Courtney Webster receives her diploma at during Greenville High School’s graduation Thursday, May 21, 2020.
COVID-19 closed schools across Mississippi and the nation, and left districts scrambling to figure out how to plan one of the most memorable events for high school seniors: graduation.
Mississippi Today reached out to all of the 233 public high schools in the state to ask what their graduation ceremony plans are. Respondents’ plans, if they have any, fall into one of three categories. Traditional ceremonies will have graduates walk the stage to receive their diploma while following social distancing measures. Virtual-only ceremonies can only be viewed via live stream or by video. In-person, non-traditional ceremonies are an abbreviated version of a graduation ceremony including, but not limited to: drive-thrus, parades, and movie drive-up graduations.
As of June 2, almost 16 percent of schools did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request or had no information on their websites or social media pages. About a third will hold in-person, non-traditional ceremonies. Less than a quarter of schools will hold traditional ceremonies. Almost 20 percent indicated they were planning to host a graduation ceremony but did not provide specific details, and 17 percent of respondents plan to hold virtual-only ceremonies.
In late May, the Mississippi Department of Education provided guidance to school districts including that outdoor traditional ceremonies should have no more than 100 people present, and 50 present for indoor ceremonies. These types of ceremonies come with increased risk and “are strongly discouraged and should not occur in counties with higher levels of transmission,” the department wrote.
Additionally, some districts will hold multiple types of ceremonies at later dates. For example, East Webster High School conducted a virtual ceremony on May 17. However, the school plans to have a formal, traditional graduation ceremony on July 19.
As a way to celebrate the Class of 2020, Mississippi Today created a landing page to share their stories on how the coronavirus pandemic interrupted their final moments of senior year.
Scott Colom, the district attorney for Columbus and surrounding counties
The district attorney in Columbus, a predominantly African American city of about 20,000, called Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s decision last week to dismiss 2015 charges brought after a black man was killed in an officer-involved shooting a “slap in the face.”
District Attorney Scott Colom initially transferred the case from his office to the state in 2016 to put a distance between the outcome and any local influence.
“I don’t know if they’re just not aware of how serious this case was in Columbus back in 2015 and early 2016,” Colom said.
Ricky Ball, 26, was shot to death during a police traffic stop in October 2015. Columbus Police Department officer Canyon Boykin, who is white, was later fired and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges brought by the state in 2016.
As tens of thousands protest inequities in the criminal justice system and the police killings of black Americans, Fitch announced last week that her office had dropped the charges against Boykin. In a two-sentence statement, Fitch’s office said its review of the evidence concluded Boykin had acted in self-defense.
“The Attorney General’s Office did a thorough and independent review of the thousands of documents in this case file and concluded that there is not evidence on which to prosecute the case against Officer Boykin,” the statement read. “In fact, all evidence, including forensics and the sworn statements of four separate MBI investigators, points to necessary self-defense.”
Fitch’s office did not answer questions asking to elaborate on the findings or about the timing of the decision, as protests continue nationwide in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and George Floyd in Minnesota involving current or former law enforcement.
“It was not something that I expected to happen,” said CPD Chief Fred Shelton of the case’s dismissal.
Photo by: Deanna Robinson/Dispatch Staff
Protesters gathered at Leigh Mall Saturday to protest Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s decision to drop the manslaughter charge against former Columbus Police Department officer Canyon Boykin in the 2015 shooting death of Ricky Ball.
“They just thought (releasing) two paragraphs, we’re dismissing it, that’s all we need to do. That to me was kind of a slap in the face,” added Colom.
About 250 demonstrators gathered at Leigh Mall in Columbus on Saturday to protest the decision, the Commercial Dispatch reported.
Colom said he plans to request the evidence used in the finding, which he expects to get back in the next 10 days.
After his election in 2016, Colom said, he had conversations with then Democratic AG Jim Hood’s office about making sure the case was independent of any local influence. Fitch, a Republican, replaced Hood in last year’s statewide elections and became the first Republican elected to the statewide seat since Reconstruction.
Colom called the dismissal’s timing a “gut punch,” emphasizing that there were no deadlines and the officer was out on bond, and there was little to no ability to hold a trial right now due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We need to put the information out there in the public so people can know what happened in this case because there are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “There are a lot of people (wondering), what happened? How did you make the decision to dismiss this case after four years and you’ve only had it for four, five months?”
