Mississippi Today
Mississippi’s racial divides were on full display as HB 1020 got its final debate and passing vote
Mississippi’s racial divides were on full display as HB 1020 got its final debate and passing vote
The state of Mississippi’s racial wounds and sordid history were again thrust into full view at the Capitol on Friday as the House debated and passed controversial bills that would impose state control over the judicial system in the majority-Black city of Jackson.
House Bill 1020 and its companion Senate Bill 2343 have for weeks attracted negative national attention for giving white state leaders new judicial and expanded police authority over capital city Jackson, the Blackest large city in the nation.
The measures would give the white chief justice of the state Supreme Court the authority to appoint judges to hear cases in the district. This is unique in that every other court district in the state has elected judges rather than appointed judges.
The bills would also expand the jurisdiction of Capitol Police, a state police agency managed by the Department of Public Safety and its appointed agency head who is white. Every other municipality in the state has a local police force with main jurisdiction.
The legislation that passed the House late on Friday was a compromise between House and Senate leaders. Because it passed the Senate late Thursday, it now heads to the desk of Gov. Tate Reeves for signature. It was one of the final bills passed by lawmakers in the combative 2023 session.
The controversial Jackson bills passed the white and Republican-controlled Legislature by an overwhelming margin. Every Black lawmaker in the House and Senate but one — Rep. Angela Cockerham, an independent from Magnolia — voted against the bills.
Supporters of the legislation say that the judges, under the final version of the bill, will only serve for a limited period of time and that there still will be four elected judges hearing criminal cases in Hinds County.
Debate of the bill on the House floor on Friday became tense and heated, highlighting the racial tension that has been festering all session. House Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia and the author of HB 1020, told members on Friday he was going “to refuse to take the race-laced, unfactual rhetoric as bait” as he defended the bill.
Lamar said that he was unfairly labeled as a racist when all he was trying to do is aid the citizens of Jackson — many of whom he said had asked for help with the crime problems besetting Mississippi’s capital and largest city. Lamar said the bill had nothing to do with race.
“When you take away the right of people to elect their officials who have traditionally been elected, how else are they going to see it?” asked Rep. Ed Blackmon, a Democrat from Canton. “…The right to vote may not mean much to some of you, but when you look at history that got us to where we are today, when it took so long and lost so many lives…
“Gentleman, you have not been beaten for asking for the right to vote,” Blackmon said to Lamar. “You have not been locked up for asking for that. I have. Yes, I am sensitive to that.”
Rep. Willie Bailey, a Democrat from Greenville, said in an impassioned, angry response from the well of the House chamber: “You don’t tell me not to talk about race.”
All session and on Friday, members of the Jackson delegation said that they had asked for help for their city, but lamented that the majority-white House leadership did not allow them to be involved in deciding the shape that help should take. They asked why money could not be provided for additional Jackson city police officers and for another elected judge in the city of Jackson.
They said majority white cities in the state would not be treated the same as Jackson — which is more than 80% African American and the Blackest city in the nation with a population of more than 100,000.
Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson, asked, “When people say they are just trying to help, but the elected officials from the city of Jackson say this is not help, why is that not enough?”
The legislation would create a separate judicial and law enforcement district within the Capital Complex Improvement District. Four judges would be appointed by Chief Justice Michael Randolph, who is white and from Hattiesburg. An additional court would be created within the district to hear misdemeanor cases and to conduct preliminary hearings in felony cases.
The legislation gives the state Department of Public Safety the authority to send to prison those convicted of misdemeanor crimes that carry jail time. Normally such sentences are served in local jails.
Unlike the original version of House Bill 1020, the specially appointed judges would be for a set period of time — through 2026 — instead of being in place permanently. The legislation gives a state police force primary jurisdiction within the Capitol Complex and secondary jurisdiction throughout the city.
Blackmon and Rep. Robert Johnson, a Democrat from Natchez, both said on the floor they were making a record during their remarks for the lawsuit that is likely to be filed because of the legislation. The basis of the lawsuit, they said, is that the proposal takes the right to vote away from the African American population of the city.
While the city is more than 80% African American, Blackmon pointed out the demographics of the Capital Complex District will be close to 50-50.
Lamar said the Legislature opted to create the special court and police force instead of providing additional resources to the city government because the city leaders had shown incompetence in other areas — such as in in providing water, sewer and garbage services. In reality, though, city officials have nothing to do with the governance of the felony court district that includes the city of Jackson.
Rep. Nick Bain, a Republican from Corinth, said he had heard from many Jacksonians who said they wanted help with crime issues facing the city.
“This is the capital city of Mississippi,” Bain said. “It belongs to each and every one of us in this room.” He said the legislation passed Friday was intended to provide that help, not to create racial divides.
But those racial divides were front and center on Friday, and many lawmakers said these bills — and the debate of them — will leave a stinging feeling as lawmakers conclude their work in the final hours of the 2023 legislative session.
READ MORE: Republicans don’t have to listen to their Black colleagues. That’s how they designed it.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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