In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with author Lawrence Wells. Wells is the director of Yoknapatawpha Press in Oxford, Mississippi, which he established with his late wife Dean Faulkner Wells.
Wells cofounded the quarterly literary journal The Faulkner Newsletter and Yoknapatawpha Review. Author of two historical novels, “Rommel and the Rebel” and “Let the Band Play Dixie,” Wells was awarded the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom gold medal for narrative non-fiction at the Words and Music Festival in New Orleans. He also is the author of his memoir, “In Faulkner’s Shadow.”
In this interview, Wells shares his memories of Oxford from 1970, Willie Morris, and his marriage to William Faulkner’s niece, Dean.
Gov. Tate Reeves told reporters at a recent news conference he was opposed to vaccine mandates — especially for public entities.
“I don’t believe public sector entities have the authority to mandate vaccines,” Reeves said. “I don’t think private sector entities should mandate vaccines, but if an individual doesn’t like what their boss is doing, I guess they can go find another job.”
Reeves did not equivocate. Until he did.
When the first-term Republican governor was asked about the state’s long-time vaccine mandates to enroll in public schools and public universities, Reeves first said he was not going to mandate a vaccine that had only emergency use authorization as the coronavirus vaccines currently do.
But scientists say the authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is coming — and soon. Surely Reeves also believes the authorization is coming or else he would not be urging people to take it.
He was asked again whether he opposed current vaccine mandates for public schools and universities like measles, mumps and rubella.
By this time, the governor was backtracking faster than Jackson State football coach Deion Sanders used to do when he was a primetime cornerback in the National Football League.
“Clearly there have been statutes in place that the Legislature has passed to require that (vaccines) for young individuals,” Reeves said. “Surely that is a decision that has been made in the past.”
He told members of the media “y’all are going down some silly rabbit trails now” by asking about instances where Mississippi public entities already are mandating vaccines.
Of the several groups trying to eliminate vaccine mandates for Mississippi’s public schools, Reeves said, “That is fine. They can try to repeal those, and I wish them the best of luck in doing so if that is what they wish to do.”
“But I am not supportive of a vaccine passport. I am not supportive of mandating the vaccine for COVID-19 period.”
In the end, Reeves said he was not going to answer hypothetical questions about whether he supported the repeal of some existing vaccine mandates even though he had stated unequivocally at one point he opposed vaccine mandates for public entities.
Truth be known, Mississippi’s public universities do require many vaccines. In some instances, students also must be vaccinated for hepatitis B, according to information provided to Mississippi Today by the Institutions of Higher Learning. State law mandates a litany of vaccines to enroll in kindergarten-12th grade schools.
Reeves said those were decisions made in the past as if he were washing his hands of those actions. But as governor, part of his job is to change laws that he believes are unfair or are bad public policy.
As lieutenant governor, presiding over the Senate before he was elected governor, Reeves had direct influence on the writing of laws. Bills were introduced during his tenure as lieutenant governor to eliminate or ease vaccine mandates. Those bills had and continue to have vocal supporters. Those bills went nowhere in Reeves’ Senate.
But a bill did pass Reeves’ Senate unanimously to potentially jail people who refused the state-mandated treatment for tuberculosis. That bill later died in the House.
Upon questioning by the media, Reeves equivocated on his first statement of strong opposition to vaccine mandates. He was not willing to say he opposed the state’s existing vaccine mandates.
In recent years, Reeves has become a politician who does not like to equivocate. He seldom does. He has strong opinions.
That has been the puzzling aspect of many of Reeves’ statements on the COVID-19 vaccine. He seems to go out of his way to equivocate.
The governor will make a strong statement in support of all Mississippians taking the vaccine, and then a few minutes later add a caveat, such as it’s a personal choice whether an individual should take the vaccine or there are risks to taking the vaccine and risks to not taking it.
To his credit, in the most recent press availability, Reeves was more forceful in his endorsement of the coronavirus vaccine.
Perhaps he learned that from watching recent social media posts in support of getting the vaccine by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn.
They simply said it was the right thing to do.
Hosemann said, “Please receive the free vaccine. Protect your family, your friends and your fellow Mississippians.”
Gunn said, “The best thing you can do to help your neighbors and friends and help our community and our state right now is to get the vaccine. It is the best tool that we have to fight the virus. I would urge each of us to get the vaccine.”
Jackson Public schools athletic director Daryl Jones (with microphone) discusses upcoming football season with members of the Provine football team. JPS schools are determined to play football after missing the 2020 season
The Jackson Public Schools football regular season doesn’t start until next week, but already the Jim Hill Tigers are 1-0.
How’s that?
JPS coordinated a COVID-19 vaccination drive among its football-playing high schools recently, and Jim Hill won with more than 75% of its athletes now vaccinated, up from below 40% before the competition. Jim Hill won $1,000 to go into its football program.
