Mississippi Today is pleased to announce award-winning reporter Geoff Pender as the newest addition to the Mississippi Today team.
Pender will serve as Senior Political Reporter, working closely with Mississippi Today leadership on editorial strategy and investigations.
“I’ve long admired Geoff’s work, and I couldn’t be prouder to work with him again,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief. “His deep understanding of Mississippi politics, along with the respect he’s earned over the years on both sides of the aisle, boosts our mission of providing our readers with the most informed political coverage in the state.”
Pender brings 30 years of political and government reporting experience to Mississippi Today. He most recently served as Politics and Investigative Editor at The Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. While at The Clarion Ledger, Pender helped lead digital transformation for the legacy publication, while overseeing watchdog news teams and government reporting.
Over his 16 years with the Sun Herald, Pender’s investigations on the city and county level led to reform, prosecution and conviction. He went on to lead the capitol bureau as Political and Investigative Editor, and was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane Katrina coverage.
“I am excited about this opportunity to join the talented news team at Mississippi Today,” said Pender. “I love my native Mississippi, and Mississippi Today has made and continues to make it a better place with its impactful journalism. I am honored to be a part of this team and contribute to Mississippi Today’s important mission.”
Originally from Florence, Miss., Pender is a journalism graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including multiple Mississippi Press Association and other regional and national awards for his reporting, columns and his freedom of information efforts.
Protesters wave the Mississippi state flag at a “Reopen Mississippi” protest on Saturday, April 25, 2020.
A bipartisan group of Mississippi lawmakers, with the blessing of Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, began whipping votes and drafting a resolution on Monday to change the state flag, which was adopted in 1894 and is the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.
The conversation behind closed doors this week marks one of the first earnest legislative discussions about changing the state flag since the 2001 referendum in which Mississippians voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the current flag. It also comes as tens of thousands of black Mississippians and their multi-racial allies march the streets to protest racial inequalities in government.
About a dozen Republicans and Democrats in the House met privately on Monday afternoon to discuss changing the flag. Later in the afternoon, representatives of that bipartisan group met with Gunn to gauge his interest in helping their efforts, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
A protester holds a Stennis Flag, which is the proposed design of the new Mississippi state flag, during the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson, Miss., Saturday, June 6, 2020.
Gunn, who has publicly advocated for changing the flag in years past, told the lawmakers he would support a suspension resolution that would adopt a new state flag. The resolution, which House attorneys began drafting Monday afternoon, would replace the current state flag with the Stennis Flag, a design that has blossomed in popularity across the state in recent years.
Suspending the rules to consider the change would require a two-thirds of the current House members (80 out of 120 current members). Gunn told the lawmakers he would ensure the resolution passed through House committee if the lawmakers could secure verbal support from around 30 Republican members this week.
Adding the potential Republican commitments to the 45 votes of the Democratic caucus, the House would be within eyeshot of solidifying a two-thirds, veto-proof majority to change the flag.
After the meeting with Gunn, several lawmakers began calling their colleagues and whipping votes on Monday afternoon, though some expressed doubt they could find 30 solid commitments from Republicans.
In 2015, Gunn publicly advocated for changing the flag, though no House bill to change the flag has passed through committee during his nine years as speaker. Dozens of bills are filed each year in both the House and Senate to change the state flag, but all of them have died in committee.
If the House were to pass the resolution to change the flag, it would move to the Senate for consideration. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, said during his campaign last year that voters, not the Legislature, should decide the fate of the state flag.
But several state senators told Mississippi Today this week that they believe Hosemann, a moderate who has maintained close working relationships with leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, could be open to the idea of legislative action, particularly during this moment of protest across Mississippi and America.
If the bill were to pass both chambers, it would move to the desk of Gov. Tate Reeves. On Monday, Reeves sidestepped several questions about his personal views on the state flag during a press conference. Reeves did say, however, that he believes Mississippians, not lawmakers, should decide the issue at the ballot.
“There are a lot of people who have been vocal about this issue for a long time,” Reeves said. “My position has not changed. I spent much of 2019 telling the people of this state what I believe is there is going to come a time at some point I’m sure, when the people of Mississippi are going to want to change the flag. My position is, when they want to do that, it should be the people that make that decision, not some backroom deal by a bunch of politicians in Jackson.”
Sources close to Monday’s discussions said Gunn told lawmakers he would like to keep the state flag from reaching the ballot, where it would almost certainly incite a bitter, months-long campaign that would paint Mississippi in a negative light.
Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton (34) runs upfield during an NFL game against the Washington Redskins in Chicago, on Sept. 29, 1985.
Our task today? We’re going to put together Team Mississippi, an All-Time, All-Pro football team of native Mississippians. We are going kick rear ends and take names. We’ll mess with Texas and anyone else who wants to try us.
Rick Cleveland
Before we get started, I’ll emphasize: These will be native Mississippians and will not include imports from other states who played college ball here. That leaves out Pro Football Hall of Famers such as Gene Hickerson and Ray Guy, not to mention future Hall of Famer Patrick Willis. Today’s team will be Mississippi born and bred.
We’ll start with the offense. And why don’t we start at quarterback where we’ll go with Brett Favre (Kiln), a three-time league MVP who retired as the NFL’s all-time leading passer and now ranks fourth. Not bad for starters. We’ve got Steve McNair (Mount Olive), Charlie Conerly (Clarksdale) and Archie Manning (Drew) if Favre needs a break, which, famously, he never did. He started 321 consecutive games, a pro football record.
With arms like that we’ll need lots of wide receivers. Not to worry. We’ll split Jerry Rice (Crawford), the NFL’s all-time leading receiver and scorer wide to the left. We’ll flank seven-time Pro Bowler and Hall of Famer Lance Alworth (Brookhaven), Bambi himself, wide to the right. In the slot? Take your pick: Harold Jackson (Hattiesburg), Eric Moulds (Lucedale), Willie Richardson (Greenville), Ray Perkins (Petal) and we could go on and on. This is fun, no?
When we run, we’ll give it to Sweetness, Walter Payton, No. 34 on his uniform, No. 2 on the all-time pro football rushing list. He’s only the best football player these eyes have ever seen. The quarterbacks will appreciate his blitz blocking, too. Ready in reserve will be Wilbert Montgomery (Greenville) and Deuce McAllister (Ludlow).
Jimmie Giles (Greenville), the first offensive player chosen for Tampa Bay’s Ring of Honor, is one tight end and Wesley Walls (Pontotoc), Carolina Panthers Wall of Honor, is the other. Between them, they caught 95 touchdowns. Both ought to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Buffalo Bills
Kent Hull was “the heartbeat” of the Buffalo Bills.
The old saying is that it’s what’s up front that counts. Kent Hull, a Buffalo Bills Wall of Famer and three-time Pro Bowler from Greenwood will snap it, flanked on either side by Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Billy Shaw (Vicksburg) and Gabe Jackson (Liberty). For offensive tackles, we’ll trot out maybe the best ever Jackie Slater (Jackson) on the left side and Walt Suggs (Hattiesburg) on the right. Tom Goode (West Point), who famously snapped for Jim O’Brien’s winning field goal in Super Bowl V, will handle long snapping.
And now for the defense. We’ll be nasty on this side of the ball with L.C. Greenwood (Canton) at one end and Ben McGee (Durant) on the other. Both were Steelers and both were splendid. At defensive tackle, we’ll go with the great Bruiser Kinard (Pelahatchie), another Pro Football Hall of Famer and Fletcher Cox (Yazoo City), presently one of the best in the business and surely a future Hall of Famer. Have you noticed how many small-town guys make this team? Amazing.
New York Jets
Ole Miss great Larry Grantham is part of the New York Jets Ring of Honor.
We’ve got linebackers galore. The only problem is deciding whom to start. Hugh Green (Natchez) gets one nod. Run away from him, and you’ll find Larry Grantham (Crystal Springs) on the other side. In the middle, I’m going with tackling machine Johnie Cooks (Leland). And then there are present day stars K.J. Wright (Olive Branch) and Jamie Collins (McCall Creek), both All-Pros.
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With NFL Films camera zooming in, Willie Brown rambled into NFL history in the 1977 Super Bowl.
No state, anywhere or any size, can match us at cornerback. Yazoo City’s Willie Brown and Gulfport’s Lem Barney are two more Pro Football Hall of Famers. If they aren’t the best two ever to play the position, they are in the first sentence of any conversation about it.
For safeties, we’ll go with Jimmy Patton (Greenville), a five-time Pro Bowler for the New York Giants and Jim Marsalis (Pascagoula).
On special teams, Stephen “Beaver” Gostkowski (Madison) ranks as one of the most accurate placekickers in pro football history and is money when the game is on the line. Most will assume that Ray Guy, who kicked at USM and lives in Purvis, is the punter. He would be except that USM recruited him out of Thomson, Georgia. Jerrell Wilson? Born in New Orleans. Not to worry, Chunkin’ Charlie Conerly could punt it just fine. So could Sweetness Payton for that matter. So could Julian Fagan of Laurel and Jim Miller, the barefoot wonder from Ripley.
