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Senate Judiciary B Chair Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said he will decide early this week whether to take up nine House bills restoring voting rights to people convicted of felonies.

Fillingane said it is probable that at least some of the suffrage bills will be taken up in his Judiciary B Committee with the intent to send them to the full Senate chamber for consideration.

“We’re looking at them now,” said Fillingane.

The state’s 1890s’ Jim Crow-era Constitution strips voting rights of people convicted of certain felonies. The right to vote can be restored via legislation approved by a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature and the signature of the governor.

Mississippi is one of less than 10 states that do not automatically restore the right to vote of people convicted of felonies at some point after they complete their sentence.

Mississippi Votes, a grassroots group that promotes voter access, said in a statement it is time to reform the process of restoring suffrage.

“Not only is the process unclear but it is also not equitable,” the statement read. “Mississippians who may be attempting to restore their voting rights have to make a journey to the state Capitol to retrieve a paper application, fill it out by hand, and then return it to their representative. There is no online form of the application that can be downloaded or emailed, provided by the state Legislature.

“The state Legislature has also made it impossible to gather any information about the process. Individuals would have to either ask a legislator directly for information, of which there is no uniform response or ask a third-party organization to help them get a better understanding of how the process works.”

Some of the people who are seeking to have their voting rights restored in these bills are being aided by Mississippi Votes.

In the 2021 session, the House passed 21 bills restoring voting rights. All but two of those were killed in the Senate Judiciary B Committee. At the time, Fillingane said that the Judiciary B Committee has guidelines that prohibit the restoration of voting rights to those convicted of violent crimes and those convicted of embezzling public funds.

House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, who passed the suffrage bills out of committee said last year that is essentially the same criteria he uses.

Bain said he does not believe any additional bills restoring voting rights will be taken up in the House this session, which is scheduled to end Sunday.

The prohibition on voting is part of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution — added as one of several attempts to prevent Black Mississippians from voting. Framers at the time admitted they were incorporating crimes into the Constitution to ban voting rights that they believed Black Mississippians were more likely to commit. With African Americans still being disproportionately convicted of crimes, that continues to be the effect of the disenfranchisement language.

A 2018 analysis by Mississippi Today found that 61% of the Mississippians who have lost their rights to vote are African American, despite the fact that African Americans represent 36% of the state’s total voting-age population.

The Constitution contains a list of crimes for which a person convicted of a felony loses voting rights. Disenfranchising crimes 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.

There are other crimes, such as crimes connected with the sale of drugs, where a person convicted of a felony does not lose the right to vote and actually is eligible to vote while incarcerated.

Bain offered legislation this session to clarify that people who have their felony conviction expunged through the legal process should also regain the right to vote. He said in some jurisdictions the right to vote is restored with the expungement but in others it is not.

It appeared that the legislation clarifying the expungement process had died in the Senate, but Bain was able to revive the bill later in the process, It is now part of a bill providing pay raises to district attorneys and judges.

The post Nine bills restoring voting rights pending in Senate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The call came Sunday afternoon shortly after news that Mississippian Chad Ramey, the former Mississippi State golfer from Fulton, had won the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.

The caller had a question: “When was the last time before today that a native Mississippian won an official PGA Tour event? You’re supposed to know those kinds of things.”

The most obvious answer would be Jim Gallagher Jr. of Greenwood, whose nine professional victories include five on the PGA Tour, including The Tour Championship in 1993.

One problem there: Gallagher was born in Pennsylvania, raised in Indiana and played his college golf at Tennessee. He once won the old Magnolia Classic in Hattiesburg, but he is not a native Mississippian. To which Gallagher, now a Golf Channel commentator, no doubt would tell you: “I’m better than that. I live here by choice.”

So, if not Gallagher, then whom?

My next guess would have been Glen Day, who grew up in Poplarville, and won the 1999 MCI Classic at Hilton Head, defeating Golf Hall of Famer Payne Stewart and Jeff Sluman in a sudden death playoff with a birdie on the first extra hole.

