JACKSON, Miss. – Today State Auditor Shad White announced Servia Fortenberry and Sevetrius Dillon were indicted for embezzlement. Special agents separately delivered demand letters to both individuals.

Both Fortenberry and Dillon are accused of wiring payments to themselves from a city account without approval. The pair are also accused of claiming to work for the City of Natchez at the same time they were working as consultants for a town on the opposite side of the state. City leaders in Natchez filed a complaint at the Auditor’s office when these alleged schemes were discovered.

“Thank you to the city leadership of Natchez for their cooperation in this case and to the investigators and prosecutors who have moved the case forward,” said Auditor White. “As in all cases, we will continue to push hard seeking justice for the taxpayers here.”

Fortenberry was served with a $14,836.49 demand letter at the time of her arrest. Dillon was served an $8,029.98 demand letter. Interest and investigative expenses are included in both demand amounts.

All persons arrested by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. These cases will be prosecuted by the office of District Attorney Shameca S. Collins.

A $50,000 surety bond covers the employment of both respective individuals at the City of Natchez. Surety bonds are similar to insurance designed to protect taxpayers in the event that public money is misspent. Fortenberry and Dillon will remain liable for the full amounts of their demands in addition to individual criminal charges.

Suspected fraud can be reported to the Auditor’s office online at any time by clicking the red button at www.osa.ms.gov or via telephone during normal business hours at 1-(800)-321-1275.

The post Two Former City of Natchez Employees Indicted for Embezzlement appeared first on Mississippi Office of the State Auditor News.

With no context, the opening pages of “Overground Railroad” — where we see various scenes of people carrying luggage, driving off in a loaded car, boarding a bus and riding a train — look like normal summertime vacation. 

Young Ruth Ellen, the protagonist, is excited about her family’s train ride to New York City. But the reality is it’s a one-way trip. During the time of sharecropping, often regarded as slavery by another name, the Great Migration saw the exodus of over six million African-Americans from the South to the northern United States. 

Sharecropping wasn’t easy to escape, however. Enslaved Black Americans had the Underground Railroad. And a century later, free African-Americans would still find themselves planning, saying goodbyes and sneaking away under the shadow of night to board trains on the railroads above ground.

Lesa Cline-Ransome, born in Massachusetts, and James Ransome, born in North Carolina, both have parents and family who participated in the Great Migration. Cline-Ransome discovered her interest in writing through a journalism workshop in high school. She also reflected on always being an avid reader. 

“I had a mother who was a real reader,” Cline-Ransome said, “a brother who was a reader. And I just, I devoured books … I have a pretty vivid imagination, and so I’m not sure which came first, my imagination or the stories that helped to ignite it. But just imagining a world outside of my own, I think really helped me connect to the stories.”

James notes comic books, Mad Magazine and the Bible as some of his earliest artistic influences.

“I grew up in a small town,” he said, “and there was no art in the schools…” Relocating to live with his grandmother, he brought along an interest in drawing and comics. But he discovered illustrations in the Bible — “beautiful compositions” — that he was also inspired to copy and learn from. “Anything that had artwork, I was interested in.”

Personal accounts of the Great Migration and Frederick Douglass’ biography contribute to the mix of influences on “Overground Railroad”, which also gets its name from Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns,” a 2010 historical study of the Migration. 

What resulted was a children’s historical fiction that fulfilled not only Cline-Ransome’s desire to uncover more of America’s hidden histories but also provide the stories for kids today that were not available to her.

Mississippi Today caught up with the Ransomes to discuss “Overground Railroad,” the writing process behind it and what it means to be able to tell stories about your people, for your people. The couple will be in Mississippi on Aug. 20 as featured panelists at the Mississippi Book Festival.

Editor’s note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: I was curious if (the research process behind the book) was just taking stories you’ve heard all your life, or did you go back to your family and talk to them while writing the book? If so, can you talk about how the process was, you know, learning history directly from the source?

Lesa Cline-Ransome: Well, it was really a variety of sources for me. When I started the project,  I would say that honestly, it began with reading the book “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson. And as a writer who’s become increasingly interested in history, and certainly now in this age, in the truth of history and the ways in which there are moments where African-Americans have kind of been left out of different aspects of historical recounting, I wanted to be able to tell a story — seen through the eyes of a young girl at this particular, very important moment in America’s history of the Great Migration.

… I just began imagining what it would be like for a young person experiencing the Great Migration, both James and I — the children of parents who were part of that Great Migration. And so I would say that the research that I did was supplemented by firsthand accounts of sitting and talking with family members and having their direct experiences, which certainly enriched, I think, both the text and the art.

James Ransome: Sometimes we’ve had family conversations, and they just talk about the experience of coming to the North. You know, so many people came and these sort of new communities were created where they maybe met someone from another county, from the same state. Events were planned around the fact that they were from other places. There’s a Carolina Ball, for example.

LCR: Yeah, the clubs that were formed as a result.

JR: So, this was an event that my mother and uncles went to, and it was a big event. They all got really dressed up and got ready for the Carolina Ball. Which was a party for people who were from North Carolina. So this was a way to sort of meet friends and meet new people who were also from the state.

LCR: I think what’s beautiful about the Black experience in terms of the Great Migration is, you know, James mentioned he’s from North Carolina, his family’s from North Carolina. My father is also from North Carolina, but their experiences are very, very different in many ways. And there are also some similarities. So just seeing the range of experiences is also important to note and to reflect in the writing and in the art.

MT: Are there any other interesting stories that stood out in the research process?