He said any next steps in the case depend on if the charges were dismissed with or without prejudice.
Colom also noted the importance of accessing footage in any officer-involved shooting. Boykin and the other officers on the scene during Ball’s death were wearing body cameras but did not turn them on.
“If you look at what happened in Minnesota, if you look at what happened in Georgia, without the video, we only get one version of events,” Colom said.
Shelton said new policies and structure in the department have improved accountability of officers. After Ball’s death, CPD enacted stricter penalties for officers who do not turn on their cameras during public interactions, including suspension and termination, and since have had no such issues, Shelton said. The department also now has an oversight committee to receive complaints about excessive use of force.
Shelton said he is meeting with Colom’s office this week to plan a public forum that will both be used to discuss the use of force and racial profiling, and then to institute new training policies for police officers.
“We’re continuing to build and foster the trust we that we have in the community,” he said.
Pamela Hancock, the second-term prosecutor of Madison County, defended herself Monday after posting and later deleting a Facebook comment in which she suggested “the deadly strain” of coronavirus should spread among rioters who are protesting inequity in the criminal justice system.
Hancock, who was first elected county prosecutor in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, wrote the post as a comment to another person’s post: “Does Covid spread during massive street riots or just in bars and restaurants? Asking for a friend.”
Hancock, in a since-deleted comment, replied: “We can only hope the deadly (coronavirus) strain spreads in riots!”
In a phone interview with Mississippi Today on Monday, Hancock defended the comment.
“My job is to prosecute all crimes, including civil disobedience,” Hancock said. “I’m against any breach of peace or criminal activity, and I would prosecute it. I have nothing against people peacefully protesting, but breaking into businesses and stealing things is a crime.”
When asked specifically about her expressed notion that the virus kill rioters, Hancock rebuffed.
“I was really just making light of it,” she said. “I was not serious about wanting anyone to die. That’s not who I am. The post was kind of a joke, and I was attempting to joke back. Obviously, I did it very poorly. If you ask anybody that knows me, I don’t hold any ill will towards anyone or any group. I only try to be fair.”
County prosecutors in Mississippi bring misdemeanor charges against individuals in justice court and county court. Those charges would include disorderly conduct, trespassing and driving under the influence. County prosecutors are elected every four years.
Black Americans, upset with inequities in the criminal justice system, organized the recent protests in dozens of cities across the country that have garnered international media coverage. Inspired by the recent police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia — all black victims — many of the protests have become violent after police, in many cases, escalated the conflicts.
Madison County, the sixth-most populated county in the state, is home to at least 40,000 African American residents.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult few days,” said Brandon Jones, policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Jackson. “You’d hope in moments like this that people throughout the law enforcement community and certainly prosecutors would be reflective about how we talk about these issues. Because she’s an elected official, it’s an office of public trust. Frankly, (her post) sends all the wrong messages.”
Jones continued: “We worry when people like Ms. Hancock say these things because of what message it might send to people who might have to face her in court. It erodes the public’s trust that they’re going to be treated fairly with comments like this, even if they were in jest.”
In the phone interview on Monday, Hancock discussed, unprompted, how her Facebook post had been perceived as racist.
“I never meant to offend anybody, and it was not directed toward anyone except for people that were rioting,” Hancock said. “What I saw on TV seemed to be people of all races. If you ask anybody that knows me, I don’t hold any ill will towards anyone or any group.”
Hancock continued: “When I prosecute, I don’t look at someone’s color. I look at the crime they committed, the facts of the case… I only try to be fair.”
Protesters gathered in downtown Jackson Sunday in a peaceful demonstration against police brutality following the recent death of George Floyd who was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The protest started at the Governor’s Mansion and ended at the Jackson Police Department.
“We are tired of black lives being taken by police officers and we are just tired of racism, period,” protest organizer Bria Williams said. “We want to know how Mississippi leaders feel about what is going on in America with race.”
Protests have been taking place in cities across America after the video of Floyd in handcuffs and police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck went viral. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
People from various racial backgrounds and ages took part in Sunday’s protest in Jackson.