That happened 23 years ago last month, which would constitute a long PGA Tour victory drought for Mississippians, except for the fact that it turns out Day was born in Mobile, not Poplarville. He is not, technically, a native Mississippian.

Oh boy, I thought, this is going back a long, long ways. The last Mississippian to win on the Tour had to be either Pete Brown or Johnny Pott. Drivers were still wooden and golf balls were wound, not solid, when Pott and Brown won on the Tour.

Pott, one of golf’s great gentlemen, now 86 and living in California, won five times on Tour, the last time in the 1968 Bing Crosby National Pro Am, beating the great Billy Casper and Bruce Devlin in a playoff. Pott grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and played collegiately at LSU. And this is something I did not know until I looked it up: Pott was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

So that leaves Pete Brown, the first African American to win a PGA Tour event. Brown, who died in 2015 at the age of 80, won two PGA events, the last being the Andy Williams San Diego Open in 1970. On Feb. 1, 1970, Brown, born in Port Gibson and raised in Jackson, shot a final round 65 and then defeated Englishman Tony Jacklin in a playoff and win the $30,000 first prize. Yes, over the last 52 years, PGA purses have soared.

Brown remains one of the greatest Mississippi sports stories of all time. The son of sharecroppers, he learned the game caddying at a golf course he was not allowed to play. What’s more, he learned with a left-handed 3-wood and a right-handed 5-iron, both of which he retrieved from a lake. He did not own his first set of clubs until he was 20, by which time he had also overcome polio.

So, if my math is correct, when Chad Ramey clinched victory Sunday it had been 52 years, one month and 27 days since a native Mississippian won on tour.

Now, that’s a drought.

Here’s the good news: It won’t be nearly that long until it happens again.

Hattiesburg’s Davis Riley finished second at the Valspar Championship the previous week. He’s going to win on the PGA Tour. He’s too good not to.

Ramey, who was a picture of consistency the last two years on the Korn Ferry Tour, has the game to win multiple times. Hayden Buckley of Belden finished 13th in the same tournament Ramey won Sunday. Buckley — OK, so he was born in Chattanooga — has the game to win on Tour, as well. Ramey, Riley and Buckley give Mississippi three of the top 80 money winners on tour currently.

Recently, Jackson’s Wilson Furr qualified for full privileges on the Canadian PGA Tour, known as the MacKenzie Tour. Former NCAA champ Braden Thornberry still plays the Korn Ferry Tour. All these young guys, in their 20s, have enormous potential. And there’s an impressive crop of college and junior golfers behind them. Put it this way: It will not be 2074 before a Mississippian wins on the PGA Tour again.

The post Fulton’s Chad Ramey ends a long Mississippi drought on PGA Tour appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s political team discusses the tension between the state’s top three leaders about how much income tax to cut, what annual budget to write, what projects to fund with federal stimulus and how to redraw legislative districts. As the scheduled end to the 2022 legislative session looms, how will lawmakers actually pull this off in time?

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: Capitol tension at an all-time high as 2022 session nears its end appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The number of Mississippi’s majority Black legislative districts will remain the same under the redistricting plan unveiled and approved Sunday afternoon by the Joint Redistricting Committee.

The maps still must be approved by the full membership of the Mississippi Legislature.

NOTE: Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the proposed House and Senate maps.

While some key changes were made in the maps approved Sunday afternoon, the 52-member Senate will maintain 15 Black majority districts and the 122-member House will keep 42. According to the U.S. Census, the state’s Black population is 38%, while the white population is 59%.

The Legislature, based on federal and state law, must redraw the 174 House and Senate districts every 10 years to match population shifts found by the 2020 U.S. Census. The full House and Senate chambers will consider the maps in the coming days before the scheduled end of the session on April 3.

There was little debate Sunday afternoon as the plans were approved in committee. That could change as the proposals are debated before the full chambers and members have more time to ascertain how the changes impact their re-election efforts and the partisan makeup of the Legislature.

