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CLEVELAND — The GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland launched its first major exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of MTV, the music video television network that inspired a cultural awakening.

The exhibit, called MTV Turns Forty, shares the role of media executive and Jackson native Bob Pittman, who led the team that created MTV in August 1981. It also features artifacts from music legends like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Run-DMC and Aerosmith.

The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, and it was unveiled during a special reception Thursday evening.

“This is fantastic,” Pittman said on Thursday. “Here I am in the Mississippi Delta, at the Grammy Museum Mississippi. I’m in music. I’m truly proud that here too, in my home state, the MTV Turns 40 exhibition is being showcased. I think this gives anyone into the music heritage of Mississippi, and especially the Blues, such an important place to be, and it’s such an important recognition of the artists.”

MTV Turns Forty will be on display at the museum through summer 2022.

Below is a photo gallery from the exhibit and museum.

Editor’s note: Mississippi Today board of directors member Tom Pittman — Bob Pittman’s brother — is involved in the planning of the MTV Turns Forty exhibit, and Mississippi Today board member Andy Lack is on the Grammy Museum Mississippi’s national advisory board. The Maddox Foundation, which is supporting the exhibit, is a donor of Mississippi Today.

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The use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has opened up to children as young as 12 in Mississippi, offering a way to protect the nation’s adolescents before they head back to school in the fall and paving the way for them to return to more normal activities .

This move opens up vaccination against COVID-19 to 164,619 preteens and teens in Mississippi, according to Mississippi State Department of Health Communications Director, Liz Sharlot.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine’s use in those adolescents on Monday, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee recommended such use on Wednesday. 

It is unclear how many parents across the state will take advantage of the opportunity to get their children vaccinated, but a recent MSDH vaccine confidence survey found that 52.2% of Mississippians plan to vaccinate their children against COVID-19.

While the most severe outcomes most often occur in older patients that contract COVID-19, that does not mean there are no risks for younger people. More than 22,000 kids between the ages of 12 to 17 have been infected thus far in Mississippi. Among that group, 62 have been hospitalized, 20 have developed multi-system inflammatory syndrome and at least one has died. 

“I want us all to really sit back and realize that you’re likely either to get the COVID vaccine, or the COVID virus,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, State Health Officer, said during a Thursday press conference. “And under every circumstance, under every conceivable scenario, you are a thousandfold if not a millionfold better off getting the vaccine than contracting COVID. So please take this opportunity if you’re eligible to go ahead and get yourself or your kids vaccinated.”

Thousands of vaccination appointments are currently available on the MSDH vaccine scheduler, and parents will be able to schedule appointments for their children in the newly approved age group starting Thursday at 6 p.m.

During Thursday’s press conference, MSDH also announced a new program for schools across the state to offer voluntary asymptomatic COVID-19 screenings. The program is being funded by the CDC, and all school districts in the state have been invited to opt-in to the program. MSDH will be supplying rapid test kits directly each week to the schools that enroll. Dr. Dobbs said that asymptomatic testing is a great method for identifying infections before they can be spread inside the school setting. 

“It’s another tool to keep kids in school safely … we do have some data that shows that it keeps kids in school longer if you do it right. Our objective is to keep kids educated and keep them in those valuable extracurricular activities where we’ve seen a lot of outbreaks,” Dobbs said.

State health officials also addressed the sharp turnabout from federal health officials shortly before the press conference on Thursday, when the CDC advised that Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus may stop wearing masks and maintaining social distance in most indoor and outdoor settings, regardless of size.

The new advice does come with some exceptions. Vaccinated individuals must continue to wear face masks and physically distance in health care settings, when using modes of public transportation and when in other high-risk settings like prisons or homeless shelters.

“We have all longed for this moment,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the CDC director, said at a White House news conference Thursday. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

The advice from the CDC marks a major moment of the pandemic, and comes as many have grown weary with COVID-related restrictions and masking in public. The topic of masking in particular has caused bitter divides and conflicts across the country, and still represents a deep partisan divide in Mississippi. 

Despite the CDC recommendations, both Dobbs and State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers advised Mississippians, regardless of their vaccination status, to continue masking in public. Especially in populated indoor settings, where one cannot be sure how many unvaccinated individuals they will come into contact with. 

“I think that we just have to kind of think about these situations as they come up and let reason dictate whether or not we need to wear a mask,” Byers said. 

