Randy McDonald relaxes at his vintage clothing store, exuding an air of timeless style, impeccably dapper in a striking Houndstooth jacket, red turtleneck, artfully ripped black jeans and Buster Brown-esque black-and-white saddle oxfords, reminiscing back in time with juxtaposing ease on how his love of fashion came to be.

“So, funny story,” he begins, smiling and shaking his head. “I always tell men that come into my store that the reason I’m probably so much into fashion has to do with my grandmother, my mother and my aunt. Yep, those three women,” his smile widening.

“We would get up on Saturday mornings, go have breakfast, then head to the mall. Let me tell you, they would go mad. From about 10 o’clock until 2 o’clock, we shopped. Then, we’d stop, have lunch, and repeat the process until around six in the evening. Then we would have dinner and very possibly do a third round dash through the stores before heading home around 9 o’clock.”

McDonald pauses, gazing around his store Silly Billy’s, located at 5482 N. State St. in Jackson.

“I learned a lot from those women. They were always stylish. I picked up that looking good makes you feel better about yourself,” he says quietly, nearly in a whisper.

“Here’s style for you. My grandmother…,” he says, remembering. “She wanted a very specific car… a black Cadillac with black leather interior and a black rag top, trimmed in gold. When the dealership found it and called her to come pick it up, she decided that first, she needed a new outfit to wear with her new car.”

“My grandmother went to Mobile and had a lady that sewed clothes for her create a two-piece ivory set that had lace on top and beading to match that Caddy. Here’s the kicker. Come Sunday, she put on her new two-piece ivory set to match her all black Caddy to drive to church,” he says with a gleam in his eye. “The church was probably fifteen to twenty feet away from her house.”

McDonald chuckles while arranging items in his store at the memory of his grandmother’s panache, pointing out different eras in clothing from the groovy 60s to the Disco 70s to 90s hip hop.

“The idea behind Silly Billy’s and why I go by Billy instead of Randy, is because Billy pays the bills,” McDonald says, still laughing. “The whole thing derived from sitting down with the original store owner and trying to come up with names. We kept coming up with all these crazy names. Then I remembered a funny story he’d told me about how in his family, they would say, “silly Billy,” instead of a curse word. It was their way of getting your attention when you were doing something or saying something incorrectly too. I just love the fact that they would say, “Oh, you’re being such a silly Billy.” For whatever reason, it resonated with me and just stuck,” he says, smiling, gesturing with a sweep of an arm. 

“Everybody always paid attention to that name. I knew, too, that I was onto something when my brother told me the name is so different and unique, and it makes you laugh.”

“I inherited the store from the original owner, who was retiring. I had another job, and I often just helped out as the cashier or wherever, doing whatever I could. Then, the place where I was working closed down.”

“The owner said, ‘”‘Come and work for me. Give it a year, see what happens.’ And so I did. Before I knew it, one year turned into two, two turned into three… now, here I am, almost 10 years in,” he says, smiling warmly.

“Here’s what I’ve learned over time. My items always tell people, we all fall under the umbrella of thrift. There are a few different arms to that though. You have donations, which will be similar to say, a Goodwill or Salvation Army. You have consignment, like a Repeat Street. Then there’s me. I’m the lone wolf here in Jackson because I go and purchase select items that I want to sell. I resell them in my store so I’m the only store that actually has to purchase up front. I do accept donations, but I don’t get donations like the others I mentioned.”

“My idea is to sell clothing and accessories at a price that pretty much anyone can afford.”

Silly Billy’s is open Wednesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Social Media: 

Instagram – @SILLYBILLY’SLLC

Facebook – Silly Billy’s LLC

Website: http://silly-billys-llc.myshopify.com

Phone: (601)287-4949

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

Jan. 30, 1956

As Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the pulpit, leading a mass meeting during the Montgomery bus boycott, his home was bombed. His wife and 10-week-old baby escaped unharmed. Many gathered on his lawn, angered by this attack. 

“If you have weapons, take them home. He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword,” he told them. “We want to love our enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love.” 

He reassured them the movement would continue: 

“If I am stopped, our work will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just. And God is with us.” 

No one was ever prosecuted for the bombing.

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

Gov. Tate Reeves, a second-term Republican, gave his 2025 State-of-the-State Address outside the state Capitol on Wednesday, January 29.

A transcript of the speech, which was aired live by Mississippi Public Broadcasting:

Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Hosemann and Speaker White.

To the members of the legislature and to my fellow Mississippians – thank you.

