Editor’s note: This story contains graphic language. Also, you can read Judge James Graves’ complete dissent at the bottom of this story.

A dissent written by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Graves Jr. could play a key role in determining whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a case that has, so far, upheld Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era constitutional provision written to keep Black people from voting.

Last month, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a Mississippi constitutional provision that bans people convicted of certain felonies from voting. White leaders in Mississippi included most of those specific felonies in the state’s 1890 Constitution because they thought those crimes were more likely to be committed by African Americans.

Though attorneys challenging the provision in court say it has continued to disenfranchise Black Mississippians, a majority of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals did not agree. Following the appeals court’s ruling, plaintiff attorneys said they plan to appeal the lower court’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. They have 90 days from the final verdict that was issued on Aug. 24 the file the appeal.

Graves, a Black man from Mississippi who was appointed to the federal appeals court in 2010, wrote a 47-page dissent that outlines the state’s long and disturbing history of racism and its impact on America.

Rob McDuff, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice who is working on the case, said Graves’ dissent could increase the odds the Supreme Court will take up the case.

“A strong dissent like that of Justice Graves’ can highlight for the Supreme Court that this is an important case where the Court of Appeals is sharply divided,” said McDuff, who has argued four cases before the nation’s highest court. “This increases the chances the Supreme Court will take the case although it’s no guarantee.”

READ MORE: 5th Circuit upholds Jim Crow-era law written to keep Black Mississippians from voting

A majority of the 17 members of the Court of Appeals that heard the case acknowledged that the felony suffrage provision, like many in the 1890 Constitution, was intended to prevent African Americans, then a majority in the state, from voting. That reality would be difficult to deny.

“The plan is to invest permanently the powers of government in the hands of the people who ought to have them: the white people,” James Zachariah George, a U.S. senator who was one of the architects of the 1890 Constitution and to this day has a statue in the U.S. Capitol representing Mississippi, said at the time.

But the nine members of the court who made up the majority in the recent ruling said that when state lawmakers added murder and rape as disenfranchising crimes in 1968, “the racial taint” was removed because the original 1890 language crafted by George and others had been amended.

“The critical issue here is not the intent behind Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution, but whether the reenactment of Section 241 (the felony disenfranchisement language) in 1968 was free of intentional racial discrimination,” the nine-member majority wrote.

The majority concluded it was.

“Mississippi (represented by the office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch) has conclusively shown that any taint associated with Section 241 has been cured,” the majority wrote last month in an unsigned opinion.

But in his blistering dissent, Graves methodically wrote that the racial taint had not at all been removed by state lawmakers in the 1960s.

He pointed out that the Legislature did not reenact Section 241 in 1968; it simply passed a provision to include murder and rape as disenfranchising crimes. Section 241 would have remained in effect regardless of whether the amendment adding murder and rape was approved by voters.

And perhaps more importantly, Graves pointed out many of the people in the Legislature and indeed the electorate as a whole at that time had been engaged in preventing Black Mississippians from voting and from integrating schools and society. Many of those same people had been engaged in violence against African Americans.

Graves cited Tom Brady, a member of the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1968. Graves pointed out Brady wrote in a book that was available in many Mississippi schools: “You can dress a chimpanzee, housebreak him, and teach him to use a knife and fork, but it will take countless generations of evolutionary development, if ever, before you can convince him that a caterpillar or cockroach is not a delicacy. Likewise the social, economic and religious preferences of the Negro remain close to the caterpillar and the cockroach.”

Graves, in his dissent, also pointed out that in the mid 20the Century while Mississippi lawmakers were removing a racial taint from its state Constitution, according to the majority ruling, white South African leaders were traveling to Mississippi “to learn how best to keep their own Black population disempowered and impoverished in perpetuity,” and earlier Nazi leader Adolph Hitler proclaimed the goal of making a conquered region “our Mississippi.”

Graves cited a passage from a 1960s newspaper article detailing efforts during school desegregation when Mississippians were, according to the Court’s majority opinion, removing the racial taint from the felony suffrage provision of the 1890 Constitution.

“Some husky young men were whipping a little Negro girl with pigtails,” the reporter wrote. “She was running. The men chased after her, whooping and leaping up and down like animals.”

The dissent was filled with such reports of violence and of loss of life for African Americans.

Graves, a Clinton native, was one of the first African American circuit judges in the state – appointed to the post in 1991 by then-Gov. Ray Mabus. In 2001, he was appointed to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. President Barack Obama appointed him to a slot on the federal Court of Appeals in 2010.

