Gov. Tate Reeves addresses COVID-19 for the state during his briefing Monday, October 19, 2020 at the Woolfolk Building.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday added seven counties to his mask-wearing order, bringing the total to 16 counties where he has reinstated the mandate as COVID-19 cases spike.
But Reeves said mask wearing will not be mandated for voting in the Nov. 3 election, even in those counties, as he believes mandating them would be an unconstitutional restriction. He noted protests earlier this year during the pandemic drew crowds larger than crowd size limits then in place, but were allowed as protected free speech.
“I do anticipate a vast majority of Mississippians will be wearing a mask (when they vote),” Reeves said. “… I think what you are going to find is that we will have a safe, secure election in Mississippi.”
The counties Reeves added to the mask mandate Monday are: Harrison, Madison, Marshall, Jones, Carroll, Leake and Benton.
Other counties will be added if they reach a threshold of more than 200 recent cases, or 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period, depending on the population size of the county.
Social gatherings in these counties will be limited to 10 people indoors and 50 outdoors, although Reeves has said this will not prevent high school football games, which are covered under separate orders.
Reeves’ latest executive orders also again require hospitals statewide to reserve 10% capacity for COVID-19 patients. If 10% capacity is not available, a hospital will have to delay elective procedures. Reeves said this worked during the summer peak to relieve pressure on hospitals.
Reeves on Sept. 30th lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4. He also relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then cases have risen.
During the span of the statewide mask mandate, the seven-day average for Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%.
Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded.
But Reeves has said he still prefers limited COVID-19 orders to “the heavy hand of government,” and said a mask mandate “is not a silver bullet.” He has said he believes people pay more attention to limited, regional mask orders based on case spikes.
On Monday, the state Health Department reported 447 new COVID-19 cases, eight new deaths and 683 hospitalizations. The state has had a total of 3,263 COVID-19 deaths reported.
Othia McMillian fills out her absentee ballot in mid-October at the Hinds County courthouse.
Mississippians continue to vote absentee in record numbers before the Nov. 3 general election, with more than 169,000 ballots requested, compared to less than 111,000 requested in the 2016 election.
Circuit clerks in several highly populated counties have told Mississippi Today that absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic appears higher than ever for 2020, which features a presidential election and a U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy. Some clerks, including in populous Hinds and Harrison counties, have reported long lines outside their offices for people voting weeks before the election.
In 2016, nearly 103,000 absentee ballots were received in Mississippi’s election, and just over 101,000 were accepted. So far this election, nearly 146,000 absentees have been received by circuit clerks. High absentee voting typically portends heavy in-person turnout on Election Day.
Mississippi’s early voting laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, and it’s the only state not to provide all citizens an option to vote early rather than go to crowded precincts on Election Day during the pandemic. Only people who are going to be away from their home area on Election Day, those 65 and older, and people with disabilities are allowed to vote absentee, either in person or by mail.
A federal lawsuit filed against the Mississippi secretary of state this year and settled last week resulted in two new rules for this election.
Voters must receive correspondence from election officials about any problems with the signature verification on their absentee ballots, and the voter will have 10 days to correct it.
Also, election officials must provide curbside voting opportunities on Election Day for people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or who have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson speaks to the congregation at New Hope Baptist Church, Sunday, March 8, 2020.
U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson, who has for nearly three decades been the lone representative of African Americans in the Blackest state in America, predicted that Democrat Mike Espy will win the U.S. Senate race on Nov. 3 after Black Mississippians turn out to vote in “tremendous” numbers.
Thompson, who made the remarks during an hour-long podcast conversation with Mississippi Today about race in politics, said he believes that Black Mississippi voters, galvanized by President Donald Trump’s “negative attitude toward people who don’t look like him,” will turn out in record or near-record numbers next week.
Espy, who is seeking to become Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator elected by popular vote, faces incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on Nov. 3.
“I think Trump has demonstrated who he is, and people want to get him out,” Thompson said. “I think Mike Espy will be the beneficiary of the anti-Trump Black vote in Mississippi. Now the other thing is I think there are some other groups that Trump has alienated. A lot of suburban, college-educated women. He has continuously marginalized their level of intelligence by what he says. They’re absolutely embarrassed.”
Mississippi Today: What do you make of this national moment (the reckoning on racism in politics)? I’ve heard from many activists that they’re happy to have the conversation now, but they’re frustrated it took so long for this to come to the forefront of national politics. Do you share that sentiment, and what do you make of this moment?
Rep. Bennie Thompson: As you know, one of the most difficult topics I’ve come in contact with in my life is a discussion about race. Race, across the board, has always been that discussion that never took place. And when it did, it was always a superficial discussion and not one that really burrowed down into the crux of why race is so controversial. I’ve lived in Mississippi my whole life. I was born at home simply because there was no hospital available for me to be born in. I was delivered by a midwife because there was no doctor available to perform or assist with the birth. Nonetheless, I also attended segregated public schools in the state of Mississippi, never having a new textbook my entire 12 years of public school. There were some very systemic yet overt acts that told me that you are being treated differently because of how you look.
As I fast-forward to where we are now, the George Floyd, Breonna Taylor murders really put a bright light on the issue of race and social justice in America. And so just like every other movement in this country, it takes something to shock the conscience of the country before you move in that direction. In the 60s, when we had white young people coming to the South advocating for integration in education, public accommodations and housing getting beat up just like the Black people who were coming, that shocked the conscience of this country. And when white religious leaders and others started getting killed because of that advocacy, it shocked this country even more. So the murder of George Floyd, the killing of Breonna Taylor that played out for the most part in full view of all of us, that reckoning is here.
