Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

A voter walks into Twin Lakes Baptist Church in Madison, Miss., Tuesday, November 5, 2019.

Mississippi is the only state not to provide all citizens an option to vote early rather than go to crowded precincts on Election Day during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Democracy Initiative.

“Mississippi is now the only state in which in-person voting on Election Day is the only option available to all voters,” said the report from the Democracy Initiative, which is a coalition of 75 groups advocating for voter access. “In Mississippi, an excuse (other than risk of COVID-19) is required to cast an absentee ballot or to vote early, and not all voters qualify.”

Mississippi lawmakers did less to expand early voting or vote-by-mail opportunities during the pandemic than most states.

READ MORE: Legislative leaders, once again, say they will not expand early voting during pandemic.

The Democracy Initiative study points out that 49 states, with the exception of Mississippi, give citizens the opportunity to vote early in-person or by mail this year. Mississippi is one of just five states that does not allow no-excuse voting by mail, but in those other four states, all voters can vote early during the pandemic.

“At a time when we should all be working to make sure that the ballot is accessible to all Mississippians, we continue to fight for the rights of Mississippians to vote,” said Corey Wiggins, executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of NAACP. “Even today, in 2020, we continue to fight against old and outdated policies and practices aimed to suppress the vote.”

Even before the pandemic, Mississippi had some of the most restrictive early voting laws in the nation. Only people who are going to be away from their home area on Election Day, those over the age of 65 and people with disabilities are allowed to vote early either in person or by mail.

To make accommodations for the pandemic, the Legislature expanded early voting earlier this year to only those who are in a physician-ordered quarantine or are the caretaker for someone in quarantine. Lawsuits have been filed to try to expand the early voting opportunities in Mississippi, but thus far they have had not been successful.

The four states contiguous to Mississippi allow no-excuse, in-person early voting during this pandemic year. Arkansas is the only one of the four neighboring states to allow both no-excuse early voting in person and by mail, according to the study.

None of Mississippi’s Republican legislative leadership advocated for allowing all Mississippians to vote early this year because of safety concerns related to COVID-19. No excuse early voting also was not advocated by Gov. Tate Reeves nor Secretary of State Michael Watson, who oversees state elections.

READ MORE: Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn once supported early voting. Why did they retreat during COVID-19?

In addition, Watson has said there will be no state mask mandate at the polls on Election Day. All have said that the existing law, combined with the language giving people in quarantine the right to vote early and the personal protection equipment provided at the precincts, will ensure safe elections.

Reeves pointed out there have been special elections for state legislative seats, and to his knowledge, those have been conducted safely.

“I am fully confident on Election Day in early November that will be the case,” Reeves recently said.

More than 1 million Mississippians are expected to vote this November. The Democracy Initiative study projected that a record 160 million people may vote nationwide this year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic will make this election different than any we have ever seen,” the study said. “Due to health concerns about contracting the deadly virus while standing in or entering a crowded polling place, tens of millions of voters will vote in 2020 using a different method than they ever have before.”

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The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases in Mississippi is now at 646, a 24% rise in the last week alone, and a 25% increase since Gov. Tate Reeves lifted the statewide mask mandate on Sept. 30.

UMMC Communications

State health officer Thomas Dobbs at a press conference at UMMC.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs discussed during a Monday press conference whether the mandate’s absence is directly attributable to the rise in cases.

“We started to see numbers creep up before really there would’ve been a potential impact from the mask mandate,” Dobbs said. “I will say, though, that it could certainly be part of the problem as time goes forward. Personally, I’ve been a little bit disappointed hearing from churches and businesses that they feel like they’re no longer in power to have their members or visitors wear masks, and I think that does increase risk, unfortunately.”

It’s now been 12 days since Gov. Reeves let the statewide mask mandate expire. According to the CDC,  the incubation period, or the time between someone’s infection and when they experience symptoms, is typically two weeks at the longest.

The number of new cases had steadily decreased from late July until about mid-September. During the span of the statewide mask mandate, which Gov. Reeves initiated on Aug. 4, the seven-day average for cases plummeted, dropping by 54%. The new case average is now at its highest point since Sept. 4.

In the whole month of September, the state health department never reported more than 853 cases in a day. The single-day tallies in just this past week have passed that mark three times.

Similarly, the latest report of COVID-19 in schools, compiled each week, showed the highest number of illnesses yet, with 521 cases among students, teachers and staff between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2.

