Imagine you are a football coach. You have a quarterback, both accurate and resourceful. He gets the job done. He’s a winner. You have a wide receiver who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash and can catch everything thrown anywhere near him. But, despite defeat after defeat, you steadfastly refuse to play either.
Your team keeps losing. The scores are lopsided. You are in last place in your conference. Every week, the statistics are frightful. You are in 49th place in a 50-team division, but you stubbornly stay the course, keep your best weapons on the bench, and keep on losing.
Yes, you are right, that scenario sounds inconceivable. What coach in his right mind would refuse to use all the weapons available to win?
Rick Cleveland
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, this state’s chief health officer, must feel sometimes like he’s watching that football team play.
Mississippi ranks 49th of 50 states in percentage of its citizenry fully vaccinated. The pandemic is raging. The delta variant of COVID-19 is winning. People are dying. ICU units are filled. Emergency rooms can’t handle the numbers of really sick folks. We have more deathly ill people than we have medical staffing to care for them. Doctors and nurses must feel like quarterbacks facing an all-out blitz with no offensive line. Schools are shutting down classes before they can even open.
Yes, and on a much less important note, the upcoming football season is threatened. Already some high school teams have stopped practicing because too many players have COVID. The Oak Grove football team, the defending Mississippi Class 6A champions, has suspended preseason practices because of a COVID outbreak. The way this pandemic is raging, the colleges might not be that far behind.
In a one-on-one interview last week, I asked Dobbs about all this. Where is all this headed?
“It’s really up to us,” Dobbs answered. “We have the tools to beat this, but we just are not using them. In some ways, we are worse off than we were this time last year.”
Listen to him: We have the tools. We just aren’t using them. Nearly two-thirds of our people have not been vaccinated. My guess is that a lower percentage are wearing masks in public.
The sports analogies are endless. Would you play football without a helmet and face mask? Would you play shortstop without a glove? Would you play golf with wooden-shafted clubs against a field playing with modern technology?
Dobbs, a high school tennis All American and a centerfielder for his Emory University baseball team, must feel a coach giving a pep talk to a team that won’t listen.
“We need to get people vaccinated, especially with school starting,” he said. “These shots are extremely safe. They do not cause problems. They are spectacularly effective for teens with strong immune systems.”
Yes, there are vaccinated people who do get COVID. But Dobbs quickly will tell you those cases are relatively infrequent and that vaccinated folks who do come down with the virus do not become nearly as sick as those who are not vaccinated.
I asked Dobbs what he would do if he were a football coach preparing his team for the upcoming season.
“I would strongly urge everyone associated with the team — players, managers, coaches, everybody — to get vaccinated,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to see tons of outbreaks, even with people wearing masks. This delta variant scares me. It spreads so much faster… It is spreading across Mississippi like a tsunami.”
Dobbs said that large crowds attending games in open air stadiums are far from his biggest concern.
“I am not nearly as worried about gatherings in outdoor spaces with good air circulation,” he said. “I am much more concerned with the teams and bands traveling to the games in a bus that doesn’t have good air circulation. I am worried about classrooms. I know we have to educate our kids, but until we get this under control, we just can’t do it like we did it before.”
Bottom line: Much more than the upcoming football season is at stake here. We are in a life and death situation with this delta variant, and people are dying every day.
We have the tools to win this fight. Why in the world would we not use them?
There are success stories. Ole Miss reportedly has reached 100% vaccination rate within its football program. Sources tell me Mississippi State and Southern Miss are not far behind. That’s what it’s going to take — for football, and our lives, to return to normal.
Four days after Gov. Tate Reeves authorized a state takeover of the Holmes County Consolidated School District and removed the current superintendent and school board, the new state-appointed superintendent is not yet in the district.
Students returned to school for the first time in over a year on Thursday, the day the emergency was declared by the governor and the school district was abolished per the recommendation of the State Board of Education, which now serves as the local school board.
Since then, there has effectively been no one running the day-to-day operations of the district.
Washington Cole, the deputy state superintendent and chief of staff, came to the district Monday afternoon to deliver communications to former officials and brief current staff.
“There’s a process to abolish the district,” Cook said when asked why a Mississippi Department of Education official only arrived Monday afternoon.
Jennifer Wilson, the new interim superintendent and former leader of Greenwood schools, will be in the district Tuesday, said Cook.
A COVID-19 outbreak occurred at the district middle school and several high school students got in a fight Monday morning, but administrators have received no communication from the state education department or the newly appointed interim superintendent Jennifer Wilson on how to proceed, according to former board president Louise Winters.
Winters questioned why no state officials were immediately present — particularly at the start of a new school year during the COVID-19 pandemic — if such an emergency existed in the district.
Holmes County Sheriff Willie March confirmed that a fight broke out Monday morning at the high school between around seven students. He said more deputies from his office will be at the school this afternoon out of precaution.
Clarence Webster, an attorney for the former superintendent and school board members, said his clients were instructed not to intervene during the problems that arose on Monday.
“Today, counsel received notice that Dr. (Debra) Powell (the former superintendent) is to take no further action vis-a-vis HCCSD,” Webster told Mississippi Today. “According to the State Board of Education’s counsel, the interim superintendent will be in the district for the first time in her official capacity Tuesday.”
The takeover of the district came following a nearly 400-page audit from the Mississippi Department of Education that found the district in violation of 81% of accreditation standards. The allegations include a dysfunctional school board and administration, improper spending, inaccurate record keeping and unlicensed teachers in the classroom.
Two hearings took place last week in front of the Commission on School Accreditation and the State Board of Education. Both bodies voted unanimously to recommend the governor pave the way for the state to take over the district as a result of allegations of violations of state and federal law in addition to state accreditation standards and rampant financial problems.
The district’s own auditor in 2019 essentially declared the district unable to be audited because of missing and inaccurate record keeping. The state auditor’s office in 2020 released its own report revealing widespread problems in the district under its former superintendent James Henderson. Henderson resigned shortly before the report was released.
The school board hired Debra Powell to lead the district around the same time. Powell, Winters and other district officials at the hearings last week protested against a state takeover and maintained they were already working to fix the district’s many problems.
The governor’s declaration marks the 21st time the state has taken over a school district since 1997.