Part of the motivation behind the CDC’s new recommendations for vaccinated people is to act as an incentive for the many Americans who are still declining to take a vaccine. Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the share of its population that has been vaccinated, and the state’s vaccination rate has dropped 65% from its peak in late February.

MSDH reported on Thursday that 982,359 people in Mississippi — about 33% of the state’s population — have received at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 851,000 people have been fully inoculated since the state began distributing vaccines in December.

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The Democratic National Committee and Democratic state parties have reached a four-year agreement to guarantee more investment in state political infrastructure, including a “Red State Fund” for GOP-controlled states such as Mississippi.

Mississippi Democratic leaders and candidates have for years decried a lack of investment of money and manpower by the national party in Mississippi races and party infrastructure as the state has grown more solidly Republican up and down the ballot.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, who lost back-to-back Mississippi U.S. Senate races to Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2018 and 2020, is one of those candidates. He welcomed Thursday’s announcement from the Democratic National Committee.

“I am thrilled to see this happening,” Espy said. “There is a new day in the national Democratic Party and I think I would attribute some of that to the new chairman (Jaime Harrison) being from South Carolina and just having lost in a red state. We’re friends and have spoken about the need for something like this. I’m thrilled to see that in his first month at the helm something like this is happening. This work means candidates such as I was can focus on having a winning campaign, messaging and outreach and not spend three-fourths of our time raising money and trying to build party infrastructure for the state.”

READ MORE: ‘They’ve failed us’: Inside the battle for control of the Mississippi Democratic Party

In a press release on Thursday, the DNC said the agreement will result in at least $23 million in direct investments to state parties and grassroots infrastructure during the 2022 midterm election cycle. This will include a “seven figure” Red State Fund “to put Republicans on defense” with direct investment and grants to states that meet two of the following: no Democratic senator or governor, less than 25% of the congressional delegation is Democratic and a supermajority of Republicans it the state’s Legislature.

Mississippi meets all these criteria, but no congressional seat appears party competitive in the deep red Magnolia State for 2022. Republicans control all but one congressional seat in Mississippi, and all eight statewide elected offices and both chambers of the state Legislature.

The DNC said the contract with state parties includes a data sharing agreement that will increase investment in down-ticket races, and also looks to the future for turning red states blue.

The agreement includes $15.5 million for the DNC’s State Partnership Program and reestablishing a joint fundraising committee between the DNC and state parties.

“As a former state party chair, I know firsthand how critical it is that we invest in the grassroots to strengthen the Democratic Party as a whole — and we can’t leave a single community behind,” said Harrison, the DNC chair. “With this agreement, the new ‘Red State Fund’ will allow us to take the fight to Republicans as they fight among themselves by providing unprecedented resources to Democrats organizing in in every corner of the country.”

READ MORE: Schumer says Democrats can add a Senate seat in Mississippi

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Tyree Irving, who took over as chairman last summer amid criticism that the state party lacked leadership and wasn’t supporting candidates, in the past accused the state party of “running away from the national party,” and vowed to work to bring more national Democratic Party support and funding to Mississippi.

Irving on Thursday said, “I commend Chairman Harrison for his foresight, and I don’t have any doubt we can turn Mississippi blue … It’s not going to happen overnight, but this is a four year agreement. It is a modest amount but it certainly will help … But it will never happen if we don’t get started.”

Irving said he is putting together a strategic plan to take advantage of the national help and, “it will be very targeted to increase voter registration and do a better job at messaging.”

“That’s been one of the problems at the Democratic Party from the national level on down, that we long since have been out of the messaging game,” Irving said. “But we’re getting back in.

“… This will take resources, and the DNC recognizes that,” Irving said. “We are not conceding anyting to anybody any more. Historically the Democratic Party ceded the South, but we are not going to do that any more. We are going to make progress. And when you make progress, you get where you’re trying to go eventually.”

Although he vastly outraised Hyde-Smith in last year’s election thanks to an influx of out-of-state campaign donations, Espy has said national party support came too late in the game and he was forced to create his own campaign infrastructure. Espy said the national party should invest money and manpower in red states such as Mississippi between major races, not wait to see if a candidate could be competitive.

“They need to stop overlooking Mississippi,” Espy said Thursday. “They overlook you until you become viable, and it’s hard to become viable when you’re overlooked … My campaigned raised $16 million — enough to win — but the money came very late, and I had to build the data, provide it to the party, finance the infrastructure through personal campaigning. (The national and state parties) have to invest in off years, relieve the burden for candidates.”

