Editor’s note: Linda Williams-Short, the mayor of Mayersville, leads one of Mississippi’s smallest towns. This piece is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing perspectives of mayors across the state.

When you think about the Mississippi Delta, you might not always think about Mayersville.

But this small but mighty town I’m proud to lead is as important as any in the Delta, and we are making great strides. We like to think of Mayersville as being a small town with big dreams. We live by that motto.

Perhaps these strides we have made would be considered baby steps in larger cities, but in Mayersville, population 433, according to the 2020 Census, these steps can be considered monumental to our town’s survival.

We strive to follow the lead of former Mayersville Mayor Unita Blackwell, who was the first Black woman mayor of a Mississippi town. She was a leader for all of us in Mayersville, and she inspired me to enter politics.

And today we still follow her lead in working to improve housing in Mayersville and the overall economic condition of all our residents.

We have faced the adversities of other small Delta towns. Through the decades we also have faced natural disasters, including barely missing a direct hit from the awful 2023 tornado that reaped destruction on many of our south Mississippi Delta neighbors.

The natural disasters Mayersville have faced go way back including the historic and devastating 1927 flood that resulted in the levy that separates our town from the direct access to the Mississippi River that was key to our economy decades ago.

Despite the obstacles, town leaders and I are committed to improving the health and well-being of our constituents. As part of this effort, the town of Mayersville became the second smoke-free community in the state of Mississippi.

Since being elected mayor in 2001, we have worked, following in the tradition of Unita Blackwell, to build seven new homes within Mayersville. That might not seem like a big deal, but in a town of our size and with the housing issues we face, we are proud of this accomplishment.

We have strived to repair the town’s failing infrastructure and to bring healthy food options to the community through a partnership with the Mississippi Food Network. We also are working with the Delta Health Center to provide a clinic to assist residents who have limited transportation options.

And like other small Delta towns, tourism is critical. To that end, I helped found the Mayersville Annual Homecoming Festival. This festival brings former and current residents together annually from all over the United States.

These efforts are important to me because Mayersville, which is the county seat for Issaquena County, is important to me. I am a lifelong resident.

I am the youngest daughter of the late Saul & Edie B. Williams. For 29 years I have been married to Larry D. Short. He is my lifelong partner and love of my life. I am the mother of James Jr., Jeremy, JaSona, Kiara, Katerri and the late Jercelle and proud grandmother of 13 grandchildren. I have been a member of one of our great and impactful churches — Rose Hill M.B. Church — for 49 years, and I currently serve as the senior choir director. In addition to being mayor, I am a small business owner operating as Tony’s Grocery and Celle’s Estate Housing complex.

I am passionate, dedicated, driven in terms of my job as mayor of Mayersville.

But my story is not unique. In Mayersville, we all pitch in for the betterment of our town and its residents.

In Mayersville, we live by the motto, “Always service over self.” I am proud to take that motto to heart every single day.

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

The city of Clarksdale on Monday filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit against the Clarksdale Press Register and a judge’s order that required the newspaper to remove an editorial from its website, a court action that stunned free press advocates. 

The motion asks the court to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, which means the city cannot refile the same lawsuit against the city in the future. Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin would have to agree to the motion. 

The city leaders and the newspaper are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday morning. But if the judge agrees to the dismissal motion before then, the court will likely cancel the hearing. 

“They shouldn’t have filed the lawsuit in the first place,” said Wyatt Emmerich, the newspaper’s owner. “But I’m glad they’re dismissing it.” 

Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy and the Board of Commissioners filed the petition last week in Hinds County Chancery Court, alleging that an editorial the local newspaper published criticizing them was “libelous” and saying the editorial would bring “immediate and irreparable injury” to the city.

The editorial criticized the city for conducting a special-called meeting without informing the news outlet beforehand. The purpose of the meeting was to ask the Legislature for permission to enact an additional local tax.  