Redistricting often is viewed in terms of party politics — whether the redrawn map provides an opportunity for one of the political parties to gain seats. Republicans, holding large advantages in both legislative chambers and thus controlling the redistricting process, appeared to be satisfied with a map maintaining near the status quo.

In the Senate, Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, viewed as one of the chamber’s more conservative members, was placed in the same district with Albert Butler, D-Port Gibson, in what will be a 60% Black majority district. With one district being eliminated in southwest Mississippi with the combining of Butler’s and Sojourner’s districts, another district was added in what is viewed as the heavily Republican area of Rankin and Smith counties.

Before the plans were unveiled, Gov. Tate Reeves, who in reality has no official role in the redistricting process, said on social media: “Any plan that reduces the number of districts where Republicans can compete in favor of more easy Democrat wins should not be proposed — much less approved — by either chamber of the Legislature.”

Senate President Pro Tem Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, who headed up the upper chamber’s redistricting effort, said merging the districts in southwest Mississippi and creating the new district in Rankin and Smith counties created a stronger Republican district.

“That district, for 36 of the last 44 years, has had a Democratic senator,” Kirby said, referring to Sojourner’s district. “Because of a loss of population in that area, and to maintain the number of Democratic — majority minority — and Republican districts, we moved that … Where we moved (Sojourner’s) district to is a much stronger – one of the strongest – Republican districts in the state.”

Kirby added, “I think most were happy with their districts. There were maybe four or five that had some issues. I’d say 90% were happy with their districts … I think this is a fair plan … It’s probably not what everyone wanted, but it is a fair plan.”

In the House, District 20 in Itawamba, Lee and Monroe counties was moved to DeSoto County in northwest Mississippi and District 33 in north-central Mississippi was moved to Harrison County on the Gulf Coast.

“You can’t help where people live and move,” said Joint Redistricting Chairman Jim Beckett, R-Bruce. “Those two counties, DeSoto and Harrison, each grew in excess of 20,000 people. When they grow like that, and others lose population. It causes a big shift.”

District 33 is represented by long-term House member Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, and District 20 is represented by Chris Brown, R-Nettleton. Both are reportedly not running for re-election.

Reynolds is one of two Democrats in the House representing white majority districts. With the moving of that district, it might give Republicans an opportunity to pick up a seat on the Gulf Coast.

Longtime Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, said his district did not change greatly, and he wasn’t sweating it regardless.

“In my district, they can’t go south, because you hit water,” Read said. “You can’t go east, because you hit water … Mine has been shrinking, shrinking in number of square miles, but it’s still the same percentages. But it doesn’t matter — you just have to get out there and run, knock on doors. They either send you back, or you stay home.”

CLICK HERE to see the proposed Senate map.

CLICK HERE to see the proposed House map.

The post Republicans make few changes to legislative maps during redistricting appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Legislature in a bipartisan vote with very little debate on Sunday passed the largest tax cut in state history.

House Bill 531 now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves, who is expected to reluctantly sign it into law, although he had been adamant that lawmakers eliminate, not just cut, the state personal income tax.

“Moving to a flat four percent income tax puts more than $500 million in recurring dollars back in taxpayers’ pockets and makes Mississippi one of the most competitive in the nation in terms of income tax rates,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

Hosemann has for two years thwarted Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn’s effort to phase out the income tax while raising sales taxes. Hosemann and Senate Republican leaders said they wanted more prudent, studied tax cuts instead of overhauling tax structure during uncertain economic times.

Gunn vowed to continue to push for income tax elimination, but said the cuts passed Sunday are “a key first step.”

The measure passed Sunday will:

• Reduce taxes, when fully implemented over four years, for an individual making $40,000 by $417 a year. For a married couple making $80,000, that would be $834 a year.

• Eliminate the state’s 4% tax bracket on people’s first $5,000 of taxable income starting 2023. The 5% tax on remaining income will drop to 4.7% for 2023, then 4.4% for 2025 and 4% starting in 2026.