The State of the State is a time-honored tradition delivered by governors for years. It is how we mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. And I’ve got to tell you, the year we just ended is going to be an awfully hard act to follow.

Thanks to your hard work and commitment, the state of our state marks 2024 – on so many
levels – as the most successful in Mississippi history!

Together, we broke record after record and our economy roared. Billions of dollars were invested in our state, and thousands of jobs were created.

Unemployment reached an all-time low, and Mississippi was Top Three in the nation for the fastest growing economy, and Top Four for the fastest growing per-capita income in America, in the most recent data.

This is the success we all promised the people of our state. We said Mississippi had momentum and this is Mississippi’s time – and the results are clear. In fact, this is Mississippi’s time.

We had win after win on behalf of the people who live here, and we did things that some thought would never be possible. I want to thank all of you for your hard work. It would not have been possible without you. Success on this scale is a team effort.

And in 2025, we will soar to even greater heights, we will accomplish even bigger things.
Before we go any further – and believe me I am going to go further into this success – I want to remind everyone watching of why we push so hard.

Our goal is not statistics. Not dollars invested. Not even jobs created. Our goal is families. We want Mississippi to be the best place in America to raise a family, to keep a family together, and to have your kids raise your grandkids. That is why we do it.

We know that our state is the best culture, the best tradition, the best place for families. We know our people want to stay here – and other people would love the community they’d find here.

But to make that possible, Mississippi must be the best state to build and grow a business – the best state.

Tonight, I am filled with hope and optimism for our future. And I am eager to highlight some of our state’s incredible successes.

And of course before I get in trouble, I’d like to begin by thanking a woman who makes my life happier, fuller, and better every single day. Everything I have accomplished in my life has been because I have had her by my side. She has supported me, she has encouraged me, and she has embodied beauty, grace, and service.

Thank you, Elee, for the gift of being your husband. Thank you for making me a dad. Thank you for the incredible example you have set for our daughters and for our state. In a life full of God’s blessings, you have, without question, been God’s greatest gift to me. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have you by my side and Mississippi is extraordinarily fortunate to have you as our First Lady.

2024 was the single greatest year ever for Mississippi’s economy. Billions of private sector
dollars were invested here, thousands of new jobs were created, and unprecedented economic development success benefitted every region of our state.

In fact, since I’ve been governor, Mississippi has announced over $32 billion in new private
sector investment. Let me say that again: over $32 billion in new private sector investment has flowed into Mississippi since 2020!

But this $32 billion is more than just figures mentioned in a speech or numbers on a page. It’s not about talking points. It’s what they will do for our people that makes all the difference.

This $32 billion is a gamechanger for our state and our citizens. These aren’t dollars that will just sit in a bank account collecting interest. Instead, they are being deployed in a way that is in the best interest of Mississippians, and in a way that will make their lives better and our entire state stronger.

This $32 billion is helping to create thousands of good jobs for the people who live here. It’s
helping families fill up their gas tanks and helping put food on their table. It’s helping even more workers seize better job opportunities, and it is helping Mississippi seize the momentous economic development opportunities that have been placed in front of us. My hat goes off to everyone here today for making this a reality.

Y’all know this well, so I’m not telling you something new. Mississippians are the hardest
workers in the nation – they’re the best workers in the nation. If you want something built and built right – and quickly – I say to every company in America: come build your products in Mississippi!

Together, by staying true to our fiscally conservative principles, we’ve sent a message to
America – and to the world – that Mississippi is open for business. We have what it takes to get your products to market, and we will always get the job done. That’s why since 2020, we have created tens of thousands of new jobs and an economy that works better for every Mississippian. The results have been felt all across our state – from North Mississippi all the way to our Gulf Coast and everywhere in between. Make no mistake, something special is happening here and it’s something we should all celebrate.

If we want to attract even more record-breaking private sector investment and create thousands more jobs – we must keep telling our Mississippi story. Our future depends on it.
Just last year, we finalized the single largest private sector investment in Mississippi history after working together on the $10 billion Amazon Web Services project. That’s more than any other private sector investment in Mississippi since we became a state in 1817.

As y’all may have seen in the headlines, the project is building two large data center complexes in the Jackson Metro area and creating 1,000 high-paying, high-tech jobs for Mississippians. And it’s helping make Mississippi a hub for American technological innovation.

In 2024, we also announced the single largest payroll commitment in state history – a $2 billion private sector investment by Accelera by Cummins, Daimler Trucks & Buses, and PACCAR that will create 2,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $66,000. That’s more than $130 million that will be paid out to Mississippians every single year!