Graves, in his dissent, recalled his own upbringing and life in Mississippi.

“Recounting Mississippi’s history forces me to relive my experiences growing up in the Jim Crow era,” he wrote. “While I do not rely on those experiences in deciding this case, I would be less than candid if I did not admit that I recall them. Vividly.

“So I confess that I remember in 1963 a cross that was burned on my grandmother’s lawn two doors down from where I grew up,” he wrote.

Graves goes on to recount his experiences with school desegregation, and his disdain after being appointed to the judiciary of having to serve under the state flag that contained the Confederate battle emblem as part of its design.

Graves also highlights actions in 2020 by the Legislature to replace the flag. But after that historic achievement, he pointed out Mississippi to this day is the only state to recognize a Confederate Heritage Month, and while other states recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mississippi honors Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the same day.

“I recount these events, as a native Mississippian, only to highlight the importance of making the right decision in this case,” Graves wrote.

Read Judge Graves’ complete dissent below. His dissent begins on page 36.

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The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has received a $5.8 million federal grant to build a new workforce training center to help the tribe up-skill members and combat labor shortages for jobs ranging from IT to health care. 

The U.S. Economic Development Administration funded the grant through the American Rescue Plan Act’s Indigenous Communities program. Choctaw economic development director John Hendrix said the new 50,000-square-foot Advanced Workforce Training Center will open in the Pearl River community in about a year, complete with hands-on equipment and computer labs covering skills from electrical work to phlebotomy. 

“It’s a game changer for the next generation,” Hendrix said. 

The tribe currently has a small center with a few classrooms, but Hendrix said the space doesn’t meet the growing demand for new trade skills. The reservation alone supports about 5,000 workers.

“We’ve got several vacancies,” Hendrix said. “We need health care workers and IT professionals. We have 3-million-square-feet of buildings and need vocational technicians.” 

The facility will offer new skill training and partner with a nearby community college for required certifications. It will also help current reservation employees learn new skills, like management. 

The center will also have a makerspace for advanced manufacturing skills and access to technology such as 3D printers. It will also support entrepreneurs and small businesses as an incubator for start-ups. 

“We have undertaken many projects to help our community members prepare to face a challenging and ever-evolving job market,” Chief Cyrus Ben said in a statement. “This Workforce Training Center is a key component of our strategy to increase the skills of our Tribal members, whether they choose a career on or outside of our Tribal lands.”

The Choctaw are the only federally recognized tribe in Mississippi with more than 11,000 members across 34,000 acres in 10 counties. 

Hendrix said more on-site training for in-demand jobs will give tribal members who aren’t interested in four-year colleges other options. The center will keep tabs on skills needed for jobs on the reservation as well as what is in-demand at nearby private companies. 

“This brings it closer to home,” he said, “and then after a 12-to-16-month program, they can have immediate employment opportunities.”

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A federal judge has denied a temporary restraining order aimed to prevent a Mississippi police department from violating Black residents’ constitutional rights and acting violently towards them. 

U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee rejected a restraining order and injunctive relief against the Lexington Police Department, which has been the subject of a lawsuit filed last month by civil rights organization JULIAN and the National Police Accountability Project. 

Lee wrote the depiction of Lexington police’s tactics and harm against Black citizens disturbing, but the plaintiff’s memorandum is made primarily of claims and assertions not backed by evidence. 

“The list of their unsupported allegations is unfortunately long but nevertheless worth detailing, because by separating out and discarding them from consideration, the picture becomes somewhat clearer, and it is more easily seen that injunctive relief is unwarranted,” he wrote.

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Mississippi by five Black Lexington residents against Sam Dobbins, the former police chief; Charles Henderson, the interim police chief; the Lexington Police Department and the City of Lexington. 

Plaintiffs allege the Lexington police engaged in racial and retaliatory abuse and harassment against them and Black residents, including unlawful searches and seizures, false arrests, and excessive force, which violate the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments. The plaintiffs said Henderson has maintained the custom of how Lexington police treats Black residents started by Dobbins, and that is the reason why injunctive relief was needed, according to court records. 

Lexington has a population of about 1,800 and is 86% Black.

In his order, Lee lists and breaks down 23 claims he said lack evidence, including that Dobbins continues to patrol in Lexington after his firing, multiple incidents of excessive force during arrests or interactions with residents and that Black residents have been afraid to speak with attorneys or activists due to fear of retaliation.