But keep in mind, with our offense, who really needs a punter?
A cold front moved through overnight that will give us a slight chance of showers through the morning commute. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 85 this afternoon! South southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low around 61. Expect lower humidity, cooler mornings and sunny, warm afternoons through early next week
The first ever Virtual Elvis Pet Parade, sponsored by Dilworth Small Animal Hospital, was held Saturday, June 6 as part of the Virtual Tupelo Elvis Festival. “We were happy to be a part of this event to support the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society,” stated Dr. Laurie Dilworth, owner and medical director of Dilworth Small Animal Hospital. “Virtual participation allowed owners to photograph or video their pets and upload the images to a Facebook event page so everyone could view all the contestants” Dilworth noted.
The judging was held on Sunday, June 7 and the following winners were announced: Fan Favorite Winner • “Paisley” the Pony Owner: Jessica Criddle Paisley is a 15 year old Pony Elvis Look-A-Like Winner • Lil’ Elvis Owner: Pam Hussey Lil’ Elvis is a 17 year old Rescue Best Costume Winner • Jace Owner: Tiffany Moss Jace is a 5 year old Yorkie Pet/Owner Look-A-Like Winner • Abilene Owner: April Hood Abilene is a 4 month old Cotralian (Mini Australian Shepherd/Cocker Spaniel) Elvis World Tour Winner • Bennie Bear Owner: Tiffany Moss
Bennie Bear is a 4 year old Toy Poddle Best in Show – Overall Winner • Luna Owner: Erica Underwood Burkle Luna is a 4 year old Great Pyrenees Rescue Honorable Mention • Jedi and Matlock Owner: Melissa King Jedi is a 12 year old Maltipoo Matlock is a 10 year old Bichon Frise
Mike Espy, center, attends the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson, Miss., Saturday, June 6, 2020.
Jarrius Adams, a 22-year-old Mississippi activist, looked over the crowd of at least 3,000 people gathered in downtown Jackson on Saturday for a Black Lives Matter protest and grabbed the microphone.
Adams welcomed the politicians who were in attendance but quickly requested that if they were approached by the media, they should refer questions to the young people — all in their late teens and 20s — who organized the massive event.
“We, our truth and voices must be the focus of this narrative we are crafting,” Adams said.
Standing about 15 feet from the stage was Mike Espy, the 66-year-old Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate election this November. When Adams made the request, Espy looked over at a reporter and appeared to smile behind his mask and shrugged his shoulders as if to say he was there for the protest, not the media.
When Espy announced last year that he would again challenge Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after losing to her by eight points in a 2018 special election, he said to be successful this year he had to attract more young voters to the polls.
Espy must have viewed Saturday as a step in achieving that goal. Espy’s strategy, he has said, is not only meeting and engaging young voters on the issues of today, but tying his history to their goals.
On Saturday, many protesters wore Black Lives Matters t-shirts and other attire highlighting the current issue of the police brutality that many contend is unfairly affecting the African American community.
Espy, who donated drinks and protective gear to the protest organizers, wore a blue T-shirt proclaiming “Black votes count.” It was a shirt from his historic 1986 campaign when Espy, a Yazoo City native, became the first African American elected to the U.S. House from Mississippi since the 1800s.
Before his Senate race in 2018, Espy had not been on the ballot in Mississippi since 1992. He served as secretary of agriculture during a portion of Bill Clinton’s first term as president. Other than that, Espy had been practicing law primarily in the Jackson area before he jumped back into politics in 2018.
“The millennials did not know me (in the 2018 election.) It was clear,” Espy said when he announced he would challenged Hyde-Smith again.
While Espy might not have literally spoken to that younger generation on Saturday, he said he hopes he figuratively did as he marched in the protest from the Governor’s Mansion to the state Capitol and back.
“Our young people led this protest with love, energy and a momentum for change that makes me hopeful for the future of our state and our country,” Espy said.
While no politician spoke at the event, Adams and other organizers did urge attendees to vote. The November election was a focus of the event, and several organizers walked among protesters with voter registration forms.
“We must vote in November, or none of this means anything,” Adams said, inspiring seeming nods of approval from Espy, his wife Portia, and others standing near them.
Espy invited Hyde-Smith to join him at the protest. The incumbent senator did not respond, though she has commented on the event that spurred the protests – the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer who pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street.
