Over the years, Gabrielle Wyatt has heard directly from Black women nationally who described wealth as not only earnings, but about the conditions to live fully with financial freedom, abundance of choice, belonging, and thriving health.
With the attack on Black economic and political power, Black women have been hit the hardest, disproportionately suffering from the largest employment losses in 2025 compared to Black men and women of other racial backgrounds.
It forced Wyatt and her organization, The Highland Project, to sit with one question at the end of last year: If Black women are canaries in the coal mine, how can they be that for possibility, civic imagination, and transformation?
With voting rights under attack, the South has been ground zero for suppressing and disenfranchising Black political power, and Mississippi has consistently ranked as one of the most restrictive states. Historically, Black women in the state — from pioneers such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Unita Blackwell to Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable — have always led the charge to mobilize. Once again, Black women are on the frontlines.
“When you think about the South, no state was more central to the push for civil rights and expansion of rights and opportunity for Black people than Mississippi,” said Cornell Belcher, founder of polling firm brilliant corners Research and Strategies. “You see states in the Deep South with a large Black population, and once again front and center to what some are calling the current newfound civil rights movement.”
A newly released poll of 701 Black women voters in Mississippi answers that question, focusing on their perspectives on broken systems, what it takes to fix them, and the importance of a holistic approach to address their concerns. This data set also explores the nuance of culture and how Black women define success and joy.
Though 89% of women surveyed are dissatisfied with the direction of the county, 75% are highly motivated to participate in the midterms. It is motivated by the economic strain they feel in their pocketbooks; the loss of jobs; their access to healthcare; and preserving their history. The findings mirror Black women’s concerns nationally, according to previous polls by The Highland Project.
“This perspective offered in this poll helps us to understand that pain is not abstract right now in communities,” Wyatt said. “One could read this and say this is just a Mississippi issue, but we know from last year that is not the case.”
She added that a top issue — alongside health, voting, reproductive rights, and economic stability — is protecting Black history.
This project is part of a multiyear research effort between The Highland Project, which has polled Black women nationally since 2021, brilliant corners, and Jackson, Mississippi-based Springboard to Opportunities. Their mission is to more deeply understand voters’ dreams and aspirations around wealth and democracy — and the limitations to access it.
The Mississippi survey marks the first time the polling has focused on a specific state. However, last year’s poll of 701 women across the nation revealed similar findings.
For instance, in the 2025 spring poll, 55% of Black women said they believed it wasn’t time to retreat, but to continue to protect their rights from being dismantled. Only 8% were satisfied with the direction of the country, down 50% from 2021.
The 2026 Mississippi report revealed:
- 90% of respondents say economic conditions are worse,
- 55% say their wages are falling behind the cost of living, and
- 44% say they often experience racism daily.
This year’s data amplified “very unique economic anxiety,” Belcher said. “This is the context here, where you see them arguing that their wages are falling behind, the economy is getting worse, and they’re often sort of having to navigate racism in their daily lives.
The poll also amplifies the women’s vision of prosperity that includes their faith, family, and financial peace. Many women connect financial security to joy than to success, and having enough money is less about status than it is about peace, the findings show.
“One of the clearest insights in this data is the distinction Black women make between success and joy. Success is often tied to financial security and the ability to meet responsibilities, while joy is connected to peace, freedom, rest, creativity, and meaningful relationships,” says Aisha Nyandoro, founder and CEO of Springboard to Opportunities.
“That gap matters,” Nyandoro said. “It reminds us that thriving is not just about surviving financially, but about creating the conditions for people to experience fullness, dignity, and well-being in their everyday lives.”
Wyatt’s hope is two-fold. First: The report amplifies Mississippi as a place of leadership, imagination, and deep community wisdom and their concerns are not isolated to the state but representative of Black women nationally. Second, Black women’s lived experiences can help shape policy informed by their perspectives of joy and success.
“What we’re really trying to get at, and Black women have been telling us the last seven polls, is that these policies are all interconnected,” Wyatt told Capital B. “This is structural work, and so if we can approach joy from a place of wholeness, then can we approach policy from a place of wholeness and honor the interconnectedness of the system.”
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