Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Unsafe Water

Record Investment Merely Scratches the Surface of Fixing Black America’s Water Crisis

Gwendolyn Reed-Davis recalls living without running water during the holiday season last year, merely months after a water crisis left Jackson, Mississippi, residents struggling to bathe, cook, and flush their toilets.  The mother of 12 says the city’s years-long struggle has harmed public health and threatened the development of a whole generation of children.  Since […]

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 inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather

Want to Better Prepare Black Communities for Tornadoes? Erode the Income Gap.

The severity of the recent network of tornadoes that practically erased a majority Black rural town in Mississippi off the map would’ve leveled any community in its path — but the region’s high amount of mobile homes, low access to information networks, and poor insurance rates created a perfect storm.  “Tornadic storms will continue to […]

Posted inCriminal Justice

Rasheem Carter’s Death Shows the Fault Lines of Jim Crow Still Run Through Mississippi

The investigation into the killing of Tiffany Carter’s son sheds light on a rigid pattern in which Black Americans find themselves at odds with the very institutions they’re supposed to trust. While Rasheem Carter’s death wasn’t the result of officer-involved violence — and while there are many unknowns about what happened — the case has […]

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 […]

Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing

‘I Was on My Knees, Handcuffed’: Black Man Shot By Mississippi Police Tells His Story

JACKSON, Miss. — Michael Corey Jenkins held his neck, covered in white gauze bandages, as he struggled to form words. He wanted to explain the violent abuse he endured at the hands of deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office last month. “I was on my knees, handcuffed, and he was standing over me,” Jenkins […]