So the question is: What do we do as Americans, and what do we do as Mississippians? The first thing we have to do is admit we have a problem. And then after that admission, you bring people together. The real challenge for us in this state is, for the most part, my white friends who want to do something will invite people who are not quote offensive in their discussion, they’re nice, and they fill a certain standard. So the question is, if you really want to get to the problem, you have to get to the people most impacted. That means the individuals who structurally, from a societal standpoint, are at the low end and find out how you got there, what problems precipitated why you’re there, and what it is that can be done to lift you off the bottom. Well that’s easier said than done, and that’s where the real discussion of race comes in.
You just mentioned something I want to touch on when you said the first thing we need to do is acknowledge we have a problem. It’s a big election year, of course. I think the timing of this reckoning comes at a profound time politically. So many politicians have embraced that acknowledgement and this greater conversation about how we can be better, and others haven’t. I would argue that not enough of that is happening in Mississippi. Do you agree with that? Are our politicians doing enough to have honest conversations about all this?
Well you know, no they’re not. I’ll take something real simple like healthcare. The majority of counties in our state are medically underserved. That means that we don’t have enough medical professionals to serve the population in those counties. So you would think that if something like healthcare would be a problem, then a remedy to that problem would be accepted. So what we did in Washington a few years ago was pass the Affordable Care Act. Now what it had was a Medicaid expansion component that gave a local decision to each state as to whether or not you wanted to participate in this program and be paid by the federal government for serving poor people. Well interesting to note is Mississippi is yet to accept that free money, even though it’s intended to address a documented problem in our state. And so you can only say the majority of those people who would be helped in this program first of all are poor, secondly from a racial standpoint are African American.
And so again, race trumps providing healthcare in this instance. There are five hospitals that have closed in this state. Several others are teetering on bankruptcy. You would think, “Why in the world wouldn’t a politician accept money that’s going to help address a documented problem?” Well, here we go again: Race. Many of those politicians would tell you, “I don’t see color, I’m a Christian.” Well the reality is, by the fact that you said you don’t really means you do. The fact that you’re a Christian and that you’re trying to gloss over the problem really signifies a bigger problem. As you know, the most segregated place in America is churches on Sunday because generally, people go to their own respective institutions. When you see it structurally, they are as segregated as any other institution, if not more. So even houses of worship are not exempt from this racial problem that we have in our state and America.
There might be some people listening to this interview right now thinking, “Why do they always have to make it all about race?” I’ve gotten many emails like that recently. Let me pose that question to you for anyone listening who thinks that: Why is race important to bring up?
I would say look at where white people were 50 years ago compared to where white people are now, and look at where Black people were 50 years ago to where Black people are now. We still, for the most part, have not closed the gap. Whites make more income, and therefore they’re able to have a better life. Black people at the beginning didn’t have an opportunity to make certain things because the law didn’t allow that to happen. You say, “Well that was the past.” How do I make up for that 50 years of discrimination by saying, “Oh, now we’re free and everybody can do what they want?” You don’t take into consideration what those 50 years, for the sake of this discussion, really have done to a group of people.
All of a sudden you can say, “I’m ready to join the Kentucky Derby, and anybody Black or white can put their mount in the Kentucky Derby and everything’s fine.” But the reality of the situation is I don’t have a thoroughbred, I got a jackass. So just because I can put my jackass in the Kentucky Derby doesn’t mean I have a chance at winning the derby because I’ve not had the benefit of raising a thoroughbred. So just giving me the opportunity to get in the race doesn’t address the systemic racism that has historically existed.
When I went to public school in Mississippi, we didn’t have running water in the schools when I started. We didn’t have a library. We didn’t have a cafeteria because we didn’t have running water. Well you say now we have it. Yes, but the years of racial discrimination has its impact, and that is a problem. And so it’s a real challenge for us to try to close the gap. And you can’t close the gap without some enhanced measures.
I’m one of those folks who sued Institutions of Higher Learning in the state because when I went for a graduate degree at Jackson State University, our library was virtually void of current books. So when I was given an assignment, I had to come across town to the Millsaps College library because they allowed Black people to come in the library, but also because the state-supported institutions that were Black did not have it. When I went to USM in Hattiesburg, the library had everything. It was like, “Gee, if you can’t learn with all these resources here, you’ve got a problem.” But I look back at Jackson State, my alma mater now, and you felt like my parents worked hard, they paid taxes, kept their nose clean, stayed out of trouble, yet still the system tried to give their son a second-class education. Separate and unequal was declared unconstitutional, but we had to go back to court to get that. So if you teach me on an inferior platform, then the expectations at the end of that teaching is that you have a less than acceptable student because you didn’t provide that student with a quality education because they were Black, not because of any other reasons. That’s our real problem right now.
Your start in politics, I believe, was inspired by activism. You were a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Tougaloo College, organizing voter registration drives for African Americans throughout the Mississippi Delta.
I want to read the first two lines of your official House bio: “Born in a state with a unique history of racial inequality, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson draws inspiration from the legacies of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and Henry Kirksey. The Bolton, Mississippi native considers it an honor to walk the path Mississippi civil rights icons paved decades ago.”
A lot of your constituents would say you’re right in line with those icons. What does that mean to you?
