CLARKSDALE, Mississippi — Rumors of a potential data center had loomed over Voneshay Walker like a cloud for months. She’d heard the whispers and seen reports of other centers popping up in small towns across the South. She didn’t expect it to hit so close to home. Walker is a native of Tutwiler, Mississippi, a […]
Mississippi
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The Battle Over Black Representation in a White Mississippi County
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 […]
Posted inNews
NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus Lends Support in Nolan Wells’ Case
From the National Urban League Conference to the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention, Nolan Wells’ parents are on a nonstop campaign to get answers into the mysterious death of their son. They’re getting more help in their quest, this time from the NAACP’s Office of General Counsel, which announced Aug. 17 that it […]
Posted inCourts, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Trump Ordered to Release Billions in Climate Grants Meant for Black Communities
Dominika Parry never stopped fighting for Jackson, Mississippi, residents even after the Trump administration terminated a multibillion-dollar program last year meant to help the Black city still reeling from a water crisis. For years, if water did flow out of Black households’ faucets in Jackson at all, it was often brown. It left elders and […]
Posted inNews, Partner Content
Black Woman Found Hanging in Tree in Mississippi Has Been Identified as Tasia Fortune
This story was originally published in the Mississippi Free Press, a nonprofit journalism multimedia network reporting on the causes of and solutions to the social, political, and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities. The woman whose body was found hanging from a tree behind a vacant Jackson, Mississippi, home is 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, […]
Posted inCourts, History, Rural Issues
How One Woman Landed in Jail Over a Fight to Protect Her Family’s Land
Jennine Labuzan spent two weeks in federal custody in June — shuttled from her residence in Georgia to Tennessee to Mississippi — after refusing a judge’s order to sign away more than 1,300 acres of land she says her family has owned for generations. Her arrest and release came after a legal battle she never […]
Posted inMaternal Health, Partner Content
Pregnant Woman’s Roadside Death Triggers Push to Reopen Mississippi Delta Hospital
This story was originally published on Mississippi Today and KFF Health News. BELZONI, Mississippi — Harmony Ball-Stribling’s path to pregnancy had been turbulent, from an endometriosis diagnosis to an arduous in vitro fertilization process and sky-high blood pressure. But as her due date approached in the summer of 2021, her health improved and those storm clouds […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Jackson Residents Warn New Pearl River Plan Won’t Stop the Next Flood
JACKSON, Mississippi — Tamitha Dill worries her house could be in danger every time it rains. Her northeast Jackson neighborhood is highly susceptible to flooding from the nearby Pearl River and its tributaries, and she was one of many residents who evacuated in 2020 when the river crested at near-record levels. Dill has followed evolving government plans […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
How Jackson’s Former Mayor Went From Progressive Star to Guilty Plea
Jackson, Mississippi, resident and social justice organizer Danyelle Holmes saw up close the scrutiny and efforts by the state’s top leaders to remove her friend and former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba from office during his tenure. Lumumba consistently fought back against lawmakers and the governor for refusing to fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure, she said, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Partner Content, Policing
1-Year-Old Shot by Mississippi Police Officer; Community Demands Action
This story was originally published in the Mississippi Free Press, a nonprofit journalism multimedia network reporting on the causes of and solutions to the social, political, and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities. A Mississippi police officer shot 1-year-old Kohen Kartier Wiley while responding to a shoplifting call on Sunday, killing him and […]