• Give Mississippi, when fully implemented, the fifth-lowest marginal tax rate for states that have income tax — although other states are also considering cuts or elimination.

• Reduce state income tax revenue by $525 million a year starting in 2026.

The legislation contains language that the plan will be examined by 2026 with an eye toward personal income tax elimination.

The Senate voted 39-10 to pass the measure on Sunday, with five Democrats joining the Republican majority in favor. The House passed the measure 92-23. Of the 42 Democrats in the House, 23 voted no while seven either did not vote or voted present. The three House independents voted for the proposal.

For an issue that has dominated the last two state legislative sessions, the measure was passed quickly and quietly Sunday. The House passed it in less than three minutes with no questions asked on the floor and a round of applause after the vote.

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said: “This will go down as the largest tax cut in the history of the state. It sets us on a path toward eliminating the Mississippi individual income tax within a reasonable time period.”

In the Senate, some Democrats on Sunday reiterated concerns they’ve had about large tax cuts.

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, questioned why proposals to cut the state sales tax on groceries — which had previously been part of both House and Senate tax cut plans — were no longer on the table.

“The decision was made to focus on working individuals and giving them money back on income taxes,” said Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, R-Flowood. “… This is affecting every Mississippian, whether you’re a teacher … or someone who cuts grass, who gets up and goes to work every day.”

On questioning of whether the cuts would cripple the state budget and lead to cuts in services such as road repairs and education, Harkins assured colleagues that’s not likely.

“We’ve got record revenue coming in, and we are giving taxpayers part of the money back,” Harkins said. “We are still providing the largest teacher pay raise in state history, and making investments where we need to.”

Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, told Harkins, “All right, I’ll just take you at your word on that,” but then later voted against the bill.

Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the tax cut on Sunday.

Over the weekend after the agreement was reached by House and Senate negotiators, Reeves lamented on social media that: “I still believe we can and should eliminate the income tax. The fiscal environment is right. Sadly, the political environment in the MS Senate is not … For transformative change, we need our state’s Lieutenant Governor to work with bold conservatives.”

But the governor also said: “This is a good step. It is a win at the beginning of this fight. It is not the end.”

The post Mississippi lawmakers pass the largest tax cut in state history appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As you’ve seen, Mississippi Today has been celebrating our 6th anniversary by taking a look back through the years at our top stories. Today, I want to share some stories from 2020 that exemplify how Mississippi Today helps get you answers while covering big issues.

I think that year will be ingrained in all of our memories for a long time to come. It was the year that the COVID-19 pandemic began, and many of our lives have changed tremendously since then. One of our top stories at the beginning of the pandemic was about the saddening death of a Mississippi teacher during the first week of school. Many people had various questions during that uncertain time — do we wear masks even around family? Do we sanitize everything? When and how long do we quarantine? When will toilet paper be back in stock?

The great folks at Mississippi Today decided that a small part of helping our readers would be to provide continued coverage of COVID-19, from tracking the data and sending out text alerts to creating a comprehensive vaccine guide in the next year. Our coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic was completely fueled by providing our readers with comprehensive information from a source they could trust.

Another huge story in 2020 was the breaking news of Mississippi’s former welfare agency head being arrested for embezzling millions of dollars intended to help poor Mississippians. Our welfare coverage by our investigative reporter Anna Wolfe continues, breaking down the complicated legal jargon and showing our readers how it affected those MDHS is intended to help.

Many of these stories are still being followed and covered to this day. That’s why our work is so important — the longer we are able to stick around, the longer we are able to continue our coverage of ongoing issues facing the state and holding public officials accountable.

To our current members: Thank you for taking a step towards change in our great state of Mississippi. I’m proud to have you as part of the Mississippi Today member community.

To our readers who are not yet members: Do you also think that a better Mississippi is possible through providing transparency in the media and holding officials accountable? Then, I encourage you to join our member community by creating a recurring donation today. Not only will you help us continue our mission in making our state a better place, but you’ll also help us reach our anniversary celebration goal of welcoming 60 new members.

