welfare money spent to build a volleyball stadium at USM, with the payments disguised as a lease. Reeves shied away from committing to recoup those funds, saying he didn’t know if the payments were illegal, despite the fact that a defendant in the criminal case has already pleaded guilty, admitting that he defrauded the government by paying welfare money to the USM athletic foundation.
One defendant in the case recently filed a subpoena for Bryant’s communication and records involving the volleyball stadium, and has claimed Bryant directed her to spend welfare dollars, including to pay former NFL star Brett Favre $1.1 million in welfare money for speeches he allegedly never gave.
Never-ending gag order and lack of public information
The initial auditor/Hinds DA case has been the subject of judicial “gag orders” for nearly two years — aimed at preventing defendants, attorneys and prosecutors from speaking to the media about the criminal charges.
Most recently, gag orders were extended to include Auditor White and the new welfare director talking about former welfare Director John Davis, who faces criminal charges. The two opposed this, saying such an order amounts to unconstitutional prior restraint and would “severely interfere” with their responsibilities as public officials.
It is unclear whether there will ever be a state-level trial in the case, or when these gag orders might be lifted. The gag orders have appeared to be only mildly effective.
Federal authorities have given no public information about any investigation into the welfare fraud and refused even to confirm they are investigating, although state officials said the feds are.
We continue to report to you, bringing new information and answers. We can’t do this without your help, though. Support this work with a recurring donation today!
A team of educators reviewed the books for “mature content” and recommended that the district return the books to circulation in three ways: full circulation for grades 6-12, full circulation for grades 9-12, and books that will require parental consent to be checked out in grades 9-12. Full circulation means anyone can check out a book.
Books in full circulation for grades 6-12 are:
“Piecing Me Together” by Renee Watson
“The Benefits of Being an Octopus” by Ann Braden
“Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen
“Uglies” by Scott Westerfeld
Books in full circulation for grades 9-12 are:
“All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
“Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person” by Frederick Joseph
“Dear Martin” by Nic Stone
“Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
“Love, Hate, and Other Filters” by Samira Ahmed
“Discovering Wes Moore” by Wes Moore
“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson
Books in restricted circulation for grades 9-12 are:
“Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
“American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
“Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell
“I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika Sánchez
“Let Me Hear a Rhyme” by Tiffany D. Jackson
“Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez
“Queer, There, & Everywhere” by Sarah Prager
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
“Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany D. Jackson, originally on the list of books in restricted circulation, was not addressed at the meeting.
Mississippi native and author Angie Thomas, whose book “The Hate U Give” was on the list of books placed in restricted circulation, responded on Twitter in April, saying “The county I once called home. I couldn’t leave Mississippi fast enough. My heart goes out to the Black and LGBTQIA kids in Madison county who aren’t being allowed to read books that show their experiences.”
Nationally, book bannings have been on the rise over the last year, hitting a record high since the American Library Association started tracking the challenges 20 years ago. The association also said that the majority of challenged books were by or about Black or LGBT individuals.
Mississippi libraries have also seen pushback over materials in Ridgeland and Biloxi, though no library materials have been removed from the shelves yet.
Lindsey Beckham, a parent who spoke against the books at one of the school board meetings and the chair of the Madison chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national conservative nonprofit that advocates for parental rights in schools, previously told Mississippi Today that she first became interested in the library content as part of her concerns regarding critical race theory.
Critical race theory was a focal point during the legislative session this spring, with legislators passing an anti-CRT bill over the objections of ever Black lawmaker. The Mississippi Department of Education has previously said that the theory is not present in any K-12 curriculum, but it is sometimes found in higher education settings.
Beckham, who was in attendance at Monday’s meeting, said she was concerned about how some of the books had been sorted.
“‘The Hate U Give’ is mild compared to some of the ones that are in full circulation,” Beckham said. “Of course, I don’t want any of the 22 books in full circulation. I don’t want to ban or burn a book, but these books are available at our public libraries, on Amazon, or at a book store — they’re not appropriate for children.”
BAY ST. LOUIS — A U.S. Department of Transportation official said the Biden administration is confident passenger rail will return to the Mississippi coast during a ground-breaking ceremony for a train depot platform Monday.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg spoke after local leaders stuck shovels into a mound of dirt outside Bay St. Louis’s historic train depot, marking the start of construction for a new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant platform. But the Amtrak-funded platform construction is symbolic for now – the future of the passenger route that would use it is still in limbo.