“Have commissioners or the mayor gotten kickback from the community?” the editorial reads. “Until Tuesday, we had not heard of any. Maybe they just wanted a few nights in Jackson to lobby for this idea — at public expense.” 

READ MORE: Editorial: Someone needs to read the First Amendment to Judge Crystal Wise Martin

The state’s Open Meetings Act requires public bodies to email a notice of the meeting to media outlets and citizens who have asked to be placed on the city’s email distribution list. 

The Clarksdale city clerk, Laketha Covington, filed an affidavit with the city’s petition stating that she forgot to send an email notice about the special meeting to the outlet. Still, she said it was a simple mistake and not intentional.

Angered, the city leaders filed the petition over the editorial in Jackson, around 155 miles from Clarksdale, where the judge issued the temporary restraining order that ordered the newspaper to remove the website from its website. 

A temporary restraining order is typically issued by a judge instructing someone to stop a specific action. It is issued when the judge believes immediate and irreparable loss or damage will occur before the court can conduct a full hearing. 

But Charlie Mitchell, a lawyer and former newspaper editor who has taught media law at the University of Mississippi for years, doubted if the editorial met the irreparable loss burden and said the judge’s order went a step further than a typical restraining order and ordered a “remedy” by demanding the news outlet to take corrective action.

“The opinion expressed in the editorial — government secrecy breeds mistrust — has been voiced countless times throughout American history and is the very root of the First Amendment,” Mitchell said. 

The Mississippi Press Association and other press advocates were alarmed by the ruling, calling it “unconstitutional” and worried that it would set a dangerous precedent for nearly a century of case law that clearly outlawed prior restraint orders.

National news outlets, including the Associated Press and the New York Times, quickly picked up on the story, and legal advocates supported the Clarksdale Press Register. Now, six days after the judge entered her order, the city is dismissing its petition. 

Emmerich believes other government bodies would be hesitant to pursue similar actions against local news outlets in the future because of the swift response from free press advocates nationwide. 

“I’m really inspired by all the support throughout the country and that First Amendment advocates quickly responded to this,” Emmerich said. 

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

Feb. 25, 1870

Two days after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union, Hiram Revels became the first Black American elected as a U.S. senator. 

“All men are created equal, says the great Declaration,” Republican Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts said, “and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality…. The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.” 

Born free in North Carolina, Revels became a national force in an office once held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. 

A minister by trade, Revels sought to improve the education of others, working with Black Americans in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. 

In 1854, he was imprisoned for preaching to the Black community. After that, he moved to Baltimore, where he served as principal of a Black school. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he helped recruit two Black regiments from Maryland and later served as chaplain for Black soldiers fighting in Mississippi. 

After the war ended, he worked for a church in Kansas. On the train, the conductor asked him and his family to move to the smoking car. They refused, and the conductor relented. Not long after, he and his family settled in Natchez, Mississippi, where he was elected as an alderman. Winning over both Black and white with his calls for cooperation, he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, one of more than 30 African Americans to serve in the Legislature during Reconstruction. 

“We are in the midst of an exciting canvass,” he wrote a friend in a letter. “We are determined that Mississippi shall be settled on a basis of justice and political and legal equality.” 

He drew attention as soon as he arrived with his moving words. After Mississippi lawmakers appointed him to the U.S. Senate, a few tried to block him from taking office. Revels remained steadfast and took office. 

“I find that the prejudice in this country to color is very great, and I sometimes fear that it is on the increase,” he went on to say. “If the nation should take a step for the encouragement of this prejudice against the colored race, can they have any grounds upon which to predicate a hope that heaven will smile upon them and prosper them?”

He supported universal amnesty for former Confederates, requiring only their sworn loyalty to the Union. 

“I am in favor of removing the disabilities of those upon whom they are imposed in the South,” he said, “just as fast as they give evidence of having become loyal and being loyal.” 

After the end of his Senate term in 1871, he became the first president of Alcorn University, the first land-grant school for Black students. He later taught theology at Rust College and died of a stroke in 1901.

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