Well you know I am fortunate to have lived and experienced those individuals you talked about, and basically homed my efforts in the past when they advocated. So what I want Mississippi to be is a Mississippi where my grandchildren will have to make a decision not based on economics or anything around race as to whether or not they want to stay. I’m the only person in my family who didn’t leave Mississippi and go north. My offspring left seeking a better way of life. They didn’t really want to leave home, but if they wanted things to be better, then they had to go. So every time they would come home, that discussion would always take place. You know, “I really didn’t want to leave, but I just couldn’t stand picking cotton, I couldn’t stand working for $2 a day. That’s not who I want to be.” My two brothers joined the military first because that was their way out, and then when they came back, they ended up in Michigan rather than coming back to Mississippi. So what I’ve tried to do is create a climate where young people, if they want to stay, there are some opportunities.
The best example I can tell you is that my cardiologist is a graduate of Tougaloo. He has a degree from Harvard Medical School, but he couldn’t go to University Medical Center here in Jackson because they didn’t allow Black students. Well guess what? University Medical Center instructor interviewed him (muffled audio). Now go figure that. Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change things.” So I have structurally looked at our system of higher education. We’ve challenged how people get elected. We’ve challenged the Highway Patrol, which was all white. You have to do that, but then people label you this, that and the other…
Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, Henry Kirksey and Medgar Evers were mentors for me, and people kind of see me in their footprints – but I haven’t endured what they had to endure or what they stood for when they were here on earth. One of the things I want to do is be the representative of the people. Somebody who’s never forgotten who sent me, and somebody who’s never forgotten what they sent me for. Whether it’s affordable healthcare, if it’s equality and equal education, economic stability for families, all those individuals stood for those things. But as important, leadership is taking positions that might not be a popular position at the time you take it. But nonetheless, it’s the correct decision. And so I think that is symbolic of what I’ve tried to address during my public, elected career.
You’ve won a lot of elections in Mississippi. I think it’s 13, is that right?
Well I’ve won 13 congressional elections. I’ve been blessed to have been elected since I was 20 years old. I’m 72 years old now, and I’ve never lost an election. You know, I’m a home boy. I go to the same Asbury United Methodist Church that I was baptized in. The things I enjoy, hunting and fishing with my friends, I still do. When I had a full head of hair, I went to the same barber shop. So you try to be mindful of the people who sent you. My congressional office in Jackson is located on Medgar Evers Boulevard. I could be in the federal building, but you know a lot of people who vote for Bennie Thompson are not comfortable going downtown Jackson. They’re not comfortable going into buildings where you get searched. Many of them can’t afford to pay for parking, so we make it convenient. Fortunately, all the time I’ve been on Medgar Evers Boulevard, I’ve never had a break-in because our office is part of the community. If you want a cup of coffee, you can come in and get it. If you want to use the bathroom, come in and use it. If you just need to come in and talk, people are there. And so we have taken that philosophy to the fullest extent: It doesn’t matter who you are, we will represent you. We take umbrage to the person walking the street just like a person wearing a suit.
Mississippi is the only state that didn’t expand early voting for all during the pandemic. On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves was the first governor in the nation to end a statewide mask mandate, which some people say will deter some voters who might not want to risk their health to vote. Secretary of State Michael Watson says voters won’t have to wear masks at polling places. In your mind, are these things voter suppression?
It is voter suppression, but it’s also dumb. Here we are in the middle of the pandemic, and health professionals say that social distancing and mask wearing is preferred in any enclosed space. Most voting precincts in this state, you have a number of people working inside them. You have people wanting to go inside to vote. So why would you risk your life just to vote, unless you felt that all precautions were being met? A simple precaution like a mask could be the encouragement necessary for a person to go and vote. The good part about it is I’ve talked to election officials throughout my district, and they’ve said they’ll let people vote outside the precinct if they won’t wear a mask inside the precinct. Some are saying they’ll let people vote curbside. But all that should not be, you know? We put CARES Act funds in the treasury of the state of Mississippi and said, “Buy the necessary PPE so if someone shows up without a mask, give them one.” That’s just one of a number of methods that would suppress voters turnout, at least in the minds of some voters because they just don’t feel comfortable. You know we didn’t change our traditional absentee ballot law. The traditional early voting, we don’t have that. We had an excellent chance to do it, but the only law we have in effect… it would’ve been so easy to say, “We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Why don’t we do what most other states did?” It could be up to a certain point, 30, 60 days. It could’ve been a mid-point somewhere where we all could’ve agreed. But they said no. We should be a better state than that, but unfortunately, we’re not.
All the laws we’re talking about here are passed at the state level. You couldn’t change them if you wanted to. Do you get frustrated by leaders in the state not doing these things in a situation like this?
You know, it’s one of those situations that you hope for the best. Rather than not support the opportunity for this state to be better, I’m still going to promote the opportunity. Hopefully, our state will turn the corner. But I never thought I’d see our state leaders embrace changing the state flag. They took the coward’s way out of trying to change it. Leadership should’ve said we’re going to change it because it’s the right thing to do. But when you don’t want your fingerprints on something, you appoint a commission. And that’s what they did.
But you know, the things I’ve seen happen in the last few years, all of a sudden counties were told you need to reduce your number of precincts because it cost too much to conduct elections. Well, you know, democracy is not cheap. We are a rural state. Why would you disadvantage people who perhaps don’t have their own mode of transportation, which makes it more difficult to vote? Or voter ID – in Mississippi, if you don’t have an ID, you have to go to the courthouse to apply for it. Then you have to wait until it comes back to pick it up. They don’t even send it to you. So that’s two trips that are hard to make. You have a number of senior citizens who have never driven cars or have the federal ID you need. So you’re inconveniencing those seniors who are mostly retired and living on a fixed income. It’s a poll tax in reverse because now I have to pay somebody to take me down to the courthouse in order to be qualified to vote.