The post Mississippi Today gets you answers appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Conferencing, the strange period of the legislative session, has begun — a time when rank-and-file members have little chance of influencing the process and especially the budgeting process.

As the budget conferencing process starts, legislators are sitting on an unprecedented revenue surplus of more than $2 billion, but most members will have little say in how those funds are spent.

Conferencing occurs when three members from each chamber — House members appointed by Speaker Philip Gunn and Senate members named by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann — meet to hammer out differences in legislation. The meetings normally occur behind closed doors.

When agreement is reached, the rank-and-file members from each chamber have the choice of:

• Approving that compromise and sending it to Gov. Tate Reeves for his signature.
• Sending it back for additional negotiations.
• Killing the proposal.

During conferencing, rank-and-file members cannot offer amendments to the proposals like they can earlier in the session.

In addition, there is tremendous pressure for legislators to approve the compromise to keep the legislative train on the tracks. After all, the session is scheduled to end April 3, and sending a bill back for additional negotiations risks the possibility of delaying the end of the session.

Rank-and-file legislators, at least, have the option earlier in the process to have influence over most general proposals because they can offer amendments to the bills both in committee and on the floors of the House and Senate.

Those rank-and-file lawmakers, though, do not have unencumbered options to offer amendments to budget bills — the bills that fund state agencies and services. In reality, they have virtually no ability to exert influence over the budgeting process. Members gave up that right in 2012 when Republicans took over both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since the 1800s.

At that time, the legislative leaders — Speaker Gunn and then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presided over the Senate and is now governor — pushed through rules changes that essentially thwarted any influence rank-and-file members had over budgeting, which is perhaps the most important duty legislators have.

The rules change approved by legislators in 2012 gave the two presiding officers more power — at least over the budgeting process — than perhaps any presiding officers in the state’s history.

The change prohibits members from offering amendments to appropriations bills unless they cite from what agency they are taking the money. If a member wants to provide additional money to the Department of Public Safety, for instance, to deal with the years-long backlog in performing autopsies, they must cite from which agency those additional funds are being taken.

And to make the process more complicated, the money must be taken from a budget bill that is before the chamber at that time.

It is important to understand that each chamber takes up and passes half of the more than 100 bills funding state agencies and commissions and then exchanges bills with the other chamber. The House will send their appropriations bills to the Senate and vice versa.

If a member of the House wants to increase funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, for instance, to provide additional funds to the local school districts and desires to take funds from the Department of Transportation to do so, the member cannot if the Transportation bill is in the Senate at the time instead of the House.

The further lunacy of the rules change is especially evident this year, when the state has an unprecedented revenue surplus totaling about one-third of the entire state support budget of about $6 billion. The rules dictating the options the rank-and-file members have in influencing the budget process do not allow them to offer an amendment to take any of the historically large amount of surplus funds to add money to education, health care, law enforcement or to any other budget.

In essence, only the leadership — the presiding officers and the House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairs — have the authority to use those surplus funds.

Sure, rank-and-file members could flex their collective muscle and send appropriations bills back to conference for further negotiations and send a message that they want more of the surplus funds to go to education or to some other agency. But given the short time frame between when members vote on those compromise proposals and the scheduled end of the session, members generally have been unwilling to take such bold action.

The end result is that the session has entered a period where most rank-and-file members are just sitting around waiting to rubber stamp what the leadership puts before them. In 2012, the members gave the leadership that power by voting in the restrictive rules change.

And they have not tried to change the rule in recent years to regain the power they used to have.

The post Rank-and-file legislators have no influence in budgeting process because they gave it away appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House and Senate leaders reached agreement Saturday afternoon on a proposal that falls short of eliminating the income tax as Speaker Philip Gunn and Gov. Tate Reeves have demanded, but still provides the largest tax cut in state history.

While the plan does not eliminate the personal income tax as Gunn has tried to do for the past two years, he said the proposal was too good to pass up.

