The Mayor and His Women
It bugged the hell out of me when I got an e-mailed press release from Police Chief Shirlene Anderson's office late on July 3 with this subject line: "Chief Shirlene Andersons wants citizens to have a happy and safe Fourth of July Holiday… ."
Purvis: ‘Melton Did Not Put Me in the Race'
Jackson 2000 held a district attorney candidate forum today at noon at Schimmel's. The Jackson Free Press moderated, asking questions provided by audience members. We will have a full report on the event later today, and with any luck, a podcast of all of the comments. Meantime, here is a press statement candidate Michele Purvis sent out this morning, stating that Melton did not ask her to run. It is important to note that she blames the district attorney for putting that information out there. To our knowledge, the D.A. has not initiated those statements, which she denied doing at the forum, although Sheriff Malcolm McMillin told Adam Lynch last week that Melton has put up the two Democrats running against him, as well as the district attorney. Here is Purvis' statement:
OK, Class: What's Wrong with THIS Story?
You get two points for every problem you can point out with this little ditty in The Clarion-Ledger about all the shootings that have been happening "near" Hamps. Have fun and read closely.
The Ledger's Co-Dependency with Frank Melton
One wonders where The Clarion-Ledger edit-boyz came up with this lead to their editorial berating their mayor for doing, pretty much, exactly what he indicated he would do during the campaign:
Rudy: What a Hypocrite
So now the man who ran an entire crime-fighting plan with gun control at its base is now a "strict constructionist" when it comes to the Second Amendment. You know what I always say: Never trust anyboddy who brags about being a strict constructionist. That's second only to: Never trust a mind who tells his wife he's divorcing her on TV. Link.
‘Chief Shirlene Andersons (sic) wants citizens ...
... to have a happy and safe Fourth of July Holiday ...'
No, that's not a typo, at least not on our part. The chief's office sent that e-mail with that exact subject line today. Here's the rest of the e-mail, verbatim:
City's War on Sex Toys Is Back
Just when you thought that the Jackson Police Department isn't up to the challenge posed by escalating crime, they prove you wrong. Per The Clarion-Ledger tonight:
Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Sentence
My, isn't this predictable? One wonders what goodies Libby has in his safety-deposit box, eh?
The Jackpedia Reader Question of the Week
Here's this week's Question o' the Week:
Starting this week, the JFP is going to ask readers to help us with a question of the week for Jackpedia, the new collaborative wiki about Jackson. Your efforts will help us compile a special print edition of the JFP that will, in turn, collect all the coolest stuff going on in and around Jackson in one issue.
Radio JFP Says Goodbye to Brian Johnson Today
Turn into WLEZ, 103.7 FM, today at noon for Brian Johnson's last broadcast. Yes, we'll talk about Frank Melton's latest shenanigans, and Todd will probably do weird voices. You might even hear Donna beg Brian not to go. You can also hear the show live at WLEZ online.
U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton in Accident
The JFP's prayers go out to the U.S. attorney.
The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton was in a Jeep accident on a remote part of his property in Pike County. He is in a Jackson hospital. No information on his condition has been released.
JUST IN: McAllister, Watkins Snag Standard Life
Developer David Watkins has just informed the Jackson Free Press that the Jackson Redevelopment Authority has chosen a proposal presented by him, Deuce McAllister and Historic Restoration Inc. to restore the Standard Life Building. JRA chose their proposal from three, including one from TCI of Dallas, with close connections to controversial businessman Gene Phillips, a friend of Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. (See post below.) Earlier today, TCI won their bid to develop the $180 million Convention Center hotel.
We Are Family: A Klan Child Fans A Different Flame
Photos by Kate Medley
Little Shirley Seale was in her room at the back of her wood frame house when she saw flames through her window. The Natchez girl, who was 5 in 1968, stared out at the green cow pasture that opened up beyond the window. She could see dozens, maybe a hundred people, wearing mostly whitebut some black and redchoir-like robes with pointy hoods covering their heads. A cross decorated the front of each robe.
Phillips Group Close to Jackson Contracts?
