JACKSON, Miss.—Faith leaders, elected officials, long-time residents and college students spent hours walking the streets and filling plastic garbage bags with tattered paper, broken glass and other litter scattered on the streets and in vacant lots in neighborhoods in West and South Jackson on Jan. 25. Some were bundled in winter jackets and draped with “Keep Jackson Beautiful” vests on their backs.
The cleanup effort was part of a civil service event capping off a week of events in Mississippi’s capital city meant to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘We’re Losing Our Community’
Pastor Stanley Smith has led the Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church on East McDowell Road in South Jackson for 13 years.
Over the years, he has seen ebbs and flows of church membership as it grew some years and diminished in others. While he told the Mississippi Free Press that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had a particularly devastating effect on church attendance, he and his wife, Stephanie Smith, continue to mobilize the congregation to do what they can do to meet the needs of the community.
@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 320px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 99px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}} Every year, Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Stanley Smith (pictured left) and his wife Stephanie Smith host community clean-ups in South Jackson. “If we’re going to be here, we’re obligated to take care of it,” Stanley Smith said. Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?fit=780%2C519&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=780%2C519&ssl=1″ alt class=”wp-image-212127″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=1568%2C1045&ssl=1 1568w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad.jpg?w=2000&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Pastor-Stanley-Smith-left-and-Stephanie-Smith_cred-Shaunicy-Muhammad-1024×682.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px”>Every year, Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Stanley Smith (pictured left) and his wife Stephanie Smith host community clean-ups in South Jackson. “If we’re going to be here, we’re obligated to take care of it,” Stanley Smith said. Photo by Shaunicy Muhammad
Many of the congregants no longer live in the area, and although they host the MLK Day clean-up event annually, Smith said that he saw this year’s project as
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