Amtrak is waiting for a federal board to mediate a long-time dispute over the Gulf Coast’s capacity to host both freight and passenger rail on shared tracks. Amtrak hasn’t run a Gulf Coast route since Hurricane Katrina. Trottenberg, who was visiting from Washington, D.C., echoed Amtrak’s assertions that there’s room for passenger rail to run between Mobile and New Orleans with four stops in Mississippi.
“I think you can see by Amtrak’s commitment to get these platforms ready, they’re confident they will be running the train,” Knox Ross, with the Southern Rail Commission, said at Monday’s ceremony.
The Bay St. Louis platform is the first to begin construction among the five stations on the Gulf Coast route that will get similar updates. Each will cost around a half-million dollars, totaling about $2 million, according to Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari.
About $66 million dollars in funding has already been secured for the Amtrak-desired route, but Amtrak and freight companies CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern have been in a years-long back-and-forth with little progress.
Amtrak filed a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board last year. The federal body of transportation experts is appointed by the president to help settle railway disputes. Earlier this year, the board sat through days worth of testimonies. Now Amtrak and the freight companies are in board-mandated mediation.
“We hoped that we would have the train running by January of this year,” Magliari said. “Now, we’re hoping for by January of next year.”
In a recent filing Amrak submitted to the federal board it wrote: “Amtrak’s additional analyses confirm that there will be no unreasonable impairment to freight transportation from the Gulf Coast service.”
Amtrak wrote the freight company’s “arguments to the contrary are without merit” and impacts to freight routes and supply chain issues “greatly exaggerated.”
In June, CSX told Mississippi Today it looked forward to working with a mediator toward a “reasonable and amicable solution.”
The company has said more studies on train traffic are required to ensure the corridor can accommodate passenger trains without impeding freight business. That’s something Alabama officials have also cautioned, worried about any potential impact on the Port of Mobile’s businesses.
What comes next is a waiting game, but Amtrak leaders say they’ll be ready.
The new platform construction is the first phase of a longer plan, according to Amtrak. A second phase will better update the stations once the planned route has been up and running for two to three years.
Ultimately, Amtrak, the Southern Rail Commission and the Biden administration hope to see the route expand to include Baton Rouge.
“But first, we need Mobile,” Magliari said.
In November, the U.S. Congress approved $22 billion for Amtrak as part of a $1-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. The passenger rail provider has said it wants to expand across the country, adding up to 39 corridor routes and up to 166 cities by 2035.
Railroad experts have been watching the Gulf Coast case with the Surface Transportation Board closely because it could set a precedent for Amtrak’s ability to expand its routes nationwide.
The proposed route would run two trains daily in the morning and evening between Mobile and New Orleans. It would stop in Bay St. Louis, Pascagoula, Gulfport and Biloxi.
“You’ve heard an exciting vision for once this project is done to travel to all these wonderful cities along the Gulf Coast,” Trottenberg said Monday. “There is some work to do, (we’re) still working through the process, but I can say from the Biden administration’s point of view: We have great confidence we are going to get passenger rail again in this corridor.”
Mississippi’s last abortion clinic closed on July 6, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the constitutional right to abortion. Abortion is now illegal in the state except in rare cases, and Mississippi doctors believe even people who are pregnant as a result of rape will struggle to access the procedure because physicians will fear potential legal consequences.
The country’s abortion rate has declined steadily since the early 1990s, but a 2017 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that 24% of American women will have an abortion by the time they are 45.
Mississippi Today spoke with four Mississippians about their abortions and their reactions to the end of legal abortion in Mississippi and other states around the country.
Rebecca Meador poses for a portrait near her home Monday, July 25, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Rebecca Meador, 42
Meador got an abortion at the Pink House in 2000. She had recently given up a son for adoption.
I feel a real sense of urgency to tell as many people as possible: This is what happened. And it’s not because I just chose to end a pregnancy. It’s because I was in an impossible situation where my life was in danger. It’s just a complex set of issues that I think a lot of people don’t bother to really consider.
I was 18 when I found out I was pregnant and 19 when I gave birth. I knew there was no option for me to be able to raise this baby. My first decision was, I’m gonna have to have an abortion. And I was completely devastated. It was like I was living in a fog of despair. The last thing I wanted to do was have an abortion. Then (my manager at work) was like, “you don’t have to have an abortion. You can place the baby for adoption.” That was the first time that clicked with me.
I was so relieved. There was another option. I didn’t have to end this pregnancy in this way. We (the adoptive parents and I) met there at the adoption agency … We just really clicked. So that was a positive experience for me.