We also recently broke ground on the largest private sector investment in the history of the
Mississippi Delta – a $1.2 billion investment by Entergy to build the Delta Blues Advanced
Power Station in Greenville. Once completed, this facility will generate enough energy to power 385,000 Mississippi homes. That’s a lot of power.

In 2024, we announced that PCC GulfChem is investing $540 million in Harrison County.

Koch Foods is investing over $145 million in Scott County.

Liebherr is investing nearly $240 million in Lee County.

Anduril Industries is investing $75 million in Stone County.

And Gulf States Canners is investing nearly $41 million right here in Hinds County. And these are only a few of the incredible wins we had in 2024!

But we should all want more. And just one month into 2025, we did it again.

Just yesterday, I was proud to help break ground on the new Compass Datacenters project – a $10 billion private sector investment for a new hyperscale data center in Meridian, Mississippi. $10 billion! This ties the AWS project for the largest project in the history of our state!

This new campus will also create thousands of direct and indirect jobs. In 2024, $10 billion was the largest investment in state history. In 2025, $10 billion is just our first major win!
And also yesterday, we announced Yancey Engineered Solutions is investing over $20 million and hiring 250 workers in Batesville, Mississippi.

This truly is Mississippi’s time!

During this time of record-shattering economic growth, Mississippi has never been stronger than it is at this moment. And we are so well-positioned for the new golden age of America.
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the inauguration of the 47 th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. As I said on social media, after he was sworn back into office for his second term, “It’s morning in America again!” After four years of migrant crime, open borders, crushing inflation, sky-high gas and grocery prices, and weakness on the world stage, America once again has a leader who is putting America first and American families first! During his first term, President Trump lowered taxes, lowered gas and grocery prices, made America respected by our allies and feared by our enemies, and built a record-breaking economy. He did it once and he will do it again!

President Trump is unleashing the American energy industry. The phrase “drill baby, drill,”
represents not only his unwavering commitment to producing energy right here in America, but his commitment to protecting the jobs of every man and woman who keeps America’s economy moving. On his first day back in office, President Trump removed us from the disastrous Paris Climate Agreement, revoked Joe Biden’s ban on certain oil and gas drilling, and reversed the Biden ban on new liquefied gas export facilities. On his first day, President Trump was focused on making America energy rich, energy secure, and energy independent.

But while Mississippi may have an ally in the White House, we are in intense competition with our fellow states. We are competing for jobs, competing for new private sector investment, and competing to retain a technologically advanced workforce. It is critical that we continue to invest in our state and create an economic climate that supports businesses and the investment and jobs they bring.
The single best thing we can do for our state and her people is to eliminate our state’s income tax. This money does not belong to the government. It belongs to the hard-working
Mississippians who earn it.

In today’s economy, the competition among states for projects and investments is fierce. You’ve heard me say before that we are competing against states like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, all of which have no state income tax. Other states have taken notice of what is happening in Mississippi. Moreover, they’ve taken action.

In 2024, Arkansas enacted its fourth tax cut in two years, reducing their top bracket to 3.9
percent (a random number I’m sure). In a recent special session, Louisiana cut their top bracket to 3.5 percent. And in Georgia, in his State of the State address, Governor Kemp recently called for yet another reduction in their state income tax rate. The competition for jobs and investment is real and our fellow states are not waiting – they are competing. It is critical that Mississippi do the same!

On that note, I would like to recognize and thank Speaker Jason White and House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar for their work on House Bill 1. This piece of legislation – which was passed by a large bipartisan majority by the way – shows us a realistic path to eliminate the tax on work in Mississippi once and for all. Thank you to everyone who helped get this bill across the finish line in the House.

As the process goes, now House Bill 1 moves to the Senate, which means there is still work to be done. I urge our friends in the Senate to take action on this historic legislation.
If there’s something in the bill you don’t like, let’s talk about it. But if we truly share the same goal, let’s figure it out together. Here I am reminded of what my friend former Jackson State

Head Coach Prime loves to say: “I ain’t hard to find.”

But please understand, doing nothing is not an option. Let’s get this done. Send House Bill 1 to my desk for the hard-working men and women who sent us here to do big things and make their lives better. Our fellow Mississippians are counting on us, and I know we have what it takes to get this legislation passed. Let’s eliminate our tax on work once and for all!
We always need more dollars flowing through Mississippi. We always need more action in the state of Mississippi. We know how to make that happen. Today, I want to issue a challenge and make a promise that will result in more winning than Mississippi has ever dared to dream. We must be a leader in American energy. We must be at the front of the pack in the race to have more power. In today’s world, power is the key to prosperity. If we can be on the bleeding edge of energy technology, we can beat our peers and bring about more wealth and better lives for all Mississippians.