The Jackson Redevelopment Authority has chosen a development consortium out of Dallas, Texas, with very close ties to controversial developer Gene Phillips as the developers of the Convention Center hotel, and may hand them the contract to refurbish the Standard Life building shortly, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
Guarding White Christians
The first Seale on record was a bodyguard—at 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds, Solomon Seale guarded King Alfred the Great, who ruled as the "King of the Anglo-Saxons" from 871-899. According to a two-volume, bound genealogical history of the "Seale" name on the shelf in the Franklin County Library in Meadville, the name likely came from the Old English word "seolth," which meant the most important house, or hall, in the village.
They Got the Man They Wanted
Here's the Ledger edit-boyz' latest too-little-too-late whine about their mayor:
It is really hard to watch The Clarion-Ledger whine about Frank Melton. He is exactly the person they endorsed. His history showed that he was "rude" and "outrageous" and couldn't "stay on point." Where were they when it could have made a difference??? Sigh.
The Clarion-Ledger Has SOME Nerve
It continues to astound me how The Clarion-Ledger tries to take credit for the James Ford Seale conviction, even The Clarion-Ledger had dropped the ball on the case (as had the authorities), reported that Seale was dead and Jerry Mitchell had declared that there would never be justice in the case. They deserve some credit for work years ago on it, but they really ought to be a bit more humble than this, considering that they couldn't figure out how to factcheck whether Seale was really dead before reporting it:
The Earliest Speech I Ever Gave
So after a jam-packed week in Seattle and then in Portland), I got up Sunday morning to drive the hour or so to a town I'd never visited to speak to a church about race relations in Mississippi (and in Oregon, and everywhere in between). My talk to the First Christian Church, as described today in the Albany (Ore.) Democrat-Herald, came about because of an interview I did on NPR back in January after the Seale indictments.
WLBT: Robbery Suspect Arrested
More details as they develop.
WLBT is reporting that police have arrested John Wayne Mangum, 20, for the armed robbery of Councilman Margaret Barrett-Simon.
Hey Obama: Screw the Horse Race!
I returned to Jackson this week to discover that the Barack Obama campaign, assisted by local Democrats, tightly controlled his quick visit to Jackson last week. The media were allowed to follow him into Peaches restaurant (where Kate Medley and I took Joe Biden last year, for the record), and then were banned from his fund-raising event at the TelCom center, leading at least one JFP blogger to believe the media had ignored his visit. Unfortunately, the problem is that the media weren't really invited.
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.
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.
Day 8: Franklin County Editors, Past and Present
This morning, Judge Henry Wingate agreed to allow the government to show the jury a racial epithet-filled letter that James Ford Seale allegedly wrote to the Franklin Advocate on July 23, 1964—two and a half months after he is accused of abducting and helping kill Henry Dee and Charles Moore, and six days after then-Franklin Advocate Editor and Publisher David Webb was announced as the publicity director of the Americans for the Preservation of the White Race, a Natchez-based front organization for the Ku Klux Klan, according to Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files.
The Truth Can Hurt
A reckoning happened last week in the James O. Eastland Federal Courthouse in Jackson. A lot of truth came out before anyone ever took the stand to testify in the James Ford Seale trial for the kidnapping of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
Day 5: Of Guns and Freedom
By his own admission in court on Tuesday, it was Charles Marcus Edwards who first fingered Henry Dee. The young man who lived near him had come back to Chicago and was wearing a black bandana around Franklin County. That was a sign of trouble to the members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Edwards' friends and adopted family.
Goodbye, Mrs. Chaney
It took 41 years, but Fannie Lee Chaney lived to see her home state mete out a degree of justice for the murder of her son, James Chaney, on Father's Day, 1964. She was born Fannie Lee Roberth on a farm in a community called Sand Flats near Meridian. She married Ben Chaney in 1940, had a daughter, Barbara, the next year, and then gave birth to James Earl Chaney on May 30, 1943, as recounted in the book "We Are Not Afraid."
Dredging Up the Past: Why Mississippians Must Tell Our Own Stories
It was warm under the mammoth magnolia tree on the north side of the Neshoba County Courthouse, just yards from where the Confederate soldier stood on his marble pedestal until a storm knocked him over and broke his arm off a few years back.