Hospitalization data have also shown a drastic difference from before, during, and after the mask mandate. During the mandate, the seven-day average for total COVID-19 hospitalizations — confirmed plus suspected cases — decreased by 52%.

The average for hospitalizations, a lagging indicator, is still about where it was in late September. However, the average increased each day from Oct. 3 to Oct. 9 — the latest update available — which is by far the longest such stretch since July.

“All the indicators are looking in the wrong direction,” Dobbs said. “Hospitalizations are up, cases are up; Deaths are not really up so much, but we know that always lags. The last time we saw that was before the summer surge.”

Regionally, counties in north Mississippi and on the Gulf Coast have generally seen the highest case increases. The counties with the largest percent increases this month so far are:

• Benton County (37 new cases, 16% increase)
• Itawamba County (123 new cases, 14% increase)
• Hancock County (74 new cases, 12% increase)
• Lamar County (200 new cases, 11% increase)
• Jackson County (371 new cases, 10% increase)
• Claiborne County (48 new cases, 10% increase)
• Chickasaw County (69 new cases, 10% increase)
• George County (75 new cases, 10% increase)
• Harrison County (359 new cases, 9% increase)
• Forrest County (229 new cases, 9% increase)

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Kenny Griffis and Latrice Westbrooks are running for a Mississippi Supreme Court seat on Nov. 3.

Challenger Latrice Westbrooks says she would bring needed diversity to a Mississippi Supreme Court that has been dominated throughout its history by white men.

Incumbent Kenny Griffis said voters should consider only experience and “judicial philosophy” on Nov. 3 and not race or gender.

The two judges, both with lengthy appellate court experience, participated in an online forum hosted by the Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol Press Corps on Monday, outlining their experience and qualifications in what is considered a very competitive race for the District 1, Place 1 high court seat for central Mississippi.

The district of about 1 million people is nearly evenly divided by race, partisanship and urban/rural population.

“Throughout Mississippi’s 200 year history, of 137 Supreme Court justices, only four have been women,” Westbrooks said. “I believe we should have a court that reflects our population.”

Only one woman currently serves on the nine-member Mississippi Supreme Court, despite women making up more than 51% of the state’s population. And Westbrooks, if elected, would be the first African American woman to serve on the state’s high court, which currently has only one Black justice.

“I believe people should vote based on qualifications, experience and judicial philosophy,” said Griffis, who describes himself as a constitutional conservative. “That’s what Dr. King fought for … Nine people deciding cases based on what the law is … Not race or gender, but who best represents the people of the state of Mississippi.”

READ MORE: The November election could put two Black justices on the Supreme Court for first time in Mississippi history.

Westbrooks, of Lexington, was elected to the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2016. She previously served as an assistant district attorney for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties — the first African American woman to serve there as assistant DA. Westbrooks served as prosecutor for the city of Durant and as city attorney for Isola. She served as a public defender in Holmes County for nearly 10 years and has served as legal counsel for the Jackson Police Department and as a municipal judge for the city of Lexington.

Griffis, of Ridgeland, was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Phil Bryant to fill out the term Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., who left the bench at the end of January 2019. Griffis was a Mississippi Court of Appeals judge from 2003 until his appointment to the Supreme Court and was serving as chief judge of the appellate court at the time of his appointment. He also previously worked as a certified public accountant.

Both candidates have decades of experience practicing law.

Although Mississippi Supreme Court races are nonpartisan, Griffis has been endorsed by the state Republican Party, and Westbrooks has the support of numerous Democratic state leaders and groups.

READ MORE: We asked Mississippi Supreme Court candidates why they’re running in the Nov. 3 election. Here’s where they stand on key issues.

Griffis said that the state’s high court, which oversees the Administrative Office of the Courts, should help update and change many court rules and procedures, including making sure judicial elections “comport with the First Amendment” when it comes to judges being allowed to express their partisan affiliation.

“I get asked all the time, are you a Republican or Democrat, and we as candidates can’t respond, and that puts us in an uncomfortable position,” Griffis said.

Griffis said he would push for updating court procedures including more public access to court data and records, more cameras and livestreaming of court proceedings statewide and to “tighten the rules” on judicial ethics, campaign contributions for judges and monitoring how lower courts are keeping up with their dockets.

Westbrooks said she brings a needed diversity of experience, working as a prosecutor, dealing with victims and law enforcement, as a public defender and on the “front lines” of the state’s justice system.

