DeSOTO COUNTY, Mississippi. — Hester Jackson-McCray witnessed the beginning of the economic boom in this Mississippi Delta county when she moved south from Chicago in 1999. Year after year, she has watched the county attract newcomers and grow culturally and economically, cotton fields giving way to subdivisions and shopping centers. Other Black families like hers […]
Mississippi Voting Rights
Voting rights in Mississippi are being reshaped. Explore what’s changing and what it means for Black voters and communities in the state.
For more on voting rights across the country, explore our Voting Rights in America coverage.
Posted inEconomy, Elections, Politics & Policy
Black Women in Mississippi Are Connecting Voting to Peace and Prosperity
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 […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Supreme Court Case Threatens Mail-in Ballots for Black Voters
For Mississippians, there’s been no escaping the attempts to dilute Black political power. Two Black Democrats won special elections on Nov. 4 to break the Republican supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. Then, six days later, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Republican-led challenge to mail-in voting. Johnny DuPree and Theresa Gillespie Isom both […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Black Voters ‘Finally’ Get Win After Federal Judge Strikes Down Mississippi Map
In Dyamone White’s rural Mississippi town, churches long served as the gathering spot for community events. As a millennial, she recognized the need to bring those events elsewhere as a way to increase civic engagement and host important community discussions. Over the years, she’s seen the participation grow in Edwards and Bolton, towns near her […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Jackson Residents Join Fight to Stop Law That Strips Away Voting Power
Mere days after the NAACP sued Mississippi state officials over two new laws the civil rights organization says are discriminatory, three Jackson residents are following a similar course, arguing in a lawsuit filed on Monday that one of the laws is a violation of the Mississippi Constitution. “State lawmakers have said that this takeover of […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The History of White Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Mississippi’s Predominately Black Capital
Arekia Bennett-Scott didn’t expect her hometown to be thrust into the national spotlight just months after the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, resurfaced tensions over how state officials treat the majority-Black city. Yet, residents in the Democratic-led capital are now pushing back against efforts by white Republican state officials to gain more power over the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The History of White Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Mississippi’s Predominantly Black Capital
Arekia Bennett-Scott didn’t expect her hometown to be thrust into the national spotlight just months after the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, resurfaced tensions over how state officials treat the majority-Black city. Yet, residents in the Democratic-led capital are now pushing back against efforts by white Republican state officials to gain more power over the […]