So those things still come. You don’t have to interpret the Constitution anymore, tell how many jelly beans are in a jar or any of that. But the barriers still exist. As you know, I’ve been in a lot of elections. I’m not aware of any situation where somebody came and tried to cheat on Election Day by voting more than one time, or voting a name that wasn’t theirs. Those are things we haven’t experienced. So the history of this type operation is non-existent. So the reasons not to do it are just not well founded.
What do you sense about Black voter turnout this November?
I’m convinced it will be higher than it was in 2016. Donald Trump has been a motivating factor for what I perceive as a higher turnout. His negative attitude toward people who don’t look like him, his pronounced negativity on African Americans and Latinos, him talking negatively about people from Africa. All that has added fuel to the fire of people wanting to vote Donald Trump out. When I talk to people in various parts of the state, probably 9 out of 10 that I engage will say, “I’m going to vote against Donald Trump.” They don’t say they’re going to vote for Joe Biden. It’s just that Donald Trump has, for all the wrong reasons, really embarrassed us as Americans, but the fact that he picked on African Americans and others is just really a shame. And because of that, he’s going to have to bear the brunt of what I perceive as a tremendous African American turnout.
How do you handicap the Senate race with Espy and Hyde-Smith? Do you think Mike Espy will win?
I do. I think he’s going to win because he retooled his campaign from two years ago. He’s targeted the voters that he’s trying to touch, those infrequent voters are coming based on the targeting that went with it. We now have a seasoned campaign staff based on certain expertise they didn’t have two years ago. And he’s financed and raised the necessary money to have a credible campaign. The fact that he will have, I think, a tremendous turnout in the Black community for two or three reasons. One is the Trump factor. I think that in this state, African Americans will vote probably for Biden around 91-92%. That’s virtually unheard of. Barack Obama didn’t get those percentage numbers in this state. I think Trump has demonstrated who he is, and people want to get him out. I think Mike Espy will be the beneficiary of the anti-Trump Black vote in Mississippi. Now the other thing is I think there are some other groups that Trump has alienated. A lot of suburban, college-educated women. He has continuously marginalized their level of intelligence by what he says. They’re absolutely embarrassed. Then there are other people who just don’t like how (Trump) conducts himself. You are the chief elected official in the greatest country in the world, and for the most part, you’re acting like a tier-one dictator. We’re a better country than that. We’re a democracy. We’ve been taught that we can differ, but we should never forgo our standards nor the people we work with, and I think that’s been forgotten over the past four years.
You’ve helped Espy out a good bit. You’ve done some events together, you called Sen. Schumer for Espy, you set up some fundraisers for him at the convention. What else have you done for him?
I’m not the kind of person who wants to be the only Democratic elected official in Washington from this state. I helped elect Ronnie Shows when he was in Congress and others. But now it’s just me. That’s too big a burden on my shoulders as the lone Democrat. I need help. Mike Espy has the expertise and the love for this state to get it done. So I wholeheartedly want him to come so I can share this disproportionate burden that I’m bearing on behalf of Democratic voters in the state of Mississippi.
I know you and Espy know each other well. You took his seat in Congress when he was appointed to the Cabinet. You can’t work in politics for so long without knowing each other. Can you talk about what kind of senator he’d be for Mississippi?
Well I think he would be one that’s knowledgeable about a number of things that are important to our state. Our agricultural economy is absolutely one of the best. We need a senator who has the breadth and wisdom and knowledge. He’s been secretary of agriculture. That speaks for itself. He has legal training. He was born and raised in Yazoo City. His whole genre of experiences say that once he’s elected, he hits the ground running. He’s had experience in the House. But he goes to the Senate where he’ll be 1 of 100, rather than being like me in the House where you’re 1 in 435. And so he can elevate the standard, he can help break the glass ceiling of African American elected officials in this state. He would be unique. He was the first African American elected to the House since Reconstruction, and he’ll be the first African American elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. So we’ll have a twofer in Mike Espy.
So it sounds like he has your complete blessing?
Oh, absolutely. The next two weeks, we will be joining hands. Last week, we were in Greenville together doing events. We were in Cleveland doing an event. Like I said, I’ve done several events with various people, and they’ve all been very, very positive. There’s no daylight between Bennie Thompson and Mike Espy in this Nov. 3 election.
Were you as behind him two years ago as you are this year?
Oh yeah. You look at the numbers he got in the second district. He really needs to get those numbers this time, and I’m sure he will, if not a little higher because it’s a presidential year. But even with that, I have my campaign, he has his. Every time there’s an opportunity to work together, we do. We have a day planned on Election Day. There’ll be some areas of my district that I’ll tell him, “Mike, you don’t need to have your folk over here. We got your back. You need to go over to Meridian, or Tupelo or Biloxi or Hattiesburg, outside the second district.” We will free him up from a resource standpoint and a manpower standpoint to work in other parts of the state.
Every time Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith talks about race, she seemingly makes a gaffe. She doesn’t seem to be very sensitive to racial issues when she talks about them. Some would say she’s an outright racist. Do you think she’s a good representative of the state?