“We want to show the nation that although we have a past that is tainted with racial tension, that today we wanted to make a change and show the world that Mississippi can care about racism in a peaceful way,” Williams said. Here is a collection of images from the demonstration:
Good early Tuesday morning everyone!! It will be hot and muggy with mostly sunny skies and a high near 91 today. Wind south southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 70.
Scattered Showers/thunderstorms Wednesday & Thursday. Muggy with a slight chance of rain Friday. Hot & muggy Saturday and Sunday!
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, left, confers with an unmasked Gov. Tate Reeves in Senate Chambers at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, May 26, 2020.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann recently warned members of the Mississippi Senate to wear their masks or risk being photographed or videotaped by media outlets without one.
Whether a politician eschewing the wearing of a mask would be harmful to a Mississippi politician is debatable. But a day before Hosemann warned members of the possibility of being photographed without a mask, Gov. Tate Reeves went maskless while visiting the Senate chamber – his old stomping grounds – where he presided for eight years as lieutenant governor. Not only was Reeves not wearing a mask, but he also appeared at times to be challenging social distancing guidelines as he carried on conversations with members in the ornate Senate chamber.
Bobby Harrison
And yes, there was a photograph of the event taken by Associated Press photojournalist Rogelio Solis of Hosemann, sporting a mask, and Reeves, sans a mask, in deep conversation.
The scene was a bit surprising since the Republican Reeves often has gone out of his way to agree with state Health Officer Thomas Dobbs about the importance of wearing masks in their near daily news conferences conducted to provide updates on the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the argument often is made that politicians asking their constituents to do something that could be a sacrifice – such as social distancing or wearing a mask – should lead by example. Reeves was not that day.
When asked about his maskless foray into the Mississippi Senate, Reeves to his credit did what most modern-day politicians have become reluctant to do – essentially to say he made a mistake. Now Reeves did not utter the words “I made a mistake,” but for a politician it was fairly close.
“What I would tell you is that when I have gone out in public, which has been rare in the last three months, I have tried to wear a mask..,” he said. “I probably should have had on a mask. It is not mandated. It is not as if it is a mandate, but it certainly is more responsible.
“Those of us in the public sector, in government, we have to take some risks, but no doubt I usually have a mask with me and I probably should have had it on (while) on the floor.”
The issue of whether to wear a mask has become politicized in recent weeks with President Donald Trump, who based on polling is more popular in Mississippi than in many other states, espousing the virtues of wearing a mask at times and in other instances belittling people who wear them. Reeves, who it could be argued is a Trump acolyte, has never said anything negative about the wearing of masks – at least not in public.
At the Mississippi Capitol, where extraordinary measures have been undertaken to ensure the building is safe while the Legislature is in session during the pandemic, some politicians and lobbyists wear masks while others do not. Most at least try to practice social distancing guidelines but many often do not. And often the people who don’t social distance and the ones who do not wear a mask are one in the same.
Of course, social distancing and wearing a mask might feel counter-productive to some in a building where communication skills and relationship building are at a premium for passing legislation. Because of all the close contact, the Capitol seems like a prime location for the coronavirus to thrive. That is perhaps the reason it is just as important to wear a mask at the Capitol as say, at the grocery store. After all, most people go the grocery store, buy their supplies and leave. People linger in the Capitol, get in each other’s space to make deals and share gossip.
Against that backdrop Reeves’ action was a bit surprising since he had been a champion of mask wearing and seemed to be a sincere supporter of Dobbs’ plea to wear a mask. At an earlier news conference, he touted his “Mississippi strong” mask that he received from a constituent.
“If we do these simple things, we will be in such a better position than if we are stubborn for no good reason,” Dobbs said of mask wearing. He said a cloth mask can block up to 90 percent of infectious particles from a person who is contagious.
At that point Reeves chimed in to add that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard had delivered 2.25 million masks to the state’s 82 counties.
“It is such a herculean effort,” he said, adding that masks were available in the communities for people who need them.
The next day Reeves returned to the Senate – wearing a mask.
Hot and humid conditions return this week with some showers/storms late in the week. Monday will be Sunny, with a high near 87! Wind will be east-northeast at 5 to 10 mph. Expect Partly cloudy skies Monday night, with a low around 66…Stay cool and have a pleasant Monday ya’ll!!
Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi Today rolled out a three-part series on the Mississippi Democratic Party this week based on months of reporting.
Following the historic 2019 loss for Mississippi Democrats, we interviewed more than six dozen prominent Democrats about the past, present and future of the state party.
On Monday, Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Bobby Moak talked with Mississippi Today about several concerns raised in those articles. The following transcript is taken from the conversation with Moak. It has been edited for clarity and length.
Mississippi Today: What happened in 2019, from the top of ticket all the way down?
Bobby Moak: You were coming off a 2018 election year where you had the president visit I don’t even know how many times. It was about voter turnout. It was a missed opportunity. You know, we saw Kentucky win. We saw Louisiana win. We saw phenomenal number of dollars spent on their Democratic Party and their candidates because they had sitting governors or U.S. senator or whatever the case may be. The money was not only given to the candidates there, but it was also given to the party. Mississippi didn’t have that ability because we haven’t had those elected officials for 12-16 years.
What do you think the role of the Democratic Party in Mississippi should be?
Moak: In a nutshell, it’s supporting candidates and supporting our elected officials that are Democrats.
If the Democratic Party is going to have success in Mississippi again, how do you get there?
Moak: You get there by starting from the bottom. In 2016, we put together a large number of Democrats to be elected at the municipal level. We didn’t have much competition there from the other side. During the 2019 election, we reached out with different programs to put more candidates on the ballot, which we were successful in doing. It’s getting folks in the game. It’s calling folks off the bench, saying it’s time to get in the game. You’ve got to rebuild the party from the bottom up. You have to have the financial ability, and you have to have the ability to work with local elected officials. You have to have all of that.
Specifically, what have you done since you were elected chairman to rebuild the party?
Moak: Well, we started by putting almost 600 Democrats on the ballot that would not otherwise have appeared on the ballot. That helped us turn out a lot of additional votes in a lot of additional counties. In a lot of places, that was successful. Just like my home county in Lincoln County, where Democratic turnout increased by 10 percent. That might not sound like much, but that’s huge. Same thing happened in Rankin County, DeSoto County, Lamar County, around Tupelo, we saw increases. Even with the loss at the top of the ticket, we saw people turning out to vote as Democrats. We saw independents and white voters coming back to the party also.
Specific concerns have been raised about staffing and overall infrastructure at the party level. There’s no executive director or finance director. Why are those two positions vacant?
Moak: It’s all about money. We’ve got a digital director and data director, and we’ve had people from the executive committee filling in on some of things like the two things you just mentioned. It’s about raising enough money to have an executive director. You know, an executive director isn’t someone who just sits in the office and answers a phone and has a nice conversation with you. It’s a person who has those contacts to raise those funds. It’s hard to find those funds in Mississippi, so it’s going to have to happen in other parts of the nation to bring those funds in. You’ve got to be able to raise that money. You’ve got to know the data systems that are now called upon to be used in our state, just like in every other state. You’ve got to have those kind of abilities, too, and with those abilities comes a cost. But yes, there is also a plan to set out those job descriptions a little tighter in Mississippi. Those will be ready by May 29, and we’ll figure out how to move forward after that.
As you mention, raising money in Mississippi is tough. How do you get to the point that you can, as a party, raise the money you need to get these things done?
Moak: You know, that’s always been an issue. I think our Republican friends have a much easier avenue to go down because they’ve got U.S. senators and governors. People who contribute to them also contribute to the party when asked. So we’ve been getting a lot of financial support from the (Democratic National Committee), but we have to show folks who are willing to put some money into Mississippi that we have a viable program that can match up with any other state. I think we’re doing that with our data program. We’re one of the first 10 states that were contacted by the Biden campaign to come in and do some joint efforts with them. They said it was only because of relationships that we have here in the state with some national figures. So I think we’re on the right track with that and it will come. And listen, we know that it will come because if you take a look at where this party was just three or four years ago, you’ll see the complete difference there.
Some other concerns have been raised about miscommunications that occurred with some county-level volunteers. They said the state party wasn’t always responsive. What would you say to those people?