“I will bring a diversity of experience that will serve real, everyday Mississippians,” Westbrooks said.

Westbrooks said the state’s spartan and underfunded public defender system needs to be improved, and should be “on par” with the District Attorney system in terms of resources for defendants such as expert witnesses.

Westbrooks said, “We still have disparities in sentencing across the state.”

The central Mississippi district covers the counties of Bolivar, Claiborne, Copiah, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Madison, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Sunflower, Warren, Washington, and Yazoo.

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Kristina Taylor, 18, cries as she holds a portrait of her late mother, Sharon Taylor, while she and her older sister Kristi Wishork, 25, recall the care their mother had for her children and grandchildren, Tuesday, July 21, 2020 at their home in Tucker, Miss. Taylor, 53, died of coronavirus at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson on June 26 after two weeks in the hospital. She never saw her daughter Kristina, the class valedictorian at Choctaw Central High School, graduate. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Leaders of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians say they are “losing parts of our culture” as the COVID-19 pandemic has ripped through their community.

More than 10% of tribal members have contracted the virus, The New York Times reports, and they’ve made up 64% of Neshoba County’s COVID-19 deaths despite only making up 18% of the county’s population.

“We aren’t just losing family members or an aunt or uncle, we are losing parts of our culture,” Mary Harrison, interim health director for the Choctaw Health Center, told the Times. “We’ve lost dressmakers, we’ve lost artists, elders who are very fluid in our language — so when you think about an individual we’ve lost, these are important people in our community.”

Click here to read the full story from The New York Times.

After a steady decline in total cases and average cases, COVID-19 cases are again on the rise in Mississippi. The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases is now at 646, a 27% increase since the start of October and a 24% increase in the last week alone. The average is also the highest since Sept. 4.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

House Speaker Philip Gunn, left, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann share a laugh before the State of the State Address at the State Capitol Monday, January 27, 2020.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn once supported allowing all Mississippians to vote early in person. So why, as many Mississippians fear for their safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, did the Legislature’s two presiding officers retreat from that position?

Various studies show that Mississippi did less than the vast majority of other states to make voting safer ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. The Brookings Institute, which has tracked states’ actions on voting during the pandemic, gave Mississippi a D ranking for its 2020 efforts. Other groups that track voting issues gave Mississippi similar or worse grades.

It became obvious early on that the Republican leadership in Mississippi was not going to expand mail-in voting options as most other states had done. But history indicated that there was an appetite among key politicians for allowing all Mississippians to vote early in person.

In both the 2016 and 2017 sessions, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted by overwhelming margins to allow all Mississippians to vote early at their circuit clerks’ offices. The measure passed 117-2 in 2016, and 113-8 in 2017. Gunn voted in favor of both early voting bills.

In both years, the early voting measures were killed in the Senate, where Tate Reeves presided as lieutenant governor. But in 2020, there was a new sheriff in town as lieutenant governor: Delbert Hosemann, who had also advocated for in-person early voting for all Mississippians while serving as secretary of state and the state’s chief elections officer.

It seemed like a no-brainer that in-person early voting could pass at least for 2020 to try to make elections safer for those concerned about the coronavirus. But such was not the case, and the “why” is not clear.

Granted, Reeves is now serving as governor and presumably could have vetoed any early voting effort. But in 2016 and 2017, early voting passed the House by margins far greater than the two-thirds majority needed to override a governor’s veto. With Hosemann’s backing, perhaps it would have passed the Senate by similar margins. Perhaps Reeves would have signed the bill. We will never know.

During the 2020 session, Hosemann barely said a word in support of early voting. When asked recently after what was described by legislative leaders as the longest session in history if more should have been done to help make the election process safer, Hosemann said, “I think they (legislators) did a good job.”

Existing state law allows those who are going to be away from their homes on Election Day, those over the age of 65 and the disabled to vote early. In the 2020 session, as Hosemann pointed out, the Legislature added a new provision to the state elections law to allow those in a physician-imposed quarantine because of the coronavirus and those who are caretakers for people impacted by the coronavirus to vote early.

But those who might want to vote early to minimize the risk of catching COVID-19 in potentially crowded precincts will be out of luck. And, by the way, current Secretary of State Michael Watson has said the wearing of masks will not be mandated in those precincts.