On Aug. 4 of last year, Gov. Tate Reeves issued a statewide mandate calling for mask-wearing in all school buildings. The executive order called masks “important not only to protect oneself, but also to avoid unknowingly harming our fellow Mississippians through asymptomatic community transmission of COVID-19” and “the key to reducing transmission of the virus.”
But this year, as mask-wearing in schools has become a hot-button political issue, the governor has changed his tune dramatically. He has described guidance from the Centers for Disease Control calling for everyone to wear masks amid the surge of the delta variant, particularly in under-vaccinated states like Mississippi, “foolish and harmful” and “not rational science.”
And despite calls for masks in schools from the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Mississippi State Medical Association, and the Mississippi Association of Educators, Reeves has passed the buck this year, leaving the decision up to school districts.
Mississippi hospitals, in one of the least vaccinated states in the nation, are being pushed to the brink dealing with patients who have COVID-19. Emergency rooms and intensive care units are full across the state as the delta variant targets people of all ages, and especially those who are unvaccinated. Many hospital administrators face staff shortages due to fatigue, frustration and fear.
Perhaps most concerning as schools go back into session is that as of Aug. 6, there were 20 children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health — a trend not seen during earlier spikes of the virus. Three of the 15 at Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson were in the intensive care unit.
Reeves, the only official with the power to enact a statewide mask mandate, has repeatedly stated he will not be issuing another one for schools this year. So as children across the state return to the classroom this month, school districts are developing their own policies as cases skyrocket higher than this time last year.
Pascagoula-Gautier School District Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich said his district became the first on the Gulf Coast to require all students and staff to wear masks in schools when the new year began on Aug. 5.
Rodolfich said while there might have been a lot of noise from community members and parents against a mask requirement, he did not let that affect his decision making.
“With my school board and leadership team and school level administrators, I look at what the safest option for all people will be and base it off that,” he said. He said he looked at numbers from last year and the local COVID-19 infection data, in addition to consulting with medical professionals from Singing River Health System.
In the days following Pascagoula-Gautier’s decision, Ocean Springs, Gulfport, Pass Christian, Biloxi, Hancock County and Long Beach schools all announced a mask mandate, the Sun Herald reported.
However, Harrison County and Jackson County school districts are still making masks optional as of Aug. 6.
Jackson County’s website says unless mandated by law, students and staff members won’t be required to wear masks. It also described receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as a “personal/family choice.”
No school district in Mississippi is requiring vaccines, though a member of the board for the Natchez-Adams School District said the board is considering the possibility of requiring eligible employees to be vaccinated.
Rodolfich, however, said he made a personal visit to all 19 schools in his district before the year began to meet with faculty and staff to encourage anyone who can to get a vaccine. The district will also be holding vaccination drives over the next month.
In the metro area, Jackson Public Schools has said it will require masks in schools since developing its back-to-school plan at the beginning of the summer, and Clinton Public School District recently reversed course and said it will be changing its mask guidance from recommended to required.
The district cited the CDC, state health department and the American Academy of Pediatricians in its decision. It will reassess the requirement by Sept. 10 to determine next steps, a press release stated.
“There is no doubt that our students learn best when inside our classrooms,” said Clinton Superintendent Andy Schoggin, noting that quarantine was a huge challenge last year.
The most recent guidance, however, states that as long as everyone is masked, potentially exposed children or teachers do not have to quarantine and will be able to stay in the classroom.
“Eliminating the need for quarantines in the classroom setting provides a great opportunity to continue to provide the academic and social opportunities our students need and deserve,” Schoggin said.
Rankin and Madison County schools are both still making masks optional, according to their return-to-learning plans.
Three parents in the Rankin County School District told Mississippi Today they have never received any communication from the district encouraging their students or teachers to get vaccinated. Multiple requests for comment from the Rankin County School District spokesperson and superintendent were not returned by Monday.
Madison County School District Superintendent Charlotte Seals wrote in a letter to families that she encouraged parents and children to take advantage of the vaccine if eligible.
In the northern part of the state, Oxford School District Superintendent Bradley Roberson said masks will be required in schools until Aug. 20.
“Unfortunately, in recent days we have learned from some of our district friends from around the state who have already started school that a normal return may not provide us with the best opportunity to keep kids in school,” he said in a video on the district’s website. “Our friends in Lamar County have been forced to transition Oak Grove High School as well as Purvis High School to virtual learning due to school outbreaks after less than 10 days of instruction. Bands from across the state have already been shut down due to outbreaks from band camps.”
Last year, Reeves cited keeping kids in school as the chief reason to implement the mask mandate.
“Here’s the bottom line: We have to balance the very real risk of the virus and the lifelong damage of school closures. To do that, we have to safely provide education for the greatest possible number of children,” Reeves said on Aug. 4, 2020.
Already this month, several public schools have gone back to the classroom and had to quickly halt in-person learning because of COVID outbreaks. The governor reiterated last week that masks are a choice that should be left up to the districts themselves.
"I believe that local school boards, the parents ought to be heard," Reeves told Tupelo-based WTVA last week. "They (school boards) ought to open the floor and give the parents a chance to talk to their school board members because they are the elected officials."
The lack of leadership from Reeves is leaving local politicians in a quandary and increasing the chances that COVID-19 will continue to overload the state’s hospital system.
Take what happened last week in Harrison County — one of Reeves’ political strongholds — where the county school board, overseeing the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s largest school district, was in an impossible situation.
Many Harrison County parents seemed to want the school board to issue a district-wide mask mandate, and others seemed vehemently opposed. Uncertain about what to do, the Harrison County school board opened the floor of their meeting to parents on Aug. 4 — just as Reeves suggested they do.
Tempers flared. Emotions ran high. Conspiracy theories and misinformation were shared in a public forum. By the end of the meeting, the board voted 3-2 to not enact a mask mandate, leaving some attendees cheering and others weeping.
This time last year, Reeves' statewide order gave political cover to local school leaders — and, according to health care professionals, lessened the transmission of the coronavirus.
But with no statewide mandate this year, scenes like in Harrison County are playing out across the state, increasing the likelihood of quicker COVID-19 spread and terrifying many teachers, physicians and parents.
"You literally have our children’s lives in the palm of your hand," Harrison County parent Kristin Stachura Allen said at last week's board meeting. "The variant is affecting our children, and you are failing to protect every single one of them if you don’t put a mandate in place."
Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau contributed to this report.