Dobbins, who is white, was appointed police chief in July 2021. Plaintiffs alleged he led a department practice of violating the constitutional rights of Black citizens. 

In July of this year, an audio recording surfaced of Dobbins using a racial slur and homophobic remarks. He also talked about killing people while a member of law enforcement and shooting one person multiple times. 

As a result, the Board of Aldermen fired Dobbins by a 3-2 vote. Henderson was appointed interim chief. 

The judge wrote there are also unsupported claims made about Lexington’s municipal government: how the city has endorsed the police’s ongoing misconduct and how Board of Aldermen members harassed and retaliated against Black residents. 

Lee also dismissed the temporary restraining order because the plaintiffs failed to show a likelihood that they could prove there were civil rights violations. 

In the case of unlawful arrests, he reviewed several of the arrests the plaintiffs experienced and found that Lexington police had probable cause to make them. 

“Even if the court assumes for present purposes that there was no probable cause for the arrests, and also assumes that the arrests were attended by an unreasonable use of force, the court sill finds that plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood of proving an official policy of either arresting people without probable cause or of excessive force,” Lee wrote. 

Toward the end of the ruling, Lee notes that most of the plaintiffs’ complaints happened under Dobbins’ leadership. In court testimony, Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said Lexington’s policing has improved and calls he has received from residents about the police have decreased since Dobbins’ firing. 

Before the judge’s ruling, defendants responded to the complaint and denied most of the allegations. Dobbins invoked qualified immunity several times in relation to actions he took while serving on the police force. 

Dobbins also asked that the court dismiss the complaint, deny plaintiffs relief and award him attorney fees, costs and expenses “associated with the defense of the frivolous” action, according to court records. 

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PHILADELPHIA – Tanya Cook climbs into the gray van and starts her day as she always does: picking up the elderly to bring them to daycare. 

Cook, the transportation manager at New Beginnings Adult Day Care in Philadelphia, has a list that’s shorter today than she planned. Two participants canceled at the last minute, but they’ll have over 50 seniors at the center that day. 

Many adult daycare service providers in Mississippi are struggling or have closed in recent years due to low reimbursement rates from Medicaid and years of legislative gridlock. The centers provide crucial services to elderly and disabled people and allow their caregivers to work and have lives outside of caretaking.

Before COVID-19, New Beginnings averaged around 70 participants per day but now only sees 45 to 60 – still a marked improvement from the 30 or so they saw each day after a multi-month shutdown in 2020.

“They keep saying they’re going to wait until this is over,” Cook said. “I don’t know if this will ever be over. But some of them are slowly coming back.”

Adult daycare is a nearly invisible facet of the care system for elderly and disabled people. The centers provide transportation and meals, in addition to administering medication. Attendees participate in exercise and socialization activities. Often, they serve as participants’ only opportunity for social interaction outside of the home. 

Cook had never heard of adult daycare until she started working in one in Oct. 2017. In that time, she’s driven every route in the center’s service area. It covers eight counties total, stretching as far as Morton, more than an hour’s drive away. 

Cook remembers getting calls from participants one month into the COVID-19 shutdown where they asked: ‘Are you going to come get us?’

 “They’re stuck at home all day, so this is their way out of the house,” Cook said. 

That was the case for Jean Anderson, an 85-year-old Philadelphia native who has been coming to New Beginnings for over four years. After her husband passed away, her case worker asked if she’d like to start attending an adult daycare, and she agreed to try it out. 

“I was getting lonely at the house by myself,” Anderson said. “This keeps you from sitting there and doing nothing all day.” 

There were at least 126 adult daycare service providers across Mississippi pre-pandemic, but around 30% of them have closed permanently over the last few years, according to Benton Thompson, president of the Mississippi Association of Adult Day Services.

 “Their volume dropped due to COVID, and they couldn’t continue operations with the same overhead costs and limited revenue,” Thompson said. 

The bulk of those overhead costs come from staffing, which includes a family nurse practitioner and social worker, along with seven other required positions. Under quality assurance standards set by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, each facility must maintain a minimum staff-to-participant ratio of one to six, or one to four in a facility that serves a high percentage of people who are severely impaired. 

The vast majority of those who use adult daycare services are enrolled in Medicaid’s Elderly & Disabled Waiver program. The waiver provides home and community-based services for Mississippians who would require nursing home level care if not for the alternative forms of care the waiver provides, like adult day care. At New Beginnings, 98% of its clients are on the waiver. As of June 2022, there were 17,022 waiver recipients across the state, according to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.