Espy said he invested about $4 million of what he raised to the state party, and “donated my donor list — most people actually sell them, but I donated it — with 260,000 donors to the party.”

Espy said he foresees a time “around the corner” when the Democratic Party will again be competitive in state races, and “Mississippi is going purple.”

“I know we are not Georgia, and we are not as urban as Texas and Louisiana, but we will be trending Democratic electorally,” Espy said. “We did well in the urban and suburban areas, and that trend is not going to reverse, it’s going to increase. We’ll see the Black population grow, young people trending more and more Democratic, education levels are increasing and we’ll see more immigration, from Hispanic and Asian people. Look at the trend lines — Mississippi is going purple and it’s going fast. If we can stop outmigration and bring more jobs in like with Amazon — more skills jobs — all those will advance us toward the day when Democrats can win the governor’s seat and the Senate seats. That day is coming. I plan to do all I can as a citizen to help hasten that day.”

READ MORE: Three-part series on how the Mississippi Democratic Party lost so much ground during the pivotal 2019 statewide elections.

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State officials are urging Mississippi residents to refrain from panic buying gasoline after a cyber attack halted operations for the Colonial Pipeline system on Friday.

“The reality is we do not have a fuel shortage in this state… The greatest risk that we face right now is panic buying,” Andy Gipson, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, said in a video statement on Monday. 

While some gas stations across the state have reported low or empty fuel inventories, officials say that less than 30% of Mississippi’s fuel supply comes from the Colonial Pipeline.

“So stay calm — buy your normal level of weekly gasoline — and live your life! If everyone takes this approach, this will be behind us with minimal impact,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Facebook post.

The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline system, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and primarily serves the East Coast, came under a ransomware attack on Friday. It delivered nearly half of the fuel for the East Coast. The corporate operator of the pipeline released a statement on Wednesday saying the company had started to resume operations, but it would take “several days” until fuel deliveries return to normal.

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The number of Mississippians enrolling in health care coverage through the healhgare.gov marketplace is surging this year thanks to an expanded enrollment period and the expansion of premium tax credits that make the plans much more affordable. 

The premium tax credit (PTC) is the Affordable Care Act’s main insurance subsidy that radically reduces the premium costs for those eligible to receive it. A provision of the American Rescue Plan, the stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year, increased the tax credit amount for those who are eligible and makes individuals with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty line eligible for the first time. This provision represents the first major expansion of the health care reform law since its passage. 

For those who were eligible for a tax credit prior to the passage of ARP, the share of their income enrollees are expected to pay for premiums on a benchmark silver plan has been cut in half or removed completely.

Expanding the PTC has already had a major impact on the number of enrollees in Mississippi. In 2020, 4,341 Mississippians enrolled in health insurance plans through the marketplace from Feb. 15-April 30. This year saw 14,040 people enroll in the same period — a 223% increase.

“The premium tax credits, they’ve made a big difference in the number of individuals that are willing to accept the plans. The premiums are still extremely high, but those tax credits help to lower those payments to amounts they’re able to pay,” said Antwan Nicholson, a navigator at My Brother’s Keeper, Jackson-based community health organization. 

Navigators like Nicholson help people navigate the complexities of the health insurance marketplace one-on-one. Just last week, as he was helping one woman enroll, her eyes widened when she saw the premium on the plan she selected was $493. Then Nicholson showed her that she was eligible for a PTC that would cover $443 of that premium, bringing her monthly out-of-pocket cost to $50. Though she had just been looking for health insurance, the plan also included dental and vision insurance.

“She purchased it immediately,” Nicholson said. 

The stimulus packaged also created a 16-week special enrollment period (SEP) for people to get health insurance through HealthCare.gov that lasts from April 15-August 15. In previous years, SEPs were available primarily only for qualifying life events, whereas this year the Biden Administration opened an SEP to all Americans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, Biden’s administration announced more than 1 million Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans during the special enrollment period that began Feb. 15.

“That’s one million more Americans who now have the peace of mind that comes from having health insurance,” Biden said in a statement this week. “One million more Americans who don’t have to lie awake at night worrying about what happens if they or one of their family members gets sick.”

Nicholson and his team had extra navigators for the six-week open enrollment period last year, but they’ve had to push through this new special enrollment period with a small staff. With each application taking between 20-40 minutes, dealing with the surge of enrollees has been a hefty task, he said. but they’ve handled it well.

