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When she found out she was pregnant in late 2020, Erin Zanza of Hattiesburg thought she’d wait until after she gave birth to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The vaccines weren’t widely available yet, and the clinical trials that resulted in their emergency use authorization had not included pregnant women. 

Waiting until her son was born would prevent any risks to him in utero, and she could still pass on antibodies through her breast milk after she was vaccinated, she thought.

Zanza’s attitude changed as the delta variant swept across Mississippi last summer. Hospitals and their intensive care units were overflowing with patients, some of whom were pregnant and died, lost their babies or both. One of those mothers was a close friend of Zanza’s.

“It was just really eye opening that this perfectly healthy mom and baby were gone because of it,” Zanza said. 

So Zanza went to her doctor, who walked her through the science of how the vaccine works. She explained that only the antibodies Zanza was producing would reach her baby through the placenta, not any vaccine material. She also consulted her brother, a doctor and father of small children, who wholeheartedly encouraged Zanzsa to get vaccinated. 

So, 37 weeks into her pregnancy, she received her first dose. For the first 24 hours after getting the shot, Zanza’s hand stayed glued to her stomach.

“I was so scared that maybe I’d made the wrong decision and something was going to happen,” Zanza said.

Ultimately, Zanza’s baby boy, Drew, was born happy and healthy, just a few weeks later. Recently, Zanza and Drew, now five months old, were infected with the omicron variant. Thankfully, they both had mild cases and recovered quickly.

“I truly believe it’s because I had the vaccine and had given him some immunity,” Zanza said.

Zanza also recalled how things went differently for a close friend of hers who is against vaccines. It’s one of those areas of disagreement they avoided discussing, and Zanza didn’t tell her that she’d been vaccinated until a few weeks after Drew was born. That friend also recently caught COVID-19 and was bedridden for weeks. 

Zanza’s position is one thousands of Mississippi women have found themselves in over the past year. On top of the normal stressors of pregnancy, they had to decide whether to risk contracting the coronavirus and potentially becoming seriously ill while pregnant or taking a new vaccine that they knew nothing about. 

While no demographic was exempt from the spread of vaccine misinformation, perhaps no group was targeted as ferociously as pregnant women. “The vaccine causes infertility.” “The vaccine will make you miscarry.” “The vaccine will give your child autism.”

These false claims spread like wildfire online and among friend groups as the vaccine was rolled out across the United States. 

Lauren Rhoades of Jackson, who was vaccinated in March 2021 and gave birth in July, credits getting off Facebook before the pandemic began with helping her avoid most of the misinformation being circulated about the vaccine.

While home on maternity leave, Rhoades watched in horror as the delta variant swept across Mississippi and the subsequent surge in pregnant women and infants being hospitalized. Since the virus reached Mississippi in March 2020, it has caused at least 73 fetal deaths, or miscarriages before 20 weeks, and killed 13 pregnant women. 

“I imagined that they just wanted to do what was best for them and their child, and they had just received so much misinformation that made them fearful of getting vaccinated,” Rhoades said. “It just made me feel so sad to see such preventable loss.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t recommend vaccination for pregnant women specifically until late April, and that message then had to compete with the doubt and mistrust that had built up and calcified over those early months that the vaccine was available. 

“I think over the time that they delayed, that just gave a lot of fodder for people to be worried about it,” Katie Poor, who gave birth to her second child in December 2021, said.

Poor struggled to navigate unclear guidance and the uncertainty that came with it.

“There’s so many things that you are supposed to be cautious about because of the impacts that it could have on your unborn child,” Poor, who lives in Jackson, said. “If I’m limiting things like caffeine, then I obviously want to be really sure about what medications I’m putting in my body as well.”

After consulting with her doctor and seeing that the vaccine wasn’t causing complications for pregnant women, Poor was vaccinated in the spring. Now, she’s thankful to be in a position to pass on her antibodies to her two-month-old daughter, offering what protection she can until she can be vaccinated herself.

“Breastfeeding my newborn is one of the things that gives me a feeling like I’m doing something to protect her when there’s a lot of ways that I feel like I can’t protect her as well as I should have,” Poor said. 