The problem with this system, workers and advocates say, is that reimbursement rates have stagnated while costs have continued to rise, meaning only those who bring in a high number of participants can break even.

Currently, adult daycares receive a maximum reimbursement of $60 per person each day from Medicaid. They can only bill for up to four hours of care, though they’re required to be open for eight.

“We’re at the mercy of (Medicaid) case workers,” said Michelle McCool, administrator at New Beginnings. “It’s all based on numbers, and if they don’t refer clients to us, or if there’s a backlog of people waiting to get into the waiver program, we can’t survive.”

Some legislators have attempted to increase the reimbursement rate for adult daycare services every year since 2015. Each time, it has either died in committee or passed in both chambers, with each side unable to agree on a final version. 

If passed, the bills would have more than doubled the level of reimbursement that adult daycares like New Beginnings currently receive. Their per-person reimbursement would increase to $125 and the centers could also be reimbursed for transportation costs separately. Thompson believes the lack of awareness about adult day services is what has caused this repeated failure to act from lawmakers.

“I think it’s due to a lack of knowledge,” Thompson said. “I think most of them sitting up there in Jackson voting on these bills have never been to an adult day service and don’t understand the benefits.”

Thompson believes that expanded utilization of adult daycares would save the government money in the long run by preventing costly hospital stays and delaying costlier institutionalized care in a nursing home setting. He also pointed to the benefits for the primary caregivers of participants who have them, which sometimes provide the only way for them to run errands, work or just simply have a break.

“If you don’t give that caregiver a break, then they’re going to become a participant (person who needs adult daycare),” Thompson said. 

On Friday, Jeanette Carter is one of the few participants at New Beginnings dressed up for that day’s theme: Remembering 9/11. The 68-year-old is wearing a red, starry tank top and American flag baseball cap. She walks around the room, talking to her friends and looking for places to help out before the scavenger hunt.

Carter has been coming to New Beginnings nearly five days a week for over a year and a half. The only days she’s missed were due to catching COVID-19 in Oct. of last year. 

“If this place was open seven days a week, believe me, Jeanette would be here,” Carter said.

She only started coming to New Beginnings after the previous center she went to closed during the pandemic. In that brief period, she was scared of being stuck at home. 

“I get out of hand at times,” Carter said. “I can’t be nobody else but me and they understand me. I don’t know what I’d do without this place.”

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JACKSON, Miss.—Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba shared tables outlining needs at the capital city’s water-treatment plants, totalling $35.6 million at a town hall in College Hill Missionary Baptist Church last night. The city has been under a boil-water notice for more than six weeks due to turbidity issues at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment plant, then followed by a city-wide drop in water pressure due to flooding of the Pearl River that created treatment challenges at the facility it feeds.

Lumumba said the problems affecting the water-treatment plants in the city are decades in the making. “I remember in 1989, a big freeze that came over the city at that time and debilitated our water system,” he told the people gathered at the church. “I remember being without water for some time.”

“Some of you I’ve heard talk further back than that, and so this is something that unfortunately has become a way of life in Jackson, and one that we should not continue to be comfortable with or to continue to just say that that’s what it is to live in Jackson.”

Based on the undated charts the mayor shared at the event, the administration showed that the O. B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant requires more than $20 million to fix priority needs. The significant expenses are structural crack repair and lining of conventional sedimentary basins ($3 million), a plant generator ($7 million) and lime-sludge removal ($ 2 million). The administration is saying that the other water-treatment facility in the city—J.H. Fewell—needs $15 million, with filter repairs requiring $3.5 million, lime-sludge removal $2 million and a plant generator for $3 million.

A cross-section of people gathered at the College Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., on Sept. 13, 2022, for Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba’s town hall on water challenges. Photo by Kayode Crown

Since President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the water-treatment facility on Aug. 30, 2022, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will now fund needed urgent repairs and deploy human resources to the facility for 90 days. On Sept. 12, Gov. Tate Reeves asked the Small

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Since 2017, the end of September has brought a wave of color to the grounds of the Triangle Cultural Center (332 N. Main St., Suite A) in Yazoo City, Miss., as a multitude of quilts in all shapes, sizes and patterns adorn the front lawn of the century-old former school building. The spectacle, known as the Hills Meet the Delta Quilt Show, is the work of Phyllis Haynes, a Triangle Cultural Center board member, former antique dealer and quilt-making hobbyist who has also organized events such as Antique Days to benefit the center.