Billions of federal dollars are flowing to state and local governments and agencies through the American Rescue Plan Act, providing unprecedented opportunity for a poor state such as Mississippi to enact projects and programs that would otherwise be impossible.
But (properly) spending and riding herd over billions of federal dollars is a monumental undertaking — something Mississippi learned the hard way after Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil disaster and from various scandals such as the welfare fraud case.
It raises the question: Is Mississippi up to the task?
“That’s the question I’m asking every night as I go to bed,” state Auditor Shad White said. “… Do they have the bandwidth to spend the money properly? I think the answer is: the jury is still out.”
It also raises questions of whether the state’s top leadership can get on the same page —something they have struggled to do even though they’re all Republicans — and work together on what many are calling a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Mississippi will receive over $6 billion from the $1.9 trillion ARPA. The money has to be obligated by 2024 and spent by 2026. About $1.8 billion will be controlled by the state Legislature. Another $932 million will go to county and city governments. Around $166 million is earmarked for capital projects, primarily for broadband expansion.
Millions more will go directly to K-21 schools, colleges and universities, mental health and human services and other agencies, and billions of dollars is going or has gone directly to Mississippians through stimulus payments, child tax credits, enhanced unemployment benefits and other areas.
To date, there has been little planning or coordination among state leaders, or solicitation of input from communities, about how to spend the money, and no one appears to be on the same page about even the fundamentals of the task.
“What are we waiting on?” said House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson III. “We have needs. Why are we sitting on our hands? This will take time to do it right. We at least need a special session for planning, or we at least need to be having some meetings … Why not crank the (legislative) committees up to be working on this? … I talk to the leadership, and they’re like, ‘Well, it’s not going anywhere. We’ll get to it when we’re back here in January.’”
Mississippi appears to be behind many other states that have already begun spending the money or earnestly developing plans. Gov. Tate Reeves, who would have to sign off on much of the spending, has not presented any proposal. Legislative leaders have not held any joint hearings or major committee meetings on ARPA. Much of lawmakers’ focus this summer has been on medical marijuana.
Only Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has appeared to focus on ARPA, traveling the state meeting with local leaders to discuss how the money could be spent on projects “that have an impact not for one or two years, but one or two generations.” But no one else in upper state leadership appears sold on Hosemann’s proposal to allocate much of the state-controlled money to cities and counties to augment the direct funds they are receiving from the act.
With an earlier round of federal pandemic money, legislative leaders and Gov. Reeves spent much time, despite a tight spending deadline, fighting over who controlled the bulk of the money — the governor, through his emergency powers, or the Legislature, which constitutionally holds the purse strings. The Legislature mostly won out. Other states saw similar battles, and in most it appears legislatures will control the spending.
The verdict is still out on the state’s spending and management of the $1.2 billion it got from Congress’ first round of state pandemic relief, but much of the money lawmakers earmarked for small businesses went unspent as business owners complained of excessive red tape for the funds, and a rental assistance plan has been something of a disaster. Other states saw similar problems, with much of the blame being put on Congress’ short deadline to spend the money.
While the Legislature is used to spending the state’s money, it is not equipped to manage that spending, and is constitutionally prohibited from many of those functions. A coordinated effort with the executive branch and myriad state agencies will be required.
The lack of communication, and at times disfunction between the state’s top leaders, has some worried about how planning and implementation of ARPA will go in Mississippi. While legislative leaders appear in no hurry to get moving on such plans because of the relatively lenient deadline of 2024, the state is burning daylight on what will be a huge undertaking with many moving parts.
With every state in the Union and region potentially ramping up similar projects, there could be shortages of engineers, planners and contractors, potentially causing delays.
Also, for the Legislature’s regular 90-day session starting in January, there are numerous major issues and chores stacked up — including decennial redistricting, a proposed elimination of income taxes and restoring the ballot initiative process.
“I’m glad to see the lieutenant governor is out there doing that, but that’s part of the problem — the lieutenant governor says, ‘I’m out here doing this, I’m going to do that.’” Johnson said. “… I thought one of the advantages of having this unilateral leadership, one party controlling both houses and the executive branch, was they would all be on the same page and talking. They don’t talk. That’s frustrating … disheartening.”
Johnson said he likes Hosemann’s idea of the state supplementing local governments’ direct payments for larger projects, but he also wants to see money directed to essential workers — law enforcement, first responders, nurses, even grocery workers. Other states are providing such direct payments to workers with ARPA, but there has been little talk of that from Mississippi leaders. And if there’s a need for such payments to workers, it would be clear and present, during a fourth wave of the pandemic, not down the road after lawmakers haggle it out.
The U.S. Treasury is still tweaking some of the rules for the money, but generally the funds can be used for:
Revenue replacement for providing government services “to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the (pandemic) …” compared to revenue the year prior to the pandemic.
Assistance to small businesses, households, hard-hit industries and economic recovery
Premium pay for essential workers
Water, sewer and broadband infrastructure projects
Hurricane Katrina is Mississippi’s nearest point of reference to the ARPA spending. After the 2005 storm’s destruction, nearly $25 billion in federal dollars flowed to the state over the next decade.
The state got high marks for some of the spending, including an unprecedented more than $5 billion program to make uninsured or underinsured homeowners whole. But it also made headlines for fraud, waste and abuse.
Local governments, in particular, struggled to manage the money, come up with plans to use it for transformative changes, and at times to even spend it in a timely fashion. At one point, five years out from the storm, Congress noted Gulf states still had $20 billion unspent, and pulled back some of the funds. In other cases, local governments faced “clawbacks” and had to either repay the feds or beg for waivers for failure to follow myriad rules and regulations on the spending.
Auditor White is tasked with accounting for Mississippi’s pandemic relief spending, although he is prohibited from helping actually run the projects and programs. He said Mississippi’s Katrina experience is an advantage, and his office has numerous veterans of that time “who still have the playbook from back then.”
White said his office was allocated about $3 million from the first round of pandemic money, and for now that is sufficient for extra work tracking the ARPA funds. He said he may need to hire some extra data expertise he doesn’t have in house. He also said he has floated the idea of having a joint investigator between his office and the Ethics Commission, and that “maybe now is the time for that seeing all this money flow.”
“Somebody could follow all the purchasing procedures, and it still be illegal if you give a project to your sister or something like that,” White said. “That’s Ethics Commission jurisdiction, but I think we could have someone who straddles both agencies.”
