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[Ladd] Thin Line Between Love and Hate
I was talking to a young woman the other day who is in the family of a Jackson man who toiled and lobbied and prodded and threatened for many years to try to block school de-segregation and then to encourage white families to pull their children out of the public schools. The young woman told me that she admires my work. She has progressive ideas. She likes the JFP.
I Felt the Earth Move
It was like old home day in Neshoba County Sunday … with a few twists. The usual suspects—the people I've gotten to know in the struggle for justice and racial reconciliation in the state—were there to honor Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner: former elected officials and social activists and journalists and movement veterans and everyday citizens who want justice for victims of civil rights violence.
But Earth, Which Is His Due
At the Neshoba County Fair this year, I had gotten up close to the lectern so I could take a close-up picture of Gov. Haley Barbour's face during his annual political address. He said my family name at the exact moment I snapped his picture.
We Need A Mayor, Not A Daddy
It is going to be painfully ironic—and useless—if the recent murder spate is the factor that finally gets the Jackson media to start questioning Mayor Frank Melton. Unless proven otherwise, the nine murders in 10 days are not Frank Melton's fault. To my knowledge, he did not put the guns in the killer's hands; he did not tell them to rob and kill; he did not provide illegal drugs that people are willing to kill for; he did not tell a troubled man to pick up a weapon and go kill his girlfriend and another man.
Born To Be A Thug
A couple weeks back, culture czar Bill Bennett said crime would go down if all black babies were aborted. A couple months back, a business publication editor in Brandon said that the inner city is breeding young criminals. A couple years back, a city councilman told a group of North Jackson adults that "young tigers" are roaming our streets, looking to hurt us.
Take the Time to Do It Right
Last Sunday two Clarion-Ledger columnists expressed dismay at Mayor Frank Melton's string of public proclamations that turned out to be more hype than good, legal policy—telling city board members to resign, saying he would close the Maple Street apartments without regard to the rights of owners or the tenants, declaring he would demolish the King Edward in 30 days.
Bennett And His Black Boys
"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were your sole purpose—you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down." No, that quote did not loom anonymously on some racist Web site, nor did some bigot boom it at a Council of Conservative Citizens rally. A former member of Ronald Reagan's Cabinet—his Secretary of Education, in fact—uttered it on the public's radio airwaves.
Deliver Us From Evil
I was lying in bed last week, thinking about the Edgar Ray Killen trial. My feelings on it are hard to sort out; I'm relieved, yet worried that too many people will treat it as an end rather than a beginning.
The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times
Last year began on a high note for the Jackson Free Press, and it's closing on a high note—with our readership at an all-time high, our position as the city's most-read weekly publication cemented, and the biggest advertising issue we've published to date.
You Can Do That
I hadn't planned to write about the death, or the life, of Rosa Parks. I know she was an amazing hero, but I didn't think I had anything else to say that everybody and his brother aren't already falling over each other to say.
Going Dr. Laura On Your Ass
Perhaps Asa Carter, a Klansman and the secretary of the North Alabama White Citizens Council, said it best in 1956:
Damned If We Don't
The weekend Katrina hit, Kate Medley and I were in the Natchez area finishing research and art for the package of stories that you'll read in this issue. This time in Adams and Franklin counties, as Kate and I got to know people like Burl Jones, a Klan victim who had never been interviewed about the experience, and then watched burly Wharlest Jackson Jr. bawl like a baby describing his daddy's murder that has gotten so little attention over the years, I was still seething about a little ditty in The New York Times that belittled Southerners who are trying to confront our past.
Oh, Say Can We See?
When Mazie Moore saw that picture in Jet Magazine in 1955, it terrified the Franklin County mother. Mamas across the South, black mamas, were hearing about the photo. They took it as a warning to protect their boys from the wrath of angry white men. She couldn't, though: One of her sons, Charles, would be brutally murdered in 1964, just because he stepped in the path of hateful white men out to terrorize young black men. And no one did anything about it. Her son's life didn't matter.
Call the Roll on Dirty Politics
Disturbing statements have been coming from inside Mayor Frank Melton's inner circle since he and his bodyguards were indicted Sept. 15 for home invasion and demolition. To put it simply, paid Melton supporters are trying to convince city residents—especially "the people"—that he was acting as a crime-fighting hero when he allegedly ordered minors to sledgehammer the rental home of schizophrenic Evans Welch.
Letter To A Young Mayor
First, allow me to thank you for giving me so much of your time over the last six weeks. Your frankness in our series of interviews seems to have captivated the city and started many conversations about the future of Jackson and how to get there.
Frank Melton Is Not A Child
"I didn't shred the documents. I tore them up with my hands." Well, then. I guess we now know what the meaning of the word "shred" is.
The Art Of Being The Best
Just mention "the state's inferiority complex" to a Mississippi native, and he or she will likely respond: "God, isn't that the truth?" Let's just say that residents of our dear state haven't been schooled in the fine art of being the "best." Or, to be more precise, no matter how talented we are personally, collectively, we don't believe we're the best.
Clinton, Coulter and Me
Former President Bill Clinton was not the biggest draw for me this month at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' national convention in Little Rock. I don't dig liars. Personally, I was more excited about the luncheon the day before when my staff brought home six awards—including first-place honors in newswriting for reporter Adam Lynch.
Coretta, Betty and Me
It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States.
Shooting Blanks
"I've made a lot of enemies from that abortion bill, but I'm tired of Republicans beating the hell out of Democrats over that issue."