Following a year of widespread sickness, death and research, the risks COVID-19 poses to pregnant women and infants are clearer than ever.

One recent study, co-authored by Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, a pediatrician and professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, found that babies make up a disproportionate amount of the minors hospitalized due to COVID-19.

The study identified 630 patients aged 0 to 18 with severe COVID-19 across 50 of their hospital sites, including Children’s of Mississippi, between March to December 2020. Of those, 128 were under a year old, and half of those were under two months old. 

Another area of concern is that two-thirds of these infants had no serious health conditions prior to their COVID-19 diagnosis, but still struggled to overcome their infections.  Seventy-seven percent had respiratory complications, and 13 percent needed a ventilator during their treatment.

“It’s been well established that vaccination of mom protects baby, and as infant COVID-19 can be severe, this underscores the importance of maternal immunization,” Hobbs said. 

Even with the vast amount of data proving the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, Hobbs says misinformation is still rampant, even in the medical community.

“Millions of people at this point had been vaccinated, and I still hear providers say that there’s not enough data,” Hobbs said. “And I think that we need to educate our providers, so we can educate our population. I think people trust their doctors, but if the doctors don’t have the right information, then the patients won’t either.”

Dr. Anita Henderson, President of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician at The Pediatric Clinic in Hattiesburg, has seen more infants hospitalized during the omicron wave than during any other stage of the pandemic. One theory is that omicron affects the upper airways more so than other variants.

“When you have a baby that has a very small airway, it makes for a more significant illness,” Henderson said. 

She has also seen other disturbing trends like one and two-month-olds suffering from COVID-induced sleep apnea and an increase in babies being born with intrauterine growth retardation, or IUGR. The condition, in which a baby doesn’t grow to normal weight during pregnancy, can be caused by a mother’s blood vessels being damaged as the result of a COVID-19 infection. This can cause clotting in the placenta, restricting the fetus’ access to nutrition and stunting its growth. 

Having the vaccine conversation with patients can be difficult, Henderson said, but it’s also gotten a lot easier over time as mothers have seen the protection vaccination has given to others in their lives, and come to understand the danger that its absence poses to them and their children.

“They’re just conversations we have to keep having every time we have the opportunity to educate moms and explain why vaccination is the best thing for them and for their babies,” Henderson said.

Editor’s note: The final quote in this story from Dr. Anita Henderson was updated for clarity.

The post ‘Such preventable loss’: As more babies are hospitalized with COVID-19, these moms are grateful for the vaccine appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s political team breaks down the House proposal to reinstate a ballot initiative. Mississippi has been without an initiative since May 2021, when the state Supreme Court struck down the process by which voters can place policy changes on a statewide ballot for approval.

Listen to more episodes of The Other Side here.

The post Podcast: Breaking down the proposal to reinstate a Mississippi ballot initiative appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House Clerk Andrew Ketchings has etched himself an entry in Mississippi’s history. His admission that he moved the controversial statue of white supremacist Mississippi politician Theodore Bilbo from public display in the state Capitol has earned the normally inconspicuous house clerk a mention in the history books.

Unless House Speaker Philip Gunn is the best actor this side of Sir Lawrence Olivier, he did not play a role in removal from public view of the Bilbo statue.

“I don’t have any idea,” Gunn, sounding earnest, told reporters two weeks ago when asked about the missing statue. “I heard about it at lunch.”

Almost a week later, Ketchings finally confirmed he was the culprit and acted alone — with the aid of movers who received between $4,000 and $5,000 for moving the bronze statue that is reportedly life-size at 5 feet 2 inches tall on an enormous base.

READ MORE: House clerk Andrew Ketchings takes credit for moving Bilbo statue out of public view

The statue is currently tucked away in a storage room on the first floor of the Capitol, and restoring it to public display could prove troublesome.

To restore it legislators will have to argue that Bilbo should be the only governor memorialized with a statue in the Mississippi Capitol. No other governor has such an honor.

Bilbo, who served two terms as governor and was elected twice to the U.S. Senate, advocated for moving Black Americans to Africa and for opposing anti-lynching laws.