White said his office is already providing training and guidance to local governments.
“You have this situation where an unprecedented amount of money will be flying around the state and there are a lot of questions about whether or not local governments can spend it properly, or spend it at all,” White said. “One question is whether they are getting the guidance they need, and if they are, are there enough legal things to spend it on. The jury is still out on both of those questions.
“We are encouraging boards of supervisors, council members and mayors, if they are confused about how to spend it, they really do need to make sure their attorneys are up to speed, or hire an attorney or consultant who understands — or to be on the phone with us all the time.”
“If you don’t get this right, the person who is going to come calling is a federal Office of the Inspector General employee, and those folks don’t take excuses,” White said. “It’s important to get this right, look at the rules first, then figure out how to spend it, not the other way around.”
White said he’s concerned some local leaders are already planning for things not allowed with ARPA.
“I hear some talk as if they’re set on a plan and will not be dissuaded,” White said. “That’s when it gets dangerous. ‘Hey, I want to use this stimulus money to build a soccer field in the county.’ When we tell them, no you can’t, I’m at least comforted they asked, but concerned that others are out there already planning for such things.”
With Katrina, most of the relief money spending was controlled by the governor, the feds, and local governments — very little by the Legislature. There is still debate whether that was best, but most agree the governor’s control streamlined things.
“(Former Gov.) Haley Barbour did a great job with Katrina,” Johnson said. “If you look back some of it might have been laden with friends or partisan politics … that his buddies made money — but we got a lot done quickly when it needed to be done … If Haley Barbour were governor now, half that $1.8 billion would already be spent.”
Neither Gov. Reeves nor Barbour responded to requests for interviews.
But Barbour recently opined, when the first round of federal money came in, that Reeves, not the Legislature, should be in charge of the spending, saying, “In an emergency, someone has to be in charge, and in our system of government, that is the governor.”
White said it’s not his place to comment on or promote specific policies with ARPA spending. But he does agree the state’s leaders need to be on the same page and that it will require coordination from all branches of government and from top to bottom. He said small cities and counties, in particular, need all the help and guidance they can get.
“Our local governments vary wildly in their back-office capacity to spend this amount of money,” White said. “But the rules don’t change.”
Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes III, who leads the state’s second-largest city, is a former longtime state senator who served during Katrina and helped lead Coast recovery. Asked if state and local governments are up to the task of managing ARPA, Hewes said: “That’s above my pay grade. That’s like asking do you have a plan for COVID.”
He said local governments are still trying to get their bearings, figure out what’s allowed or not allowed with ARPA money, and lobbying for changes, such as allowing road and bridge work, not just water and sewerage. Hewes, whose city will receive $19.4 million directly, said there appears to be time to get things right, but the clock is ticking.
“The projects we would want spend it on take time to plan, do the engineering, planning, bidding, design process,” Hewes said. “There are so many moving parts … sometimes these things take years. There are probably very few cities that have anything that would qualify as shovel-ready.
“And as we learned in Katrina, you have to keep in the back of your mind that unprecedented money coming in will probably mean unprecedented audits later on,” Hewes said.
Hewes said he like the idea of the state providing supplements or matching funds for local projects.
“That opens the door to consideration of really impactful projects, such as wastewater treatment plants, that can run into the tens of millions of dollars, and most cities don’t have that much money available to them,” Hewes said. “That’s actually a good consideration. Otherwise, we don’t want to look up years later and say, what did we spend that money on? Why didn’t it have more lasting impact?”
House Speaker Philip Gunn said his team has been working on ARPA plans, and “the good news here is we do have until 2024 to make those decisions.”
“We have a little more breathing room, a little more time to think through it,” Gunn said. “We are still in the process of determining what they can and cannot be used for. We have a lot of lawyers, a lot of people trying to figure that out … We are still in the process of trying to figure out what to do with these dollars.”
Gunn said there is not consensus on the Legislature providing the bulk of state-controlled funds to local governments.
“Again, more than $800 million is going to the cities already,” Gunn said. “Obviously there are needs there, water and sewer needs all around. There will have to be an ongoing analysis of how those cities have used their money, what needs remain after that and what needs to counties have … My understanding is you can’t do roads and bridges, so that presents a new challenge … We do have the luxury of time. We’ve got at least two more (legislative sessions), maybe three. I think we just need to be very methodical about how we do this.”
Hosemann said that he’s been “driving pretty much all over the state, from Corinth to Pass Christian, meeting with supervisors and cities.”
“We’ve been asking them to put the money into an account, and go about planning things not for one or two years, but one or two generations,” Hosemann said. “This will really dictate how their communities grow, which direction they’re going. All of those decisions need to be made at the city and county level.”
Hosemann said he foresees local governments working with their legislative delegations, and coming to the Legislature with specific projects and plans.
“It may end up being all the way to a match, up to $900 million of the (state) money, if they come with viable, reasonable projects,” Hosemann said.
After Katrina and the BP oil disaster, the state stood up numerous task forces, committees and agency partnerships to plan and oversee much of the federal spending. Hosemann and Gunn said that’s a possibility with ARPA.
“We have been talking with our leadership team, working through how we would go through our normal process, and I anticipate we will go through and see if special processes or groups are needed,” Hosemann said.
Gunn said: “At this point, we are just communicating among legislators, talking with the Senate, to decide how these dollars are best spent and we will analyze that as we move along. Again, we have a little more breathing room here than with Katrina or BP or other dollars.”
But both agree that managing the ARPA funds is a monumental task.
“A lot of people don’t understand the perspective of this amount of money,” Gunn said. “Six billion dollars total is significant when you consider that’s roughly our total state budget each year.”
Hosemann said: “I’ve got seven (staff) here, and the senators are allegedly supposed to be part time. We’re trying to go through hundreds of pages of regulations with seven people. The best way to do this is involve other state agencies … make sure there is a massive coordination.
“We have to realize the scope and enormity of this, and that it will likely never happen again.”
State Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez, the House Democratic leader, expresses concerns during an interview with Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender that state leaders are not taking adequate steps to determine best way to spend about $6 billion coming to various governmental entities in Mississippi from the American Rescue Plan.
Adam Ganucheau: Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi.
Geoff Pender: This is Geoff Pender with Mississippi Today, and I’m joined here today with my colleague Bobby Harrison.
