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.”
View our Data Dive showing the current requirements on masks and face coverings from school districts in Mississippi’s K-12 institutions for the 2021-2022 school year.
Mississippi Today reviewed the mask requirements for each school district through their plans submitted to the state Department of Education, phone calls to districts, and examination of the plans posted to each district’s website.
We will update this searchable and downloadable chart regularly as districts navigate the latest COVID-19 restrictions affecting public school openings.
To view individual districts' COVID-19 reopening plans, click here.
This is Mississippi Today's inaugural Data Dive, a new series of data-focused stories to help break down crucial news and information for Mississippians.
The federal board tasked with handling railway disputes has made its first decision in the Gulf Coast passenger route case: It denied freight rail’s petition to have Amtrak’s complaint thrown out.
That means Amtrak is at least one step closer to knowing how viable its plans are to return passenger service to the Gulf Coast in 2022. The proposed route would connect Mobile to New Orleans with four stops in Mississippi.
“The good news is, things can proceed forward now,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
Amtrak filed its complaint with the board in March, arguing freight rail companies would continue to stall against returning passenger routes to the Gulf Coast without intervention. Freight company CSX owns tracks Amtrak would need to access along its planned route.
On Thursday, the Surface Transportation Board filed its decision against CSX and its request the whole case be stopped in its tracks. CSX argued for more traffic studies before the board got involved. It also argued that the route shouldn’t move forward because some Alabama officials were against the service and its potential impacts on the Port of Mobile.
Ultimately, the history of disputes is what prompted the board to assert its need to hear and decide on the case.
In its written decision, the board said the case will “provide a forum to assess precisely the matter of concern to Alabama state officials and others.” If anything, the board wrote, the lack of unanimous state support showed the need for its intervention.
Mississippi and Louisiana officials have largely been in favor of the passenger route and the economic boost it could bring to the Gulf Coast. The former service that ran through southern Mississippi ended following Hurricane Katrina just over 15 years ago.
In its decision, the board announced a schedule for the proceedings over the case. The transportation board handles complaints similar to a courtroom. In the coming months, both Amtrak and the freight rail companies have set dates for discovery, evidence rebuttals, and hearings. The schedule, as of now, ends in mid-December.
“CSX is evaluating the decision, but will plan to move forward with the schedule established by the (board),” the company said in a statement.
In its own statement, Amtrak thanked the board for moving the case forward and expressed hope for a transparent process that would lead to a decision by the end of this year.
It’s still unclear if a decision will be made in time for Amtrak’s desired route start date of Jan. 1, 2022.
“Each case has its own degree of complexity, so there is no deadline,” said Michael Booth, the spokesman for the Surface Transportation Board. “But the board will come to a decision as expeditiously as possible.”
TrustCare Health is partnering with the Jackson Public School District to offer a back-to-school vaccine drive at all seven high schools over the course of next week.
All students receiving the vaccine will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 Amazon gift card from their participating school. Those interested in getting the vaccine must register in advance online here.
The Pfizer vaccine will be offered to interested high schoolers as well as teachers and administrators. The drive will begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. at Murrah High School and continue each day through Friday.
The schedule is:
Tuesday, Aug. 10 — Murrah High School: 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 11 — Callaway High School: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. & Lanier High School: 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 12 — Jim Hill High School: 8:30 a.m . – 12:30 p.m. & Provine High School: 1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 13 — Forest Hill High School: 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. & Wingfield High School: 1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
“We are so very thankful for our partnership with TrustCare to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to our JPS team members, scholars and their families,” said Superintendent Errick Greene. “We encourage the JPS community to take full advantage of these upcoming opportunities to help us make our schools safe and healthy learning environments.”
Hinds County is currently ranked as the county with the most COVID-19 cases in the state over the 2-week period of July 13 to 26, the most recent time frame for which data is available.
“TrustCare has been a leader in COVID testing and vaccinations since the pandemic’s onset and is dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to continue helping people through this troubling time,” said TrustCare President and CEO Warren Herring. “We are honored to have the opportunity to be a partner in education with JPS and offer this service to students and faculty, who may otherwise not have quick, convenient access to the vaccine.”
The first day of school for students in JPS is Monday.
The family of Dominique Clayton, the 32-year-old mother of four who was shot and killed by former Oxford police officer Matthew Kinne, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Oxford Police Department, the City of Oxford and Kinne on Thursday.
