Mississippi Today
Seventy-five years later, Dot Ford, now Dot Burrow, gets her due


Seventy-five years ago, a tall, thin teen-aged girl named Dot Ford scored 82 points in a high school basketball game in the tiny, northeast Mississippi town of Smithville. She averaged right at 50 points a game for the entire 1949-50 season.
Ford scored 50 points or more in 12 games. For the season, she averaged nearly two points per minute. She was a Hill Country basketball hero, big news in basketball-crazy Monroe County, Her exploits even made headlines in the newspapers nearly 200 miles away in Jackson and in Memphis.

But her fame was short-lived. Back then, there was no women’s college basketball to speak of. Her basketball career ended quietly. She married her high school sweetheart, James Burrow, who had been a starting point guard at Mississippi State. Together, they raised an athletic family in nearby Amory. Dot and James lived in the same house for more than 60 years. Still do, for that matter.
All that was left of those Smithville basketball glory days were a few newspaper clippings and her own memories, and that was fine. Besides, sons Jimmy, who played football for national champion Nebraska, and Johnny, who played for Ole Miss, were making more memories. In recent years, grandson Joe – yes, that Joe Burrow – has become, by far, the most famous Burrow of all.
Basketball star Dot Ford was a largely forgotten legend. Know this: “Was” is the operative word here. Her basketball excellence is forgotten no more.
Do you believe in fate? If the answer is no, read on for the rest of this story.
We move forward to March of 2023 and to the town of Amory, where a horrific tornado had blown away much of the town. A Jackson journalist – this one actually – had made the three-hour drive to Amory to write about how people in the town of 6,600 were coping with immense damage.
I was searching for the high school baseball field where the 2022 state champions played their games. Dodging downed trees in a nearby neighborhood, I pulled over and asked directions. Major coincidence: The second guy I approached just happened to be the baseball coach, Chris Pace, who was helping neighbors clean up their yards.
He pointed out a house a few doors down and told me it was the home of the grandparents of LSU’s Heisman Trophy winner and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. I walked that way and met Jimmy Burrow, Dot’s son and Joe’s dad, who had driven all night from his Ohio home and was helping his parents deal with major damage to their house.

The front of the house looked fine. Hidden from view was the rear of the house where the fireplace chimney had fallen through the ripped-apart roof and into the den. There was major structural damage, but the Burrows were safe. They had ridden out the tornado in the storm cellar they had built under their carport after the killer tornado that hit nearby Smithville in 2011, killing 16.
His parents, both in their early 90s, were shaken, Jimmy said, but they would be fine. In the course of the conversation, he told me about his mother’s basketball accomplishments all those years ago. I filed it away.
A few days later, after writing about the tornado wreckage, I searched through newspaper archives, confirmed all Dot Burrow’s remarkable statistics, and wrote the largely forgotten story of Dot Ford Burrow.
The good people at the Mississippi High School Activities Association, the governing body of Mississippi high school sports, took it from there. They nominated Dot Burrow for the National High School Hall of Fame. Just as they suspected, Dot Ford Burrow was a no-brainer. The long-awaited announcement came Tuesday. Dot Burrow will be one of four former athletes and four coaches who will be inducted into the national high.school hall of fame in the Class of 2024 this summer at Indianapolis.
Jimmy Burrow says his mother was shocked and quite emotional. She knew she had been nominated, but she never expected to join the likes of Walter Payton in a national hall of fame, not after 75 years.

Joe Burrow is one proud grandson. Said Joe Burrow when he learned the news: “My grandmother was an incredible athlete and a generational basketball player, and is arguably the best athlete in the family. Knowing how great she was has motivated me to be the best I could be in all sports.”
Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Mauer, who once hit 43 home runs for his Minnesota high school baseball team, is probably the biggest name in this year’s class. Former Auburn and NFL football star Takeo Spikes, another inductee, once caught 24 touchdown passes and made 238 tackles for his undefeated Sandersville (Georgia) High football team. Forty-three home runs, 24 touchdown passes and 238 tackles are remarkable statistics.
But then so are 82 points in a single game and a 50-point scoring average for a season. Three quarters of a century later, Dot Ford Burrow finally gets the recognition she deserves.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed
April 26, 1964

Civil rights activists started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the state’s all-white regular delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
The regulars had already adopted this resolution: “We oppose, condemn and deplore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … We believe in separation of the races in all phases of our society. It is our belief that the separation of the races is necessary for the peace and tranquility of all the people of Mississippi, and the continuing good relationship which has existed over the years.”
In reality, Black Mississippians had been victims of intimidation, harassment and violence for daring to try and vote as well as laws passed to disenfranchise them. As a result, by 1964, only 6% of Black Mississippians were permitted to vote. A year earlier, activists had run a mock election in which thousands of Black Mississippians showed they would vote if given an opportunity.
In August 1964, the Freedom Party decided to challenge the all-white delegation, saying they had been illegally elected in a segregated process and had no intention of supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson in the November election.
The prediction proved true, with white Mississippi Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act. While the activists fell short of replacing the regulars, their courageous stand led to changes in both parties.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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