In the two years that the House passed early voting, Bill Denny, R-Jackson, served as Elections Committee chair. He was defeated in his 2019 re-election bid and was replaced as House Elections chair by Jim Beckett, R-Bruce. Beckett said recently he did not necessarily oppose early in-person voting, but consensus to pass such a proposal could not be reached during the 2020 session. He said support was needed not only from legislators, but from county circuit clerks, election commissioners, the secretary of state and others.

While it might be a mystery why legislative leaders were not willing to approve early voting, the process of developing the elections bill that ultimately passed was done in a secretive fashion. Legislative rules mandate that the conference committees — where House and Senate leaders meet to hash out the final version of a bill — be conducted in open, public session. But that rule is almost always ignored, and during the coronavirus pandemic, there were even fewer in-person meetings occurring at the Capitol.

When asked whether in-person early voting was being considered, Senate Elections Chair Jenifer Branning, R-Philadelphia, said she would comment when a compromise was reached.

Such a lack of transparency only adds to the mystery of why legislative leaders, who had supported early voting in the past, refused to consider it in a year when Mississippians might need it most.

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Bruce Newman

Whitey Ford threw the ceremonial first pitch on April 22, 1989, when the University of Mississippi officially dedicated its new home stadium, Oxford-University Stadium.

Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Ford, the stylish, left-handed pitcher who died Thursday at age 91, pitched in a remarkable 498 Major League games, all for his beloved New York Yankees.

Rick Cleveland

The catcher for Ford’s last game in 1967? He would be Jake Gibbs, the Ole Miss football legend from Grenada.

“Whitey was the master,” Gibbs said Saturday morning by phone from his home in Oxford. “Whitey was a pitcher, not a thrower. He was an intelligent pitcher. He could put the ball where he wanted it. He had all the pitches. He kept it down around the knees, moved it inside and out, changed speeds, always had the batter guessing.

“You know how many great pitchers the Yankees had in the ’50s and ’60s?” Gibbs continued. “Well, Whitey Ford was the one they called the Chairman of the Board. He was the best. People ask me who the best pitcher I ever caught was, well, it was Whitey Ford. No doubt about that. Everybody who plays the position of catcher should have one opportunity to catch a pitcher like Whitey. ”

Gibbs and Ford were close as teammates, and the friendship lasted through the years. When Gibbs signed with the Yankees in 1961, Ford, a veteran all-star pitcher, was one of the first to greet him. When Ford and Mickey Mantle went out on the town in New York, Gibbs was often riding shotgun, making sure everyone got home safe and sound.

Ford was once asked about how he, a son of New York City’s east side, and Mantle, a country boy from Oklahoma, became such close pals and running buddies. Said Ford, “We both liked Scotch.”

Gibbs laughed heartily upon hearing that. “Sounds about right,” Gibbs said “They didn’t miss many last calls.”

When Ford and Mickey Mantle began their baseball fantasy camps after retirement, they chose Gibbs to run the camps. When Gibbs, as Ole Miss baseball coach, was dedicating the Rebels’ new baseball stadium in 1989, Ford came down from New York to throw out the first pitch.

That day in 1989, Gibbs arranged for this writer to have a few minutes to chat with Ford, one of my childhood heroes. We talked about Mantle, about Roger Marris, about Casey Stengel and Ralph Houk, and about many other Yankee heroes. But what I remember most of the conversation was this: Just how much Ford loved Gibbs.

“I’d do anything for Jake,” Ford said. “Everybody loves Jake or there’s something wrong with them.”

I concur. And where Ford and Gibbs were concerned, the feeling was clearly mutual.

“Whitey was so smart, so good at what he did, but he was one of the guys, a great teammate,” Gibbs said. “He was so outgoing, mixed and mingled with everyone. He was not a prima donna kind of guy. He enjoyed people and he enjoyed having a good time. He never got hung up on himself. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me that he would take the time to come all the way down to Oxford to help open our stadium.”

The Yankees were the kings of baseball back when Gibbs broke in, more famous as a Rebel football hero than for his baseball skills. When he wasn’t playing quarterback, Gibbs had been an infielder at Ole Miss, and the Yankees were loaded with infielders and infield prospects at the minor league level. Gibbs probably would have become a key player with other teams but the Yankees were flush with talent.

Nevertheless, Gibbs never played at a level lower than Class AAA. In fact, it was at that level that the Yankees converted him from infielder to catcher, the position at which he made the big league club for good in 1965 as the great Elston Howard’s back-up. You should also know Gibbs was the link between Yankee catching greats Howard and Thurman Munson. When Howard retired, Gibbs got the job. Shortly thereafter, Munson, another Yankee legend, came on the scene.