The postpartum depression was very severe. That took several months for me to recover from. I got prescription psych meds for it. Then I was just dealing with the grief of placing Jake (my son).
I don’t know what they think, that it’s just so easy to grow a person inside your body and give birth to it and give it away? You just go home and have a milkshake and go back to work? Maybe for some women, and probably for some women, it’s not traumatic. Maybe it’s something they’re able to recover from and find a place of mental stability and they move on. But it’s not the case for me. Certainly I don’t think that the agoraphobia and extremes of postpartum depression that I experienced, that’s probably not normal. But it’s probably not extraordinary either.
There are a lot of reasons why people cannot just place a baby for adoption. It’s not like returning a book to the library. It’s a really big deal.
Finding myself in the place of being pregnant again (in 2000)… looking back on it now, I’m 42, and I have so much sympathy for myself (then) and so much love for myself. I really just was pretty psychologically broken, as it relates to how to have a healthy regard for valuing my own sexuality and, like, saying no and not being in that kind of a relationship. I just didn’t have those skills back then. I just was not in that place. I didn’t have health insurance. I didn’t have prescription birth control all the time.
I was living in Starkville. I went to the library and got a Jackson phone book. I looked in the Yellow Pages under abortion.
There was a girl that was in (the clinic) with me that I went to high school with. That was notable to me. We weren’t really close. We were acquaintances … In a way it was nice to see a face that I knew but also in a way it was a little awkward. Like oh, we’re both in here. We’re both doing this. But you know, we really just each kept to ourselves. We smiled and said hello to each other.
I think that’s another thing that people who are (anti-abortion) don’t really understand or think about. Nobody that gets an abortion is like skipping and jumping – “tralalalala, I’m getting an abortion today.” That’s not happening. Nobody shows up to the abortion clinic having the best day of their life. This is, like, the worst thing ever. And it is shameful, especially in Mississippi and it’s embarrassing for a lot of people. And it’s so personal and so private and then so to see somebody that you went to high school with in a way is like – no! This is the last thing that I want to, like, share with my high school buddy.
But it was also a little bit comforting. This weird double-edged sword. Oh, there’s somebody I know in there. We’re all having the worst day of our lives.
I sent (a written version of my story) to every member of the state Legislature. Every member of the House and every member of the Senate, and I also sent it to the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office. And I also sent it to the offices of the chancery court where the lawsuit was. I heard back from two people, just one-sentence emails that I got back. They were both like, “I agree. And a woman’s body is her choice.”
I was at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson the Sunday after the Supreme Court decision came out, and David Strain, who is the lead pastor there, during the pastoral prayer before the sermon, he was rejoicing and praising God for the decision that there wouldn’t be any more baby murders. Basically called me a baby murderer. He didn’t call me by name of course. But I just got up and went out. It was too much for me to process. I was just trying to be at church, and was getting called a baby murderer.
I don’t know how to not talk about it. If I don’t talk about this, these people who think they know how to legislate women and legislate health care – they don’t get it. We have real struggles going on in our lives.
Sonnie Bane, 30
Sonnie Bane poses for a portrait outside of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, July 6, 2022. The clinic must stop providing abortions after a judge refused to block the state’s trigger law from taking effect. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Bane got an abortion at the Pink House in late 2016.
I was in a very long-term, six-year, seven-year abusive relationship. It was just not something that I wanted. It’s not like I was trying to get pregnant. It just happens. It wasn’t the easiest decision for me to make. I am very pro-choice, always have been, but when it is you, it just feels a little bit different sometimes. I’m very proud of my decision.
Coming here, I’ve known a lot of the escorts and the clinic workers for a long time, like Ms. Derenda (Hancock, one of the founders of the volunteer clinic escort service) is like one of my biggest idols. I just trusted her enough to guide me through the process. She helped me get the information for any funding. I got help from one of the people that are local here (the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund).
There were so many people out on the streets whenever I was coming up here for every single visit. This was like six years ago. They always said the Pink House is an island on its own. The protesters definitely made it feel like it.
This place really just saved my life. I was not ready. I was not in a good place. It would not have been a healthy relationship to have kids. I do eventually want one. But I wouldn’t be the same person, and I love who I am today. I have a great job, I have a good relationship, everything is just aligning. And if I didn’t do that … I don’t think I would still be here.
I also found out that I was Rh negative (a blood cell status that can affect pregnancy) here, and I didn’t know that previously. This place has done so much for me. I got birth control here for years.
