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Even if they can’t always agree at Capitol, lawmakers bond over the blues in downtown Jackson

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mississippitoday.org – Julian Rankin – 2024-09-02 06:00:00

Even if they can’t always agree at Capitol, lawmakers bond over the blues in downtown Jackson

On Monday nights during the Mississippi legislative session — sure as the looming sine die— legislators gather around dimly lit tables in downtown Jackson. It’s a backroom deal, but not the type of which you might be thinking.

They’re not here in the name of policy, but in celebration of Mississippi culture. This is Blue Monday, a 17-year-old tradition organized by the Central Mississippi Blues Society. For more than 15 of those years, the weekly concerts have been hosted at Hal & Mal’s, the legendary restaurant and musical institution.

“Monday night in the blues is a very special night because of the songs and the history that have gone into it,” says Malcolm Shepherd, member of the Blue Monday Band and President of the Central Mississippi Blues Society. “Friday rolls around, you get paid. Saturday, you go out to play. Sunday, you go to church. And Monday, the blues returns to you.”

The song “Blue Monday” was written by Dave Bartholomew and made internationally famous when Fats Domino recorded it in 1956. It was one of the first crossover R&B singles, hitting number five on the Billboard pop charts and cementing Domino as a forebear of rock and roll. The lyrics remark on the near-universal distaste for Mondays shared by working people.

Blue Monday concerts at Hal & Mal’s are antidotes for this soul sickness, and during the early months of the year when lawmakers are in session, they happen to fall on legislative “travel days” when members are just revving up their week.

“A lot of legislators are looking for interesting things to do on Monday nights,” says Sen. John Horhn, a Democrat from Jackson. “… And the arts, and in particular, the blues, have always been great convening points where people from different backgrounds can come together and enjoy the art form, but also hopefully get to know each other better.”

Prior to becoming a lawmaker more than 30 years ago, Horhn served as folklife director at the Mississippi Arts Commission, where he championed traditional arts practitioners. The blues are ideal for reaching across the aisle and building bridges, Horhn said.

“I can’t think of a better vehicle than blues music, which is the basis of American popular music, and therefore, in my opinion, world music. And so it’s a common soother of people’s souls, and everyone has an affinity for the blues in whatever form it might take place.”

On any given Monday, the smiling, dancing and whooping crowd is a tapestry of Mississippi that weaves a collective portrait of racial, cultural, geographical, and generational diversity. The judgment-free open mic backed by the Blue Monday Band is the democratic at work, a town hall of creative self-expression. This seems appropriate because while much of public policy in Mississippi is hashed out in the halls of the Capitol, the state’s cultural identity is communicated by a delegation of unelected representatives — its artists and musicians.

Lifetime CMBS member Dorothy Moore (left) performs with Angela Walls, Tonya Youngblood Polk, and James Bell. Credit: Peggy Brown / Central Mississippi Blues Society

Malcolm White (the “Mal” in Hal & Mal’s) has booked, promoted and supported blues artists for decades, through past public service roles as director of the Mississippi Arts Commission and director of Visit Mississippi (the state tourism agency), as well as through his time on the Mississippi Blues Commission.

Hosting blues at Hal & Mal’s was part of White’s larger statewide strategy to ensure that anyone from anywhere on any night could find an authentic blues experience somewhere in the state. Beyond its prodigious tourism value, the blues are instructive and paradoxical poetry for its people, built on a history of struggle and marginalization, yet indicative of Mississippi ingenuity and cultural influence.

“It is diverse and complex, much like the state of Mississippi and the rest of our art and culture,” says White. “But it is, to me, a really unique phenomenon that this cultural asset we call the blues is a thing that can bring together opposing views and conflicting .”

In late 2022, White sold Hal & Mal’s to partners Damien Cavicchi and Mary Sanders Ferriss Cavicchi, who share a passion for keeping the legacy alive. This passing of the torch — a peaceful transition of power, if you will — is part of the spirit of Blue Monday, too. The Blue Monday Band includes veteran players who have performed with the likes of Bobby Rush and Dorothy Moore, but also makes for young talent like guitarist Brian Ballou.

“That’s such a valuable thing to get somebody young or somebody not from Jackson up there playing with them and seeing them share the stage together and stories,” Damien Cavicchi said. “It’s a multi-generational quality that I don’t really see a lot in Jackson or anywhere really.”

At a Blue Monday concert not long ago, in the middle of a raucous rendition of an old blues standard, a developer from the Gulf Coast in town on legislative business exclaimed, “This happens every Monday night?!” He was bewildered, as if in some bluesy dream. Then he added, “This is the best Monday night of my .”

From the stage, Malcolm Shepherd sees an influx of Mississippi legislators during the session each year. He might note Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons (a Democrat from Greenville), or Sen. Rod Hickman (a Democrat from Macon), sitting near or conversing with Sens. Jeremy England (a Republican from Vancleave) and Scott Delano (a Republican from Biloxi). Many in the Coast delegation, like England and Delano, have become steadfast Blue Monday patrons, encouraging their colleagues to join in.

England was introduced to the Monday night concerts during the 2023 session and rarely misses a week. Horhn calls Delano a “blues man from the Delta at heart.”

“… To listen to these artists pour out their heart and soul inside a bar that was once a railroad freight warehouse in the middle of downtown Jackson — that is true, blue Mississippi,” England said.

Rep. Hank Zuber, a Republican from , is known to hit the dance floor when the mood strikes.

“It gives me an to dance and spend time with people that I would usually not socialize with in the bubble that we call the Capitol,” says Zuber. “Also, people don’t mind if I wear my sunglasses inside even though it’s after dark.”

On Tuesdays, these same legislators will be buttoned-up at the Capitol, debating policy, hearing from constituents or handling billions of dollars of state appropriations. The hope is that their work is guided by core values of service and public good, and perhaps also by the knowledge that Mississippians have a great deal more in common than they do in opposition.

“… If you keep people separated, they never get to know each other,” Shepherd said. “You can separate them by race, you can separate them by class, you can separate them by money or income … but the one thing that we are very proud of and that we see in the audience every Monday night — and it’s wonderful — is Mississippians sitting out there together, enjoying themselves.”

“Mississippi has a very tough history to overcome,” England said. “No hiding that. But to me, while our differences once scared us and caused us to fight, these same differences and blending of cultures is something we now celebrate. No other state has this uniqueness that we have. What better way to start a week off in the , passing laws and directing policy, than with a positive reminder of that fact?”

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1875

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-02 07:00:00

Nov. 2, 1875

Pictured here are U.S. Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, left, with six Black members of the U.S. House, Ben J.S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson H. Long of Georgia, and Robert C. De Large, Joseph H. Rainy and R. Brown Elliot, all of South Carolina. Credit: Library of

The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from , resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the

A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state. 

Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton. 

The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan. 

John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.” 

A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”

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

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy , civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s around them.

Special Event: “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact”

As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.” Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s “25- ,” which affects journalists’ ability to report vital .

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to .

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

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Mississippi Today

Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion. 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

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

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