I think you are the sum total of your experiences. If your lot in life has been around a specific group of people, and you’ve been void of African Americans, then that’s who you are. And so while some say you might be prone to gaffes, that’s really who you are. Fortunately, that’s not Mississippi. You can’t talk about hanging and not understand the history of hangings or lynchings in this state and how that’s not, in the eyes of most Black people and a lot of white people, something you brag on. And so I think that sensitivity to issues of race with Cindy Hyde-Smith is just not there.
I guess you would say that sensitivity is an important thing for a U.S. senator from Mississippi to have?
Well when you have the highest percentage of African Americans in your state, you have to have a sensitivity to African Americans. You have to have relationships with the historically Black colleges. You have to have relationships with the leaders of the major religious denominations in the state. You know, the bishop of the United Methodist Church in Mississippi is an African American. The head of the National Baptist Convention, the largest Black religious denomination in America, is in Jackson, Mississippi. You have to have a relationship with those people because they’re important. But when you don’t have the relationship, either because you choose not to or for whatever reason you don’t, then that’s a failure on your part. Sometimes one’s weakness can become their strength, as long as they acknowledge that weakness. But if you try to defend or cover up that weakness, then you indeed have a problem.
Would you say that Cindy Hyde-Smith is a racist?
I’d say that she demonstrates the lack of sensitivity to issues around race. I don’t want to give her that title, but I would say if she asked me, “What can I do to understand more of the plight of African Americans in Mississippi,” I’d say, “Just go talk to them.” But you talk to them, not at them or down to them. You talk to them. I think from the beginning of this conversation: The most difficult conversation to have in this state and indeed this country is a discussion around race.
I’ve found my white contemporaries, they want to pick the Black person to talk to about race. If they talk to one, well he’s confrontational, so I want to talk to somebody who can work it out. Well that’s not for you to choose, you know what I’m saying? One of the real issues we have in this state is that when we are advocating for diversity and inclusion, a traditional white group will pick somebody Black who they already get along with rather than saying to the Black community, “Send me somebody who you’re comfortable with in representing your views.” In other words, the white group picks the Black person to come. They don’t say to the Black group, “Send my your representative.” That’s a faux pas that occurs in this state on almost a daily basis. Because it’s a certain comfort level that people are looking for, and it’s when that comfort level is not where it should be when they choose not to engage in that discussion.
So that’s why race is still a difficult conversation here in Mississippi. If you look at the board of directors at the banks that are chartered here in the state of Mississippi, a majority of them are all white. If you look at insurance companies and other corporations, majority white. Some that are public, some are private, but nonetheless, they have Black customers. The higher you go in the organization, the whiter it is. And that’s a reality. And so when you raise this question, inevitably somebody will come back, “Well, if I could find a qualified one…” What’s a qualified one? Do they have to be faster than a speeding bullet? Do they have to be able to leap buildings in a single bound? If you’re not looking for superman or superwoman, you ought to be able to find someone of color to include in your business if that’s what you want to do.
Mississippi has this long history of very influential lawmakers in Washington, particularly this outsize influence over federal money. Mississippi relies more on the federal dollar than any state in the nation. Cindy Hyde-Smith sits on appropriations. Do you think she’s pulling her weight for Mississippi? Is she able to be effective in that role?
Thad Cochran set a high bar. As you know, on his perch, he procured more resources for the state of Mississippi than any other senator in the country. So you have to temper that with the fact that for every dollar we send to Washington, we get three dollars back. So basically we are dependent on the largesse of the federal government. And if, for whatever reason, we have a person who doesn’t understand that, I don’t care how proud you are, you’re still a representative of a state that’s poor. And so you have to support Medicaid expansion that would bring billions of dollars to your state where the majority of your counties are underserved. But she’s not willing to promote that because it’s controversial. That’s not leadership. It doesn’t matter that the substantial number of those persons who would benefit from those dollars are African American. They’re still your citizens. The leadership issue on the flag — I mean, she should’ve been front and center on that. This is our state, and we’ve got to get out of this thing that for whatever reason, I can’t get involved in that. I wish her well, but the bar is real high for her to succeed. And unless she changes her trajectory, she will have a tough ticket in Washington.
Mississippi has never elected an African American statewide official, by popular vote at least. Is Mississippi ready, in your mind, to do that this November with Mike Espy?
I am an eternal optimist. If that chance presents itself on Nov. 3, I know of no better person to crack that ceiling than Mike Espy at this point in time.
Congressman, I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. It’s impossible to have a conversation about race in Mississippi politics without having that conversation with you. I appreciate not only your time, but your insights and your years of experience in dealing with this exact issue. Thank you so much for talking with me and us.
I appreciate you doing it, but I also appreciate the level of research that you all (at Mississippi Today) do on so many of the things that traditional people won’t write for whatever reason. I think that’s one of the reasons we’re still kind of sucking wind. It doesn’t matter if people like it or not. The question is, “Is it true?” And if it is, in fact, the truth, why shouldn’t we print it? I think that’s been one of our shortcomings as a state. For whatever reason, certain things were taboo like race – the notion that there’s certain things you just don’t print or say for fear of reprisal or being ostracized or whatever.
Congressman Bennie Thompson joins Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau in an hour-long discussion about why race is a difficult but important conversation to have in Mississippi. He also talks in detail about the U.S. Senate election between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy.
Mike Espy’s wholehearted embrace of Obama’s endorsement this week shreds any theory that he is abandoning the state’s Democratic voting base.