I feel like my dog has more rights than me now. It’s my body. I don’t think anybody should tell me what I can and can’t do.
It’s not like there are just countless women that are out here getting pregnant and doing it for fucking fun. Excuse my language. I don’t know anybody that would want to do this for fun. It’s hard.
I did the pill, and I was in pain for four hours. No, it’s not fun. For some women, it is their only option. I don’t know anybody’s situation. I can’t say that they are wrong or anything no matter how many times they get an abortion. Everybody’s different.
A., mid-20s
A. got a medication abortion at the Pink House in early June 2022, about a month before the clinic closed. Mississippi Today granted A. anonymity at her request.
I’m young, and I already have children. I’m a single mother. And it’s already basically hard for me. I’ve barely got my head above water, with the high gas prices, and basically we’re in a recession, they just don’t want to admit it … I think it would be selfish to bring another child into this world and I’m knowing that I’m not able, physically or emotionally or mentally.
And you have some people who just don’t want children. It’s not a sin not to want children. You have some people who may get raped or just in some type of situation where they can’t have a child right now. It’s really a good thing what they’re doing in there. But you got some people who don’t care. They’d rather you have a child. No matter how much they stand outside and say we can help you, they don’t really care about you. They don’t. They just want you to have a child just so it won’t be on their conscience.
I knew I couldn’t go through (pregnancy and delivery) again. I have three. One deceased, two still living. I knew that I couldn’t do it again.
I actually want to get my tubes tied. I said to (my doctor), “I wanna get my tubes tied.” He said, “What if you wanna get married and have more kids?” It’s like, “who said I want to get married?
“I’m going to be firm: We just need to schedule a date. I don’t care about what you think. This is not about you. This is about me.”
I would go (if the nearest clinic were in southern Illinois). Having to take off work, get finances in order, however I would have got there, find a hotel, get my kids situated. It would have made it 10 times harder.
Even if (the anti-abortion protesters) do help, it’s not long term. They’re not gonna be able to help you with housing, childcare. Where I work now, I make $15 an hour. It’s still not enough. If I didn’t have this health insurance, there is no way I can go out and afford health insurance. That health insurance, it’s full of crap too. It’s barely enough. For a consultation at the dentist, I still had to pay $100 out of pocket.
We all sin every day. Some people think whatever they do, God worships the ground they walk on.
Kavi, 30
Photo courtesy of Kavi.
Kavi ended a pregnancy in Iowa when she was 19. She now lives in Mississippi.
I was 19. I was in my sophomore year of college. I was in a really bad place in that I was in a very abusive relationship, I was becoming estranged from my family, I was in active addiction and alcoholism. And so there were a million and one reasons why my period would have been late. To top it off I had some spotting in between when I was pregnant and it just seemed normal. There was nothing that really tipped me off that I was pregnant until I started feeling, like, morning sickness. So I decided to go in and get checked when I was having a particularly bad bout of spotting. So I went into Planned Parenthood.
And they were able to do an exam and found out that I was pregnant, but the fetus was not viable, like there was no heartbeat, and the tissue was starting to decompose and that’s what my discharge and spotting was.
And it was just a messy day. I went in thinking that they would give me a pap smear or something and send me on my way.
I was really lucky in that it was not a very busy Planned Parenthood or a very busy day for them. So I was able to talk to a doctor right away … I was given the medication for a medication abortion that day along with antibiotics, and I think anti-inflammatory pills.
I did not feel any judgment from the clinic workers or anybody. I was very lucky. I was down at the Pink House over the weekend (the first weekend in July, right before it closed)). And seeing all those protesters, the antis, it made me feel so so bad, because I did not have to walk past any of that. I didn’t have to listen to people tell me how terrible of a person I was, for making that choice.
If it was a viable pregnancy, it’s still the choice that I would have made, because there’s no way that I could have carried a healthy pregnancy as an addict.
And so what it meant to me was a chance to get out of that abusive relationship, a chance to continue my education, to get clean and sober, to just see the world, to do so many things that … people don’t realize you give up when you start a family or raise a child.
I never really thought of myself as somebody who had gone through that, because I felt like I did not have to make that hard choice … Like I wasn’t somebody who had an abortion. I was somebody that an abortion happened to.
But when I look at people now, especially in the state of Mississippi, who are losing access to that health care, it breaks my heart, because I know that there are people who start off disadvantaged in the first place, due to poor quality public education, due to underfunding, maybe not the most socioeconomically stable environment.