The PTC expansion is temporary, lasting only through the 2022 plan year. Nicholson thinks it’s a vital lifeline for the uninsured and should be extended.

“I think it would be a great benefit to those that we serve and the citizens of Mississippi that can take advantage of it,” he said. “I think it’s something that we should look to expand. I hope that it is extended, so that we can still have individuals that are able to be covered receive the health care that they need.”

Even though the expanded PTC isn’t guaranteed for the future, that hasn’t deterred the people Nicholson has worked with from enrolling. 

“It’s an ‘I need it now’ situation, ‘so I’m going to take advantage of it and I’ll deal with what happens later,’” Nicholson said.

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Mississippi revenue collections through April are on near-record pace for the largest percentage year over year increase in the modern era.

Through 10 months of the fiscal year, the state has collected $5.35 billion in general fund revenue — a $756.9 million or 16.5% increase over the amount collected during the same time period last year, according to the April revenue report recently released by the Legislative Budget Committee staff.

Factors surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could be playing a strong role in the revenue collections. Those factors include:

• Unprecedented federal assistance to individuals and to Mississippi governmental entities. For instance, during the current fiscal year, most Mississippians have received at least $3,200 in federal stimulus checks that economists say have helped fuel the state economy.
• Last year the filing deadline for state income taxes was postponed from April 15 to July 15, meaning that about $230 million in income taxes that would have been collected in the prior fiscal year were pushed into the current fiscal year.
• Revenue collections in the past fiscal year were down as a result of the onset of the pandemic and other circumstances, such as the postponement of the income tax filing deadline. The 2.5 drop in revenue collections during the last fiscal year helps inflate percentage increases in the current fiscal year.

Still, if the 16.5% increase holds for the next two months, that means it would be the strongest year-over-year increase since 1981, which also saw a 16.5% increase.

It is not clear what fueled the large increase in fiscal year 1981. Revenue collections could be impacted by multiple factors, including the economy, rebuilding in the aftermath of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, tax cuts or tax increases or even circumstances surrounding a pandemic.

“Revenues continue to be good. We are grateful for that… This has allowed us to fund what cuts we made last year,” House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, said earlier this year.

There are two key numbers to assess in the monthly Budget Committee revenue reports. One is how revenue collections look year over year, which is generally viewed as an economic indicator. The second is whether revenue collections are meeting the official estimate, which is the number the Legislature used in making its budget. If collections do not meet the estimate, the governor or Legislature could be forced to make mid-year budget cuts.

For the month of April, collections continue to be strong — $212.1 million or 28.5% above the estimate. For the year, collections are 17.7% or $804.2 million above the estimate. Much of the excess money will be directed to the Capital Expense Fund at the end of the fiscal year. Money in that fund often is used by legislators to fund various projects throughout the state.

Not surprisingly, most sources of state revenue have increased significantly year over year. Sales tax revenue, the largest single source of state revenue, is $124,2 or 8% above the amount collected during the same time period last year while use tax revenue, which is essentially the sales tax levied on internet purchases, is up $75 million or 28.5% year over year. Income tax collections are up $291.1 million or 20.1%, but that includes the revenue that was collected after the tax filing deadline was pushed back to July.

Casino revenue collections have been strong during the pandemic, up $204 million or 20.2%.

READ MORE: Billions will flow to Mississippi from Rescue Act. Where will it go?

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In a more fair and just Mississippi, James Thomas Bell — JT to his family and friends around Starkville — probably would have attended his hometown college, then Mississippi A&M, where he surely would have become a baseball star.

Of course, in a more fair and just Starkville, Bell and other Black children could have attended 12 years of high school and not had to work the fields to help feed their families. Those schools did not exist in Bell’s day.

Yes, and in a more fair and just America, Bell would have become a famous Major League Baseball player — and/or perhaps an Olympic track star — and never had to worry about money the rest of his life.

Sadly, there was little fair or just for a child of African American and Native American descent, born in 1903 on a farm three miles from downtown Starkville. So at age 17, JT Bell moved to St. Louis to live with older brothers, earn money in the factories there and attend high school in night classes.

The high school thing never happened. Factory work didn’t last long. Baseball discovered Bell, his dazzling foot speed, natural baseball instincts and quick bat. He became a professional baseball player in the old Negro Leagues. He became Cool Papa Bell, the most accomplished Mississippi-born baseball player ever, the only native-born Mississippian enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. Bell was inducted  in 1974 despite never having played in the Major Leagues.