Haynes’ goal for this year’s Hills Meet the Delta Quilt Show—which is set to take place on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.—is to honor the memory of E.T. Jordan, one of the earliest settlers of Carter, Miss., just five miles north of Yazoo City. Jordan lived in Carter in the early 1900s, at a time when the settlement consisted of little more than small houses, a town doctor, a grocery store and other essential buildings.

The diary of E.T. Jordan, which Phyllis Haynes found preserved on microfilm at the B.S. Ricks Memorial Library in Yazoo City, inspired the Hills Meet the Delta Quilt Show that Haynes subsequently created to teach visitors about 1900s-style quilting techniques and otherwise celebrate the quilting hobby. Image courtesy B.S. Ricks Memorial Library

Olivia Anderson, a Yazoo native, artist and friend of Haynes, found an article about the early days of Carter that mentioned Jordan. She sent it to Haynes, who lived in Carter before moving to Yazoo City, feeling it would interest her, Haynes says.

The article led Haynes to search the B.S. Ricks Memorial Library on Main Street in Yazoo City, located near the Triangle Cultural Center, for more information on Jordan and how the early settlers of Carter lived. There, she discovered a microfilm of a journal that Jordan had kept.

(From left) Center Director Lois Russell, Taggart Electric owner Ann Taggart, Hills Meet the Delta Quilt Show organizer Phyllis Haynes and Karen Dunaway sit around a table inside the Triangle Cultural Center in Yazoo City,

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Inside the College Hill Baptist Church in West Jackson, in front of a tall, blue backlit cross, the city’s town hall to discuss its unceasing water woes Tuesday night began with a prayer.

“We thank you now Lord that we have assembled in this place, to discuss issues within this city, particularly our water,” said Louis Wright, the city’s chief administrative officer. “Continue to uplift the mayor as he looks out for the citizens of this community. We pray that Lord you will give us the blessings and the wherewithal that we need in order to overcome the issues that we’re going through.” 

On the 47th consecutive day of a state-imposed citywide boil water notice, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba went into great detail Tuesday night to discuss the logistics of Jackson’s road ahead. During the three-hour meeting, Lumumba talked through bullet points listed on a placard in front of the altar. 

Starting on a more personal note than usual for his recent public appearances, the mayor talked about moving to Jackson with his family at the age of five in 1988. The next year, Lumumba saw the fragility of the city’s infrastructure, he recalled, after some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in Jackson shut down the water system.

“This is something that has unfortunately become a way of life in Jackson,” he said. Later, he asked the tired faces scattered in the pews in front of him, “How beautiful would it be, for us to say, regardless of party, that we were able to solve this problem in our lifetime?”

Lumumba, along with his chief financial officer, Fidelis Malembeka, pushed back against recent news stories questioning how prepared the city leadership is to tackle the current crisis. Specifically, they defended against the idea that the city lacks a plan, or that it doesn’t truly know how much it would cost to fix the water system. 

The mayor said he feels it’s unfair for state and federal officials to criticize Jackson for not having a full plan when, after he’s shared what planning the city does have, those same officials offer no feedback. 

“There is little to no communication around, ‘Well your plan is lacking this,’” Lumumba said. “When it comes down to it and there’s no funding, it’s later said, ‘You have no plan.’ The reality is that not only this administration, but every administration in the recent history of the city of Jackson has had some type of plan. 

“There’s a difference between not having a plan and not having mutual priority over its funding.”

Pointing to the existence of a “very detailed plan” the city has shared with the Environmental Protection Agency, Malembeka echoed a clarification Lumumba made just earlier this week, which is that the plan is hidden behind a court-ordered confidentiality agreement.

“I want everyone to understand that the city does have a plan,” he said. “Right now we have restrictions because of the confidentiality agreement that’s in place. That’s a very detailed plan, and once we’re able to share it you will see.” 

Mississippi Today could not confirm with the EPA the existence of the non-disclosure agreement by the publish date of this story.  Earlier this year, WLBT reported that neither the city nor the EPA could disclose a report that informed increases in Jackson’s sewer and water bill rates, although it’s unclear if that is due to the same confidentiality agreement.  

Lumumba, on multiple occasions, estimated that fully repairing the drinking water system would cost a billion dollars, although none of the spending proposals the city has released total more than $80 million.