One thing that really rubs me the wrong way is when people are saying, you shouldn’t use abortion as birth control. I was using two forms of contraception when I got pregnant. I was using a hormonal method and a barrier method. I know that statistically that is so unlikely but I mean– the pill can be up to (99%) effective, if used exactly properly. Because I had access to primary health care at that point, I had birth control.
I had the ability, the time, the resources and the will to be (at the Pink House for a few days after the ruling) … I needed those anti protesters, those anti-abortionists, to have to look me in the face. I needed them to see that it is affecting people, even if they don’t consider me a person or worthy of consideration.
They needed to see that there are people who will fight for this. That fight’s not done. I will continue. My husband and I are already talking about starting to save up gas money so we can volunteer to be drivers to Pink House West in New Mexico, or to the clinic in Illinois.
The cover of ‘Overground Railroad’ by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome. Credit: Courtesy of Holiday House Publishing, Inc.
With no context, the opening pages of “Overground Railroad” — where we see various scenes of people carrying luggage, driving off in a loaded car, boarding a bus and riding a train — look like normal summertime vacation.
Young Ruth Ellen, the protagonist, is excited about her family’s train ride to New York City. But the reality is it’s a one-way trip. During the time of sharecropping, often regarded as slavery by another name, the Great Migration saw the exodus of over six million African-Americans from the South to the northern United States.
Sharecropping wasn’t easy to escape, however. Enslaved Black Americans had the Underground Railroad. And a century later, free African-Americans would still find themselves planning, saying goodbyes and sneaking away under the shadow of night to board trains on the railroads above ground.
Lesa Cline-Ransome & James Ransome Credit: Lesa Cline-Ransome, James Ransome
Lesa Cline-Ransome, born in Massachusetts, and James Ransome, born in North Carolina, both have parents and family who participated in the Great Migration. Cline-Ransome discovered her interest in writing through a journalism workshop in high school. She also reflected on always being an avid reader.
“I had a mother who was a real reader,” Cline-Ransome said, “a brother who was a reader. And I just, I devoured books … I have a pretty vivid imagination, and so I’m not sure which came first, my imagination or the stories that helped to ignite it. But just imagining a world outside of my own, I think really helped me connect to the stories.”
James notes comic books, Mad Magazine and the Bible as some of his earliest artistic influences.
“I grew up in a small town,” he said, “and there was no art in the schools…” Relocating to live with his grandmother, he brought along an interest in drawing and comics. But he discovered illustrations in the Bible — “beautiful compositions” — that he was also inspired to copy and learn from. “Anything that had artwork, I was interested in.”
Personal accounts of the Great Migration and Frederick Douglass’ biography contribute to the mix of influences on “Overground Railroad”, which also gets its name from Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns,” a 2010 historical study of the Migration.
What resulted was a children’s historical fiction that fulfilled not only Cline-Ransome’s desire to uncover more of America’s hidden histories but also provide the stories for kids today that were not available to her.
Mississippi Today caught up with the Ransomes to discuss “Overground Railroad,” the writing process behind it and what it means to be able to tell stories about your people, for your people. The couple will be in Mississippi on Aug. 20 as featured panelists at the Mississippi Book Festival.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Mississippi Today: I was curious if (the research process behind the book) was just taking stories you’ve heard all your life, or did you go back to your family and talk to them while writing the book? If so, can you talk about how the process was, you know, learning history directly from the source?
Lesa Cline-Ransome: Well, it was really a variety of sources for me. When I started the project, I would say that honestly, it began with reading the book “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson. And as a writer who’s become increasingly interested in history, and certainly now in this age, in the truth of history and the ways in which there are moments where African-Americans have kind of been left out of different aspects of historical recounting, I wanted to be able to tell a story — seen through the eyes of a young girl at this particular, very important moment in America’s history of the Great Migration.
… I just began imagining what it would be like for a young person experiencing the Great Migration, both James and I — the children of parents who were part of that Great Migration. And so I would say that the research that I did was supplemented by firsthand accounts of sitting and talking with family members and having their direct experiences, which certainly enriched, I think, both the text and the art.
James Ransome: Sometimes we’ve had family conversations, and they just talk about the experience of coming to the North. You know, so many people came and these sort of new communities were created where they maybe met someone from another county, from the same state. Events were planned around the fact that they were from other places. There’s a Carolina Ball, for example.
LCR: Yeah, the clubs that were formed as a result.