And if you are wondering why this is written today, you should know that his hometown college — now Mississippi State University — will pay tribute to him Thursday night. An area on the left field terrace at Dudy Noble Field will be dedicated as Cool Papa Bell Plaza, replete with a handsome plaque.

“Cool Papa Bell remains one of the greatest players in the history of the sport,” State athletic director John Cohen said. “No, he didn’t go to school at Mississippi State but he worked on our campus as a child. He should be recognized in his hometown and at our stadium. He will be.”

The moral of this story: It is never too late to admit — and correct as best you can — old mistakes.

Cool Papa probably said it best himself when asked if he had any regrets about never having played Major League Baseball. Bell replied that he did not and then added, “They say I was born too soon. I say they opened the doors too late.”

For those who don’t know the Cool Papa Bell story, he is widely recognized as the fastest player in the game’s history. For Cool Papa, a walk or a single quickly became a triple because he usually stole both second and third bases. He achieved a lifetime batting average of .341 in the Negro Leagues, playing for several different ball clubs. He also starred on teams in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba.

What would he have done in Major League Baseball? We have strong clues. Bell played in many exhibition games between barnstorming players from the Negro Leagues and Major League ballplayers. Facing some of the best pitchers in the history of the game, Bell hit .391.

Satchel Paige, the great pitcher and Bell’s teammate, once said, “Bell was so fast he could shut the light off in his hotel room and be under the covers before it got dark.”

What we know of Bell’s early life comes mainly from interviews of him late in life. We know his father was African American and his mother was largely of Native American descent. We know he was fourth of eight children and that his maternal grandfather owned 200 acres of land outside Starkville where he grew cotton, corn, fruit trees and vegetables. We know that Cool Papa Bell not only worked those fields but also worked at the college’s creamery and at the agricultural experiment station. In a recorded interview in 1981, Bell told of having to dodge rocks thrown at him by some of the agriculture students.

Although he didn’t attend State, Bell knew all about the rivalry between State and what he called “Old Miss.”

When “Old Miss” came to town to play, Bell said State students would “soap” the train tracks to stop the train from running. He laughed as he told the story.

He also told about coaching Jackie Robinson with the Kansas City Monarchs before Robinson broke the color line in Major League Baseball.

“Jackie wasn’t the best player in the Negro Leagues, but he was the best to represent us in the Major Leagues,” Bell said. “He played better in the Major Leagues than he did in our league.”

Bell took great pride in Robinson’s Major League success. He called his own induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame his second greatest thrill, second only to Robinson’s breaking baseball’s color line.

We can only imagine what it would mean to the great Cool Papa to be honored all these years later at his hometown university – the one where he worked as a child but could not attend.

•••

The dedication of “Cool Papa” Bell Plaza and the plaque noting the life and career of Bell is a joint project between MSU athletics and the University’s Student Association. MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen, Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill, student association Vice President Kennedy Guest and Bell’s cousin Allen Landfair will each speak during Thursday’s pregame dedication.

Fans are encouraged to be in their seats at Dudy Noble Field at 7:15 p.m. prior to the game. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The ceremony will be shown on the video board as the “Cool Papa” Bell Plaza, located on the left field terrace, will be dedicated.

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Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with journalist, author and teacher Curtis Wilkie to talk about his long career and his new book, When Evil Lived in Laurel: The “White Knights” and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer. 

A 1963 graduate of University of Mississippi (He drew a map of what happened the night of the riot that is in the Ole Miss archives), Wilkie began his career at the Clarksdale Press Register covering the Civil Rights movement. From there, he went on to cover eight presidential campaigns (He was one of the Boys on the Bus during the 1972 Nixon Campaign.), being the White House correspondent during the Carter and Reagan administrations and then covering the Middle East for the Boston Globe.

After his retirement  from the Globe, Wilkie became a professor and fellow at the Overby Center where he taught until recently.  He is the also the author of several books including Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South, The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America’s Most Powerful Trial Lawyer, The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-year Campaign (Co-authored with Tom Oliphant) and Assassins, Eccentrics, Politicians, and Other Persons of Interest: Fifty Pieces from the Road.

A frequent guest on CSPAN, Wilkie is a master storyteller who has helped document history for over a half century. 

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