“This is the first step in income tax elimination, but it is a key first step,” said Gunn, adding he would continue to work for total elimination.

READ MORE: Another day, another tax cut proposal in Mississippi Legislature

The plan would immediately eliminate the 4% tax bracket starting in 2023 at a cost of about $185 million to the state budget and then over the next three years step down the remaining tax bracket from 5% to 4%. Under the plan, Gunn said the first $18,000 for a single tax filer will be exempt from taxation and the first $36,000 for a married couple.

The overall cost of the program to the state budget will be about $525 million annually when fully enacted.

“This tax cut is the largest in Mississippi’s history. It is also responsible,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate and has led the effort to prevent the complete elimination of the income tax this year.  “Our constituents expect us to fund core government services in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and other areas. Our budget experts have assured us we can continue to do this and significantly ease the tax burden on hard-working Mississippians.”

House and Senate leaders have been at loggerheads about the scope of tax cuts during the 2022 legislative session. Gunn and his leadership team have been adamant that a plan should be passed during the ongoing session that is scheduled to end April 3 to phase out the state’s income tax that accounts for about one-third or nearly $2 billion in general fund revenue.

In recent days, Reeves has chimed in saying he would “do whatever it takes” to ensure that a plan is put in place this year to eliminate the income tax.

Against that backdrop and proclamations by Gunn and Reeves that the income tax elimination needed to be committed to this year, Saturday’s compromise came as a stunner.

“We have been talking about this for awhile,” said Senate Finance Chair Josh Harkins, R-Flowood. “It got to the point where there was a deadline.”

With an 8 p.m. Saturday deadline looming to reach agreement on a tax cut under the legislative rules, House and Senate negotiators announced a meeting Saturday afternoon where they unveiled the four-year plan to cut, but not eliminate the income tax.

The agreement does contain language saying it is the intent of legislators to look at the state’s revenue situation again by 2026 to see if additional tax cuts could be enacted.

House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said if state tax collections continue to grow, legislators could opt to continue cuts in the income tax and that it could be completely eliminated in 10 to 12 years.

But if legislators take no action, the tax rate will remain at 4%.

Gunn said he anticipates the governor will sign the legislation and, like, him continue to work to eliminate the income tax. When the plan is fully phased in, Gunn said Mississippi will have the 5^th lowest marginal rate of the 41 states with a personal income tax.

The House and Senate are expected to vote on the plan as early as Sunday afternoon.

When fully enacted in four years, the plan will provide savings of $417 annually for a single tax filer earning $40,000 and $834 for a married couple earning $80,000, Gunn said.

Harkins called the plan historic. Harkins and Hosemann have opposed efforts to eliminate the personal income tax this year, but proposed cuts.

While the state has experienced unprecedented revenue collections, they pointed out state Economist Corey Miller has said much of that growth has been spurred by $35 billion in federal COVID-19 federal relief funds. They have said they opposed completion elimination during a time of economic uncertainty caused by multiple factors, including supply chain issues, inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Harkins said the issue of income tax elimination or additional cuts in the tax rate could be addressed in future years.

While leaders compromised on the tax cut plan, they still were working during the weekend to reach agreement on a state budget and the expenditure of $1.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

Those federal funds are expected to be spent in multiple areas, including helping local governments with water and sewer needs and shoring up state agencies, such as the child foster care system, mental health facilities and prisons – all facing federal lawsuits or the possibility of federal lawsuits because of substandard conditions.

Because of those issues and other issues facing the state, such as the underfunding of education entities, some have argued that the state cannot afford a large tax cut despite the current revenue surplus.

Gunn said he is optimistic that the Legislature can pass a budget by Tuesday, clearing the way for the session to end on time by next weekend.

The post Mississippi lawmakers reach deal to cut, but not eliminate income tax appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We’ve been taking a look back over the last few years of reporting at Mississippi Today in celebration of our 6th anniversary. I wanted to remind you of some popular stories you might remember from 2019 that show how Mississippi Today works to tell your story.