Representing the state that perhaps led the nation in lynchings, Bilbo said in filibustering an anti-lynching bill in the U.S. Senate, “If you succeed in the passage of this bill, you will open the floodgates of hell in the South. Raping, mobbing, lynching, race riots, and crime will be increased a thousandfold; and upon your garments and the garments of those who are responsible for the passage of the measure will be the blood of the raped and outraged daughters of Dixie, as well as the blood of the perpetrators of these crimes that the red-blooded Anglo-Saxon White Southern men will not tolerate.”

Who would be the state legislator to step up and argue that person should be memorialized in Mississippi’s Capitol? Perhaps a legislator could argue about the way the removal was done — with one House staff member doing it on his own.

It is important to remember the clerk is elected by the 122 House members — normally upon a recommendation of the speaker. The clerk is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the House staff and the portion of the Capitol building controlled by the House. Ketchings has acted independently in the past to redo or to update House committee rooms.

It was a quirk of history that resulted in the Bilbo statue being located in House committee room 113 since Bilbo never served in the Mississippi House.

READ MORE: Where’s Bilbo? Statue of racist former governor missing from Capitol

But in 1948 soon after his death, the Mississippi House and Senate passed a resolution calling for a commission to develop a Bilbo monument to be displayed “in a prominent place on the first floor of the new Capitol building.”

For decades that monument rested in the Capitol rotunda, making it one of the first — if not the first — items visitors saw when entering the building. In the early 1980s, while the building was closed for renovations, then-Gov. William Winter, who was old enough to have heard Bilbo’s vile rhetoric in person, moved the statue to room 113 where it remained until recently. It could be argued that Winter made the statue House property.

The Winter move was brave and bold for the time, just as the Ketchings move is now.

“Because of everything he stood for, I think this should have been done years ago,” said Ketchings, who in the past served as a Republican House member from Adams County and later on the staff of Gov. Haley Barbour. In other words, Ketchings has a long history in Mississippi Republican politics.

READ MORE: The Bilbo statue was first moved by Gov. William Winter in the 1980s

In a state ripe with a history of racist politicians, Bilbo, along with his contemporary and sometimes alley James K. Vardaman, would belong on Mississippi’s Mount Rushmore of racist politicians.

Ironically, Vardaman, known to many officials as “the great white chief,” was the first Mississippian elected to the Senate through popular election. Before then, the state Legislature selected Mississippi’s U.S. senators.

When running for another term, Vardaman was defeated by Hubert Stephens, a U.S. House member from Union County in northeast Mississippi.

Then six years later, Stephens was defeated by no other than Bilbo.

Nearing death, Stephens, according to an article by Martha Swain in Mississippi History Now, told his family: “Bilbo and Vardaman would both be in the history books and, if they were, he would just as soon be left out.”

Stephens reportedly ordered all his papers burned to try to keep himself out of the history books between Vardaman and Bilbo.

The post Reversing the historic move of Bilbo statue could prove difficult appeared first on Mississippi Today.

What is critical race theory?

According to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, critical race theory is an academic framework used to analyze racism’s systemic impact on society. Critical race theory focuses on the social, political and economic intersections with race and the institutions that continue to oppress marginalized people.

Initially constructed for legal analysis, at its core, CRT has roots back to the late 1900s, spearheaded by notable Black legal scholars.

Why is it so controversial?

CRT was founded on generations of Black scholarship and activism, but Republican politicians have denounced the theory and continue to mischaracterize it as a way to divide students or introduce racism into the classroom.

At last year’s Neshoba County Fair, Reeves gave a speech, which included this:

“Some of these Ivy League liberals are the dumbest smart people in the world,” Reeves said. “In what world is it OK to teach children that they are born racist? In what world is it OK to tell children they will be judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character … In Mississippi, our kids should be learning STEM education, not Dem education.” 

Fellow critics of CRT cite similar claims of divisiveness, but people well-versed in critical race theory repeatedly emphasize the systemic analysis that it operates on. That is, CRT focuses on the entirety of the system, not the individual — instead, the individual’s place in that system.

But the message is getting lost in translation if it’s being boiled down to supposedly teaching white children that they’re born racists with a personal and active hand in oppressing their peers of color.     

READ MORE: Anti-CRT bill passed out of Senate committee likely unconstitutional, opponents say

Is it being taught in Mississippi schools?

