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OXFORD — Nearly 60 years to the day after James Meredith walked onto the University of Mississippi campus to enroll and was met with resistance and violence, he returned for one of a series of commemorative events honoring him as the first Black student to attend the school.

“Sixty years ago, our university was in turmoil,” said Donald Cole, emeritus professor and assistant provost. “So much did (Meredith) change our thinking that we will never go back.”

The two-hour presentation Wednesday night included remarks from Meredith and Black campus leaders reflecting on his legacy and the continuation of his work, as well as a series of awards in Meredith’s honor. 

Meredith applied to attend the University of Mississippi in 1961 and was denied based on race, a decision he successfully appealed with the assistance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Meredith made multiple attempts to enroll but was repeatedly denied by Gov. Ross Barnett. On the night of Sep. 30, 1962, Meredith entered the campus to enroll, accompanied by U.S. Marshals. The marshals surrounded the Lyceum, an administration building in the center of campus, and a violent riot of white students and segregationists broke out, leaving two dead and hundreds injured. Thousands of federal reinforcements arrived in the night to quell the riot, and Meredith enrolled the next day. He graduated a year later in August of 1963. 

Wearing his characteristic Ole Miss baseball cap, Meredith was joined on stage by his wife, Judy Meredith, and several of their children and grandchildren. He expressed his gratitude to the university for assembling the event, but also addressed his ongoing concerns regarding racial discrimination. 

The university remains a predominantly white institution. In the 2020-21 school year, the most recent data available, 12.9% of the student body was Black. 

“Celebration is good, but I don’t think there’s anybody in this house or in the state of Mississippi that thinks the problem has been solved,” he said. 

Meredith expounded on his work continuing to challenge white supremacy after graduating, saying that while he was not in politics, he has always considered his actions political. 

“I didn’t just go to Ole Miss football games, I was doing politics and getting into the minds of people who thought they hated me,” he said. 

Ethel Scurlock, dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, delivered the keynote address, calling on students and staff to continue the work Meredith began 60 years ago. 

“James Meredith put his life in danger because he believed that he was on a mission from God,” Scurlock said. “He understood the assignment. His valiant efforts remind us that simply understanding the assignment is not enough. We must take on the assignment and take risks to complete the assignment. We must know that somebody is counting on us to finish our assignment.” 

At the end of the event, Meredith received nearly 15 awards and gifts. These included being deputized as an honorary U.S. Marshall, an annual James Meredith day on Oct. 1 in the city of Oxford, awards and scholarships for undergraduate students in his honor, and the Mississippi Humanitarian Award. 

“I am honored and humbled to present Mr. James Meredith a gift that represents the seed he planted in 1962 and the fruit that was produced 60 years later,” said Dee Harris, president of the Black Student Union. “I feel like I am standing on your shoulders to continue building your impeccable legacy.”  

The post James Meredith honored in UM ceremony 60 years after enrollment appeared first on Mississippi Today.

No doubt, sweet-swinging Sam Burns is the clear-cut favorite in this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship at Country Club of Jackson. Burns is by far the best player in the field, No. 12 in the world rankings. He won more than $7 million last season and won three tournaments. What’s more, Burns won here a year ago.

The 26-year-old Shreveport native goes off at 11-to-1 odds to win Mississippi’s only PGA Tour tournament. Sepp Straka at No. 36 is the next highest ranked player at CCJ. J.T. Poston, at 16-to-1, is the No. 2 betting favorite.

But if you’re feeling frisky and want risk a little to hit a huge jackpot, boy, have I got a deal for you.

Jackson’s own Wilson Furr goes off Thursday morning at 500-to-1 odds. In other words, you can bet $10 to win $5,000. You can bet a Benjamin ($100) and win 50 grand.

I mentioned that to Furr Wednesday afternoon as he took a break from practicing on the CCJ putting green. He smiled. “I’ll tell you what, that’s the best 500-to-1 odds you’re ever gonna get,” Furr said.

You could tell he really meant it.

The Vegas odds are 100-to-1 against Furr finishing in the top 5. The odds are 25-to-1 against him finishing in the top 10.

Sucker bets, you say?

