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Rapping For Reform
Gray skies and a steady drizzle did nothing to dash the exuberance of 200 young people gathered on the steps of the state capitol on Monday, Jan. 16. Many of the youths wore bright orange shirts and held up colorful homemade signs. There was a steady cadence of clapping and dancing as children sang gospels and hip-hop, read poetry and rapped in support for reform of juvenile justice law.
Investigating The Investigators
Support is growing on Jackson City Council for establishing civilian review of the Jackson Police Department, but the form that review will take is still uncertain.
[Questions] Danny Goldberg Takes on Teen Spirit
Just months before the 2002 election, Danny Goldberg, the music industry macher who shells out big bucks to progressive causes, received an invitation to a Democratic Party fundraiser. The invite featured the following quote: "Never before in modern history has the essential differences between the two major political parties stood out in such striking contrast, as they do today."-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1945. Goldberg could not believe what he read. "It seemed to me a terrible commentary on today's Democrats that they had to go back to the 1940s to evoke a contrast with Republicans," writes Goldberg in "Dispatches From The Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit," (Miramax, 2003). His debut book delivers a blunt warning to Democrats: get with it or get trounced.
Will You Bother to Vote?
There's no argument that the right to vote has been hard won in Mississippi, but this election year only a fragment of the state's citizens, black or white, is likely to bother to lock down a decision at the polls. You'd think after all the work that went into ensuring the right to vote here that it would be something to savor, if but for the sole excuse of slipping away from the workplace for an hour or just for the sake of democracy.
‘Internalized Racism'
Damien Henderson scrawled the words "Rest in Paradise" on a vent outside his brother Ryan's dorm room at Jackson State University last week before leading approximately 200 college students dressed in red in a peaceful march to the Palisades Apartments, where Ryan was shot and killed March 25.
JUST DO IT! Let Your Voice Be Heard on the Museum Issue: Who to Call..
Here it is folks..Let your voice be heard!! Let this commission know that suggestions and decisions CAN'T be made in our city until the PEOPLE have spoken.
Chief Anderson Out; Gerald Jones Interim Chief
[Verbatim from the city] DIFFICULT DECISION LEADS TO CHANGE IN JPD LEADERSHIP
Mayor Frank E. Melton announced Wednesday that he is implementing a change in leadership at the Jackson Police Department. Police Chief Shirlene Anderson has been offered a new position as a special assistant to the Mayor. In this new capacity, Anderson would coordinate all emergency services, including police, fire and disaster response. She would also oversee interagency communications between local, county, state and federal law enforcement.
Breaking: Setback for Melton in Meridian Suit
UPDATED
In a June 23 decision, U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee granted Gannett's motion for summary judgment on whether Robert Pierce can join a law suit filed by Frank Melton for breach of contract, finding that there was no enforceable contract between Melton and Goliath.
Ebony Gee
"There's nothing to do in Jackson." This is one of the most common complaints and misconceptions echoed all-around our bold new city, and Ebony Gee, 23, grows more determined to quiet those voices everyday.
At Least I Know I'm Free
I had a religious experience in Hal & Mal's the other night.
The WORST of the New South
In the aftermath of the Edgar Ray Killen arrest, the tough-on-crime stalwarts at The Northside Sun fretted over whether the old Klansman can possibly get a fair trial in the state's current "political climate," and seemed very bothered that the climate is changing (presumably for the worse), thus allowing such belated arrests to occur.
Creaming the Bad Guys
On March 10, Mayor Frank Melton called a press conference to thank the U.S. Attorney and the FBI for helping Jackson "clean up corruption" that Melton called "systemic" in the municipal court system.
McMillin's Moonlighting Means Merger?
Photos by Adam Lynch
Could 13 be the city's lucky number? Jackson Mayor Frank Melton named Sheriff Malcolm McMillin as the city's chief of police—the 13th chief to hold the seat since 1988. McMillin said he will assume the role immediately, but added that he will also retain his job as sheriff of Hinds County.
ACLU Worker Arrested For Observing Police
Police arrested ACLU Field Coordinator Brent Cox for surveying a police interdiction last month, though Cox said he was fulfilling his constitutional duty in observing the activity.
Whistling Dixie
Crossroads and the JFP present "C.S.A." Monday, July 10th at 7 p.m. at New Stage Theatre. Tickets are $7 and $5 for members.
Beth Kander
In response to the news that state Sen. Lydia Chassaniol was the "surprise speaker" at the recent Council of Conservative Citizens meeting in Jackson in June, Jackson playwright Beth Kander announced on Facebook that she will be hand delivering a letter and flowersto the senator.
Eyes Wide Shut
About four years ago, a colleague invited Myra Ottewell, a native Jacksonian and teacher in British Columbia, to speak to his class after they viewed "Mississippi Burning," the 1988 movie about the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in Philadelphia, Miss.
‘He Will Be Missed': Herman Snell, 1969-2010
"A secret turning in us makes the universe turn. Head unaware of feet, and feet head. Neither cares. They keep turning." - Rumi
Crossroads Film Festival: Mississippi Filmmakers On Screen
We all know that Mississippi is the "crossroads" where the blues were born. But, of late, the state is coming into its creative own in many artistic areas. Film is one of our new frontiers.
[Kamikaze] The Lesser of Two Evils
By the time you read this column, we will have elected a new governor (or re-elected the same governor). Now if you're reading this and asking yourself, "There was an election Tuesday?", don't be embarrassed. You're part of a large group of uninformed, or unmotivated, Mississippians.