Clayton was killed by former OPD officer Kinne the morning of May 19, 2019, when he conducted a “welfare check” on Clayton at her home. The check resulted in Kinne killing her, shooting her one time in the head with his OPD-issued firearm. Clayton’s body was found later that afternoon by her 8-year-old son.
Kinne pleaded guilty to capital murder July 30 in New Albany for killing Clayton and was sentenced to life without the chance of parole.
“These past two years have been a painful experience because it’s not anything you expect to experience… Our family is finally getting the justice we need. It’s heartwarming, heartwrenching… You don’t know whether to be happy or sad because it’s justice for her, but she’s still not here to be with us,” Cha’nya Clayton, Dominique Clayton’s 22-year-old cousin, told Mississippi Today.
“I just want justice for my aunt, and I want my cousins to be taken care of,” Makayla Clayton, Dominique Clayton’s 14-year-old niece, said at Thursday’s press conference about the wrongful death lawsuit.
The lawsuit includes details surrounding Kinne’s previous law enforcement experience before joining OPD. Before Kinne was hired in Oxford, he was allegedly forced to resign by a previous law enforcement agency after he was identified as a person of interest in the suspicious death of his former wife, according to the lawsuit.
It was ultimately determined that his former wife died by suicide. Kinne was not formally charged for her death, but after the law enforcement agency conducted an internal investigation, he was asked to resign or be terminated. After his resignation, he applied for a police officer position with OPD, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said OPD knew the circumstances around which Kinne resigned from his previous law enforcement agency.
“Despite being aware of the fact that… Kinne would likely violate the constitutional rights of another person, based upon the information included in his personnel file… (OPD) Chief (Jeff) McCutchen and the City (of Oxford) authorized the hiring of…Officer Kinne,” the lawsuit said.
Kinne was hired by OPD, remarried and had two children. During his time with OPD, he became involved in an extramarital affair with Clayton, the lawsuit said. After Kinne killed Clayton, he and another OPD officer, Diarra Gibbons, lied and told Clayton’s family she had died by suicide, the lawsuit alleges.
Gibbons is still an officer with OPD, while Kinne is now serving a life sentence for Clayton’s murder.
Clayton’s family is being represented by Carlos Moore of The Cochran Firm in Grenada and Michael Carr of the Carr Law Firm in Cleveland.
“They (Clayton’s family) have justice in the criminal courts. Now, they need justice civilly. She left four young kids,” Moore said in Thursday’s press conference about the lawsuit. “They need justice. Left without a mother. Have to fend for themselves. Any money that’s recovered in this lawsuit will go into a trust fund for these kids for when they are adults, so that they can take care of themselves.”
Amid a wave of delta variant COVID-19 infections that State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said is “sweeping over Mississippi like a tsunami,” the state Department of Health reported 3,164 new cases on Thursday, the second highest single-day caseloads the state has seen throughout the pandemic.
As of Thursday, there were 1,147 Mississippians hospitalized with COVID-19, with 299 in ICUs and 150 on ventilators. The state is currently averaging 137 new COVID-19 hospitalizations per day.
On Thursday, just eight of 827 total adult ICU beds in Mississippi were available.
This strain on the healthcare system is not sustainable, health care experts warn, and has created an environment where between 30 patients per day on average — and as many as 60 — are receiving care in emergency room settings when they should be in an ICU. This not only limits the ability of healthcare workers to effectively care for these patients, but it also causes delays in the time-sensitive care that non-COVID patients need in an ER setting.
Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and COVID-19 clinical response leader at University of Mississippi Medical Center, said on Wednesday that UMMC has not had to turn away any patients yet, but that breaking point is approaching.
“We are not infinite resources,” Jones said. “We can break. We can have to close… And I think we’re rapidly headed that direction.”
Health care leaders reiterate one key point: It wouldn’t matter if Mississippi had an infinite number of hospital beds if the corresponding number of healthcare workers to weren’t able to staff them. On Wednesday, there were 14 unusable beds at UMMC because of this understaffing. Whether nurses, respiratory therapists or certified medical assistants, Mississippi hospitals small and large are reporting they do not have the staffing to meet the current level of need.
Many nurses and other healthcare workers are leaving the state for higher paying jobs elsewhere, or leaving the medical field altogether due to the traumas of the past year.