Hear me out. The first time I ever followed Furr around the pristine fairways of CCJ was in July of 2015. He was 16 and competing in the 100th Mississippi State Amateur Championship. He shot 14-under par for 72 holes and won by eight. He was like golf’s version of Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes, all alone at the end. If Furr didn’t break a leg, he was going to win. He was driving the ball 50 yards past his competitors. His wedges were dialed in, and he rarely needed more than wedge to reach a par-4 green. He won going away.

My guess back then was that Furr would be playing – and winning – on the PGA Tour in 2022, if not before. He had won the Future Masters at 14. Every college golf team around was recruiting him. He was a prodigy.

Belden’s Hayden Buckley, who tied for second in that 2015 State Am, won $1.3 million on the Tour last season. Furr’s Alabama teammate, Davis Riley of Hattiesburg, has already won $3 million on tour. Furr hasn’t earned his PGA Tour privileges yet.

“Golf can humble you,” Furr said, and he knows that all too well. Over the last few years, he has been humbled more than once. His golf career has taken some detours.

After finishing his college career, Furr failed in the second round of PGA Tour qualifying last year. He earned a spot on the Canadian (MacKenzie) Tour this summer but started slowly there. He did play well and had top 25 finishes in the last two events of the summer, shooting a combined 30-under par for those two 72-hole events.

Then Furr went to Mobile last weekend for the first round of Tour qualifying. He advanced with ease, shooting 19-under par for 72 holes at Magnolia Groves Crossing, a tough Robert Trent Jones course. That’s 49-under par for his last three 72-hole events, if we are keeping score. And, in golf, we always are.

Furr left Mobile Friday afternoon headed for a friend’s wedding in Tampa, Fla., when his cell phone rang and Sanderson Farms Championship director Steve Jent was on the other end of the line. Jent told Furr he was being awarded a sponsor’s exemption into the Sanderson Farms Championship field.

“Man, I couldn’t have been happier,” Furr said. “First I played really well and qualified for the next phase and then I get that call. I was pumped.”

He drove on to Tampa for the wedding, then flew back to Jackson on Sunday for three days of preparation for the tournament.

“I am just sp happy to be here, to get this chance,” Furr said.

Does he believe he can win?

“Yeah, I really do,” he said. “I am comfortable here. I am really playing well. I really believe I belong out here.”

He plays off the first tee Thursday morning at 10:01 a.m. with a chance to prove to everyone what he says he knows about himself.

If Furr were to finish in the top 10, he would earn a berth in next week’s Shriner’s Children’s Open at Las Vegas. He is two weeks away from the second round of Tour qualifying at Valdosta, Ga.

Of course, if Furr were to win here, he wouldn’t even have to go to Valdosta. The odds are 500-to-1 against it. Crazy as it sounds, Furr likes his chances.

The post If you like long shots, boy oh boy, there’s one named Furr at CCJ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The conservative blog Y’all Politics published on Sept. 21, 2022, that my mother, in her role as special assistant attorney general, had signed off on the language of a lease agreement to construct a University of Southern Mississippi volleyball stadium — a project now a focus of the state’s ongoing welfare scandal. I learned about this on the evening of Sept. 20, 2022, when the blog’s editor began calling around for comment.

Without hesitation, I consulted with Mississippi Today colleagues and with veteran journalism leaders outside our newsroom about what had been, to that point, unknown to everyone on our staff. We immediately implemented a permanent policy that would allow any reporting that may present a conflict to go forward without my direction. And after continued internal discussions, we decided to add an editor’s note to each future story mentioning the USM volleyball project, including retroactively adding the note to one earlier story that published after we learned the information.

None of this changes nor challenges a thing about Mississippi Today’s relentless reporting about the misuse of federal welfare funding intended to help the state’s most vulnerable people. In our three-plus years of coverage of the state’s welfare scandal — including breaking the very first story about the USM volleyball stadium being funded with welfare dollars — we have never stopped even an inch short of reporting the whole truth for any reason, whether personal or political.

Multiple journalists on staff, independent of my involvement, reviewed the information published by Y’all Politics and determined we have sufficiently and consistently reported that the Attorney General’s Office signed off on the volleyball contract. You can read some of that reporting here, here, here and here. And for years, we have made deliberate editorial decisions to not name dozens of state employees at multiple agencies who reviewed welfare-related documents or sat in relevant meetings but ultimately had no authority over how funds were spent.