Currently, Mississippi has only one class explicitly about CRT called Critical Race Theory: Law 743, taught at the University of Mississippi. Education reporter Molly Minta wrote about the class in an article titled “Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory” to tell the story of a young Republican woman who wrote to her lawmakers criticizing their decision to move anti-CRT legislation forward after taking the class. 

The Mississippi Department of Education confirmed that CRT is not being taught in any K-12 public institution in the state.

If SB 2113 is passed into law, Mississippi will join at least 14 other states in banning or otherwise limiting critical race theory in public schools.

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi's only class on critical race theory

What's happening with critical race theory in the Legislature?

Republican lawmakers filed 11 bills addressing critical race theory this session, according to EducationWeek. Only one remains alive. The Senate passed Senate Bill 2113, which only references CRT in its title (versus the bill itself). The legislation as currently written is vague, but would prohibit “distinction or classification of students based on account of race.” 

When the bill was taken up for a vote on the Senate floor, “every Black Mississippi senator walked out in protest. The fate of this legislation now rests with the House, which has until March 1 to assign and pass it out of committee.

READ MORE: 

• Philip Gunn’s biggest legacy is on the line with critical race theory
• How Black senators controlled the narrative on a historic day at the Capitol

Still have further questions about critical race theory? Click here to take this brief survey and let us know what’s on your mind!

FULL COVERAGE: Read all of our coverage on critical race theory

The post Critical race theory in Mississippi, explained appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Today’s task: Choose an all-time Mississippi Super Bowl team. As you might suspect, the Magnolia State, which leads all 49 others in producing NFL players and Pro Football Hall of Famers per capita, has produced many of the Super Bowl’s greatest heroes.

For today’s purposes, both Mississippi natives and Mississippi college players are eligible. So we’ll start where every great football team starts – at quarterback.

Our starter: Eli Manning gets the nod over Brett Favre. It’s not as hard a choice as you might think. Manning played in two Super Bowls, won two Super Bowls, won two Super Bowl MVPs and beat Tom Brady both times. Beat that! Favre threw for slightly more yards in his two Super Bowls, but won one, lost one and was not the MVP in his Super Bowl victory.

On this all-star team, we are going with one running back and three wide receivers. Our running back is only my favorite football player ever: Walter Payton, who played most of his career for terrible teams but finally got his Super Bowl opportunity in SB XX. Payton, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher when he retired, ran for 61 yards in the Chicago Bears’ 46-10 trouncing of New England but famously was denied the opportunity to score a touchdown when Mike Ditka opted to let defensive lineman William Perry score from the one-yard line. Someday, perhaps, I will forgive Ditka. Not today.

Jerry Rice leads our wide receivers corps, and, without question, remains the most productive receiver in Super Bowl history. I would make the case that he is the most outstanding Super Bowl player ever at his position. Indeed, three of the top four receiving performances in history belong the former Mississippi Valley State star. Get a load of this: three games, three victories, 28 catches, 512 yards, seven touchdowns, one MVP (could have been three)!

Most older fans remember Lance “Bambi” Alworth of Brookhaven as the greatest receiver in American Football League history, playing most of his incredible career with the San Diego Chargers before there was such thing a Super Bowl. But in Super Bowl VI, playing for the Dallas Cowboys at age 31, he scored the game’s first touchdown in a 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins. That was the same week his teammate, running back Duane Thomas, opined, “How can they call the Super Bowl football’s ultimate game if they play it every year?”

It remains a valid question. But back to receivers: My third receiver is Deion Branch, who played two seasons at Jones Junior College in Ellisville. On Feb. 6, 2005, Branch caught 11 of Brady’s passes passes for 133 yards to help the the New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21. Branch was the game’s MVP.

Our tight end? He’s got to be Wesley Walls, the Pontotoc and Ole Miss great who would catch 450 NFL passes and 54 touchdowns for four NFL teams. But in 1990, a young Walls was the backup on the 49ers depth chart when he caught a nine-yard pass from MVP Joe Montana in the Niners’ 55-10 victory over Denver.