First, let me recognize Public Service Commissioners Chris Brown, De’Keither Stamps, and
Wayne Carr and the work they have been doing in this regard. I appreciate their friendship, their focus, and their partnership in this endeavor.

I know they will be excited as our state embarks upon a transformative effort that I’m calling Mississippi’s Power Play. We are marshalling the forces of our government and our private sector to find bold solutions to bring more energy to our state’s grid and our economy. Right now, the top minds of our administration are huddled – developing plans to invest in affordable, abundant, American energy for the people of this state. We welcome all ideas and inputs on one condition: have a bias towards boldness. Help us dream bigger, and aim higher. Help us lean in at this unique and opportune moment, and we will achieve great things together. This is the key to our future, and we know that we must get this right.
One of the reasons that Mississippi has attracted such a historic run of private sector investment is our optimistic and abundance-minded energy policy. I’m telling you: when private sector companies learn they can trust that we can provide the power to manufacture, smelt, and compute, their eyes light up and their wallets open up. They invest in our state, and our people, and our land.

But as we succeed, demand grows. And as demand grows, we must aim higher. What we are
doing today is not enough. We must invest in energy to enrich our population. When we make power here, we create high-paying, stable jobs. This is how Mississippi rises.
It will take all forms of energy and every corner of our economy. Electricity derived from
nuclear power, our sun, our winds, and that beautiful, life-giving technology: natural gas. We need transformative solutions, and a sprint to escalate what we already know works. We don’t need ideology and climate-cult death-wish politics. We need abundant, affordable energy that feeds ambition and wealth for our citizens.

You already heard me mention a billion-dollar investment in a brand new Delta power plant. In the future, you will hear me announce more investment in energy from the private sector. And in the coming months, you will hear innovative solutions to unlock more energy here.

Watch this space. Today, I simply want to beg for your mind and ambition to engage in this
mission alongside us. Help us win more innovation, investment, and power, and our people will be rewarded more than ever before. This work takes time and patience. It is not immediate gratification. I will not be governor when the true fruits of this effort are picked. But I will be a Mississippian, and I will be proud to look around and see the success of the state we all love. My friends, you’ve just heard me talk about the best things we can do to strengthen Mississippi and uplift her people. But I also wanted to spend a few minutes talking about what we shouldn’t do, because that’s also vitally important to the future of our state.

First, we must continue our focus on expanding our workforce, not on expanding welfare. We need more people working, and less people dependent on government programs. Therefore, we must again resist the urge to use taxpayer dollars to expand government, because the radical left isn’t giving up. Instead, they are working overtime to influence some of our lawmakers.

My friends, America is over $36 trillion in debt. We now have an administration in Washington that is dead set on reducing spending and getting us closer to a balanced budget. Medicaid changes, for example, are coming. What they will be, we do not yet know. But there is a large possibility that those changes will result in a greater spend by states who have enacted this type of welfare expansion.

With all of the good things happening in Mississippi – especially when it comes to workforce development, and economic development, and job creation – now is not the time to expand welfare in our state. It’s actually the worst possible time to do it.
After all, why would we change course and sprint left when so many good things are happening here as a result of our conservative policies?

Another way we will get our state to where we want to go is by giving parents more choices and by continuing to raise standards. We cannot keep doing the same old thing and expect to get new and improved results.

Mississippi has produced some of the greatest authors to ever walk this earth. Entire courses have been taught on the volumes and volumes of books and passages they’ve written.

But while our state’s authors have perhaps the best vocabulary in the history of man, there are three words that should be permanently struck from Mississippi’s dictionary. They are
“complacency” and “status quo.”

In 2025, we will keep our momentum going. We will see Mississippi’s economy grow even
more. We will see even more high-paying jobs created. We will see even more Mississippians with the skills they need to be successful in the jobs of the next 50 years. And we will see our state rise to even greater heights. But only if we commit to leaving our comfort zone. This is especially true in education.

During my time as governor, we have seen record-breaking academic success in our state. It has been so profound that the New York Times, of all papers, referred to it as the Mississippi Miracle.

We have seen record achievement from our kids in a variety of subjects. We have seen record high graduation rates and record low dropout rates. Our kids are learning more than ever before, and our kids are graduating into one of the strongest economies in state history.