James Ford Seale Trial to Begin Wednesday
The federal kidnapping and conspiracy trial of former Klansman James Ford Seale is now set to begin Wednesday, May 30, with jury selection in a federal courtroom in Jackson. Seale is accused of kidnapping Charles Moore and Henry Dee, who were beaten and tortured by the Klan, and then dumped into an offshoot of the Mississippi River, prosecutors believe. The Jackson Free Press helped revive interest in the case in July 2005 by traveling back to Franklin County with Thomas Moore, the brother of Charles Moore, and a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. filmmaker, where the team discovered that Seale was still alive from two sources. That information helped convinced U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton to jumpstart the investigation, leading to indictments in January 2007. A full archive of the JFP's coverage of this case and other Klan activity in the area is available on the JFP's Road to Meadville blog. JFP reporters will be blogging daily about the trial on the same blog. The JFP's July 2005 original award-winning story about Moore's journey home, "I Want Justice, Too" is available here.
With A Good Intention
People come up and thank me all the time for being "daring." Or "courageous." Or "fearless." No, the Jackson Free Press is not particularly daring or courageous (although admittedly we can be a bit fearless now and then). We're just trying to do our job the best we can. Sometimes we succeed better than others. But "daring"? Not really. Unless you mean willing to risk angering an advertiser or a reader when we tell an unpopular truth.
The Crime: May 2, 1964
The last time Mazie Moore ever saw her boy, 19-year-old son Charles, he was standing in front of Dillon's gas station on Main Street in Meadville, trying to thumb a ride with his friend, Henry Dee, also 19. Mazie had gotten a ride to the doctor and figured she would pick them up when she came back by there.
The Klansman Bound: The Crime
The last time Mazie Moore ever saw her boy, 19-year-old son Charles, he was standing in front of Dillon's gas station on Main Street in Meadville, trying to thumb a ride with his friend, Henry Dee, also 19. Mazie had gotten a ride to the doctor and figured she would pick them up when she came back by there.
The Klansman Bound: The Road to Justice (A Timeline)
Klansmen kidnap Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two African American teenagers in Meadville, Miss., beat them at gunpoint in a Mississippi national forest, and forcibly throw them into a backwater of the Mississippi River to die.
StateDesk.com Ramping Up for Elections
And we're off ... !
The JFP's new statewide political site, StateDesk.com, is starting to ramp up after a few months of beta bug testing (yes, it's faster now). We have a new political intern, Kate Royals of Millsaps College, who is loading up the site with candidate Web sites for statewide offices, as well as local county offices, as well as posting campaign and other state political news near daily. So head over to click to candidate sites, as well as comment on political races.
Non-White Population Grows in Mississippi
The Commercial Appeal is reporting:
How to Stir Up 'Holy Mischief'
"Speaking of Faith" had an amazing interview with young Christian Shane Clayborne this morning. I wasn't familiar with his work, or his book, but he was just breathtaking. The Tennessee native is a "new monastic," so to speak, and looks like a hippy. He grew up very conservative, but has turned away from the religious right (and criticizes the left as well for abandoning the important messages of faith). Long story short, he and a group of young people started a community in one of Philadelphia's (Pa.) poor neighborhoods after college, and are leading a "Simple Way" movement of getting back to what Christianity really is about—love and helping people. Really wonderful. Visit their Web site here. And go up read up on the "Speaking of Faith" interview with him and listen to it here.
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.
JFP Chick Ball Raises $7,000 for Domestic Abuse Victims
A preliminary count shows that the 3rd annual JFP Chick Ball raised just over $7,000 for the Center for Violence Prevention in Pearl. This amount was raised through direct donations, a $5 cover charge, $5 raffle tickets for 25 door-prize packages donated by local businesses, the sale of t-shirts purchased by the Jackson alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theater sorority and a silent auction of art by dozens of artists and prize packages donated by businesses. Those prizes included diamond earrings donated by Carter Jewelers. The amount raised surpassed the total of the first two Chick Balls, which together raised about $5,000 for the center.
DA Candidate Michele Purvis on Radio JFP Friday
DA candidate Michele Purvis will be the guest on Radio JFP on WLEZ (103.7 FM) Friday at noon. You can also listen to the stream here.
Of Chick Balls and Big-Mouthed Women
Frank Melton called me a "big mouth" on Councilman Ben Allen's radio show Friday. Sitting in my bedroom listening as Todd showered, I couldn't help but laugh. Heartily. Loudly. You know, in that big-mouthed kind of way that scares people who fear strong women.
