Mississippi Today
‘They’re being totally ignored’: Lawmakers say Gov. Tate Reeves isn’t focusing economic development in majority-Black regions
Days after Republican Gov. Tate Reeves pledged to be a governor for all Mississippians, several Democratic lawmakers said Reeves uses his power to invest in certain parts of the state while ignoring others.
The governor demonstrated his favoritism just this week, the legislators said in a Wednesday interview with Mississippi Today, when Reeves called a special session to ask lawmakers to spend $350 million in state funds to finalize an economic development deal in north Mississippi’s Marshall County.
READ MORE: Reeves asks lawmakers to appropriate $350 million in state funds to Marshall County EV battery deal
The legislators say none of the state’s recent economic projects have gone toward communities west of Interstate 55, an area where the Mississippi Delta and population hubs of Black citizens are located, or to the state’s capital city.
“Not taking anything away from Marshall County, but I do believe the impact of having 1,500 or 2,000 jobs west of I-55 would change the whole status of this state,” Democratic Rep. John Hines of Greenville said.
The Delta remains one of the most impoverished places in the nation. The region’s hospitals are at risk of closing, and its citizens are continuing to leave for other areas of the state and other states, according to U.S. Census data.
The Democratic officials argue that economic investment like the Marshall County project would give a major boost to west Mississippi, an area struggling to survive.
Rep. Robert Johnson III, the Democratic leader of the House, believes the Delta and southwest Mississippi, despite disinvestment, has an educated workforce that can staff major industries and an infrastructure system to transfer any goods produced — if only state leaders would give the area a chance.
“You’ve got I-55 to the east, you’ve got the largest river in the country to the west and you’ve got railways to go back and forth,” Johnson said. “It makes more sense to develop jobs in that area where you’ve got an infrastructure in place.”
The multibillion-dollar project on the table this week is, instead, scheduled to be constructed at the Chickasaw Trails Industrial Park near the Tennessee state line, where half of the state’s proposed investment is planned to go toward infrastructure development.
The Mississippi Development Authority, the economic agency directly under Reeves’ control, recently invested around $1.1 million in the Chickasaw Trails center, as well as over $15 million in 12 other industrial parks. None of those sites are located in the Delta, Hinds County or in west Mississippi.
“At the end of the day, you look at the population west of I-55, and that’s almost one-fourth of the state’s population,” Democratic Rep. Bryant Clark of Pickens said. “And they’re being totally ignored.”
Corey Custer, deputy chief of staff to Reeves, said in a Wednesday statement that the governor supports investing in all areas of the state, including the Delta, Hinds County and communities west of I-55.
“Private companies — not state government — determine which sites best meet their needs,” Custer said. “This project will help strengthen our state’s economy, which is a benefit to all Mississippians. Gov. Reeves will continue to use every tool at his disposal to bolster every region of our state.”
This is the second type of economic package that Reeves has called on lawmakers into a special legislative session to finalize. In November 2022, he signed legislation into law that gave money and tax incentives to benefit a Steel Dynamics expansion in Columbus, also located in northeast Mississippi.
The governor, at a Tuesday press conference, said the public can expect more state economic development projects to be announced in the future, though he did not give a specific timeline or disclose which areas of the state would be impacted.
Democratic Reps. Fabian Nelson of Jackson and Daryl Porter of Summit said on Wednesday if the governor pledges to unify the state along partisan and racial lines, then he should follow through and implement an economic plan that includes all areas of the state.
“It’s been said that Mississippi is open for business, but I think we need to define what part of Mississippi is open for business,” Nelson said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.”
A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
Why NewsMatch and Why Now?
This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.
Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact”
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.” Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s “25-foot law,” which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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