“Someone will say, you have a billion dollar need, but you’re only showing us $80 million,” Malembeka. “Let’s get to the $80 million first. You can’t get to the billion dollars without getting through $80 million.”

As for reaching that goal, he added that earlier on Tuesday the Jackson City Council approved the next year’s budget that includes $30.8 million for sewer repairs and $30 million for water infrastructure. The council also adopted a plan to spend $34 million of Jackson’s $42 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on water and sewer, which the state will match on a dollar for dollar basis, Malembeka said. 

Lumumba then addressed reports that state lawmakers are discussing a number of pathways that could take Jackson’s water system out of the city’s hands, such as privatization and regionalization. 

“The problem with privatization is that companies aren’t taking over your system in order to be benevolent, they’re not taking over your system just because they want to come help,” the mayor said. “They want to extract a profit from you.”

Policy experts who spoke to Mississippi Today confirmed Lumumba’s concern that private water systems often raise water bill rates, but added that those systems also have less violations of safe drinking laws. Moreover, any rate increases would have to be approved by the state Public Service Commission. 

Regionalization, or combining nearby cities’ water systems, can create “economies of scale,” lowering costs for a financially struggling city like Jackson, those experts said. But the mayor called it a “problematic solution,” questioning whether it would really lower costs for Jackson and how the needs among the different cities would be prioritized. 

After an hour-long, extensive presentation from the two city bureaucrats on Jackson’s financial outlook, officials opened the floor to questions and comments from residents. 

Ronald Gilbert talked about his time working as an operations supervisor at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant for five years. Gilbert was critical of the city’s hiring and recruiting process for plant workers.

“We weren’t hiring the right people in (1995), we weren’t hiring the right people in 2005, and now you’re going to farm it out to other states,” he said, referencing recent support from other states to bring O.B. Curtis back online as part of a mutual aid agreement.

Gilbert added that when he left his job in 2005 to work in Georgia, he doubled his salary “as a grunt.” 

One woman, Evelyn Ford, talked about her challenges picking up water at one of the distribution sites. Ford had gone to get water for other homes, and said that after being told there was a limit on how much water she could get, a state trooper stopped her and asked for her license. The trooper called her “disrespectful,” she said, and later asked her to leave.

“I might be able to get the water, but I felt humiliated,” Ford said. “We’re already having a hard enough time as it is asking for water from someone else, now you’re telling me you’re going to restrict me.” 

Residents vented on issues outside of just water, discussing crime, economic development, roads, and creeks overflowing with sewage. 

Lumumba, summarizing the sentiment he’s shared at press conferences for the last two years asking for outside help with the city’s water system, responded to the speakers bluntly: “You have a city where our needs exceed our ability to pay for them.”

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Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn announced a bipartisan slate of lawmakers who will comprise his Speaker’s Commission on Life and steer the effort to craft legislation focused on pregnancy, children and families. The Republican leader first announced his plan for a commission when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.

In a statement announcing the appointments Tuesday, Gunn said the lawmakers are already working with him on legislation “supporting and affirming life before and after birth.” After the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling upheld Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, the State began enforcing a 2007 law banning nearly all abortions at any stage.

“The Dobbs ruling presents Mississippi with the opportunity and responsibility to work with one another on building and supporting the families of unplanned pregnancies and the families once the child is born,” Gunn said. “Mississippi has an opportunity to lead the nation in protecting, promoting and supporting life.”

The speaker announced the following appointees for the Speaker’s Commission on Life: Rep. Otis Anthony, D-Indianola; Rep. Cedric Burnett, D-Tunica; Rep. Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia; Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi; Rep. Jill Ford, R-Madison; Rep. Debra Gibbs, D-Jackson; Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg; Rep. Dana Underwood McLean, R-Columbus; Rep. Sam C. Mims, V, R-McComb; and Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Rankin.

The appointees have mixed records on abortion. While Burnett and Gibbs voted against a 2019 law banning abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, Anthony joined five fellow Democrats who voted for it. 

McGee, meanwhile, was the only Republican who voted against it. She said at the time that she considered herself “pro-life,” but could not support the legislation because it included no exceptions for rape, incest or cases of “fatal genetic abnormalities.”

After appointing 10 lawmakers to his bipartisan Speaker’s Commission on Life, Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said he was “grateful for their willingness and readiness to lead Mississippi in creating the ‘Next Steps For Life’ Legislation.” Graphic by Kristin Brenemen

After the ruling, Gunn drew international criticism when he said that it is his “personal belief” that a 12-year-old incest victim should be forced

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