“The civil unrest following the tragic and senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis adds to our nation’s burdens in these unsettling times,” Hyde-Smith said in an earlier statement. “Americans are right to voice their objection to police brutality and lawless violence. The anarchy and rioting occurring around the country only overshadows and diminishes the peaceful protests and ongoing national struggle for equal justice and equal protection of the law.”
She continued: “The past few months have not been easy for our nation and the road ahead remains long. I know we will keep the faith and do what needs doing to stay safe, rebuild the economy, and overcome the challenges ahead of us.”
After Hyde-Smith did not attend the protest on Saturday, Espy criticized her in a tweet.
“(Hyde-Smith) said nothing of the protests,” Espy wrote. “Her silence shows Mississippi that she stands by her past comments supporting public hangings, voter suppression, and old symbols of hate.”
Espy was referring to Hyde-Smith’s 2018 comments, which caused nationwide controversy, in which she was only using a figure of speech when she said she had so much respect for a political supporter that she would be on “the front row of a public hanging” if he invited her.
On the 2018 campaign trail, Hyde-Smith also suggested that it might be a “great idea” to make it harder for some people to vote. Her campaign said both comments were made in jest, but national headlines garnered Espy hundreds of thousands in contributions, and several national corporations asked Hyde-Smith to return their previous campaign contributions.
Espy must not only garner the traditional Democratic voters as he did for the most part in 2018 and attract new young voters, both minority and white, but he also must do better with more traditional white voters. He estimated he received about 18 percent of their support in 2018.
On Saturday, Espy during a short interview said he was at the rally because of the “disproportionate” amount of violence directed at minorities by some law enforcement officers.
Asked if he had ever experienced such violence, Espy said no, though he said that he has been stopped by law enforcement for what appeared to be no good reason.
At one point, Espy whispered to his son Mike. He was asking him if it was OK to tell the story of when Espy Jr. was arrested for using profanity in a 24 hour gym at a time when only Espy, his friend and two others, one an off duty police officer, were in the gym.
Espy Jr., a former football standout at the University of Mississippi who played in the National Football League, was encouraging his friend to lift more weights at the time he used the profanity.
“He spent the night in the Ridgeland city jail,” Espy said in what appeared to be a lingering dismay about the incident that occurred around 2012. “As a dad to two young black men, it was important to me that I march alongside my sons.”
Hurricane season throws out the first pitch eight days into the season. Tropical Storm Cristobal comes ashore, causing coastal flooding and some inland wind damage.
Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups parade on the grounds of the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, in support of keeping the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag.
As organizers of Saturday’s historic Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson decried state-sanctioned racial inequities, a massive Mississippi state flag — the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem — flapped in the breeze a few yards behind them in front of the home of Gov. Tate Reeves.
The crowd of at least 3,000 protesters later marched past the Mississippi State Capitol, where state flags flew outside the office windows of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, and loudly chanted: “Change the flag!”
Reeves, Hosemann and Gunn, in the most pivotal racial moment in America since the 1960s, find themselves leading the state with the highest percentage of black residents in the nation. As tens of thousands of black Mississippians and their multi-racial allies marched the streets of dozens of cities in recent days, the state flag has been and will remain a focal point of demonstrations.
“Elected officials who choose to stay silent on this issue are cowards,” said Jarrius Adams, a 22-year-old activist who co-organized Saturday’s Black Lives Matter protest in Jackson. “The history and heritage it symbolizes isn’t welcoming or inclusive for black folks. Our elected officials have a responsibility to ensure anything that represents our state represents us equitably.”
The state flag, long the subject of controversy in Mississippi, was adopted in 1894 by white lawmakers, hungry for power following years of black leadership during Reconstruction. Most of the white Mississippians who held power in the late 1800s and early 1900s were direct descendants of soldiers who fought or died in the Civil War. They championed racist policies meant to limit the rights of black Mississippians, and they paid homage to the Lost Cause in the form of monuments, flags and other iconography that glorified the South’s losing fight to uphold slavery.
Violent and racist extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan commandeered the Confederate battle emblem during their rise of power in the mid-1900s. Even today, those sparsely organized groups and lone-wolf stragglers clinging to their same values still prominently feature the flag. Some extremists have even displayed the Mississippi state flag beside the Confederate battle flag at nationally broadcast protests in recent years.
Despite the history of the symbol, efforts to change the Mississippi flag have failed. Few political moments in recent years — including the referendum in 2001 in which Mississippians voted almost 2-to-1 to keep the current flag — have spurred meaningful staying power for those who want the state’s elected officials to change the flag.