JR: So, this was an event that my mother and uncles went to, and it was a big event. They all got really dressed up and got ready for the Carolina Ball. Which was a party for people who were from North Carolina. So this was a way to sort of meet friends and meet new people who were also from the state.
LCR: I think what’s beautiful about the Black experience in terms of the Great Migration is, you know, James mentioned he’s from North Carolina, his family’s from North Carolina. My father is also from North Carolina, but their experiences are very, very different in many ways. And there are also some similarities. So just seeing the range of experiences is also important to note and to reflect in the writing and in the art.
MT: Are there any other interesting stories that stood out in the research process?
JR: I have a stepmother, and she talked a lot to Lisa about, you know, how poor she was in the South and the type of living standards that she grew up under, which was very different from when she moved to New Jersey… I think something as simple as indoor plumbing and the fact that she didn’t have to work in a hot field all day. I mean, she ended up working in a factory, like many of them did, but the working conditions, living conditions were just so much better in the North.
It was not ideal… when I read about people who migrated, they seem to paint the North as being sort of this land of future gold. She had very modest ambitions, just better living conditions is what I hear from her when she describes the difference between the two places. And not that she wanted to live like a queen or expect these sort of fantasy conditions beyond what she had before. But the fact that it was decent living and she could go to stores and buy things and not, you know, not be subjected to segregation — those are the things that I think (were the most important things for her).
LCR: I think what I love most though in all my conversations is the direct correlation between the ways in which, historically, we have been disadvantaged in terms of our educational opportunities. And certainly, that has been the case with my mother-in-law and the ways in which her education was timed to go along with the planting season.
So, she could go to school when she wasn’t required to work in the fields. And I feel that when she came here, she so values education… I think that she and many others carry with them this idea that education is not something you take for granted…
But I think often (Black people) are painted as people who don’t value education, and it’s just a historical and present-day inaccuracy.
MT: Why do you think that children need this digestible and engaging version of history and events like the Great Migration?
LCR: Well, I think that all children need an accurate history. And I think that when you’re telling one group that their history is more valued than another group, I think it’s damaging to all groups. If one is valued above another and the history that you’re seeing is through the lens of one particular group, it’s not an accurate version of history.
JR: … We want them to start understanding that history and the power of that history and the power of their ancestors. Because often Black movements are tied to the civil rights movement, which was led by (Martin Luther) King and other people. Well, this is something that Black people did on their own.
There was no leader. There was no one pointing, no one telling them to go. It was a decision they made on their own to better their lives. So it’s often considered a quiet movement that six million people did without any direction.
MT: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a big influence because we literally follow Ruth’s story with parts of his story as she reads about it in her book. Then there’s also a point where Ruth’s mother asks her to read to her on the train. What would you say is the importance of literature and storytelling in Black history?
JR: I just thought when Lisa wrote Frederick Douglas into the story, that was absolutely genius … She’s pulling on this history that we have as people of trying to better our outer situations.
And, my god, as difficult as it was to take a train from the South, imagine if you are running and you have no map and you (have) no way to protect yourself and you’re being hunted and you are just running north. The Underground Railroad. I mean, that was just beyond my understanding — how that actually worked.
But, people did it, and they escaped for their freedom to have a better life for their family. So here we are connecting with that in this book “Overground Railroad.”
LCR: And I think that what’s really important about (literature and storytelling) is just the ability to tell our own stories. I think that, you know, there’s been a long period in publishing, in particular, where Blacks have not been able to tell their own stories or their stories weren’t valued in a particular way. And so now I just think the importance of telling our stories and our own voices through our own lens certainly provides a unique experience to young readers.
And I just think it’s important to have our stories documented and in print. And I think that these are stories that can be passed down and shared and provide us with a great opportunity to discuss our history, our present and our future.
MT: You’ve said you liked the idea of repurposing and recycling for art. Can you talk a little bit more about that and why did that [style] stand out so much for this story, to apply that style to this story?
JR: One thing is for sure when you’re poor, you learn how to be very careful with the things that you have. And you often reuse things that you have. So, you know, these are poor people who are migrating and that’s such a large part of our life — reusing of things. Something has a hole in it, like pants, you take another piece of material, you patch over them and you continue to wear those pants.
And also I want kids to think about the things that they have. You can take something old and reuse it and make artwork with it. That’s really sort of ideal for me. So for a kid to say, you know, to take on an old magazine and cut that up and use those parts for a creation of artwork that they make, that’s really special.