Bobby Harrison: Hey, Geoff.
Geoff Pender: And our guest today is Representative Robert Johnson, III. He is from Natchez and he is also chair of the House Democratic Caucus. He’s the House Democratic leader. Representative Johnson, welcome. How are you today?
Robert Johnson: I’m doing great. It’s Friday. I’m going to be doing a lot more work than I intended to do, but it’ll be over with at the end of the day.
Geoff Pender: Right, right. A whole lot to talk about these days. Bobby, why don’t you start us out?
Bobby Harrison: Well, I mean, we’ve talked about this some in the past, and I know Geoff has been working on some stories about this, but we have a lot of money. I guess a lot of the money’s already come to the state from the federal government to the what is called American Rescue Plan Act.
And you’ve expressed concern to me in the past that that the states— I mean, this is the type of money that can be, some people could say could be a game changer for the state in some areas. And you’re concerned that the state is not making the proper plans to spend that money. So why don’t you to just talk some about that?
Robert Johnson: Well, let me tell you my basis, and it’s probably the way I start every thought in terms of legislation. Mississippi is a poor state, but we have hardworking people, salted earth people who even though we’re poor and they work for minimum wage and they’re underpaid and their living conditions are in some cases are not the best, we’re here, and people want to do better and they want to see things happen. And I just don’t see the lack of urgency on the part of the leadership in trying to address some of the needs that some of these people face. One of the things that the rescue plan addresses that they say you can use the money for that is to provide premium pay for essential employees. And the governor, and the speaker for that matter, they came out there and said, “Well people not going back to work. Unemployment is keeping people at home. So we’re going to stop accepting the federal funds.” When you stop accepting funds for unemployment, but sit in over a billion dollars that you could use to provide a supplement to employers, to pay essential workers a higher salary.
And so you would alleviate your seeming problem with raising the minimum wage. You can provide that help and create a standard that employers and employees can get accustomed to and you can help people pay bills, live better and put that money back in the economy. And we’re just sitting on our hands.
They’re over there at the Senate having hearings on medical marijuana. It passed on the ballot by over 58, 59% if you took the most conservative numbers. We know what people want. What are we having hearing about? Let’s just come in and pass a bill just like 65 and go on and let’s get to work
on meeting the needs of what Mississippians need. I mean, we’ve got roads, we’ve got where you can take some of that money is for transportation infrastructure that would aid you in providing better support for COVID related matters. Let’s build , let’s fix some bridges. What are we waiting on?
That’s where I start. We have needs. Why isn’t there any urgency about meeting those needs when we have money that we don’t even have to take out our own budget that’s in a surplus right now. We don’t even have to take that money. We could use it.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah, I think it’s about $1.8 billion, Geoff.
Robert Johnson: I didn’t want to quote the bigger, but everywhere I look it’s $1.8 billion.
Geoff Pender: $1.8 billion coming directly to the Legislature. Now that’s on the top of I mean, actually we’re looking at, in excess of $6 billion total going to cities and large cities, some of that going directly to education. But Representative Johnson, let me ask you something too I’ve thought about a good bit here lately. We’re talking about the Legislature having to in pretty short order relatively speaking allocate $1.8 billion. Again, you’re looking at a total of $6 billion in various places.
Robert Johnson: Don’t we have, excuse me, Geoff. I want to make sure we’re on the same page. Don’t we have until 2024 to spend that money?
Geoff Pender: 2024, sure, sure. Which, you know, is longer than the CARES Act was obviously, but nevertheless, look, spending billions with a B, it takes some doing if you’re going to do it right if you’re going to do ,it in a way where the feds don’t come back three years from now and say, “Hey, you did this wrong and pay us back.”
Robert Johnson: The feds don’t have Shad White working for them, so they probably wouldn’t be as bad.
Geoff Pender: We’re here in August. And you know, we’ve seen, like you said, hearings on medical marijuana, you name it. But there’s still no even rough outline of a plan that I’m aware of on how to spend this money. And that raises some questions. I mean, are we going to be able to properly do this? Again, I mean, a lot of people may not realize the administration of billions with a B takes some work you know, if you’re going to do it right and not just pass along checks. So where’s the planning at this point as far as you’re aware?
Robert Johnson: Well, you make an excellent point and we have lessons in how large the task is. When we first got CARES Act money, we tried to rush through it and we gave people jobs to do in terms of setting up a structure for applying for money.
And they just made it so laborious that people could hardly get to it. But I think it goes back to your original question. I think a lot of that had to do with people. We didn’t take the time and give people the time to put something together, to put something in place where we could spend the money correctly, or people could apply for the money in a way that, you know, that met all of the federal requirements.
It takes time and you make an excellent point about that. It goes back to my original point in why I’m a tad bit frustrated. This is $1.8 billion that certainly we shouldn’t wait until January to start working on. People are sitting on their hands this summer. They’re not doing it.
Let’s get together, at least have a special session and talk about planning or at least have some meetings. I talked to leadership. “But what are we going to do?” “Well, it’s not going anywhere. We’ll get to it. You know, when we get here in January.” It makes no sense. I mean, we got a new strain of the buyers out there, and I won’t begin to talk about all of the hill concerns, but thinking about schools going back and they had planned to come back and have students come back and now they’re saying we got to wear a mask. I think I would predict that before the semester is out, most of it will be virtual learning again because of the impact of the Delta variant. And because of the fact that a lot of school-age children are ineligible to take the vaccine or people not sure about them taking the vaccine.
So here you are in this predicament where you really need to accelerate your broadband infrastructure development. And this money is sitting there because you can use it to help that. And we’re sitting there saying, “Well, we’ll see what we’ll do.” I just don’t understand. That makes no sense to me. I mean, literally I felt that I was frustrated and appalled by turning down $9 billion of Medicaid expansion money, but this, we just continue to do it. And even Republicans who say they want to put money in the economy, they want to cut taxes because it’ll go back in the economy, what about the money that you’re sitting on that you can put into it to the economy before you do anything else?
So yeah, back to your point, and you said it better than I can say it. It is a huge task. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of time to do it right for a lot of different reasons. And we’re just sitting there, like we’ll come in, write a check tomorrow and there’s no big rush and nobody needs anything.