“It is almost impossible to put into words the frustration that they feel, that we all feel, and the disappointment that here we are again… There are a lot of people in healthcare right now that feel pretty mad about this situation,” said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for UMMC.
Healthcare workers themselves getting infected with COVID-19, mostly outside the hospitals where they work, is only compounding the staffing problem.
“There’s no cavalry coming that’s going to bring in a whole army of new nurses to fill in… it’s just not there,” Dobbs said. “We’ll do everything we can to balance it out. But we’re just looking at some real significant pain points in the coming weeks. It’s just inevitable.”
In response to the high levels of COVID-19 infections among its staff, Jackson’s St. Dominic Memorial Hospital announced on Thursday that all employees will have to be vaccinated, or have a documented medical or religious exemption, by Oct. 31 or they will be fired.
This move by St. Dominic comes after UMMC announced on July 16 that all its employees and students will be required to be fully vaccinated after the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines receive full authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Woodward said she was glad to see St. Dominic’s require vaccination for its employees, and that she hopes others will follow suit because the strain on the entire hospital system is “absolutely worse than it was” during the winter peak.
As scientists continue to collect data on the newest variant that is spreading rapidly, medical experts continue to reiterate that vaccination remains the best protection against contracting the delta variant. The nation’s leading medical researchers agree that vaccines are nearly as effective against the delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness.
Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection. Of the 2,510 Mississippians who died of COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 4 of this year, only 51 were fully vaccinated.
Though Mississippi is no longer last in the nation for the share of its population that has been vaccinated, it still trails 48 other states. Only 35% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The threat posed by the delta variant is motivating a significant uptick in vaccinations, a welcome change that Woodward says will make a difference in the state’s caseload. It will take at least a month for the hospital system to reap any of those benefits, however, and the challenges seen this month are only going to get worse.
“The path out of this is vaccination,” Woodward said. “What viruses do, they mutate, and they can do it quickly. So the best thing that we can do to be sure that we don’t see another variant that comes through is to get people vaccinated. That is just the best defense.”
Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency in the troubled Holmes County Consolidated School District on the first day of the new school year and just hours after the district announced it was suing state officials in an attempt to block the takeover.
Signed at 1:25 p.m. on Thursday, the declaration will immediately dismantle the school district. Interim superintendent Jennifer Wilson will take over, and the local school board will be disbanded. The State Board of Education will act as the district’s governing body.
“This isn’t a decision I take lightly nor one I make with any delight. Maintaining local control when possible is a foundational principle of conservative governance; however, the serious violations of state and federal law and accreditation standards, serious financial concerns, lack of internal controls, inappropriate standards of governance, inappropriate oversight by the Board, and the continued poor academic performance (among many other factors) no longer make that possible in the HCCSD,” Gov. Tate Reeves wrote on Twitter.
“Ensuring Mississippi kids have access to a quality education will always be a top priority. This declaration of an extreme emergency situation within HCCSD will hopefully give the kids of this district a chance at success in life, because each one of them deserve(s) nothing less!” Reeves continued.
This means the district, now termed a “District of Transformation,” now stands to lose its accreditation. School districts that lose accreditation are limited to participation in no more than half of the regular season of any athletic and extracurricular activities. The activities’ schedule will also not include the opening day of the season or any type of post-season participation, according to the Mississippi Department of Education.
Cheerleading, drill and dance squads, speech and debate and other extracurricular groups can participate in district and state contests but are ineligible to receive ratings.
Wilson, the interim superintendent, will remain there until the district reaches a grade of C or higher for five years; and the superintendent would work with district staff to correct all accreditation violations and raise student achievement.
Officials from the Mississippi Department of Education will meet with administration, faculty and staff from the district, then with parents and community leaders during a series of evening meetings.
A request for comment from Clarence Webster, the attorney for the lawsuit filed by former superintendent Debra Powell and school board members, was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon. Powell was also not immediately available for comment.
The state’s calls for a takeover of the district come following the release of a nearly 400-page investigative audit of the district that found it in violation of 81% of the state’s accreditation standards. The audit also found violations of state and federal law, including nearly $1 million of questioned federal expenditures.
The allegations include a dysfunctional school board and administration, improper spending, inaccurate record keeping and unlicensed teachers in the classroom.
The state has placed a school district in a conservatorship 20 times since 1997; Holmes County is now the 21st. Current Districts of Transformation, as they are referred to, include the Tunica and Noxubee County School Districts.