“We can’t mandate, but we can educate,” said Jim Hill head coach Jermaine Bryant. “We are constantly stressing to our students and their parents the importance of taking all possible precautions in order to play a football season. We want to play all our games.”
They did not play any last year — neither did any of the other six JPS high schools. In mid-August last year, JPS announced that all fall sports had been canceled due to the pandemic.
Rick Cleveland
Despite the success of the vaccination drive, JPS — as well as all Mississippi high school football teams — face huge obstacles to play anything resembling a complete schedule this fall.
On Aug. 20 of last year, Mississippi reported 894 new cases of COVID-19. On the same date this year, there were a record 5,048 new cases. What’s more, the delta variant appears much more dangerous for young people.
Daryl Jones, the JPS athletic director, Thursday acknowledged the challenges but said the school district is doing all it can to have in-person classes and as normal a football season as possible.
“We are encouraging all athletes and coaches to get vaccinated,” Jones said “Those that don’t must submit to weekly testing. If they’re going to play football, or going to be in the band or going to be a cheerleader, they must submit to weekly testing if they are not vaccinated.”
All football players and coaches present at the press conference Thursday evening at Forest Hill High wore masks, taking them off only when photos were made.
Isiah Terrell and his Jim Hill teammates are hungry to play football.
Jim Hill’s Isiah Terrell was one of those players, an 11th grader, who packs 350 pounds on his six-foot frame with legs as thick as tree trunks and arms nearly as massive. Terrell played as a ninth grader, when the Tigers finished 2-9, but missed an entire season last year. He said he was fully vaccinated long before the current JPS vaccination drive.
“I just want to play,” Terrell said. “We are all hungry to play.”
Terrell said he and his teammates met in small groups during the last school year to run, lift weights and try to remain in football-playing shape. He said they stayed in touch using social media.
He was asked how difficult it has been to get back into the routine of two-hour practices in the Mississippi August heat after missing an entire season.
“It hasn’t been that hard,” he said. “When you have a passion about this thing called football, it’s actually easy.”
Nevertheless, pandemic or not, JPS coaches face an enormous task in preparing teams to play, especially when they face teams from outside the district who never stopped playing.
Jones, the athletic director, knows that. “It’s gonna be tough, especially the first few games,” said Jones, a former coach himself and the son of former Alcorn coach Cardell Jones. “But remember, they still worked out, still watched film. If they managed their time well, they should be prepared.”
Nobody faces a more difficult task than Murrah, Jackson’s only Class 6A school. Murrah, 1-10 in 2019 and idle last year, faces a murderous schedule that includes many of the state’s largest, most powerful football programs. Indeed, beginning Sept. 24, Murrah faces Oxford, Germantown, Grenada, Starkville, Tupelo, Madison Central and Clinton. That’s the high school version of playing in the SEC West.
Said Marcus Gibson, the Murrah coach, “The issue is going to be calming them down, and understanding the game within the game. Gotta get them to focus on each play. They are prepared because through this pandemic, they have had to endure a multitude of starts and stops. The guys that are here, they’ve been through everything that we’ve been through, and it’s actually unified us quite a bit. If you are here with us now, it means you’ve been through all of it.”
NextGen is a Mississippi Today project devoted to digging deep into the realities of why Mississippians stay or leave. Our survey asked Mississippi’s millennials and Gen Z about current issues facing the state and its capital, Jackson, including factors that have influenced their decision to relocate out of the state or not, what future changes they would like to see addressed and more.
View our Data Dive into some of the most popular and interesting answers of the 1,113 responses collected. Skip ahead to any of the questions using the buttons below.
Do you believe that the city of Jackson must thrive for Mississippi to thrive? Please explain your answer either way.
— No. The city of Jackson is just another city in MS. They ALL need to thrive in order for the state to thrive.
— Absolutely. People are not attracted to move to cities that consist mainly of suburbs. As a native, I even get spooked visiting the empty downtown, and visiting places of business spread out in the neighboring counties is tiresome. Jackson needs walkable communities. It’s too spread out and segregated by class and race for any of its population to “thrive.”
— Yes. Without a thriving capital, we cannot hope to have a healthy state.
— No, I don’t. The same problem(s) exist all over Mississippi.
What do you desire or need more of in Jackson? In Mississippi?
— Safety
— Jobs
— There needs to be better schools and more opportunities for young people, more entertainment and cultural opportunities for young people as well. Boredom leads these young people down a path of drugs and hopelessness.
— Open minded, forward thinking, progressive leaders
— LGBT protections
— Better leadership that is more representative of the state’s people.
— More incentives to move back — whether it be new developments or housing payment plans or the myriad of options other states are pursuing to attract young people, we need it.