Jackson native and ex-Jackson State great Jackie Slater, one of the greatest offensive linemen in pro football history, is our left tackle. Slater, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, played for some fabulous Los Angeles Rams teams in his 20-year career but amazingly played in just one Super Bowl, a 31-19 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Just shows how hard it is to get to the Super Bowl, much less make this team. Michael Oher, whose life inspired a movie (“The Blind Side”), is our other tackle. The Ole Miss great played in two Super Bowls, first for the Baltimore Ravens and then the Carolina Panthers.

Guards? Floyd “Pork Chop” Womack is one. How could you leave a guy named Pork Chop off the team? He was good, too. The Cleveland native and Mississippi State great played for the Seattle Seahawks in a losing effort in a 21-10 loss to Pittsburgh in 2006. I am taking literary license on the other guard choice. I am going with Gene Hickerson, the ex-Ole Miss great and Pro Football Hall of Famer. No, he never played in a Super Bowl, but he played in three NFL championship games before there was such thing as a Super Bowl. He helped block three Cleveland Browns running backs into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including the incomparable Jimmy Brown. Leroy Kelly, who replaced Brown, was once asked what he had learned from Brown. “I learned,” Kelly said, “to follow Gene Hickerson’s butt wherever it went.”

Kent Hull, of course, is our center. The Greenwood native and Mississippi State great started for the Buffalo Bills in four straight Super Bowls. No, he never won one but he got to four and is one of the most accomplished centers in the history of the sport.

Defensively, we’ll play a three-man front because we’ve got many more great linebackers than defensive lineman. Our front three has defensive ends Verlon “Dirty” Biggs of Moss Point and Jackson State and L.C. Greenwood of Canton flanking tackle Fletcher Cox of Yazoo City and Mississippi State. Greenwood, who somehow – and criminally – has never been selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died in 2013, leaving behind four Super Bowl rings earned with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Roger Staubach was known as Roger the Dodger but he couldn’t dodge Greenwood, who sacked him three times in Super Bowl X. Dirty Biggs played in Super Bowls for both the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. Cox, still active, is a six-time Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2018 Super Bowl.

We can throw some linebackers at you. Start with D.D. Lewis, the former Mississippi State standout who still holds the Dallas Cowboys record for playing in 27 post-season games, including five Super Bowls. (He is one of only eight NFL players to have played in that many Super Bowls.) Not sure how you choose from among Larry Grantham (Crystal Springs, Ole Miss), Johnie Cooks (Leland, Mississippi State), Patrick Willis (Ole Miss), Jamie Collins (McCall Creek, Southern Miss) and K.J. Wright (Olive Branch, Mississippi State) for the other three spots. Better to just play them all. All are superb and all had their Super Bowl moments. For the record, Grantham easily have been MVP in Super Bowl III and honor won by Joe Namath in a defense-dominated game.

In the secondary, Willie Brown, the Raiders cornerback from Yazoo City, leads the way. His pass interception for a 75-yard touchdown in Super Bowl VI remains one of the sport’s most iconic (and most replayed) plays. Malcolm Butler of Vicksburg holds another of the Super Bowl’s most memorable moments with his game-saving interception in New England’s 35-31 victory over Seattle. Brady thought so much of Butler’s play, he gave Butler the truck he received for winning MVP honors. No way I am leaving Leslie Frazier off this team. One of the game’s greatest-ever corners, he suffered a career-ending injury in the Bears’ romp over New England in Super Bowl XX. He was injured returning a punt late in the game (thanks again, Mike Ditka). There are so many candidates for the fourth defensive back, but this old-school nod goes to Jim Marsalis (Pascagoula), who helped the Kansas City Chiefs win 23-7 over Minnesota in Super Bowl IV. 

Punter? Ray Guy gets the nod over fellow Southern Miss great Jerrel Wilson, who set a Super Bowl record for his punting in KC’s Super Bowl IV victory. Oakland Raiders Hall of Famer owner Al Davis famously used a first-round draft choice to pick Guy, saying Guy would help them win a Super Bowl. Guy’s punting helped the Raiders win three.

Placekicker? Got to be Madison Central’s Stephen “Beaver” Gostkowski, who kicked in six Super Bowls, including three victories, with the New England Patriots.