Our coverage of Olecia James not receiving the title of salutatorian at Cleveland Central High School went viral after publishing. James filed a lawsuit against the school district that claimed she was stripped of her salutatorian title due to negligence and skewed grading after East Side High School was merged with Cleveland Central. By not receiving her title, she lost her chance at a scholarship to Ole Miss.

Later in 2019, our photojournalist Eric Shelton captured a day-in-the-life of Kaitlyn Barton, a Clarksdale High School teacher. The result was an insightful look into the challenges teachers in the state face living on their salary. At that time, Barton worked a part-time job in addition to her full-time teaching job to make ends meet. We have been covering teacher pay during the current legislative session, where lawmakers have passed a historic pay raise for Mississippi teachers.

Why do these stories matter? They’re your stories. Our mission is to take the issues that matter to you and hold public officials accountable. Throughout our six years, we have told a lot of your stories, but the work is far from over.

To our current members: Your generous support allows us to continue this important work and for that, we thank you.

To our readers who are not yet members: Since we are a nonprofit, our newsroom relies on members and donors to help power our work. You can be a part of our passionate member community by creating a recurring donation today. To celebrate our 6th anniversary, our goal is to welcome 60 new members during our 6 days looking back at our top stories. Will you help us reach our goal?

The post Mississippi Today tells your story appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Former President Bill Clinton will be among the speakers May 3 in a ceremony at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson honoring the lives of former Gov. William Winter and First Lady Elise Winter.

Clinton’s tenure as Arkansas governor overlapped with Winter’s term as governor of Mississippi from 1980 until 84. And as president, Clinton appointed Winter to co-chair his Initiative on Race that dealt with the issue of racial reconciliation. The William Winter Institute of Racial Reconciliation, now the Alluvial Collective, also was created at the University of Mississippi.

Also speaking at the event sponsored by the Foundation for Mississippi History will be Reuben Anderson, the state’s first African American Supreme Court justice, and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

Winter died in December 2020 at the age of 97 and the former first lady died in July 2021 at the age of 95. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no public service upon their deaths. The May event will be the first.

After his death, Mississippi Today posted a “homily” by Rob Lowry, the former pastor of Fondren Presbyterian Church in Jackson where the Winter’s were members, honoring the former governor and outlining what he would have said if there had been a service.

Lowry wrote, “Governor Winter was a kind of public servant almost entirely absent on the scene today. He led with a passion for justice and a compassion for his neighbor that was born not of selfish ambition but a sense of responsibility and a profound belief in the promise and possibility of a better tomorrow. Acutely aware of the advantages his hard work and education had earned, he set about to work for the betterment of his home state. That commitment to leave Mississippi better than he found it was the cornerstone of a public life that helped shape our state for half of one century and into the next.”

Winter steered the Education Reform Act of 1982 to passage in an improbable special legislative session right before Christmas, creating public kindergartens among other education changes.

Elise Winter also was active in public service, working with her husband on education issues as first lady and to improve the conditions at Parchman Penitentiary. She was active in Habitat for Humanity and on other issues.

William Winter was a long-time member of the state’s Archives and History Board and, along, with Anderson, who is a member, led the effort to develop the state’s Two Mississippi Museums – the museum of history and of civil rights. He also was critical in the decision of Myrlie Evers to donate to the state the papers of her and her late husband, Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers, who was assassinated outside his Jackson home in 1963.

During the administration of Barbour from 2004 until 2012, Winter and Anderson worked with the then-governor to garner state funding for the Two Mississippi Museums project that has received national praise.

“These museums stand at the intersection of William Winter’s greatest passions—history, education, and racial justice,” MDAH Director Katie Blount said, “Generations of young people will come here to experience the stories that have shaped our state and nation.”

Winter had a long career in politics, serving in multiple statewide offices, and he also served in the Legislature.

The post Bill Clinton to speak at ceremony honoring Winters at Two Mississippi Museums appeared first on Mississippi Today.