What problems do state of Mississippi leaders need to address for a better future?
— Infrastructure
— Education
— Crime
— Raising minimum wage
— Racism
— The nepotism of our political leaders – it’s not just passing from Father to son, but the same group of people always in leadership positions.
— Accessibility to technology, accessibility to clean and safe water, accessibility and increased presence (I do not mean increased police presence) of support of vulnerable communities.
What problems do city of Jackson leaders need to address for a better future?
— Infrastructure
— Education
— Crime
— Water issues
— City of Jackson is behind the eight ball until state leader realize that human rights and black rights are the same. Cities across the US have the same problem: apathy. Jackson could be a shining example of an opportunity won, not lost. Fix the pipes, bring educational leadership to the capital, and lead from the front on equal rights for all people–LGBTQ, black, brown, AAIP, everyone.
— Jackson has a quality of life problem. The majority of people live there because they have to, not because they want to. 50 years ago it was the exact opposite–Jackson needs to figure out WHY that was the case, and try to recreate it.
— More and better quality housing for lower income families
The University of Mississippi Medical Center announced an amendment to its vaccination policy on Friday that will require, with limited exceptions, employees and students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by November.
UMMC first announced a vaccine requirement on July 15, but it was not set to be triggered until the mRNA COVID vaccines received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Originally, staff and students were going to be allowed to wear an N95 mask until then, but that will no longer be a sufficient substitute for being vaccinated.
Dr. Alan Jones, UMMC’s associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and COVID-19 clinical response leader, announced the policy change in an internal letter on Friday and said that the revised policy was motivated by the recent increase in cases and hospitalizations sparked by the Delta variant.
“COVID-19 in Mississippi is a raging wildfire, but not everyone is helping throw water on the flames in their own backyard,” Jones wrote. “We, as an institution and as the workforce for the state’s leading health system, need to be a leader in this fight.”
In the internal memo, Jones cited this graph created by Financial Times with data from John Hopkins University that shows Mississippi is leading the world in new COVID-19 cases per capita.
“Taking steps to protect our patients is priority one. And having a fully vaccinated health care workforce is the only way to meet that standard,” Jones wrote.
The vaccination policy will be implemented across three phases. Managers and supervisors will be required to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 15, all other employees by Oct. 1 and students by Nov. 1. There will be a limited exemption policy, and any employee or student who wants a special accommodation must submit a request by Sept. 10.
Many colleges and universities across the country have already announced vaccination mandates for the coming school year, as have many health care providers and other employers. In Mississippi, UMMC is the first public higher ed institution to require the COVID-19 vaccine for students.
The delta variant has considerably increased the already high risks posed by the virus to unvaccinated people. Between July 20 and Aug. 16, 98% of the nearly 58,000 COVID-19 infections in Mississippi were among the unvaccinated. During that period, the same group also accounted for 89% of hospitalizations and 86% of deaths.
Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC’s chief executive, gave a blunt speech on Tuesday where she decried the decision of so many Mississippians to decline the vaccine, despite the great protection to offers for them and their families.
“We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat,” Woodward said. We have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our children, and to protect our state. “
There has been a significant uptick in vaccinations in Mississippi in recent weeks due to the havoc the delta variant is wreaking across the state and its healthcare system. However, despite the wide availability of vaccines and the risks posed by variants, Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the number of vaccine doses given per capita. With over 2.4 million shots administered, only 36% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated.
Jason Isbell, a Grammy-winning Americana/Roots artist, has canceled his Oct. 8 concert at the city-owned Brandon Amphitheater in Rankin County.
Isbell was one of the first of what is now a growing number of national musical acts to require a COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative coronavirus test for concert attendees.
On Friday afternoon, Southeastern Records, the label founded by Isbell, said on social media that Isbell and his band, The 400 Unit, would no longer be performing in Brandon.
“Unfortunately, the powers that be were not willing to comply with the band’s updated health and safety standards,” the label said on social media.
State Rep. Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, who also is the general manager for the Brandon Amphitheater, said earlier this week that the Brandon board of aldermen was working “with his people” to try to reach an agreement. Shanks could not be reached for comment Friday.
As COVID-19 cases soar across the country, Isbell has stated that his requirement of a vaccine or negative COVID-19 test within the past 48 hours to attend his concerts was initiated in an attempt to ensure public safety, and to try to prevent the shutdown of live music that occurred earlier in the pandemic before vaccines were available.
“I don’t think it’s fair to the audience or to the crews at the venues or to my crew to put people in a situation where they’re possibly risking their lives or taking the virus home to their kids, or they go to school and give it to other kids,” Isbell said in a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone. “It just didn’t feel right. I pride myself, and I have always prided myself, on being successful at a job where nobody gets hurt.”