Kaze's Hip-Hop Hater of the Week: Ebony Magazine
Here we go again folks. America just can't seem to do anything without going to the absolute extreme. As I expected the en-vogue pursuit to clean up objectionable lyrics is going to turn into an all out witch hunt. One where ALL of hiphop is going to suffer for the crusading of a few. Instead of eliminating the language that we all agree must progress. You've given hiphop haters worldwide a reason to try and eliminate the genre altogether. And poor Ludacris, probably one of the more docile of all the "language" culprits gets screwed again. Being removed from the 'Black Father's" edition of Ebony Magazine (June isseue). bumped for pretty boy boris Kudjoe. Now ladies won't be mad at all..but as a rapper Im steaming again. Is Ludacris not a good father? IS Ebony just going with the flow?
Bling, Bling, Baby! Carter's Jewelers Donates Diamond Hoops
It gets better by the minute. Ching, ching.
Carter's Jewelers just called out of the blue to donate diamond hoop earrings worth $700 for the silent auction Thursday night. Needless to say, Carter's is now a Queen Level sponsor of the Chick Ball. Also, photographer Jennifer Carter walked in today with three gift certificates for photography sessions worth $500 apiece. Jennifer is our latest Diva Level sponsor. We also heard from District Attorney Faye Peterson who is donating $100 in hard, green moolah.
How to Donate to the Chick Ball
We're getting calls from individuals (and political candidates) who want to donate money to the Chick Ball, and thus the Center for Violence Prevention. You can make checks out directly to the Center for Violence Prevention and either drop them by the JFP office or bring them Thursday night to the Chick Ball. If you want to donate art, door prizes or munchies for the food sponsor table, call Ronni Mott at 601.362.6121 ext. 0, or just drop by the office 9 to 6. 2727 Old Canton Road, Suite 224. (Please drop donations by 2 p.m. Thursday. After that, you need to bring items/checks directly to the Red Room.)
Radio JFP to Discuss Melton Interview Noon Friday
Here's a double whammy for y'all. Mayor Frank Melton is slated to appear on Ben Allen's WJNT radio show Friday morning. Then, at noon, the JFP will discuss is comments on our radio show on WLEZ (103.7 FM). Tune in!
Lester Williams Resigns to Run for Sheriff
[Verbatim from Williams] In a letter sent to the Mayor's office three weeks ago, I indicated I was requesting an extended leave of absence from my position with Community Improvement to more effectively run my campaign for Sheriff of Hinds County. After giving this situation much thought and conferring with my family I have decided to officially resign my position with the City of Jackson effective May 31st, 2007.
Barbour Raised $3.4 Million in First Quarter of 2007
[Verbatim from Barbour] JACKSON, MS - Governor Haley Barbour today filed a campaign finance report showing he raised more than $3.4 million in the first four months of 2007 and had more than $6.1 million cash on hand as of April 30. The report, filed with the Secretary of State's office, combined with previous records show that Barbour for Governor has raised nearly $7.69 million since 2004.
So, what are YOU wearing to the Chick Ball!?!
What's a Chick to do? Go shoppping ... but where? Thoughts?
OK, this is on my mind this week. The JFP Chick Ball—aka The Grrl Jam—is coming together fabulously; we expect throngs of people Thursday night; we have dozens and dozens of door prizes to give away; the music rocks; I can't wait to bid on art—but my big problem is what to wear. Hey, I'm a girl. It needs to be shiny. It needs to be sleek. It needs to be worthy.
Hi From New York
We're up in New York for a long weekend while I study at a Columbia reporting seminar called "Let's Do It Better," a workshop on covering race. (I met Henry Louis Gates, Jr.!) I'm also studying extremely hard, as you can see below the fold.
[Green Eats] Food For Thought
"No MSG."
Fight or Fight
It's an odd world where Councilman Kenny Stokes is standing with FOX News celebrities who care more about profiling young blacks than protecting citizens' rights. But in the aftermath of the Frank Melton acquittals last week, we are living in a bizarro-land populated by strange bedfellows, led by a mayor and police chief who yelp about "drug houses" but arrest no drug dealers.