Bruce Newman

Jake Gibbs, after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to open the Ole Miss baseball season last February.

Clearly, catching Ford was one of the joys of Gibbs’ career.

“He threw a two-seam fast ball, a four-seam fast ball and a slider,” Gibbs said. “You see those big strapping guys today throwing 95 and 99 miles per hour. White was 5-foot-10, tops, and he probably threw 87-88 mph, but he knew where that ball was going. I’d put my mitt down about two-inches off the corner on a right-handed batter. He’d hit the mitt right there, and I never moved the mitt. Nine times out of 10, it was a strike.”

Famously, Ford was not above loading the ball with saliva or mud – or nicking it with his ring – for a crucial pitch.

“If there was a nick or a spot on the ball, Whitey could make that thing talk,” Gibbs said. “He could make it drop out of sight.”

Whitey Ford won 236 games, lost only 106, with an earned run average of 2.75. He did that with great economy. He pitched to contact. He worked quickly.

“In ’65, I caught one of Whitey’s games that we won 1 to nothing,” Gibbs said. “The entire game lasted an hour and a half. Can you believe that? Ninety minutes.”

Ford was at his best when the moment was biggest. He won 10 World Series games and at one point had a streak of 33.2 scoreless World Series innings, still a record. For such a little guy, he was cocksure of himself. He pitched confidently.

And he might have pitched a lot longer had it not been for circulatory problems in his throwing shoulder that first surfaced in the 1964 World Series.

“It could be a hot day in August, and the right side of Whitey’s jersey would be soaked with sweat,” Gibbs said. “But the left side of his jersey would be completely dry. It was unreal and it was because of bad circulation.”

Ford underwent surgery for a blocked artery to try and fix the problem. Any relief was only temporary. He won 24 games in 1963, 17 in ’64, and 16 in ’65. He pitched sparingly in 1966 and 1967, when Gibbs caught his last game.

Let the record show that in ’67, his last year, Ford still achieved a 1.64 ERA in 44 innings. At 38, he couldn’t throw as hard or as often, and he sometimes couldn’t feel his left shoulder and arm. But when they gave him the ball he could still pitch. He could get by on fortitude and guile.

Says Gibbs, “Nobody knew more about how to pitch than Whitey.”

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Jackson native disrupts downtown with new tech hub plans

How fighting discrimination in artificial intelligence informed ideas to foster tech access

By Erica Hensley | October 10, 2020

Driving through the edges of downtown Jackson as a kid, Nashlie Sephus was fascinated with a particular abandoned factory warehouse she called “the barn.” 

The barn is still stark in size and stature, towering over a major thoroughfare that’s more highly trafficked than nearly every other street in the city, but has suffered from decades of divestment despite being flanked by Jackson State University and the city’s business district. Dissected by the state’s main railroad corridor that houses Jackson’s Amtrak station and Town Creek that winds through downtown to feed the Pearl River, Sephus says North Gallatin Street is the perfect spot for the city to re-envision its future and to invest in her home.

But until recently, the property sat abandoned like much of the street and surrounding area. Sephus, 35, bought it in September along with 12 accompanying acres to create what she’s dubbed the “Jackson Tech District” — a block of now-unused industrial property she’s morphing into a technology district, mixing non- and for-profit space to create a resource, playground and potential development anchor for the community. 

“I believe in all the benefits of having come from a place like Jackson and being born in Mississippi. There’s not a person who knows me who doesn’t know that I’m from Mississippi and I love to brag on it and help change people’s stereotypes,” she said. Having lived on both coasts and worked with people all over the world in the tech industry, “I like to put that front and center.”

Sephus has dedicated her career to technology equity. A Mississippi State University graduate in computer engineering, she now works for Amazon reconfiguring data patterns that show implicit bias. She also launched a non-profit in Jackson two years ago called The Bean Path, dedicated to helping everyone from children to small business owners access tech tools they need through coding and engineering programing, “tech hours” at local libraries and grant-making to encourage STEM growth in schools. 

The Bean Path will own and operate arts and culture programming, tech classes and events in two of the seven buildings across the tech hub’s new district. Mixed-use development comprising housing, offices, restaurants and collaborative work spaces are planned for the other buildings, all revolving around the idea of leveling the playing field with dedicated space for and open access to tech tools. 

