Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is not Mississippi’s first statewide official to advocate for his job to be changed from an elected post to an appointed one.

Earlier this month, Chaney called on the Legislature to eliminate the elected insurance commissioner position and instead have the state’s insurance industry regulated presumably by an appointee of the governor who is confirmed by the Senate. Chaney said he is willing to serve for a short period of time in an appointed position.

William Winter successfully proposed to the Legislature in the 1960s that his post as tax collector be eliminated and the duties incorporated into other positions. Winter’s actions did not end his political career. He went on to serve in multiple other statewide elected post, including as governor from 1980 until 1984 and is viewed as one of Mississippi’s most significant political figures.

In the 1970s, John Ed Ainsworth ran for and was elected to the post of land commissioner with the promise he would work to eliminate the position. One of his primary goals while eliminating the position was to ensure 16th Section land was properly managed to the benefit of public schools. He succeeded and for his troubles was defeated when he later tried to run for lieutenant governor, though he is viewed favorably by many for his work in various areas of state government, including in developing the state’s casino industry. The duties that the land commissioner had are now handled primarily by the secretary of state.

At least four previous statewide elected posts in Mississippi are either now appointed or have been eliminated. Besides the posts of land commissioner and tax collector being eliminated, the post of Supreme Court clerk was changed in 1976 so that the nine members of the Supreme Court appoint the clerk instead of the clerk being elected by Mississippians. And in the 1980s, the elected state superintendent of education was made appointed. The superintendent is now nominated by the Mississippi Board of Education and confirmed by the Senate.

While the state superintendent of education and Supreme Court clerk are in the constitution and required an amendment approved by the voters to be changed, the land commissioner and tax collector needed only action by the Legislature to be eliminated.

Currently, the statewide posts of governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are all in the constitution, so it would take a vote of the people to change how they are selected or to eliminate any of them. The positions of insurance commissioner and commissioner of agriculture and commerce would require only action of the Legislature and the governor’s signature to make a change.

When Chaney first ran for and was elected as insurance commissioner in 2007, he said the post should be appointed. Since then, Chaney has been reelected four times. He does not plan to run in 2027 and is saying now is the time to change how the insurance commissioner is selected.

Chaney said recently he believes an appointee “can do a better job regulating the industry and protecting the consumers” than someone elected to the post.

“I have grave concerns about someone running for this as a stepping stone to another position,” said Chaney, age 80. “It is too important to do that.”

He said it “is borderline unethical” to take campaign funds from the industry being regulated.

Chaney said in 39 states the person regulating the insurance industry is appointed instead of elected.

Mississippi has eight statewide posts — more than most states, but there are states with more. For instance, neighboring Alabama has 10, but that includes three public service commissioners, all of whom are elected statewide. Mississippi also has three public service commissioners, but they are elected regionally.

Another neighbor — Tennessee — only elects its governor statewide. The lieutenant governor is elected by the members of the Senate.

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is elected statewide, recently said on Mississippi’s Today “The Other Side” podcast that the Senate would look at state government structure in the coming session, including whether Mississippi should elect so many positions.

While some posts have been changed from elected to appointed, Mississippi legislators often have been reluctant to take the vote away from the people.

In the early 2000s, the House led by then-Ways and Means Chair Billy McCoy passed legislation to make the Transportation Commission appointed instead of elected. The proposal did not survive the process.

But in more recent times, legislators did vote to make all local school superintendents appointees of the local boards of education.

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

Sept. 22, 1927

St. Louis native Josephine Baker became the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture. She played the lead role of Papitou in the French silent film, “Siren of the Tropics,” who, like Baker, found her true calling as a performer. 

The film’s success led to other starring roles, an autobiography, the creation of a doll in her likeness and even a toothpaste commercial. 

At age 11, Baker had witnessed racial violence in East St. Louis, “watching the glow of the burning of Negro homes lighting the sky. We children stood huddled together in bewilderment … frightened to death with the screams of the Negro families running across this bridge with nothing but what they had on their backs as their worldly belongings.” 

After working in some choruses on Broadway, she traveled to Paris, where she became the most successful American entertainer working in France. Picasso drew paintings of her, author Ernest Hemingway spent hours talking to her in Paris bars. During World War II, she aided the French Resistance by socializing with the Germans while secretly gathering information that she transmitted to England, sometimes writing the information in invisible ink on her sheet music. 

After the war, she received the Croix de Guerre, the medal of the Légion d’honneur and other medals. When she returned to the U.S., she refused to appear before segregated audiences, despite being offered up to $10,000 ($110,000 in today‘s money) to perform. She fought to prevent Willie McGee’s execution in Mississippi, and in 1951, the NAACP honored her with a “Josephine Baker Day” and a parade of 100,000 in Harlem. 

In 1963, she became the only official female speaker at the March on Washington. She adopted a dozen children in her lifetime from countries around the globe. She called her children the “Rainbow Tribe.” She played Carnegie Hall in 1973, the Royal Variety Performance in 1974 and a revue celebrating her 50 years in show business in 1975. 

After rave reviews, she died unexpectedly after experiencing a cerebral hemorrhage. More than 20,000 attended her funeral, where she received full French military honors. 

Diana Ross portrayed Baker in her Tony-winning Broadway show, an HBO movie told her life (for which Lynn Whitfield became the first Black actress to win an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special), and she was depicted in the TV series, “Lovecraft Country.” 

In 2021, Baker was inducted into the Panthéon in Paris — the first Black woman to receive this honor.

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

Sept. 21, 1955

Moses Wright took the witness stand and identified the men who kidnapped and killed his great-nephew, Emmett Till. 

“It was the first time in my life I had the courage to accuse a white man of a crime, let alone something terrible as killing a boy,” Wright said later. “I just wanted to see justice done.” 

He worked as a sharecropper and was also a minister, whom the locals called “Preacher.” The two white men who abducted Till — J.W. Milam and his half-brother, Roy Bryant — threatened to kill Wright if he said anything. 

“How old are you, Preacher?” Milam asked. Wright replied 64. “If you make any trouble, you’ll never live to be 65,” Milam said. When the teen’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River, Wright identified Till. Despite threats, Wright still took the witness stand. When the prosecutor asked him to point out Till’s abductors, he stood up, pointed his weathered finger at Milam and said, “There he is. That’s the man.” 

He testified that Bryant identified himself as “Mr. Bryant.” It may have been the first murder trial in Mississippi where a Black man testified against a white man. Even after the trial, the threats continued, and Wright left to join his family in Chicago, where he had already sent them.

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