Bobby Harrison: Real quick, your original point, you started talking about maybe some type of, I guess, salary or paying enhancement for essential workers. Who would fit into that category? I mean, I know that would be something that would be debated I guess during the legislative session.
Robert Johnson: Okay. Well I probably would get in trouble with my young constituents and my kids who believe don’t give the law enforcement any more money, but I would start with law enforcement.
They are grossly underpaid. I think that that is probably part of the problem with having people who are not duly qualified or adequately trained in some of our positions. I would start there. I was started with you know, firemen, first responders, that’s where I would start. I would enhance their pay.
And then I would go to grocery store workers. I would probably go there at first, but it’s hard to justify when I look at, you know, what law enforcement and firemen and people like that are being paid and first responders like you know, paramedics and people who are working in health care.
And you know, the other part of that is not just paying more, but trying to give some of these institutions some money. They can pay more and hire more people. But people forget about grocery stores. Those people have never stopped working and they can’t. They’re essential because people have to buy food.
If you stay at home, you definitely have to go buy food.
Geoff Pender: Well, another thing too, I think we’ve seen hospitals here recently lamenting they’re having to shut down entire wards or segments because of a lack of nurses. Could this potentially—
Robert Johnson: But I know this because I have relatives who are nurses who live in other places who are traveling wherever they can travel because they can make more money.
If we enhance pay for nurses, nurses will come here from other places to fill in our shortage because we are paying them to be here and we are sitting on the money.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Well, I know nurses who quit jobs here to go work in other states to make more money. Yeah, I hear that happening all the time.
Geoff Pender: Representative, one thing I was going to mention to your point of you know, your point and my point, we both said about here we are with kind of a lack of a plan at this point, or even a broad strokes. Now I will say Lieutenant Governor Hosemann has been traveling the state talking primarily with boards of supervisors and mayors and city councils.
It looks like his goal in this would be to take at least the bulk of the money and enhance whatever the cities and local governments are getting. Essentially them come to the state for, “We’ve got X many million. We want to do this big project,” and then come to the Legislature to get essentially a match.
I think he’s leaning towards spending the bulk of this basically giving it directly to cities and counties. What are your thoughts on that?
Robert Johnson: I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve said over a number of years that especially city, they have needs. They don’t qualify for a lot of infrastructure money.
And we need to figure out a way to help some of our small towns who are extremely stressed. I think I’ve talked to Bobby about this. We were talking about the Jackson water problem. I talked to legislators in different rural small town areas of around the state, they talk about the fact that you know, we listen to people criticize Jackson, but all our cities, even the small towns, have a hundred year old pipes and antiquated water systems that need refurbishing. So yeah, that would be a great, you know, use of them. I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I would just like to see it used and sending it directly to counties and cities to meet their immediate needs would be a great way to do it.
But the first thing I would do, and one of the things that they identified and that is to find a way to pay essential workers and do more of that. But to the point about the Lieutenant Governor going around the state meeting with counties and cities, look, we do things here at the Legislature all the time, and mayors
and the board of aldermen and supervisors don’t mind at all coming here telling us what our needs are. What I have also been frustrated with ,and I talk to the speaker about this all the time. I said, “Well, what, what are we going to do? We’re going to sit down and plan about working on something?” “Well, Delbert and I are going to meet.” We got 122 people in the House of Representatives.
We got over 50 senators. Why are we meeting in isolation with 8, 7, 8 people when we ought to have an open public forum about what the needs of what these cities and counties are, and we as legislators, we can come in and try to put something together. Why are there five or six minds in a room when you can put— well, there may not be 122 adequate minds in the House of Representatives, but there are more than 8 or 9.
Geoff Pender: Shouldn’t the committees be cranked up on this?
Robert Johnson: Let me tell you what. What people face in Northeast Mississippi is different than what people face in Southwest Mississippi. You need to have all those ideas in the room. What I hear you know, Rickey Thompson talk about in his area is not the same as what I talked about. Some of it finds its way working together, but that’s why you have a representative legislation, so you can have different views, different ideas, you put them all together and you do what’s best for the state. But I’m glad that the lieutenant governor is traveling and doing it, but I would argue that that’s part of the problem. Lieutenant governor does a lot of, “I’m going to look at this and I’m going to look at that.” And there’s just too many people that have ideas to have it just singularly done by one person. You know, you can do the same thing by just having committees and hearings, and you can sit there and micromanage your committee right here at the Legislature.
We can get that done without it just being, you know, a bus tour. I mean, let’s get here and do some work.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Back to your point. One of the points you made I always said that the Mississippi House of Representatives is truly representative of the people of the state in all shapes, forms and fashions.
Robert Johnson: Oh yeah, yeah. Right. And I mean, when you say all shapes, forms and fashions, we got them all. I mean, it’s an interesting body, but it makes you appreciate the differences in the different regions in the state and the different needs that need to be met.
Geoff Pender: Representative, actually to a point you just made, I mean, we’ve seen in the past from Katrina, from CARES Act, you name it.
For this to work, I mean, the Legislature can write checks. They hold the purse strings, but they can’t administer down the line the way this money works. It seems like this is going to require some pretty big cooperation between the governor, the executive branch, the Legislature, and then the agencies down the line and local governments.
I mean, let’s face it. This administration, this governor and legislative administration has not always been on the same page to put it mildly. You have any concerns on whether everyone can get together on this?
Robert Johnson: I do have concerns. When I talked to leadership about, I mean, we opened up before we got on air talking about whether or not, you know, things like special session those kinds of things.
Whenever I talk to anybody in leadership about a special session, and we’re going to get to work early on some of these matters, on the initiative of some of these things and their response is, “No, we’re not talking. Nobody’s talking.” And, you know, I thought one of the advantages of having this unilateral leadership, one party controlling both houses and the executive branch, was that they’d all be on the same page and they’d all be talking.
They don’t talk. So, you know, that’s frustrating when you know, the governor, the speaker and the lieutenant governor are not— all Republicans are not sitting down in a room trying to figure something out. Make me mad about the fact that you’re figuring it out not including me, but don’t get me frustrated with the fact that you all are not doing anything.
That’s a little bit disheartening.
Bobby Harrison: Well, on the first batch of federal money, which was a lot, but less than the $1.8 billion. I think it was $1.2. It appeared that the Republican leadership in the Legislature did include the democratic minority in the process of spending out more money, which had to be spent a lot quicker than this money did, but they did include the democratic minority in spending that money. First of all, am I correct about that? And whenever they do get around to spending are you optimistic that that will happen again?