Today, we actually received even more proof that what we have done is working.
Mississippi’s brand-new data from one of the top testing institutions – the National Assessment for Educational Progress – shows that we broke educational achievement records again.

Listen to this: Our fourth graders are Number One in the nation. Let me say that again: Number One in the nation in reading and math test score growth. My friends, it’s just not stopping!

Mississippi kids achieved their highest rate of proficient and advanced scores on these testing measurements – ever.

Our African American students – you’ve heard me talk so many times about how proud we are of them being Number Five in the nation on their testing scores. Well, now they’re third. And we won’t stop until they – and all of our students – are Number One!

Our Hispanic students scored Number One in the nation in reading, and Number Two in math. Our eighth graders ranked among only 13 states whose scores didn’t fall this past year.

I’m going to let these numbers sink in for a minute. Best in the nation. Number Two in the
nation. Number Three in the nation. In fact, Mississippi’s fourth graders now rank Number Nine overall in America for reading scores, and they are Number 16 for math.
For so long, our teachers and our kids have been told they are last. 50 th . At the bottom. Y’all, it’s just not true. Mississippi is charging to the front of the pack with our education system and daring other states to keep up!

We took bold action, together, united under conservative policies, and we changed the course of Mississippi’s future, and the individual futures of our students. This is what it’s all about.

I could not be more proud of the teachers and kids across our state who have worked so hard and shone the world exactly who we are down in here in Mississippi.
But, my friends, we must continue raising education standards in our state. We’ve come too far to take our foot off the gas now.

I’ll be the first to admit raising standards will not be easy – it never is. In fact, it will most likely require a lot of uncomfortable conversations. It will force us to leave our comfort zone. But leaving our comfort zone is what must be done to leave our state with the best and brightest future possible. I’m ready to do that. Are y’all with me?

There are some inside the education establishment that, despite this amazing trajectory we find ourselves on, would have us do the complete opposite. Rather than raise standards, they would have us water them down and they would force us to pass kids who are not yet ready.

Some have even called for the elimination of testing requirements. Requirements that help us gauge whether kids are proficient in algebra, biology, English, and US history.
There’s no other way to say it, folks. Those proposals are downright crazy. They should be a
nonstarter for every legislator here today, and we should not take them seriously.

The same people calling for us to be derelict in our duty now, are the same people who implied in 2013 that passing the third grade reading gate would be disastrous for students across our state. These are the same people who eventually changed their tune years later after they saw the history-making results. Hey, better late than never, I guess.

But in 2025, we should do more. That’s because history has already proven that raising
education standards benefits students – and our state – tremendously.
That’s why in my most recent budget recommendation I proposed overhauling how we grade schools in Mississippi.

It is wrong that schools can be awarded with an ‘A’ or ‘B’ rating when more than 70 percent of their students aren’t proficient in reading. Let me say that again: there are schools in Mississippi who are hanging their hat on their rating when 70 percent of their students can’t read at an adequate level. That’s just flat out wrong. And we must put a stop to it.
To truly best prepare our students for adulthood, we must hold school districts accountable. And that’s why I proposed revising the accountability system to place a greater weight on proficiency and less weight on growth in academic achievements.

We got the nation talking about the Mississippi Miracle before, we’re doubling down right now, and we’ll have them talking about us again and again if we can get this done in our state. Our future is too important to accept anything less, and I look forward to working with all of you to make it happen. I’m in this for the long haul.

And while we’re at it, we should insist that our higher education institutions train Mississippians to earn. Far too many students are stuck in tracts that will not lead to fruitful careers. That may be fine for a few who want to go down academic rabbit holes, but the focus of our investment and our efforts should be preparing our kids to live well. We must focus on degrees that lead to lives of prosperity and stability.

I’ve engaged in a lot of conversations with CEOs considering investing billions in our people. I’ve never heard them ask if we have a workforce of gender-studies students prepared to take their high-paying jobs. They are ready to pay Mississippi mechanics, engineers, and technologists. They are ready to take those trained in business and science and fill their family’s bank accounts. We need a return on investment for the hundreds of millions of dollars we put into our colleges and universities, and that return should appear in the wages of our workers. I urge my friends in policymaking to consider innovative approaches to achieve this. My fellow Mississippians, our state is stronger than ever.

That’s because in the midst of all the special things happening here, we remain Mississippians. We are bold, creative, accomplished, and fearless. These qualities created the greatest year in Mississippi’s history in 2024. And because we are Mississippians, in 2025, we will do it again.

For all Mississippi.

May God bless you and may God bless Mississippi!

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