But this current movement, as displayed in Jackson and cities across the state the past week, provides hope to many Mississippians that a change is possible.
Last week, even the United States Marine Corps issued a ban on the Confederate battle flag at Marine installations (though the Marines did leave an exception specifically for Mississippi because of its state flag).
Reeves, Hosemann and Gunn likely carry the influence to change the state flag. They’d need support from at least a simple majority of the Legislature, but all three can whip majority votes with ease. With that support, the process could be completed start-to-finish in one day with careful planning.
These are the legislative steps to change the state flag:
Because key 2020 deadlines have passed, lawmakers would first need to suspend their legislative rules to consider a new bill that would change the flag. To suspend rules, two-thirds of both the Senate (34 of 52 members) and House (81 of 122 members) must vote yea. Hosemann and Gunn have secured a two-thirds majority for other major policy this year.
After rules suspension, the bill would then move through the normal legislative process in which a simple majority vote (27 yeas in Senate, 62 yeas in House) is required to pass. The bill would start in a House or Senate committee. If passed by that committee, it would move to the floor of that chamber. If passed, that same process would be replicated in the other chamber. The bill, if passed in both chambers, would be sent to the desk of the governor for signature or veto.
If Reeves were to sign the bill, it would become law. If Reeves were to veto the bill, the bill would be sent back to the Legislature. To override a governor’s veto and change the flag, another two-thirds vote of both the Senate and House would be required.
Lawmakers have long pointed back to the 2001 flag referendum and said that Mississippians themselves, not the Legislature, should decide the fate of the flag on a statewide ballot. But that 2001 vote completely excluded the largest voting bloc in the state: millennials and generation Z. Any Mississippian currently under the age of 37 years old was unable to vote in that referendum.
“I was 3-years-old in April of 2001, but now I can vote and I pay taxes,” Adams, the organizer, said. “I also am one of the few students who chose to stay in Mississippi after graduating from the University of Mississippi. At some point we have to say that a new generation has risen and things needs to change.”
Reeves, playing to his base of conservative, older white voters across the state, pointed to the 2001 vote in an October 2019 gubernatorial debate and said voters should again decide the fate of the flag.
Hosemann also pushed the “citizens should vote” narrative as recently as late 2019. But several key lawmakers at the Capitol believe his perspective on politics could spur a change of heart, particularly in this moment of pain for so many. Hosemann, a political moderate who supports issues like expanding Medicaid, has worked hard to maintain close working relationships with leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus.
A few days after he took office in January, Mississippi Today asked him in a podcast interview if he realized he was broadly considered by voters as a politician who could better represent Mississippians who have long felt underrepresented in Jackson. Hosemann acknowledged he’d heard that sentiment from Mississippians of all races and political backgrounds, and his answer to the question moved two of his staffers in the room to tears.
“I have a distinct feeling that I have a burden here, a big heavy weight,” Hosemann told Mississippi Today in the podcast interview. “My issues, I think, are the ones that are talked about at the kitchen table. And that’s on purpose.”
Hosemann continued: “I so don’t want to disappoint so many people that are thinking I can make their lives better. I think if you care about people, you end up feeling like this. It’s a heavy weight for anybody. I will try as hard as I possibly can. I don’t intend to disappoint anyone. It’ll be better than what it is today.”
Gunn remains one of the only top Mississippi Republican officials who has publicly maintained that the state flag should change. Though his personal position hasn’t wavered, no bills to change the flag have passed through a House committee under his leadership. In sessions past, he said he didn’t believe he had the votes in the House or support in the Senate to seriously push the issue.
In theory, Hosemann and Gunn wouldn’t need Reeves’ participation. As long as they could whip two-thirds votes in their chambers, they could create a veto-proof majority to change the state flag. They’ve proven the ability to do that on other issues already this session.
But many Mississippians feel this moment is different, and elected officials’ role in perpetuating racism is at the heart of the movement. On Saturday, several protesters said that a push to change the flag from Reeves, Hosemann and Gunn could help create unity in the state that would resonate with every Mississippian involved in the movement.
“The flag and other symbols celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy and a history that enslaved, traumatized and oppressed my ancestors for more than 400 years,” Adams said. “I see the flag and it shows me how much work needs to be done.”
“Mississippi is a state that I love,” Adams said, “but with the current state flag, Mississippi struggles to love me back.”
State Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, discusses how the George Floyd killing and the protests in its wake have spurred talks of meaningful criminal justice reform in Mississippi. She also discusses how Mississippi officials must ease access to polls ahead of Election Day during the coronavirus pandemic.