Robert Johnson: I have a certain level of guarded optimism. The last time, it was more urgent and the speaker and I would talk more frequently. The reason it’s guarded is because I don’t see a lot happening at all. But the speaker and I continue to have an open door policy, eat with each other. And we talk, we call each other, and I don’t have any reason to believe that we won’t work together on this as well. Some of that was fueled by the dynamic of it being in a hurry and trying to make sure that because there was a real fight and whether or not the governor would take it and unilaterally spend the money the way he wanted to.
So some of it was born out of that, but when we worked together, we discovered that it was to our advantage to work together. Everything went smoothly, we got Democrats, Republicans engaged, so there would be as many floor fights. And that’s a formula that works if we continue to do it that way.
Geoff Pender: Any thought I guess the only precedent prior to this, at least in modern times, would be all the money that flowed in Katrina and subsequent, maybe only BP. In those cases, a lot of task force directed groups or whatever helped direct spending and follow through and monitoring. Is that something we might should be looking at here?
Robert Johnson: Yeah, well, you know Governor Barbour did a great job with Katrina, but there’s some evidence you look back where some of these task forces were extremely heavy laden with friends and real partisan in some cases relatives. And there were some things people were not happy about, but they did lend themselves for whatever negative they had in especially Katrina to getting things done quick.
And I’ll always give Governor Barbour credit. I would argue that if he were governor now, half of that $1.8 billion will be spent. Yeah, literally. I mean, it’s like, we didn’t sit on money. And I don’t have a problem, even if it’s motivated by you got a bunch of people with contracts with whoever who can find a way to make some money on it, but they get something done, I don’t have a problem with that. But just having the, the wherewithal to understand, you know, yeah, we can take care of some people I knew or friends, but it also takes care of a lot of the populace. A lot of people get taken care of in that process too. And so when people could complain about, “Well, that’s his buddy and, and all these people make money off Katrina,”yeah. But we got a lot of stuff done quickly when people needed it. And I think the task force was helpful with the BP oil spill, which I thought was more balanced and got more done on the coast. So yeah, I think a task force would be great. But again, I think the fight would be who gets to say who’s on the task force.
I mean, that’s where we are in government, right? That’s where we are in leadership right now. Everybody’s fighting each other for control. It’s like they get control of everything. And suddenly we want to fight which one of us is going to control. So I would hope that we all, you know, figure out a way to sit down and get something done.
I mean, I hear a lot of criticism about people not working and people not doing this, but man, people I see out there, they are hustling. They are scrapping. They’re trying to keep safe. You know, they’re wearing their mask and trying to go to work. They’re doing all they can.
I just think that the best thing we can do is just do what we can to keep them moving and keep them going, encourage them and provide them with the resources that they need.
Geoff Pender: Representative, one final thing I have to ask at least on this topic is looking at what all is on the Legislature’s plate this session: redistricting, dealing probably with the ballot initiative, perhaps medical marijuana. There’s talk of a total overhaul of income or doing away with income taxes or cutting them or overhauling the tax system.
The list goes on. Is this citizen part-time Legislature going to be able to do all that, set a budget and then also spend an extra whole bunch of money?
Robert Johnson: No, not in 90 days, not effectively. That’s why I think we should be meeting now. We should be working now, even if they’re in short spurts, you know, five days in special session, five days a here or, for a bunch of hearings, that the legislative people come in committee meetings and then maybe a, you know, one or two week long, special session on a couple of issues.
You know, if reconstructing the initiative would go anything like this medical marijuana we’re going to spend way too much time on it. I mean, there’s a simple thing to do, go in and add the district, which is silly, but add it and put it back on the ballot. But when you wait until January, what you’ve done is rob people who are trying to get the initiative going on Medicaid expansion and a lot of important issues that, you know, we could close the door on if we just got it on the ballot and got it over with and move on since the Legislature doesn’t have the courage to do what it needs to do.
So, yeah. Nah, it’s too much. I mean, we got a pandemic. We got community health centers, for instance and hospitals. Community health centers are treating people and taking care of people who don’t have insurance. So that’s a ton of people in the state of Mississippi with no Medicaid expansion, and why not make sure we get them this money in the hands of people who need it and to take care of those people out there to get more people vaccinated, to get more healthcare workers on the front line. I mean, all those things we could be doing now. And we could do a lot of this in one or two weeks and you know, or work on it for a month with some committee meetings, like they have on medical marijuana, and come in and take care of it in a week or two.
But, you know, we’re just not doing anything and I don’t want to sound trivial when I say this, but September is rolling around. It’s about to be football season. Nobody’s going to come and work during that time. And in a month on the first of October, and God knows nobody comes to work when it’s hunting season.
Geoff Pender: I agree. I agree with that sentiment.
Robert Johnson: Right. But I mean, summertime in a state like Mississippi, you know, Californians and New Yorkers, that’s their vacation time. Summertime is the time we can get something done. It’s too hot to do anything. And most of our recreational activity is going to be done in the fall. So why not come in here and all this and get some work done? It’s too hot to be outside. Let’s get it done and, and get a jump on it.
Bobby Harrison: One of the things Geoff mentioned was redistricting. That’s kind of gearing up the first statewide hearing or the first two statewide hearings will be held by the time this podcast airs.
Robert Johnson: Meridian and Tupelo, is that today?
Bobby Harrison: Meridian was Thursday. Tupelo is Friday.
What’s your anticipation of what’s going to happen with the redistricting during the upcoming session?
Robert Johnson: Well, of course, as a Democrat, I’m not happy with the way things are. I don’t intend to. I want to see change. I’m sure that most Republicans want to at least maintain the status quo or see more seats elected.
So I anticipate a fight, whatever extent as a minority and party in the state, there can be a fight, but I anticipate there being a protracted fight about this issue that’ll end up in the courts.
Bobby Harrison: Well, it seems to me that some of the areas that are growing, most counties in the state lost population or didn’t gain population, but the counties that grew are thought of primarily as Republican counties. But I think you’re seeing a little bit of what you’re seeing nationally. Some of those counties are suburban counties and they’re growing and maybe it’s not as pronounced on a national level, but I do think there’s a democratic base growing in some of those counties that could be interesting to look at during the upcoming session.