That political actors are willing to leverage the bureaucratic role my own mother played in state government to try to discredit Mississippi Today’s reporting is notable. But it should not distract readers from the real story: Powerful Mississippians appear to have used the state government system to steer millions away from our neediest residents into their own pockets and the pockets of their wealthy friends.

We will follow and report the story wherever it leads us, just as we always have.

READ MORE: Our full investigative reporting on the Mississippi welfare scandal

The post Editor’s note on our welfare coverage appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Sanderson Farms Championship will be played this week at the Country Club of Jackson, and who better to discuss the field and the tournament than Randy Watkins, who once finished fifth in the tournament and then helped save it when it was being played at Annandale and was sponsorless. Sam Burns is the clear favorite but there are several Mississippians in the field who could win it. We also discuss big football games at Oxford and Starkville.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: Golf Week in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Mission Trip appeared first on Mississippi Today.

While the Department of Mental Health works to expand community-based mental health services for Mississippians, the state Attorney General’s Office continues to fight oversight of that effort.

State attorneys filed an objection to the most recent report by the court-appointed monitor reviewing the department’s progress toward reducing unnecessary hospitalizations of people with serious mental illness – the latest example of the disconnect between the state’s top law enforcement agency and the mental health department. 

“The State is concerned that the volume of general commentary, discussion in the nature of perceived best practices, and recommendations in the Second Report, coupled with the Monitor’s 3-part framework for assessing compliance, is resulting in mission creep – i.e., the incremental expansion of the Remedial Order well beyond its terms,” the objection, filed on Sept. 22, said. 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued the state over its mental health system. U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves sided with the federal government in 2019, finding that Mississippi had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by segregating people with mental illness in hospitals far from their homes and families. 

Last year, Reeves appointed Michael Hogan, a former New York State Commissioner on Mental Health with 40 years of mental health experience, to create twice-yearly reports monitoring the state’s progress toward providing community-based services to help people avoid hospitalization. 

Hogan filed his second report in early September. The 62-page document found that Mississippi had reduced hospitalizations, but that problems with care coordination at community mental health centers lead to people falling through the cracks. 

Hogan told Mississippi Today that he sees the case as two sides of a coin. On one side, he believes the Department of Mental Health is working in good faith to comply with Reeves’ remedial order. 

“The other side of the coin is legal, and on that side, the state has fought – as far as I can tell – every aspect of the case from the beginning, and continues to,” he said. 

The state appealed Reeves’ ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing he had installed “perpetual federal oversight” of Mississippi’s mental health system. Oral arguments are set to take place in New Orleans next week. 

Meanwhile, Department of Mental Health leadership has publicly praised Hogan’s work.

“The Department of Mental Health values working with Dr. Hogan and appreciates his willingness to provide feedback as the agency continues to implement new data and validation measures, protocols, and audit processes that have begun over the past year,” department spokesman Adam Moore said earlier this month when Hogan filed his report. “As both reports have mentioned, much has been accomplished and there is much to be done.”

Moore said on Tuesday that the Department had nothing further to add and referred Mississippi Today to the Attorney General’s Office for questions regarding the litigation.

Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Attorney General Lynn Fitch, said the office does not comment on pending litigation and will let the filing speak for itself.

In September of last year, shortly before the state filed its appeal with the 5th Circuit, Department of Mental Health Director Wendy Bailey told lawmakers the agency would move forward regardless.

“We will comply with the judge’s order and do everything that we need to do as a state agency,” she told lawmakers. “As far as the appeal, that would be a question for the Attorney General’s office.”

Reeves’ order appointing Hogan requires him to “assess compliance” with each part of the remedial order, but it doesn’t spell out how exactly he should do that. Some components of the order are quantitative – for example, the state must operate one or more mobile crisis response teams in each region. But others are not, like the requirement that community mental health centers “make reasonable efforts” to reach people with serious mental illness and connect them with care.  

So Hogan developed a “three-part framework” in consultation with the state and the Department of Justice. For each element of the order, he looks at whether the state took action to address the requirement. Then he asks how well the action is working. Finally, he tries to assess whether the action is reducing unnecessary hospitalizations– the key goal of the lawsuit. 

Hogan discussed that framework in his first monitoring report in March, and the state filed no objection. Now, the state claims the framework is “problematic” because it is not discussed in the remedial order and because it is not objective. 