MT: I really like that idea, and I feel like it kind of even relates to the juxtaposition of Ruth’s and Frederick’s stories in the book and the similarities and differences between their experiences… You wouldn’t typically call Ruth’s family privileged, but you would say that she had some different things that even Douglass didn’t. For example, he had the North Star [to guide him], but Ruth has a train called the Silver Meteor. Lesa, was that intentional?
LCR: We could say it was maybe subconscious … I was trying to find as many ways as I could to see the parallel between Frederick and Ruth Ellen and their journeys, both literally and figuratively.
MT: Did you have books like this to read when you were growing up?
LCR: Absolutely not. So a lot of what I’m writing is what I would like to have read as a child. I wish that I had had books that reflected me, like the little Lisa. But I didn’t really have many of those books. I was always seeking out books that reflected my kind of emotional experience, like “Diary of Anne Frank,” where I felt like I was an outsider in an all-white community growing up. But I didn’t have books where children really looked like me and didn’t reflect the experiences of myself or my family or my family’s history. And so these are, to me, just great opportunities to kind of speak to and fulfill the needs of little Lisa.
As Haley Barbour faced an onslaught of criticism for pardoning dozens of people convicted of felonies as his tenure as governor ended in 2012, he cited his Christian beliefs for his actions.
“Christianity teaches us forgiveness and second chances. I believe in second chances, and I try hard to be forgiving,” the former governor said soon after leaving office of the more than 200 acts of clemency he granted.
During his eight years as governor, Barbour, like most other Mississippi politicians, did nothing to make that forgiveness more inclusive by creating a system that would make it easier for the literally tens of thousands of people convicted of felonies to have their voting rights restored.
Most Mississippi politicians wear their Christianity on their sleeve. The primary tenet of the Christian faith is forgiveness and redemption. Yet, they do not see as part of that forgiveness and redemption the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of felonies.
Multiple studies have made the argument that restoring voting rights increases the odds that people who have been convicted of felonies will become productive members of society.
Dennis Hopkins, a 46-year-old Potts Camp resident who lost his right to vote as a teenager when he was convicted of grand larceny, but is now a productive member of the community in the north Mississippi hamlet, explained to lawmakers the importance of voting.
“Voting to me is everything,” Hopkins said in 2021 during a legislative hearing. “I tell my kids how important the vote is … it shames me to tell them I can’t vote.”
The old adage that the judicial system moves slowly has never been truer than when it comes to Mississippi’s one-in-the-nation system of preventing people convicted of certain felonies from regaining their voting rights.
On Sept. 25, 2021 (more than 10 months ago), the entire panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments about whether Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement is unconstitutional. Seventeen judges heard the argument at the federal courthouse in New Orleans. It is not an everyday occurrence for the entire panel to hear oral arguments, so the assumption was that the federal appeals court was placing a priority on the issue.
But since that September day, there have been crickets from the court.
At some point, the court finally will issue a ruling.
In Mississippi, people with felony convictions must petition the Legislature to get a bill passed by a two-thirds majority of both chambers to regain voting rights. Normally only a handful (less than five) of such bills are successful each session. There is also the option of the governor granting a pardon to restore voting rights. But no governor has granted pardons since Barbour in 2012.
For a subset of those who lose their rights, the courts can expunge their record. In some instances that expungement includes the restoration of voting rights and for others it does not. It just depends on the preference of the judge granting the expungement.
During the 2022 session, legislation was passed clarifying that the judicial expungement would always include the restoration of voting rights. That modest legislation would have been the biggest change to the state’s felony voting system since it was incorporated into the Mississippi Constitution in 1890. But it was vetoed by Gov. Tate Reeves.
The U.S. Supreme Court in past decisions has given the states broad leeway in stripping the right to vote for those convicted of felonies. But it is worth pointing out that Mississippi is in a distinct minority of states (less than 10) not automatically restoring voting rights at some point after a sentence is completed.
The aforementioned 5th Circuit is considering the argument that the Mississippi felony voting ban is unconstitutional because it was placed in the 1890 state Constitution as one of many provisions intended to prevent African Americans from voting. If it was done for racial reasons, then it should be unconstitutional, the proponents of the lawsuit argue. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch opposes the lawsuit.
In the 1890s, the Mississippi Supreme Court wrote the disfranchisement of people of specific felonies was placed in the Constitution “to obstruct the exercise of the franchise by the negro race” by targeting “the offenses to which its weaker members were prone.” The crimes selected by lawmakers to go into the provision were thought by the white political leaders at the time as more likely to be committed by African Americans. They also imposed poll taxes, literacy tests, segregated schools, a ban of mixed race marriages and other racist provisions into the Constitution.