Robert Johnson: Yeah. I think, you know, DeSoto County is a prime example, I think just like what happened with the Hester McCray district I think, is going to happen with another one.
I mean, I think, you know, it changes. I kind of believe, I mean, this is just speculation, but areas like around Oxford, I think to certain standards, in some pockets of Rankin County and Madison County, there are demographic changes. People are moving out of Jackson into those areas, and you’re gonna see not as polarized of numbers in terms of, you know, partisan politics.
And so there are going to be some opportunities there. And so, it’s incumbent among us as Democrats and as African-Americans to take advantage of that where we can. And I don’t, you know, I don’t expect that Republican leadership is going to lay down and say, “Okay, that seems fine.” Even though if you get some of them over a glass of whiskey in a back room and say, “How do you like the super majority?” They say it’s terrible. You know, it’s like, you say you want it, but when you get it, you realize maybe I didn’t want this much. It would be helpful to some people. They would never say it, but I know it’d be helpful to them to have more Democrats there and then they could have somebody that, you know, they can have an actual enemy they could fight with without fighting with each other. So we may be able to work something out, but I expect it to be pretty involved. I mean, one of the problems we always have as Democrats is that there are people in our party who like the cushiony 80% district, and you got to bring them in and say, “Look, this won’t work. You got to give up some of those numbers to create more, get you some more help here at the Legislature.” So it’s going to be really involved. We are working on it now. They won’t have any statistical numbers that we can actually work with until sometime after the 15th or 16th of this month.
But we are gearing up. We’re looking at old maps.
Geoff Pender: Representative Johnson, we appreciate you talking with us today. And it sounds like we might have a busy summer, but regardless, we’re going to have a busy next year. And we appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us today.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah, I enjoyed talking to you.
Robert Johnson: Well, I appreciate y’all having me all the time.
Adam Ganucheau: As we cover the biggest political stories in this state, you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they’re impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.
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Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online at MississippiToday.org/the-other-side. For the Mississippi Today team, I’m Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side is produced by Mississippi Today and engineered by Blue Sky Studios. We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.
Mississippi hospitals are at the breaking point due to a crush of COVID cases. ICUs are full, meaning that if you have a heart attack or a car crash, you will be at risk of not being able of getting the same kind of care you would have been able to get before this newest wave of the pandemic.
On this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with the Boss Queen herself, author and Sweet Potato Queen Jill Conner Browne.
Browne is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nine Sweet Potato Queens books and has created a global phenomenon of 6,400 chapter groups in 37 countries that thrive on her philosophy of laughter and fellowship.
Ramsey and Browne discuss ways of surviving traumatic times, living in the moment and Browne’s incredible journey as an author and leader of a sassy, bawdy and empowering movement.
The spokesperson for Gov. Tate Reeves was asked on July 25 for a comment from the governor on the death of Bob Moses, a civil rights icon and education innovator.
Moses, who died at the age of 86, was not a Mississippian. He was born in New York and lived his later life in south Florida. But his contributions to Mississippi in terms of developing the strategy in 1964 for mass registration of disenfranchised Black Mississippians to vote and of developing the integrated Freedom Democratic Party are monumental in the history of the state and nation.
Still, it was not surprising that the governor’s office did not respond. Reeves’ staff often ignores requests for comment from the media. While the governor sometimes ignores such requests, he often goes straight to the people, so to speak, by commenting on social media — just like his political hero former President Donald Trump would often do.
Reeves didn’t even do that. The week Moses died, though, the governor did express sympathy via social media regarding the death of conservative talk show host J.T. Williamson.
“SuperTalk Mississippi lost a great talk show host. America lost a great patriot. The conservative movement in Mississippi lost one of its best spokesmen, and I lost a friend of nearly 20 years today.
“The JT Show family is in our prayers,” the governor said on Facebook on July 31, six days after the death of Moses.
Also, days after the death of Moses, the first-term Republican governor spoke in one of the most public venues in Mississippi: the annual political speakings at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia.
Many believed it would be appropriate for Reeves to praise Moses on the historic stage where, unfortunately, so much racist rhetoric had been spewed by Mississippi political leaders of the past.
After all, many Neshoba Countians have worked in more recent years to overcome its past. Former Secretary of State Dick Molpus, a Neshoba native, gave a historic speech in the 1990s in his home county apologizing on behalf of his hometown for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were killed in Neshoba as they worked on Moses’ mission to register Black Mississippians to vote.
But again, Reeves did not mention Moses. What Reeves and state House Speaker Philip Gunn did talk extensively about at the Fair were the evils of teaching so-called critical race theory to Mississippi children, and they promised to stop it.
Reeves touted his “Patriotic Education Fund” to pay schools to not teach “revisionist history.”
No one can cite an example of a Mississippi public school teaching critical race theory, an academic concept based on the premise that racism is not just the result of individuals but also something embedded in American legal systems and policies. Some school districts nationally are working to help students garner empathy for those who might be subjected to racism.
Bob Moses had that empathy. He was a math teacher in New York who was moved to come to Mississippi to join the civil rights movement. He is not as well-known as some other leaders of that era — in part because he was soft spoken, but no doubt was one of the intellectual leaders of the movement. Like other leaders of the time, he often was jailed and brutally beaten.
The New York Times tells of an instance where Moses was attacked by a family member of a Mississippi sheriff with a knife handle. Bleeding from his head, Moses finished his work registering voters before going to find an African American doctor who would sew up his wound. He needed nine stitches.
Later in life, Moses started the well respected Algebra Project to help ensure people of color in both large cities and rural areas were being taught much needed math skills.
Moses was honored in 2000 by the Mississippi Legislature. He spoke to legislators that day. The resolution honoring Moses said, “We do hereby commend the career of Mr. Robert P. Moses, pivotal Civil Rights movement organizer and developer of the Algebra Project, and wish him continued success in future endeavors.”
Katie Blount, executive director of the Mississippi Department of History and Archives, sent out a statement on the day of Moses’ death pointing out “the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum’s fifth gallery, ‘A Tremor in the Iceberg,’ is inspired by his description of the movement in Mississippi: ‘A tremor in the middle of the iceberg from a stone which the builders rejected.’”
Reeves said at Neshoba County Fair that through his “Patriotic Education Fund” he wanted to promote “the incredible accomplishments of the American way.”
