Nov. 27, 1942

Legendary Jimi Hendrix, whom Rolling Stone ranks as the greatest guitarist of all time, was born in Seattle. He left his hometown because of racism and grew up in poverty. 

Hemdrix began playing guitar at age 15, drenched in the blues before backing R&B artists Little Richard and The Isley Brothers on tour, becoming one of the most talented musicians on the Chitlin’ Circuit. 

But he experienced firsthand the South’s segregation, unable to go to the bathroom at a gas station because of the color of his skin. Even after becoming a rock star, he experienced racism, cab drivers in New York City refusing to pick him up. 

When Hendrix made his foray into rock music, he took “the blues out of the Mississippi Delta and sent it to Mars,” one music critic said. He coaxed sounds out of the electric guitar that no one else thought possible. When he played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, he turned the standard into a sonic masterpiece, complete with soaring rockets and bursting bombs. 

His version came at the height of the Vietnam War, where Black soldiers were dying on the battlefield in record numbers. Some saw his interpretation as “unpatriotic,” but he disputed such talk on “The Dick Cavett Show,” saying, “I’m an American, too.” 

The last words he wrote before he died accidentally after taking sleeping pills: “The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye. The story of love is hello and goodbye, until we meet again.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Mississippi Supreme Court runoff election between incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens and Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning remained too close to call Tuesday night, with political prognosticators signaling a careful counting of ballots that could take days.

With 91% of the total votes reported, the Associated Press reported that Branning received 50.2% of the vote, while Kitchens had 49.8%. The reported margin of votes at 10:45 p.m. was about 500 in favor of Branning.

The tightly contested race could come down to absentee and affidavit ballots, which are not counted in AP’s election night tabulation. State law currently allows for election workers to process mail-in absentee ballots for up to five days after Election Day, as long as the ballot was postmarked by the date of the election.

The Mississippi Republican Party worked hard for months to oust Kitchens, one of the dwindling number of centrist jurists on the high court, consolidating its infrastructure behind Branning. Conservative leaders are keenly aware that Kitchens is next in line to lead the court as chief justice, a job with administrative powers, should current Chief Justice Mike Randolph step down.

Though candidates for judicial offices in Mississippi are technically nonpartisan, political parties and trade associations often contribute money to candidates and cut ads for them, which has increasingly made them effectively as partisan as traditional campaigns. 

Kitchens is one of two centrist members of the high court and is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democrats, though the Mississippi Democratic Party has not endorsed his candidacy. The GOP has directly endorsed Branning. 

Kitchens, a resident of Crystal Springs, was first elected to the court in 2008. He is a former district attorney and private practice lawyer. On the campaign trail, he has pointed to his experience as an attorney and judge, particularly his years prosecuting criminals and his rulings on criminal cases.

Branning, also private practice attorney, was first elected to the Legislature in 2015. She has led the Senate Elections and Transportation committees. During her time at the Capitol, she has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate, voting against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, voting against expanding Medicaid to the working poor and equal pay for women, and supporting mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime.

While campaigning for the judicial seat, she pledged to ensure that “conservative values” are always represented in the judiciary, but she stopped short of endorsing policy positions, which Mississippi judicial candidates are prohibited from doing.

The two candidates have collectively raised around $187,000 and spent $182,000 during the final stretch of the campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Secretary of State’s office. 

Counties must certify the election results and send them to the Secretary of State’s office by Dec. 6, meaning a counting effort could continue through the Thanksgiving holiday and into the first part of December.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Amy St. Pé , an attorney from Jackson County, defeated Jennifer Schloegel, a chancery judge, on Tuesday night for an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. 

With 94% of the vote reported, the Associated Press projected that St. Pé, who led with 61.5% of the vote, would defeat Schloegel, who trailed at 38.5%. The runoff election pitted two prominent Gulf Coast names against one another and saw hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars spent in the race. 

St. Pé is a municipal judge in Gautier. Schloegel is a chancery court judge in Hancock, Harrison and Stone counties.

Whenever St. Pé is installed as the judge replacing outgoing Judge Joel Smith, she will be one of five women serving on the 10-member Court of Appeals, the highest number of women who have ever served on the court at one time.

Election results: Mississippi Court of Appeals runoff

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.