With the fall semester weeks away, the Mississippi Department of Health has released updated guidelines for mitigating the spread of the coronavirus in colleges and universities. This comes as the delta variant “sweeps over Mississippi like a tsunami,” State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said in a press conference on Thursday.
“We’ve seen a phenomenal increase in the number of daily reported cases of COVID,” Dobbs said, “and this is entirely attributable to the delta variant.”
As the “primary health prevention strategy” to stem transmission of the virus, the new guidelines recommend all eligible students, faculty and staff receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It also urges colleges and universities to direct everyone on campus, regardless of vaccination status, to mask-up in all indoor facilities and in crowded outdoor settings.
Students are recommended to continue social distancing in classrooms, and all students, faculty and staff should stay home if they are sick with any infectious illness.
“You can’t fill a classroom with non-immune kids without a mask on with the most contagious coronavirus you’ve ever seen circulating and expect for it not to spread,” Dobbs said. “It’s just biology.”
Colleges and universities are further advised to continue contact tracing to identify COVID-19 positive individuals and remove them from the school setting, particularly dormitories where transmission is more likely.
Lastly, the guidance also contains strategies thatschools can use to manage and respond to an outbreak.
“I just want to remind everybody that we have COVID top to bottom in every single county,” said Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist. “We are seeing increases and high transmission in every single county across the state — we are going to see cases in all settings and all counties.”
Shortly after MSDH released its new guidance in a memo Wednesday afternoon, Mississippi State University and University of Mississippi announced that they would temporarily require masks in all indoor activities and locations on campus.
“We’re optimistic that this temporary mask utilization indoors will help ensure a successful start to the school year,” UM Chancellor Glenn Boyce wrote in an email to students, faculty and staff. “We will evaluate this protocol daily based on how spread of the virus evolves on campus and in our community.”
“Let me emphasize that we are implementing this temporary mitigation strategy as the least disruptive way to ensure a full campus experience,” Boyce added in bold.
At the end of the spring semester, Boyce announced that UM would be returning to “a full resumption of in-person classes” and pre-COVID-19 operations starting this fall.
MSU similarly opened up its campus over the summer, announcing June 30 that all facilities, including meeting rooms and auditoriums, could operate at 100% capacity.
The new guidance from MSDH and the surge in COVID cases led MSU to reconsider that plan, according to a press release announcing the temporary mask mandate.
“After the first few weeks of the Fall 2021 semester, it is our hope that MSU may be able to move to mask-optional policies if the number of cases on campus and in the community decreases, and vaccination rates improve substantially,” MSU wrote.
Mississippi is currently experiencing a fourth wave of COVID-19 due to the highly infectious delta variant. On Thursday, MSDH reported 3,164 new cases, close to double the number of daily cases reported a week ago.
“I really do think it’s going to be the worst wave to date,” Dobbs said.
The deluge of cases comes almost entirely from unvaccinated people, Byers said on Thursday, who tend to be in younger age groups. As of mid-July, college-aged people made up more than 60% of all new cases over the last two months in Mississippi, according to MSDH.
Byers said that while this age cohort “may not have serious complications from COVID-19,” it’s still important for them to get vaccinated because they “are serving as a source of transmission to (the) most vulnerable population,” those who are immunocompromised or older than 65.
“It’s incumbent upon all of us to make sure that not only are we vaccinated to protect ourselves, but to protect those individuals around us from infection,” Byers added.
MSDH’s guidance stops short of requiring students or faculty get vaccinated — something hundreds of professors across the state have pushed for in online petitions.
Dobbs said he doesn’t think there is consensus in Mississippi yet over whether the COVID-19 vaccine should be mandated for college and university students.
“Having everyone vaccinated and even looking at mechanisms to make that happen make sense from a transmission perspective,” Dobbs said. “I appreciate their opinion and I wish they keep sharing it. And if that’s the general consensus, instead of being hundreds (of signatures), it would’ve been thousands.”
Dobbs is also uncertain that MSDH will recommend a mandate even if the COVID-19 receives final approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
“Mandates are a curious sort of animal,” he said. “We’ll work with colleges to make those sorts of decisions. This is not really a ‘top-down, Department-of-Health, we-tell-you-what-to-do” sort of situation. These sorts of things require coalition building and consensus to some degree, and we are not really there yet.”