When former President Barack Obama recently endorsed Mike Espy’s Senate bid, the Espy campaign didn’t just welcome it — they blasted it on their social media channels and vowed to air it on African American radio stations across the state.
The response illustrates just how different a campaign Espy is running this year than past statewide Democratic candidates.
“I am honored to have the endorsement of the 44th president of the United States of America,” Espy said in a statement soon after the endorsement. “President Barack Obama governed with dignity and effectiveness. He is remembered and will continue to be remembered as a very good president.”
Just last year, the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Jim Hood worked hard to keep secret a recorded phone call to about 280,000 selected households in which the nation’s first African American president urged people to vote for Hood.
The Hood campaign, which strategically rolled out the Obama robocall the day before the election, did not want all Mississippians to know of the endorsement.
It wasn’t that Hood dislikes Obama or was ashamed of his support. The Hood campaign, like many other statewide Democrats in the past, concluded that being tied to national members of their party negatively impacted their chances of winning in majority-Republican Mississippi.
Michael Rejebian, a Jackson-based political consultant who was a key member of the Hood campaign, said working simultaneously to enthuse the base of the Mississippi Democratic Party — overwhelmingly made up of Black voters — and to attract moderate white voters they believed they needed to win was like trying to “thread a needle.”
“We were threading that needle every single day, every decision we made,” Rejebian said on Mississippi Today’s The Other Side podcast shortly after the 2019 election. “We knew at the beginning of this campaign that our base was not enough to win. We had to have moderate white voters, and to do that you have to do certain things. You have to appeal to them in certain ways you might not appeal to base voters… At the end of the day, we could not get that needle through that hole.”
Rejebian continued: “There are some good people out there who wanted to work with us and wanted to do great things in Mississippi. It was hard for us to say no, we have to run our own race here because if we don’t they are going to take that and bash us over the head with it every single day.”
Espy indicated early on that he would not run from national Democrats nor many of their progressive ideas. The plan was to try to attract new voters who often had not voted in past elections because they believed Mississippi Democratic candidates were too conservative.
A few weeks ago, various people on the left and right theorized that Espy was abandoning that strategy when he aired a television commercial that highlighted how he crossed party lines to work with Republican President Ronald Reagan and Sen. Thad Cochran when he served as the state’s first African American congressman in the modern era.
Espy’s wholehearted embrace of Obama this week shreds that theory.
Espy never said he would agree with Barack Obama, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris on every issue, but he has made it clear that they are Democrats whom he supports.
Still, he repeats the refrain: “I will be an independent voice in the Senate — whatever is best for Mississippi.”
Whether Espy’s embrace of the national Democratic Party in his contest with Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is a winning recipe remains to be seen. Hyde-Smith is still the clear favorite.
But Espy has something no other statewide Democrat has had in recent elections: a 3-to-1 cash advantage. Still, many believe there is no way Hyde-Smith can lose because people who come to the polls to vote for President Donald Trump, who is still popular in the state, will not vote for Espy. It is reasonable to assume that there will not be many who vote for both Trump and Espy.
But one caveat that could give Espy a glimmer of hope is that in 2008, 44,000 more people voted for Republican presidential nominee John McCain than voted for Republican Roger Wicker, who was challenged for a vacant U.S. Senate seat by former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. Overall, about 46,500 fewer people voted in the Senate election than in the presidential.
In the 2018 special election to replace long-time Sen. Cochran, Hyde-Smith defeated Espy by almost 66,000 votes. If there are enough people — ardent Trump supporters — who come to the polls to solely vote for him and skip voting in the Senate race, the 2020 U.S. Senate election could be surprisingly close.
The question, then, might become whether Espy’s strategy of seeking out the support of national Democrats was a good one.
W.C. Gorden, right, pictured with Marino Casem, left, and Rick Cleveland at a Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame function in 2013.
Today is a football Saturday, a good day to remember the life of W.C. Gorden, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who died Friday at the age of 90 in his adopted hometown of Jackson.
First thing’s first: W.C., whom I considered a good friend, was a terrific coach and a better person, always seeming on such an even, gentlemanly keel. He was a sports writer’s dream, a quote machine.
Rick Cleveland
W.C., who knew a thing or two about winning, once told me what “victory” meant to him.
“Victory makes your coffee sweeter and your food taste so much better,” he said. “It makes your jazz sound smoother, the sun shine brighter. It makes your wife look more beautiful. It even makes you sleep better and dream sweeter. Victory makes all the difference in the world.”
For most of his coaching life, Gorden’s coffee must have tasted mighty sweet and his wife was surely a knockout. Over 15 seasons at Jackson State’s head coach, his Tigers won 119 games, lost just 48 and tied 5. In the SWAC, they won 79 and lost 21.
Let’s put it this way: Deion Sanders would love to be so successful.
And here is the stat of this football week: During Gorden’s 15 seasons at the helm, Jackson State won eight conference championships. In the 28 seasons since, the Tigers have won three.
He won those championships in the SWAC’s heyday, when Eddie Robinson was the head coach at Grambling, when Marino Casem, The Godfather, was coaching at JSU’s arch-rival Alcorn and, for a while there, Archie Cooley, The Gunslinger, was at Mississippi Valley. Gorden, nicknamed The Jazzman for the music he dearly loved, just won.
As a coach he was very much the CEO type. He hired good coaches and kept them. He let them coach.
One was James “Big Daddy” Carson, the defensive coordinator who succeeded him. Indeed, Carson’s teams won two of the three SWAC championships the Tigers have won since Gorden stepped down.