“This (technology) is such a huge infrastructure and a part of our daily lives, it’s very important for us to keep up and not be left behind,” she said. “I think it’s really important for me to make sure I’m doing everything I can, being that I’m an expert in this industry, to make sure that other people like me have opportunities to be successful in this field and also to bridge the gap to help people with their everyday lives.”

In Jackson, classes are still virtual but resources are scarce and COVID-19 emotional and physical tolls are high, exacerbated by longstanding housing and health inequities. “(We were) thinking about kids that may need somewhere to access the internet, they need to rent laptops for a day and access a tutor, because not all parents are about that tutoring life,” Sephus said.

She added this type of strategic community planning and investment in the community has traditionally been missing from big Jackson development projects. “We can provide them a space for them to come, this belongs to the community just as much as it belongs to me. I want to make everybody a part of that, I think engaging the community is one of the biggest pieces that might be missing from that downtown area.”

As a computer engineer focused on machine learning, she looks for patterns and, often more importantly, diversions from those patterns to help artificial intelligence course-correct for bias. For AI, patterns determine everything, like the types of ads you see on social media, what kind of music and TV shows streaming services suggest for you and which routes self-driving cars pick. 

But patterns meant to teach AI can also be deceiving and discriminatory if they only reflect certain groups — and it all revolves around what dataset the tech pulls from. Research shows facial recognition software works best for white men and misidentifies Black faces more often. 

For AI to recognize and learn from situations, it uses information from previous datasets — when it encounters something new, the bias defaults to reject or mis-categorize it unless it fits in with pre-existing patterns. AI can be biased because the information it has to learn from is biased, particularly when it comes to race, gender and social inequity.

Sephus works on Amazon Web Services’ AI team to detect inequities in algorithms and retrain them to discern differences. Essentially, her team works to identify and recalibrate fairness within data patterns, such as facial recognition and how bank loans are awarded. 

“Anything outside of those patterns shows up as an anomaly and so we’re looking at things to detect faces, even to detect my voice. If you haven’t ‘trained your algorithm’ on voices of people from the South, it probably won’t work as well for people who sound like us,” she said.

Sephus experienced the bias inherent to bank loan algorithms firsthand over the last 18 months when she fought for, and was ultimately denied, financing to buy up the now-abandoned property in downtown Jackson that she plans to develop into the tech hub.

“For me having come from Amazon, I had a startup successful acquisition, I have access to a lot of capital, a lot of it is my own — I just realized sometimes it doesn’t matter how much money you have. The banks don’t care, they’re looking for certain trends and patterns,” she said.

It took the then-landowner agreeing to owner financing and Ridgeland-based Butler Snow law firm committing to pro-bono representation to close the deal, she says. A year and half after deciding to make the tech hub reality, Sephus is breaking ground on the new project. She says it stands to not only revolutionize the community and its capital, but also transform Jackson’s infrastructure and development to be from a community, rather than just for it — issues the nearby Farish Street has been plagued with. 

“I am a fairly young person, I’m a Black female. I don’t know many other people who look like me who are similar to me, who own property and are doing the same thing in the downtown area,” she said. “I think that’s kind of what it takes — for somebody who thinks differently with a different background to come in and, as we say in the start-up world, disrupt … I’m crazy enough to believe that we can pull this off.”

She lives and works in Atlanta, but is spending a lot of time home in Jackson to get the project going and funded, and is not new to homegrown non-profit work, like The Bean Path that will spearhead community programming for the new tech district. She says she hopes more infrastructure recognizes that tech equity is more than just the biases in technology itself, but access to it, like universal high speed internet access. 

She sees the tech hub as an inflection point for the area that will not only bring economic development and impact for kids who benefit from the tech resources, but with classes, trainings and tutoring she thinks it will bring workforce skills development for people going to work within the tech industry, and increase the area’s property value and infrastructure along the way. One of her more-pressing goals is to turn the barn event space into a safe WiFi hotspot for students’ virtual learning needs. 

“Especially given the things that have happened this year in terms of COVID, in terms of the Black Lives Matter movement, I think the time is now,” she said. “I just want people to understand that it shouldn’t be this hard and that I am dedicated to making sure that I bring the community along in this process and educating them on how I’m going about it and how they can also do the same thing …  you can do it. Get a good support system. I definitely have more than my fair share of people that are supporting me, and that I attribute my success to. I want to be that person for the next generation.”

Editor’s note: Tray Hairston, a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors, is the Butler Snow attorney who worked with Sephus for the tech hub property closing.

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