He added, “That little thing that I love the most about the job that I have is the fact that it spreads something positive. I want to protect that. I don’t want to spread positive tests. I want to spread positive vibes.”
Isbell already has scheduled a concert for Oct. 8 at the Graceland Soundstage in Memphis to replace the Brandon show.
It is not clear whether the COVID-19 surge will impact any other shows in Brandon. Mississippi, per capita, currently has the most COVID-19 cases in the world, and venues in the state are following Isbell’s lead.
Duling Hall, located in the Fondren area of Jackson, has announced people will need a vaccination or a proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the past 48 hours to attend any of the multiple concerts scheduled for the venue starting Aug. 30.
“Implementing this measure will allow musicians to earn a living, our staff to be employed and live music to have a place in society again,” a Duling Hall social media statement said.
The Lyric Theater in Oxford has instituted the same guidelines for its shows.
View a gallery of photos taken by photographers from University of Mississippi Medical Center Communications showing a behind-the-scenes look at the recent rise of COVID-19 cases inside the state’s largest medical center.
Infectious diseases nurse practitioner Spencer Brooks puts on personal protective equipment before checking on a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at Children’s of Mississippi.
From left, Samaritan’s Purse nurse Angela Schear, UMMC medical technologist Jennifer Casey, Samaritan’s Purse nurses Teresa Pritchett and Gina LaFountain, and UMMC medical technologist Leanna Walters prepare for the opening of a 32-bed field hospital August 18 in Parking Garage C.
Taylor Sisson, business administrator for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, distributes COVID vaccination stickers to the department’s faculty and residents August 11. The stickers signify the wearer is vaccinated.
Pediatric critical care assistant professor Dr. Laura Wright-Sexton leads rounds inside the intensive care unit at Children’s of Mississippi.
Registered nurses Haley Williams, left, and Abagael Mathis, center, sanitize their PPE shields after checking on a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at Children’s of Mississippi.
Dr. Andy Wilhelm, division chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, walks past a row of Samaritan’s Purse field hospital tents set up in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
Nancy Smith with the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team stocks supplies at the field hospital operated by Samaritan’s Purse in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
Hospital beds line the walls inside the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
From left, J.T. Berrinson and Billy Lewis, members of Colonial Heights Baptist Church, assist Samaritan’s Purse team members in setting up a field hospital at UMMC.
UMMC clinical informatics pharmacist J.P. Stokes preps for the opening of the pharmacy tent inside the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
Registered nurse Emily Alpers gathers nursing scrubs for use in the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
Dr. Elliot Tenpenny, director of Samaritan’s Purse’s international health unit, gives Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, a tour of the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in UMMC’s Parking Garage C.
Registered nurse Abagael Mathis checks on a COVID-19 patient in the pediatric intensive care at Children’s of Mississippi.
Raelene Jarvis of Oregon, a health care provider with the National Disaster Medical System team, tries out the computer system in the field hospital devoted to COVID-19 patients that opened August 13 in Parking Garage B.
A row of beds for low-acuity COVID-19 patients is part of a field hospital that opened August 12 in Parking Garage B.
Ronald Turner puts sheets on a hospital bed before the opening of a COVID-19 field hospital August 12 in UMMC’s Parking Garage B.
Registered nurse Maria Wilson prepares to go into a room in an area inside the UMMC Emergency Department devoted to COVID-19 patients.
Phlebotomist Deanna Baber sanitizes her PPE while working in a UMMC Emergency Department space devoted to COVID-19 patients.
UMMC Emergency Department technician Abby Oliver takes the temperatures of patients waiting to be treated and admitted.
Medical assistant Banca Wallace administers a COVID-19 test to anesthesiology resident Dr. Kelsie Huffman.
Registered nurse Helen Ann Campbell checks on Keelyn Green, a Jackson high-schooler recovering at Children’s of Mississippi from a serious bout with COVID-19.
Reid Rankin, RN, cleans a visor outside a COVID-19 patient room on 2 North.
COVID-19 patient rooms can be identified by the supply of PPE hanging from their door.
Registered nurse Matt Harris cleans his protective visor after leaving a COVID-19 patient’s bedside in the medical ICU.
Registered nurse Steve Donnell helps a care team move a COVID-19 patient into a new bed in the medical intensive care unit.
Medical ICU registered nurses Matt Harris, center, and Steve Donnell, right, join a team preparing to move a COVID-positive patient into a new bed August 11.
Matt Harris, RN, on the Medical ICU.
Signs of the times are seen on the door to Employee and Student Health on the UMMC campus.
Registered nurse Elizabeth Sullivan places her photo on a fifth-floor bulletin board in the Batson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi. The board shows the floor’s care team without their face masks to patients and families.
Registered Nurse Taylor Curtis cares for patient Avery Mitchell in the PICU of the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Towers at Children’s of Mississippi.