You can feel free to argue with any of the selections, but don’t argue this: This team of Mississippi Super Bowlers could play with any state’s and would beat most, if not all.

The post This all-time Mississippi Super Bowl team would win appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The judge most recently assigned to oversee the fraud and embezzlement case against former welfare agency director John Davis has recused himself.

Judge Jess Dickinson, the former commissioner for the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, took over Davis’ case in Hinds County, Mississippi Today first reported Tuesday, in the course of helping the circuit court reduce overcrowding on its docket exacerbated by the pandemic.

By Thursday, Dickinson had recused himself, citing the appearance of a conflict of interest due to the interaction between Dickinson’s former agency, which oversees the state’s foster care system, and the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which Davis ran from 2016 to 2019. Davis is accused of perpetuating a scheme that caused $70 million in public assistance dollars to be wrongfully diverted away from the needy. Criminal charges accuse him of paying his close associate, former WWE wrestler Brett DiBiase, for work he didn’t do and conspiring with an agency contractor to send DiBiase to rehab on the taxpayer’s dime. Davis has maintained his innocence while DiBiase pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme.

“While I had little personal contact with the defendant, many members of my staff interacted on a daily basis with members of the MDHS staff, who processed a large part of MDCPS’s financial transactions, including payment to foster parents and congregate care facilities, as well as payroll to MDCPS’s approximately 1,300 employees,” Dickinson wrote.

Davis’ agency also came to the rescue in 2018 when CPS, which had been part of MDHS until the Legislature made it its own agency in 2016, faced financial trouble. CPS receives some funding from the welfare agency’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, the same fund Davis is accused of defrauding.

“Additionally, when I began my tenure as Commissioner of MDCPS and discovered the
agency was on track to experience a deficit of more then $50 million for the then-current fiscal year, MDHS provided a substantial portion of the funds necessary for MDCPS to meet its financial obligations and allow the agency to complete the fiscal year without a deficit,” Dickinson wrote.

“I believe the potential appearance of a conflict of interest in the mind of the public is too strong for me to preside over this case,” he added.

Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Wooten originally presided over the Davis case. She entered a gag order in the case, which she extended and strengthened in early January, causing public officials to become virtually silent about the case and welfare misspending altogether. On Tuesday, her administrative assistant declined to provide any more information about the case reassignment, saying any information would have to come from the attorneys in the case. They either did not return calls or declined to comment, citing the gag order. By mid-day Friday, there were no other filings in the Davis case suggesting who it may be assigned to next.

The post Judge, former CPS commissioner recuses himself from welfare embezzlement case appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Fondren Guitars hosted Local Live(s) + Mississippi Today for a live journalism, storytelling and music event Wednesday. Mississippi Today journalists and other community members came together to share real and powerful stories from their lives and careers.

Reporters pulled back the curtain on their experiences covering difficult narratives, and our community members captured the crowd with their talents and stories. Centered around the theme of Power: Stories of Strength, Imbalance and Untapped Potential, the unvarnished and true stories shared throughout the night reminded the audience how storytelling and journalism can empower those in hard situations and give a voice to those feeling helpless.

If you missed it — or want to take a look back — view photos by Mississippi Today photojournalist Eric J. Shelton, and read our recap by audience journalist Nigel Dent, who kept up with every minute of the event on the Mississippi Today Twitter account:

Find out more about upcoming Mississippi Today events.

More About Local Live(s):
This event is part of a national series Back Pocket is co-producing with local and state news organizations across the country. Other newsrooms that are a part of the Power series are: Miami Herald, Buckeye Flame, The Forward, and a collaborative event by KHOL Jackson Hole Community Radio, WyoFile, and Jackson Hole News and Guide. Local Live(s) is sponsored by the Meta Journalism Project and is funded in part by the Brown Institute of Media Innovation.

The post Recap: Local Live(s) + Mississippi Today, a live storytelling event appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi in the Know is a free series of breakfast conversations where members of the community can directly interact with the lawmakers who shape our state’s future and the journalists who provide coverage of it all.

Bring your appetite and questions as you join Mississippi Today in-person at Basil’s Downtown in Jackson or via livestream for the first event of the Mississippi in the Know series on February 17 at 7:30 am, featuring a conversation with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and moderated by Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau at 8:00 am.

Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey will also illustrate the event live.

IN CONVERSATION:

Mississippi in the Know: Legislative Breakfast is sponsored in part by:

The post Mississippi in the Know: Legislative Breakfast Series appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Ivy Taylor was in Jackson on Tuesday, Feb. 1, three hours away from Rust College, the small historically Black college in Holly Springs where she is president. She woke up early to prepare for a meeting of the Mississippi Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. She brushed her teeth and washed her face. Then she got the call. 

Hours earlier, her chief of staff explained, the campus safety officer on duty had received a bomb threat. There was a device on a campus that was going to go off at noon, the anonymous caller had said before making a derogatory remark about Black people. College security had already swept the campus. The next step, Taylor’s chief of staff said, was to notify students, faculty and staff that they needed to shelter-in-place. 

Taylor’s initial thought was, “Oh my god, I’m not there.” Then she wondered, “Do we have the local law enforcement able to detect whether it’s a real threat or not?” 

Taylor placed a call to the FBI field office in Jackson while her staff worked to find a nearby jurisdiction that had the technology to detect explosives. Soon, bomb-sniffing dogs were crawling under cars and through bushes on campus. 

Since January, more than two dozen HBCUs, including all but one in Mississippi, have received bomb threats, leading to cancelled classes and campus lockdowns. So far, all the threats have been unsubstantiated, and the FBI is investigating them as a racially motivated hate crime. Students and faculty at HBCUs have widely viewed the empty threats as an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate them. 

READ MORE: Mississippi HBCUs receive bomb threats on first day of Black History Month

At Rust College, the roughly 600 students were largely nonplussed by the threats, said Zachary Wilson, the SGA vice president. The students’ sense of safety, he said, was due to the university’s swift reaction to the threat, but also the steps it takes on a daily basis to make them feel like they belong. 

By late afternoon, students at Rust College were back out on campus, hanging out in the student center and joking around in the plaza. It felt like campus had snapped back to normal, Wilson said. 

“Their mission was to deter our mission for Black excellence and Black unity in the United States of America,” Wilson said. “We are undeterred, and they failed. They simply failed.” 

One reason why many students felt that way, Wilson said, was because they trusted the administration to support them. Many woke up to the alert that Taylor and her chief-of-staff had worked to send. From their dormitories, students could see the police cars at the school gates. 

Jamila Branch, a senior biology major, said she felt calm as she sheltered-in-place in her dorm. She said she feels like Rust College is a family to her, so when she saw the alert about the bomb threat, she wanted to help others on campus feel secure. That Tuesday morning, she immediately turned to her networks. She sent our texts to her group chats and to her fellow resident assistants in the girl’s dormitory. Branch said she made sure they knew they could come to her if they wanted to talk. 

No one took her up on the offer, Branch said, because many students were already talking in the hallway about the threat. Branch said they were mainly trying to understand what motivated the callers to place the threat. Mostly, she said, students spent the hours sheltering-in-place by catching up on their homework. 

“We’re a family so we leaned on each other,” Branch, a native of Osceola, Ark., said. 

Taylor, who became president in 2020, said she doesn’t know if Rust College has experienced a bomb threat like this in the past. But the college has come under a different type of attack, particularly during the civil rights movement, for its role in housing Freedom Riders. In the 1960s, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state agency tasked with upholding racism, targeted Rust College with a report that called it a “place for instructors, who are homosexuals and racial agitators.” 

That’s a history that Taylor strives to uphold as president, she said, by not giving the unfounded threats too much credence. 

“That’s what terrorism is about,” she said. “Manipulating your mind and your emotions so that you’re fearful of continuing on with your daily activities or the things you’re doing to advance a certain cause.” 

Rather, she’s focused on how to keep upholding Rust College’s mission. 

“That is still a threat to some people for Black people to be equipped and inspired for excellence, for Black people to be educated, for Black people to be leaders,” she said.

She wants her students to understand what she calls “the power of education.”

“I hope that is motivation for them to persist and graduate and go out there and make an impact and reach back and help others.”

The post ‘We are undeterred’: How Mississippi’s oldest HBCU responded to the bomb threats  appeared first on Mississippi Today.