They, of course, took all of those steps in the name of Christianity.
As part of our member-only newsletter, The Exclusive, Mississippi Today caught up with Laurel-based artist Adam Trest. This interview was originally published on July 27 and shared with Mississippi Today members. Each month, we bring our members exclusive interviews and events, such as this conversation with Ben and Erin Napier, to thank them for their support of our newsroom. Become a member by donating any recurring amount today and be the first to hear about our upcoming exclusive interviews and events.
Trest is a part of the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Roster, which selects artists from various medias and helps organizations fund presenting the artists through grants. His work is featured in the Caron Gallery and in a current exhibit at the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience in Meridian, Mississippi.
His unique style caught the attention of many when he was featured on HGTV’s “Home Town” with Ben and Erin Napier. Recently, Trest illustrated a children’s book written by Erin Napier titled “The Lantern House,” which made him a New York Times bestselling illustrator.
Tell us about yourself and how you got your start.
“I started painting before I could write. I can’t remember not doing it. I grew up with parents who saw my potential in the arts and made sure I always had what I needed to create. I graduated in 2009 from Mississippi State with a BFA in Painting, and have been working as a professional artist ever since. I am a painter, I work mostly in acrylic paints and inks.”
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
“I find most of my inspiration from life in the south. I love the flora and fauna of Mississippi, and I love the tradition of storytelling that is so rich in our area. I often refer to my process as “visual storytelling” because I find my work most successful when the viewer can tell me more about my paintings than even I knew about them.”
How has being from Mississippi and the South influenced your work?
“I love the landscape of Mississippi. I just completed a series of paintings for the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience in Meridian (the MAX) that is a celebration of each of the regions of Mississippi. Each painting showcases one of the regions and gives a taste of the plants and animals that are unique to that area. There are so many wonderful secrets in our state, and I had such an amazing experience seeking them out and telling their stories through my work.”
How do you measure success for yourself and what has been the biggest success of your career?
“I was raised in a home that celebrated hard work and persistence. To me the measure of success that I’ve seen has been equal parts hard work and not giving up (my wife would probably say stubbornness). I’m extremely goal oriented, so to me, success comes when I’ve met a goal I set for myself. The biggest success of my career (and also one of the most challenging projects of my career) has been the launch of the children’s book I had the privilege of illustrating for Erin Napier. Working on a traditionally published children’s book has always been a major goal of mine, and seeing that come to fruition, and then also seeing my name on the NYT bestseller list for a few weeks following the release. That was a pretty amazing time.”
Since being featured on Home Town and illustrating The Lantern House, how has the increased attention affected your work? Has it changed the way you approach your art?
“The exposure that has come from both “Home Town” and “The Lantern House” has been pretty amazing. It has given me the opportunity to really push myself into the style I have developed. It has allowed me to create work that I’m really excited about. I wouldn’t say that it had changed my approach too terribly much, but it has given me a springboard to work on projects that would possibly have been out of reach before. One of those projects is a new line of cement tiles that I was given the opportunity to design that will be out later this year.”
What do you hope people think and feel when they view your art?
“My biggest desire for my work is for people to see it and it to evoke some kind of memory. Because my work is heavily influenced by traditional folk art and nature, I love it when my work serves as a sort of illustration that awakens a lost memory for the viewer. When someone comes into the Caron Gallery and sees one of my dog paintings and it reminds them of their childhood pet, or maybe the first dog they brought home for their kids. At that point, the painting has taken on a life and a story beyond anything I could have hoped for. At that point the painting has taken a life of its own.”
How has being a part of the Mississippi Arts Commission artist roster impacted your career?
“Absolutely! Being on the artist roster has opened quite a few doors. Without being on the artist roster, I would not have gotten the museum exhibition that I have opening July 26 at the MAX in Meridian.”
If you were to give a piece of advice to an aspiring artist from Mississippi, what would it be?
“I would probably encourage them to find their peers! One of my favorite things about being a Mississippi Artist is that I get to count myself amongst other artists working in Mississippi today. There are so many wonderful and kind artists around our state, and I have become a better artist for knowing them. Having a local support system in South Mississippi and also an even larger network on the state level. My experience has been one of encouragement and support.”
How can people find your work?
“My original works as well as prints of my work can be found at www.adamtrest.com.”