Moak: Well at the local level, I think we’ve tried to answer those questions. Also what we’ve done, the money we have raised, we’ve tried to send some of it back to them to help candidates. We’ve put them through training, we’ve put them through our VAN program, which is our list of all the voters in the state that would be respective to their county and contact information. We’re becoming more involved with the counties in letting the counties know what we have, and I think we’ve been getting there. The case in point is that we’re seventh in the nation in signup for these training matters. We’ve got some county organizations within the party, too, that like to take a leadership role in doing that. You know, whether that’s been occurring or not, that’s why the party’s become more involved at the county level.
There are some very clear ideological differences within the party — everything from conservatives to moderates to progressives. As chairman, how do you seek to strike that balance and keep the different factions in the state satisfied with the party?
Moak: Well number one, you have to realize you will not keep all the factions satisfied. Okay, that’s just a fact of political life whether you’re at the state party or in the state legislature. The Democratic leaders over there are — I’ve had that, too, and I can tell you this one is a lot more difficult. How I look at it is this: The party is not here to set policy positions. That’s for our elected officials whether at the city, county or state level. The issues they want to push is when the party needs to come in and say, “Let’s do this.” You get behind them. The hardest thing I found after leaving the Legislature after 32 years is that I don’t think the party should get in front of our elected officials. They are looking at things from the bigger view than we are, and they should have more information than the party has. And the party needs to back them up.
Well right now, there aren’t a whole lot of elected Democrats who have much influence who can set that policy. You’ve got legislative leadership, but Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers. You’ve got Congressman Bennie Thompson, but he’s got federal duties. If the elected officials should set the policy and lead on issues, how do you get there if there aren’t officials to lead? Should the party step in?
Moak: Under those circumstances, I would say yes. We try to pick up on the issues that Congressman Thompson is sending out in daily and weekly email blasts in his role as chairman of Homeland Security. We try to do that through some sort of messaging. We’ll see what may be going on in the Legislature, particularly lately with COVID-19 or prison issues, and we’ll talk to our local folks to try to help them. If there’s going to be a vacuum somewhere and nobody wants to step out on an issue, it may be that they’re not the ones to do it. In that instance, I think the party should step out and take that role.
If the party does that, how do you determine what the message should be, given the different factions in the party. You’re a moderate Democrat —
Moak: I want to say this, too: There are no coincidences in politics. I learned that a long time ago. So if you see the party step out ahead of our elected officials, it’s because somebody, somewhere has had a conversation with an elected officials. That’s where you’ll see the party step up, step ahead of some elected officials.
So it might not be direct messaging coming from the party as much as it’s coordination behind the scenes with those elected officials?
Moak: There are no coincidences in politics. So I think that makes it easy for the party to message.
How would you say most regular Mississippi Democratic voters fall on the political spectrum? Are they more moderate, more progressive?
Moak: You know, I see them sort of all across the board. I see them somewhat of a microcosm of all of those folks out there. I’ll go a step further beyond your question. We see a lot of independents or folks who want to come back, those are more. I think we’ve seen the polling information on that. They are more middle of the road. They’re not far right, they’re not far left. They’re coming back as you saw in the post-election analysis precinct polling in 2019. In different areas of the state, you saw 8-15 percent of voters come back to the party who had not historically been there in the last eight or 12 years.
That’s an interesting point. Jim Hood’s strategy was definitively geared toward white independent voters. I spoke with Janis Patterson, a black woman who is progressive who ran for state House in Prentiss County. That was the center of where Jim Hood was targeting his more moderate messaging. She talked about this disconnect between the policies she was pushing and the policies Hood was pushing. In the end, they received the same number of votes in her district. As party leader, how do you weigh those two different ideologies with how they fared in the end?
Moak: Well in that particular example, I know that candidate. She was a great candidate who was pushed by a lot of friends, including my family up there in north Mississippi. She got hit by the same thing Hood got hit with. Here’s one thing about her going into that race: She knew that district was tough to win. She still stepped out there, and those are the kind of folks you have to appreciate more than anybody running for office. The question that Hood probably had was that those voters would vote for him, whereas they didn’t vote for (Mike Espy) in 2018. That didn’t turn out to be so. So it became Democrat versus Republican rather than candidate. What you have to do as a party is look at numbers before you go into a race. You have to help the candidates if they’ll take the help and say, “Here’s where you need to be to garner the Democratic base.” That’s part of our data and digital program we’ve been putting together the past three-and-a-half years.