“The Monitor cannot call balls and strikes without an objectively defined strike zone,” the state’s objection says. “The Remedial Order does not provide an objectively defined strike zone for the vast majority of its provisions. The rules for balls and strikes are not dependent on the professional judgment of the umpire. Likewise, compliance with the Remedial Order should not be dependent on the professional judgment of a monitor.”

Both the state – represented by the Attorney General’s Office –  and the Department of Justice have a chance to provide comments and suggested revisions before Hogan files each report with the court. Hogan said the state had raised many of the issues that now appear in its objection. He responded to those points but did not make all the changes the state wanted. 

“My view is, it is what it is,” he said. “And I proceed ahead on my side of the road or my side of the coin, which is to look at compliance and make the best judgments that are available.”

Read the state’s objection here:

The post Mental health agency, AG at odds over court-appointed monitor’s work appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A panel of lawmakers trying to come up with policies to help women and children post-abortion ban heard a familiar refrain from experts Tuesday: Mississippi ranks worst or near-worst in infant and maternal mortality, poverty, hunger, access to health care and child care and many other pertinent statistics.

“… This means 39% of children in Mississippi belong to households with no full-time working parent,” said Heather Hanna, assistant research professor at the Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center. “… 43% of Black children in Mississippi live in poverty … Women in Mississippi have higher rates of educational attainment than men, yet earn less.”

The disheartening stats from various experts continued for much of the day — 46% of Mississippi children are in single-parent homes. One in five children experienced hunger in the last year. Nine out of 1,000 babies in Mississippi die. In the rural Delta, there are 4,000 children for every one pediatrician — statewide that number drops only to 2,000 per — and many counties have no OB/GYN. Many mothers do not receive proper prenatal or postpartum care. Mississippi has alarming rates of premature, low-weight babies being born.

Young women have problems obtaining or affording long-acting, reversible contraception. The state Health Department is estimating Mississippi will see an additional 5,000 unplanned pregnancies a year now that abortions are banned here.

The Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families opened the first of four planned hearings with an examination of the extent of the problem. The committee was announced by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann after the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down longstanding Roe v. Wade and a dormant Mississippi abortion ban on the books subsequently took effect. Hosemann said it’s now incumbent on lawmakers to come up with policies to help mothers and children. House Speaker Philip Gunn has also created a commission with a similar charge.

“As a state we are in the wrong place on a lot of lists,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told the nine-member, bipartisan committee on Tuesday.

Dr. Daniel Edney, director of the state Department of Health, showed lawmakers a chart with a national report card that ranks states on numerous health issues.

“We’re not just 50th,” Edney said. “We’re 50th by a mile. I think if we had 60 states we’d be 60th … The Department of Health is absolutely committed to work with you and do whatever it takes to get us off the bottom.”

Tuesday’s hearing was open to the public and the committee is asking for written testimony from the public, which can be emailed to WCFStudyGroup@senate.ms.gov. The comments will be presented to the full committee.

A large part of the hearing’s audience — many of those who were not lobbyists or government staffers — walked out of the hearing, holding hand-made signs, briefly mid-morning Tuesday to hold a press conference organized by leaders of organizations representing Black women. Black women and babies experience a disproportionate share of the state’s highest-in-the-nation rates of stillbirth, low birth weight, and infant mortality. They said the statistics about the state’s problems are old news, and the title of the press conference was “We are the Data.” They complained about a lack of Black women on the Senate committee — only one of the nine members — and among Tuesday’s presenters.

They want to see some action from lawmakers, and many had come to call on lawmakers to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers — a subject of much debate in Mississippi over the last year.

“What we’re asking for here is just a right to life,” said Angela Grayson, lead organizer for Black Women Vote Coalition and advocacy and outreach coordinator for The Lighthouse. “The data is here. The data shows that this is good legislation and that that is what we need here in Mississippi for Black women to be able to go through the childbirth experience and not have the unnecessary burdens of inadequate health care.”

In Mississippi, about 60% of births are to women on Medicaid. The Senate in this year’s legislative session attempted to extend standard postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months, an effort to help combat high maternal mortality rates and other health problems for mothers and children. The House shot down the proposal, with House Speaker Philip Gunn linking extension of postpartum coverage to general Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Gunn and other Mississippi Republicans have fought Medicaid expansion under “Obamacare” for years, and Mississippi remains one of 12 states that has not expanded coverage.