In the 23 seasons since Carson retired, six different Jackson State coaches have won one title.
For a guy who won so often, Gorden proved to be a good loser as well.
His one losing season was in 1984 when the Tigers finished 4-5-1. That was the Mississippi football season that will be remembered for Alcorn and Mississippi Valley taking center stage. That was the season when Valley and Alcorn, both undefeated, played on a Sunday in JSU’s home stadium before a capacity crowd. That was the season when Alcorn and Valley went to the NCAA playoffs and JSU stayed home. But, as much as it must of hurt him inside, Gorden smiled through it and seemed to enjoy seeing SWAC football in the limelight. He even did the color commentary for the TV broadcast of that Valley-Alcorn game.
And then he won the next four SWAC championships.
Gorden was on the losing end of another huge day in Mississippi football history. That was in 1987 when Jackson State played at Southern Miss in the first game ever matching one of Mississippi’s HBCUs against one of the historically white universities.
A packed house at The Rock – including about half Jackson State fans – watched Southern Miss grind out a 17-7 victory in a game statistically dominated by Jackson State. Lewis Tillman, the great Jackson State running back, actually out-gained the entire Southern Miss team, which was quarterbacked by none other than Brett Favre.
Afterward, Gorden and then-USM coach Jim Carmody embraced at midfield, and after that Carmody said, “They are as fundamentally sound as anyone we play. They would beat a lot of teams we play.”
Said Gorden, simply, “I felt like we showed we belong.”
Fast forward to 2008 and South Bend, Ind., where Gorden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
“I am so elated because this is the ultimate generosity given in recognition of my coaching career,” Gorden said. “Coaching football to me was like living the American dream.”
Democratic U.S. Senate challenger Mike Espy raised nearly $3.9 million in early October. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith raised just $85,000.
Democratic U.S. Senate challenger Mike Espy raised nearly $3.9 million in campaign cash over the first two weeks in October, compared to less than $85,000 raised by incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The campaigns filed their last major finance reports on Thursday, ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
Espy, buoyed by a nationwide flood of cash to Democratic congressional candidates, had raised nearly $9.3 million total for the race as of Oct. 14. Hyde-Smith had raised just under $3 million.
Espy reported having nearly $3.7 million cash on hand for the critical final stretch of the race. Hyde-Smith reported having $777,000 cash on hand.
It’s nearly unheard of for a Democratic challenger to outraise a Republican incumbent in deeply red Mississippi, and Espy has used his cash advantage to bombard the airwaves with his messaging and create a large field operation.
Hyde-Smith has done comparatively little campaigning and less advertising than Espy. Most national political prognosticators still consider Mississippi “safely Republican” for the Senate and presidential election, but Espy’s campaign has received some recent national attention as a potential Democratic upset as the national parties battle for control of the Senate.
See the man with Nick Saban in the photo above? Recognize him? If you follow Southeastern Conference football, surely you do. In recent years he has played a huge role in many of the most important and most watched games in SEC history.
You may not know his name, but you know his face. You probably know his voice. He’s the guy in stripes who always wore the white cap, which differentiates the referee from the other officials. He’s the guy who blew the whistle to start the games. He’s the guy who stood back behind the quarterback, the guy who reached down around his belt and turned his microphone on so that he could tell 90,000 people and millions across the country who committed a penalty and how many yards it would cost his team.
In the storm of emotions that often is college football, he was the calm. He ran the show. Quite simply, he’s the guy who controlled the games until his retirement after the 2019 season.
He is 62-year-old Hubert Edward Owens and he grew up in Yazoo City, and his is a story worth telling.
Hubert Owens nearly always remained calm, but coaches like Les Miles, when he was at LSU, often did not.
Growing up in Yazoo – “half hills, half Delta, all crazy,” wrote Willie Morris, lovingly – Hubert Owens doesn’t remember when there wasn’t a ball around. Matter of fact, he doesn’t remember when there weren’t whistles, black and white striped shirts, and red handkerchiefs around, either. They belonged to his father, Hubert Roosevelt Owens, who officiated high school games and in the SWAC.
The father often took his sons to the games he worked. Big Hubert was an umpire, the guy who stands in the middle of the defensive secondary, just a few yards from the line of scrimmage. The umpire is the guy who most often calls holding penalties. When the umpire throws his flag, the offense usually groans. Big Hubert took his son to games in Lorman, Jackson, Grambling, Itta Bena and Baton Rouge, where the players, fans and the officials were nearly always all African-American.
But here’s the deal: On the Saturdays when little Hubert stayed home and turned the college games on the TV, many of the players were Black, but none of the officials were. One can only imagine the impression that must have left on a 10-year-old who loved sports as much as little Hubert did.
Over half a century later, Owens said, “I don’t know that I thought about it that much. To me, that’s just the way it was.”
Before integration, big Hubert officiated high school games in the old Magnolia High School Activities Association, which was no more after integration. When integration finally did come to Mississippi, the officials who had served the old Magnolia association had to file a court injunction to officiate in the integrated games Mississippi High School Activities Association.
That was only about 50 years ago.
Hubert Owens ran the hurdles for Yazoo City
Before he was a referee, little Hubert Owens was an athlete. He played football and ran track at Yazoo High. Peter Boston, brother of the great Olympic hero Ralph Boston, was one of his coaches, the one who taught him the proper form to run the hurdles in track. Hubert finished third in the state in that event. His football hero in those days was Yazoo’s own Willie Brown, the great NFL cornerback, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Like Willie Brown, Hubert was a defensive back, talented enough to earn a scholarship to Mississippi Valley State, where he was recruited by SWAC legend Davis Weathersby.
