JFP Blogs (http://blogs.jacksonfreepress.com/author/donnaladd/)
JFP Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd has a spirited conversation with Pam Confer, a local musician, songwriter, marketing expert and political organizer on the day the governor recognized as “Mississippi Beautiful Day.” They discuss the challenges that Mississippi faces in race relations and gender equality, how far the state has come, and how to keep up the energy of progress and community building in Jackson.
The demolition of buildings on prime real estate is underway today to make room for a large Hilton Homewood Suites hotel. After putting up poles, but apparently no protective fences around what is known as the “Fondren House,” the building was destroyed today, as this video shows. https://www.facebook.com/jasonpmeeks/videos/10210139140294830/
Neighbors are complaining that Alan Lange, a businessman who owned the property and now invests in the hotel, had said in a public meeting earlier this week that “the Fondren House will be the last thing torn down.” He also told a Fondren promotional publication, Find It in Fondren, in August that the developers would be sensitive to the Fondren House. “We’ve spent many hours researching the possibility of relocating the ‘Fondren House,’ more recently used as offices,” Lange told the Fondren glossy. Continue Reading
The Root 100 list for 2017 is out, and two powerful Jacksonians are near the top. Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba is No. 9—above Beyoncé, y’all—and author Angie Thomas is No. 30. The honor goes to the most influential African Americans, age 25 to 45. Continue Reading
The City of Jackson today sent out an alert warning about a false “social media article” that was making the rounds and apparently alarmed the mayor’s office. “The City of Jackson has received information, via social media, stating that the City is ‘under an 8 p.m. curfew due to criminal activity,’ and the social media article also includes a quote from the Mayor. Both the article and the quote from the Mayor are completely false. The City of Jackson is not under a curfew.” When asked, city spokeswoman Kai Williams then provided the link to the fake-news alert on the react365.com site. Continue Reading
The University of Mississippi’s student-body president, Dion Kevin III, today announced that students will vote on whether to change its Rebel Black Bear mascot to the popular Landshark, The Daily Mississippian, the university’s school newspaper, reported this morning. Students will vote on the mascot change next Tuesday alongside “personality” elections for Mr. and Miss Ole Miss, Homecoming Queen, maids and campus favorites. The university chose the Black Bear in 2010 in homage to famed Oxford writer William Faulkner, who wrote the famous short story, “The Bear.” The Rebel Black Bear has been the official mascot since 2010 when Ole Miss officially chose it to replace the old racist symbol of Colonel Reb, which still makes various unofficial appearances during campus events and, as the JFP staff noted with surprise once, dancing at weddings of Ole Miss graduates. Haley Barbour also had a Colonel Reb on his wedding cake back in the day; his campaign sent out the photo of the Ole Miss graduate and his wife, Marsha, cutting the cake during his successful campaign for governor of Mississippi. Continue Reading
Rep. Jay Hughes, D-Oxford, wasn’t playing today when he took to Facebook to expose a violation of the no-alcohol rule in the hallowed halls of the Mississippi State Capitol. He posted, verbatim:
ABOVE THE LAW & TRANSPARENCY. With a Supermajority you get to pick the laws you want to respect:
State law and lthe Legislature Joint Rules absolutely prohibit any alcohol inside the New Capitol building. Last night, a select few in charge chose to disregard that little law and have drinks in your sacred building. (Disclaimer – I do drink, but don’t consider myself above the law). Continue Reading
Andy Taggart has been on the Mississippi political scene for a long time, perhaps most prominently as the chief of staff for former Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice, a Republican who was, shall we say, Trumpian in his own garish ways. For one thing, Fordice was an unapologetic, public apologist for the pro-Confederate, wink-wink racism crowd that his party has bowed before since Dixiecrats defected to the Republican Party after northern Dems supported civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Fordice was one of the Mississippi politicians outed in the 1990s for speaking to the Council of Conservative Citizens, for instance. That group grew out of the mailing lists of the white Citizens Council that started in Mississippi in the 1950s, and is blatantly racist. So racist, in fact, that Dylann Roof wrote in a “manifesto” found in his home that the organization inspired him. Continue Reading
Today, I saw a tweet on @jxnfreepress of our latest Associated Press story: “In angry new book, Clinton defends campaign strategy.” I did a doubletake. I then read the story. The first sentence, or “lede” as we call it in the business, repeated the A-word, which at least most opinionated, educated women know is a common pejorative for opinionated, educated women. “In a candid and angry new book, Hillary Clinton relives her stunning defeat to Donald Trump, admitting to personal mistakes and defending campaign strategy even as her return to the stage refocuses attention on a race Democrats still can’t believe they lost,” AP writers Jonathan Lemire and Bill Barrow wrote. Continue Reading