On Tuesday, Woodward, Edney and other presenters voiced support for extending postpartum Medicaid coverage.

Mississippi Medicaid Director Drew Snyder, when asked his opinion on extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, appeared to sidestep the question with a lengthy word salad. But he noted that extending postpartum coverage is “a different” discussion from general Medicaid expansion under the ACA and said, “I don’t think it poses long-term sustainability questions like ACA expansion does.”

Snyder advised lawmakers considering postpartum extension: “if you do it, do it because you believe it will help mothers and children, don’t do it because others say you’re being cruel and heartless.”

Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, R-Oxford, is chair of the new Study Group on Women, Children and Families, which will continue hearings on Wednesday, then on Oct. 25 and 26.

Boyd said part of Woodward’s presentation stood out to her.

“She said that a 20% decrease in low-birth-weight babies at UMMC’s (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) would save about $8 million a year,” Boyd said. “Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage would cost about $7 million, so that would pay for it.”

Mississippi Today staff writer Isabelle Taft contributed to this report.

The post ‘We’re 50th by a mile.’ Experts tell lawmakers where Mississippi stands with health of mothers, children appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition and the Poor People’s Campaign held a march on Monday to protest the ongoing water crisis in Jackson.

Attendees began their march near the Old Mt. Helm Baptist Church and ended on Capitol Street with a “Moral Monday” rally outside of the Governor’s Mansion. The rally was attended by over 100 people calling for clean water in the city, and to keep it a public service instead of having the water system privatized by the state.

Deneka Samuel, a south Jackson resident and mother of six children, wiped away tears as she told the crowd about her family’s experience.

“I never thought that in this lifetime that I would have to go and fetch water, dip water out of a barrel,” she said. “It’s a constant struggle each and every day. I have to keep reminding my younger kids to not drink out of that faucet.” 

More than 150,000 people have been affected by the ongoing issue. On Monday, Jackson Mayor Choke Anwar Antar Lumumba met with the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss the next steps for the water system. 

The post Photos: March for clean water held in Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Only 12% of school districts in the state received D or F grades according to data released by the Department of Education on Tuesday, though officials warn the pandemic played a role in schools’ improved letter ratings. 

The Mississippi Department of Education annually assesses schools and districts based on state test performance, student growth from year to year, and graduation rates. However, due to pandemic disruptions, schools have not received new grades since 2019. Assessments did not occur in the spring of 2020, and while tests were administered in 2021, no accountability grades were given for student performance. 

Many schools and districts saw significant improvement in their accountability score from 2019, but the education officials cautioned against year-to-year comparisons because of the impact of the pandemic on the data. 

State test performance decreased significantly in 2021, so when test scores returned to more normal levels this year, schools saw significant year-over-year growth. Since growth is a key metric used to assign schools grades, it is possible that many districts and schools saw increased overall grades because of that growth. 

“Because the accountability system relies heavily on growth, it may be challenging for some schools and districts to maintain grades (in the future) that improved considerably in 2021-22 ,” said Interim State Superintendent of Education Kim Benton. 

Benton also pointed out that the graduation requirements were waived for students to pass some state tests in 2020 and 2021 and graduation rates were positively impacted. This trend will continue until all students who took those courses during the pandemic have graduated. 

“We will likely see some variability in A-F grades over the next few years as the pandemic disruptions work their way out of our accountability system,” she said. 

Superintendents expected this outcome, and many told Mississippi Today in March that accountability results should be taken “with a grain of salt” because of the pandemic disruptions. They said they hoped community members would be understanding as grades fluctuated and these disruptions worked their way out of the system.

While pandemic-related growth and waivers affected school grades, a quarter of all districts have increased reading and math proficiency since 2019. 

The ten highest rated districts for the 2021-22 school year are: 

• Long Beach School District
• Clinton School District
• Ocean Springs School District
• Union County School District
• Petal School District
• Madison County School District
• New Albany Public School District
• Enterprise School District
• Pass Christian Public School District
• Rankin County School District

The results will be officially certified when they are presented to the State Board of Education on Thursday. They will then be available for public review on the Mississippi Succeeds Report Card portal. 

The post New school ratings show most Mississippi districts rated C or higher appeared first on Mississippi Today.