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Elizabeth Robinson
Elizabeth Robinson did not take art classes while enrolled at the Mississippi University for Women. Until the school featured a 20-year retrospective of her work, she did not even know where the art department was located. In fact, glass sculpture wasn't located anywhere on her personal radar until, in 1980, she needed a job and went to work for Andy Young at the Pearl River Glass Studio, to help manage the place. "You couldn't work in that environment without developing a vocabulary for glass," says the auburn-haired glass artist and entrepreneur. And so, for the next 10 years, Robinson immersed herself in the world of glass, learning from Young and from Susan Ford, a local glassblower.
Nina Parikh
Nina Flaminiano Parikh isn't the sort of name you'd expect for the associate manager of the Mississippi Film Office, but that's what the 30-year-old answers to (even after April 10 when she says will also be honored to be called Mrs. Jerel Levanway). That exotic name fits her to a T. Her looks—her dad is Indian, and her mom is Filipino—might convince you she belongs in front of the camera, though.
Kay Franz
There are surprises, and then there are surprises that mean that you're living life the way you're supposed to: full-on and engaged in the world around you.
Monica Minter
Seated comfortably with perfect posture, Monica Jeany Minter calmly focuses on the photographer, her eyes never leaving his face until she thoroughly understands his instructions. Nothing about the busy Friday afternoon outside Banner Hall distracts her. The Murrah High graduate is a young lady with a new role—Mississippi's Miss Hospitality. Since being selected in July, 21-year-old Minter—a senior at Jackson State University where she is a political science major with a 3.4 GPA, the current Miss Jackson State and active in many campus organizations—has already been on the job.
Cheers to Gailya Porter!
Last week, we learned that Smith Elementary has ranked as a Level 5 school. We featured principal Gailya Porter as "Jacksonian" a month ago in our education issue. Here's an encore of that story in honor of a remarkable school and community.
Blythe Daigle
Blythe Daigle doesn't look like your stereotypical activist. Dressed conservatively in a gray turtleneck, blue jeans and black clunky shoes, she resembles the other inhabitants of her Belhaven apartment complex. But, unlike most people who are only three years out of college, Daigle, a Louisiana native, has already completed a two-year stint in Paraguay as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Anthony DiFatta
Tony DiFatta is something. I met Tony, 38, not too long before we started the Jackson Free Press, and he came on board immediately. He did the art for our very first cover, and he's done memorable covers for us ever since, including a certain one of Sen. Trent Lott in a dunce hat. And most of you know how popular his art shows are at spots like Nunnery's Gallery.
Spit McGee
I had only known Willie Morris through his books. It was his words, read in faraway places like Colorado and Manhattan and Nantucket, that helped me realize how southern I really was, that I wasn't the only Mississippian to be stung by northern condescension, that you can, and often should, go home again.
Cecilia Reese Bullock
Every time I'm in the presence of Cecilia Reese Bullock, a construction-company owner and real-estate mogul, some guy tries to pick her up. At least one. Usually more.
Finding James Ford Seale Alive: A Timeline
This is how the discovery that James Ford Seale was alive transpired
Media folks often ask the Jackson Free Press to clarify why the timeline in the original story, "I Want Justice, Too," published in the JFP on July 20, 2005, about Thomas Moore's July 2005 trip to Meadville varies from the "Mississippi Cold Case" documentary released about that trip back to Meadville nearly two years later. The truth is that that documentary muddles the timeline in some small, but significant ways, that leave out the role of the Jackson Free Press. (The original intent of the documentary was to document Mississippi journalists covering Moore's journey for justice.)
James Ford Seale: A Re-Birth, of a Fashion
Now that the trial is going on, a bit of new media background on the declaration that Seale was dead has been added to the record. I just read a post on the Hungry Blues blog. He quotes a new article by John Fleming in the Anniston Star about the false reporting about Seale's greatly exaggerated death.
BREAKING: James Ford Seale Receives Life in Prison
A former Klansman, who was thought to be dead until the brother a man he kidnapped and helped kill went to Franklin County with the CBC and the Jackson Free Press and found him living in a trailer, was sentenced to three life sentences this morning on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges, reported the Associated Press.
Day 9: Documentary Starts Court Firestorm
Defense attorneys started the morning off by raising objections to the testimony of Charles Marcus Edwards, the prosecution's star witness, based on footage shown on MSNBC this weekend of a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. television documentary about the case. In the afternoon, they used footage from the film to try to chip away at Edwards' credibility.
Just In: Opening Arguments Start Wednesday
We just got word that jury selection is over (or nearly over), and opening arguments will start tomorrow (Wednesday). It is predicted that the trial will end by the end of next week, although that isn't certain, of course.
Families to Replace Marker for Dee, Moore
Over at MississippiPolitical.com, C.W. is reporting about a memorial service to be held in Meadville on Memorial Day. The families of Henry Dee and Charles Moore will replace the memorial that Thomas Moore originally put up there on our original trip in July 2005, then had replaced a few months later after it was torn down (which Kate Medley and I covered and helped facilitate on Thomas' behalf then). That sign was torn down in January 2007 after the indictments were announced.
Don't Miss Killen Cover Story, Irby Column
Note: For now, the JFP's current 4,000+ word cover story, "After Killen: What's Next for Mississippi?", is not posted here in the Killen trial blog. Click here to access that story, read the more than 100 comments to date and add your own comments. Also don't miss Natalie Irby's column this week about Killen attorney James McIntyre's closing statement, which she says represents the "worst Mississippi has to offer."
More Prosecutions Possible in Neshoba Slayings?
We are transferring a posting from BenG (from the Hungry Blues blog) here in order to have a more substantive conversation about it and not take away from the Dee-Moore discussion where it was originally posted:
Civil Rights Education Summit in Neshoba County
PHILADELPHIA, MS – Public school teachers from around the region will converge in Philadelphia, Miss., June 22-24 for what is expected to be a landmark event aimed at providing teacher training through first-hand perspectives on the 1960's Civil Rights Movement. At the same time, two blocks away in the Neshoba County courthouse, Edgar Ray Killen stands trial for the gruesome murder of three civil rights workers forty one years ago in this small Mississippi town. The conference has been planned by Philadelphia Coalition, which initiated the call for justice in the 1964 case and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi.
Emmett Till's Body to Be Exhumed
The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:
Opening Statement/Audio Glitch
The trial's opening statements happened early this afternoon—but the judge forgot to turn the audio switch on, so only the people in the courtroom could hear it, and then only faintly. That means that the MPB and Court TV audiences didn't hear the statements, nor did the reporters in the media room. Tje "operator error" was, as the cameramen were calling it, because the judge had the switch turned toward the red light, which actually meant "off," which seems a bit backward, and I could frankly see why he'd make the mistake. Hopefully, tomorrow the tech stuff will be in better order. Meantime, I'm looking for a transcript of the opening statements.