The Republican Party is really good at messaging and being on the same page from top to bottom. What’s it going to take to get Democrats in Mississippi on the same page like that?
Moak: I’m not sure Democrats want to follow that Republican lead. Republicans can do that because they’ve got U.S. senators, because they’ve got governors, because they’ve got a speaker of the house and lieutenant governor who can call them and say, “If you don’t vote this way, we’re going to run somebody against you in the primary.” Democrats really never have been that way. They’ve been more free-thinking. They like to think for themselves. Republicans don’t tend to send that kind of aura out there. I think we all know that. They tend to be more in line than Democrats. The thing about Democrats is they’ll fight among each other, and at the end of the day, they’ll almost come back together all of the time. Will we get Democrats to do that? Are Democrats going to fall in line on issues they care about? Yes. You saw that in the last election on issues like healthcare, roads and bridges, education. Those are the kind of things that bring Democrats together are issues.
To be fair, there are some issues that would keep Democrats apart. Abortion, state flag, economic development come to mind.
Moak: To be fair, you’re right. But those are things Democrats just have to work through, and that’s why you have to put together a Mississippi party platform. It’s been so easy for Republicans to say, “Oh you’re a Democrat, here’s your national platform.” Well no. This is Mississippi, here’s what we do. We look at it that way because we think that’s gonna be the best things for Mississippians. Like the things I just harped on: education, healthcare, infrastructure.
Race is a big consideration for the Mississippi Democratic Party. Knowing that 70 percent of Democratic voters are black, and you’re a white man, how do you ensure that you’re representing black Mississippians adequately?
Moak: Let’s get this out of the way: There are sure folks who were not for me getting the job four years ago, and there are folks who don’t want to see me continue in the position. That’s just a fact. It’s also a fact that during the last three and half years, we’ve pulled this party out of financial holes it’s been in. We’ve brought back independents into the fold, we’ve brought back white voters. There’s one thing I believe in, and that’s that we will not stand if we stand alone. We have to have all of us: blacks and white and every mix of moderate or far left or far right Democrats. You have to have all of those folks coming in. One thing you cannot do is you cannot forget the base of the party. I have tried to focus on that and giving back to the counties, which is something we haven’t seen, which is to try to build back the party at the county level. That’s one thing you must continue to do, and you’ve got to make it open and transparent for everybody. And look, I’ve had pushback in recruiting candidates in 2019. The same people who want openness don’t like it when you want to open it for everybody to have a voice. I believe that everybody gets a shot and everybody gets their voice heard. At the end of the day, you have to take care of your Democratic base, but then you’ve also got to try to add to it.
So you want to strike a balance between keeping the base of black voters happy but also reaching out to white voters who recently left? No one’s had success with that. How do you do it?
Moak: I don’t think it’s a tightrope. You must take care of the base. We’ve seen there’s a base there. What we need is a little more accountability, more training. We need to bring in more volunteers on the ground. Listen, we’ve got tons of volunteers in our air force, if you will. We ran about 4.2 million telephone calls or emails or direct postcard messaging during 2018. Putting that on the ground is also something harder to do, and it’s something we’ve got to work on. Giving counties money back. We want counties to be the leaders in putting that vote out at the local level.
Moak: I don’t think anybody’s done enough, no. That’s evident by the fact that we’re losing some local races that we shouldn’t. There’s just one that immediately comes to mind in the Mississippi Delta. We had a minority candidate that should’ve just run outright, but instead there was a runoff. And during that runoff, I think had the state party not become involved and tried to get in concert with the other groups on the ground, then we wouldn’t have gotten that seat in the special election.
Moak: We just had a black female who left the party late last year. We do have Fair Fight, Stacey Abrams’ group, under our roof now. A wonderful lady is leading that, a black female. Looking at our structure under our constitution, we make sure we’ve got everybody represented.
Moving forward, can you be a good leader for the Mississippi Democratic Party?
Moak: I think that I have been, and the proof is in the pudding.