In fact, you will still find Hubert Owens in the MVSU and SWAC record books. In a SWAC game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Owens returned a blocked field goal 99 yards for a touchdown.
Upon graduation from MVSU, Owens tried pro football but found, “I just plain wasn’t good enough.”
Naturally, he became an official. Like father, like son.
Hubert Owens accepts the game ball from a young Kentucky fan.
The younger Hubert Owens officiated high school ball and eventually in the SWAC. At first he was a side judge, lining up behind the defense and mostly making calls that involve pass plays. He was a promising official on one of the SWAC’s top crews. Then, in 2002 something happened that changed the course of Owens’ officiating career. His crew was calling a game matching Prairie View and Texas Southern in the annual Labor Day Classic. Dr. Cassie “Cass” Pennington of Indianola was the crew chief, the referee.
“It was right before the game, and Dr. Pennington said he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t think he could do the game,” Owens said. “He looked right at me, took off the white hat and gave it to me.”
“You are the referee,” Pennington said.
And Hubert Owens became a referee for the rest of his career, a career that again drastically changed in the spring of 2005. That’s when Owens attended a officiating clinic in Beaumont, Texas, and ran into an official who told him he would soon be hearing from the SEC. “They want a Black referee and you are the only one on their list,” the man told him. And that’s exactly what happened.
For the football season of 2005, Owens became only the third African American referee in SEC history. In 2013, he became the first African American to serve as referee in the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in what had become his hometown, Atlanta. (Formerly Director of Contract Compliance for the City of Atlanta, Owens now works at Luster National, Inc. as National Supplier Diversity and Contract Compliance Director.)
Former SEC referee Steve Shaw – by then the director of SEC officials and now the NCAA National Coordinator of Officials – was the man who tabbed Owens to make SEC history.
“Hubert is a really good official, but what sets him apart is his game management,” Shaw said. “He’s in charge and everybody knows it although hardly ever had to raise his voice. That’s No. 1, No. 2 is the rapport he had with the coaches and the respect those coaches had for him. They would see Hubert and say ‘OK, we got Hubert’s crew today. We’ll be in good hands.’ In officiating, you can’t measure the value of that.”
Stan Murray, the former Mississippi State star player, served as a back judge on Owens’ crew for most of Owens’ 15 years in the SEC. They were the products of two different environments. Murray grew up going to mostly segregated schools in Jackson and following the SEC. For many of his formative years, Owens went to an all-Black school in Yazoo City and identified with what he knew, the SWAC. Much later in life, officiating brought them together in the SEC. The two became close friends and share a great mutual respect.
Said Murray, “Everyone on our crew had a nickname and this will tell you how much we thought of Hubert. His nickame was, ‘The Franchise.’”
Murray marvels at his friend’s serene manner in the most pressure-packed moments of officiating high level football, when bowl games, millions of dollars and coaches’ livelihoods hang in the balance.
“Unflappable,” Murray says of Owens. “The players, the fans, the coaches would all be going nuts and he never changed, no matter what.”
Shaw, who was one of college football’s most-respected referees before leaving the field, firmly believes Owens faced pressure he never faced himself.
“Hubert carried a burden I never had to carry because of who he was,” Shaw said. “Think about it. Because of his race, he was so recognizable. He was one of the very few people of his race doing what he was doing at the level he was doing it. It was like he had to be good every week. He had to prepare extra. He had to deliver because he was representing a lot of people. You better believe there were a lot of officials watching him to see how he did.
“That’s what makes his great career even more impressive to me. He had a lot of firsts in his career and he earned those. He was the first to do this and the first to do that, the first to run the show at an SEC Championship and he handled it incredibly well. He did some of the biggest bowl games incredibly well. He provided a great role model for younger African American offiicials.”
Before every season, SEC officials have to run a mile in a certain time in order to meet the criteria to officiate.
Asked if he felt what Shaw called “a burden,” Owens responded, “Well, I did feel like I was representing a whole lot more people than myself. First, I felt I was presenting my father and so many others like him who were never given the opportunities I had. That was a big responsibility, I thought. And then there was the responsibility I felt like I had to those who would come behind me. I wanted to show that I – and people who look like me – could handle the big stage. Looking back, I am proud of the many firsts I had.”
So, we’ve been through the firsts. It’s time to talk about the lasts. Owens said “I just knew” it was time to step away after the 2019 season. “Physically, it was time,” he said.
His last SEC game?
“It was the piss-and-miss game, the (2019) Egg Bowl,” Owens said, chuckling.
Said Shaw, “He handled that ending as well as it could be handled.”
It was not lost on Owens that his last game matched two schools from his home state that his father could not have attended, much less ever officiated one of their football games.
But it was his last bowl game that might mean the most to Owens. He had done several huge bowl games, including the Fiesta Bowl, during his career. Last year, Shaw assigned him the Celebration Bowl – SWAC champion Alcorn vs. MEAC champion North Carolina A&T – televised nationally by ABC. For that game, Shaw put together an all-star crew of all African American officials from the SEC and Sun Belt conferences.
“Of course, the referee had to be Hubert Owens,” Shaw said.
Said Owens, “For me with my background officiating in the SWAC and following in my dad’s footsteps, it felt like the the perfect ending.”