JR: I have a stepmother, and she talked a lot to Lisa about, you know, how poor she was in the South and the type of living standards that she grew up under, which was very different from when she moved to New Jersey… I think something as simple as indoor plumbing and the fact that she didn’t have to work in a hot field all day. I mean, she ended up working in a factory, like many of them did, but the working conditions, living conditions were just so much better in the North.

It was not ideal… when I read about people who migrated, they seem to paint the North as being sort of this land of future gold. She had very modest ambitions, just better living conditions is what I hear from her when she describes the difference between the two places. And not that she wanted to live like a queen or expect these sort of fantasy conditions beyond what she had before. But the fact that it was decent living and she could go to stores and buy things and not, you know, not be subjected to segregation — those are the things that I think (were the most important things for her). 

LCR: I think what I love most though in all my conversations is the direct correlation between the ways in which, historically, we have been disadvantaged in terms of our educational opportunities. And certainly, that has been the case with my mother-in-law and the ways in which her education was timed to go along with the planting season.

So, she could go to school when she wasn’t required to work in the fields. And I feel that when she came here, she so values education… I think that she and many others carry with them this idea that education is not something you take for granted…

But I think often (Black people) are painted as people who don’t value education, and it’s just a historical and present-day inaccuracy.

MT: Why do you think that children need this digestible and engaging version of history and events like the Great Migration?

LCR: Well, I think that all children need an accurate history. And I think that when you’re telling one group that their history is more valued than another group, I think it’s damaging to all groups. If one is valued above another and the history that you’re seeing is through the lens of one particular group, it’s not an accurate version of history. 

JR: … We want them to start understanding that history and the power of that history and the power of their ancestors. Because often Black movements are tied to the civil rights movement, which was led by (Martin Luther) King and other people. Well, this is something that Black people did on their own.

There was no leader. There was no one pointing, no one telling them to go. It was a decision they made on their own to better their lives. So it’s often considered a quiet movement that six million people did without any direction.

MT: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a big influence because we literally follow Ruth’s story with parts of his story as she reads about it in her book. Then there’s also a point where Ruth’s mother asks her to read to her on the train. What would you say is the importance of literature and storytelling in Black history?

JR: I just thought when Lisa wrote Frederick Douglas into the story, that was absolutely genius … She’s pulling on this history that we have as people of trying to better our outer situations.

And, my god, as difficult as it was to take a train from the South, imagine if you are running and you have no map and you (have) no way to protect yourself and you’re being hunted and you are just running north. The Underground Railroad. I mean, that was just beyond my understanding — how that actually worked.

But, people did it, and they escaped for their freedom to have a better life for their family. So here we are connecting with that in this book “Overground Railroad.”

LCR: And I think that what’s really important about (literature and storytelling) is just the ability to tell our own stories. I think that, you know, there’s been a long period in publishing, in particular, where Blacks have not been able to tell their own stories or their stories weren’t valued in a particular way. And so now I just think the importance of telling our stories and our own voices through our own lens certainly provides a unique experience to young readers.

And I just think it’s important to have our stories documented and in print. And I think that these are stories that can be passed down and shared and provide us with a great opportunity to discuss our history, our present and our future.

MT: You’ve said you liked the idea of repurposing and recycling for art. Can you talk a little bit more about that and why did that [style] stand out so much for this story, to apply that style to this story?

JR: One thing is for sure when you’re poor, you learn how to be very careful with the things that you have. And you often reuse things that you have. So, you know, these are poor people who are migrating and that’s such a large part of our life — reusing of things. Something has a hole in it, like pants, you take another piece of material, you patch over them and you continue to wear those pants. 

And also I want kids to think about the things that they have. You can take something old and reuse it and make artwork with it. That’s really sort of ideal for me. So for a kid to say, you know, to take on an old magazine and cut that up and use those parts for a creation of artwork that they make, that’s really special.

MT: I really like that idea, and I feel like it kind of even relates to the juxtaposition of Ruth’s and Frederick’s stories in the book and the similarities and differences between their experiences… You wouldn’t typically call Ruth’s family privileged, but you would say that she had some different things that even Douglass didn’t. For example, he had the North Star [to guide him], but Ruth has a train called the Silver Meteor. Lesa, was that intentional?

LCR: We could say it was maybe subconscious … I was trying to find as many ways as I could to see the parallel between Frederick and Ruth Ellen and their journeys, both literally and figuratively.

MT: Did you have books like this to read when you were growing up?

LCR: Absolutely not. So a lot of what I’m writing is what I would like to have read as a child. I wish that I had had books that reflected me, like the little Lisa. But I didn’t really have many of those books. I was always seeking out books that reflected my kind of emotional experience, like “Diary of Anne Frank,” where I felt like I was an outsider in an all-white community growing up. But I didn’t have books where children really looked like me and didn’t reflect the experiences of myself or my family or my family’s history. And so these are, to me, just great opportunities to kind of speak to and fulfill the needs of little Lisa.

The post Q&A with ‘Overground Railroad’ authors on the importance of storytelling and history appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Drug courts have existed in Mississippi since the 1990s. The idea emerged as an alternative criminal justice intervention for people dealing with addiction. Although the traditional approach was to sentence drug users to prison, drug courts instead allow participants to remain at home while completing drug treatment programs.

Drug courts usually incorporate frequent meetings with court officers who coach and counsel participants throughout the process. The programs can last months or several years, and at their conclusion participants generally have their charges dropped or their criminal record expunged.

In recent years, the drug court concept has been expanded to address people with mental health issues, veterans, and other populations who typically encounter the criminal justice system. These programs are generally referred to as “problem-solving courts.” States are increasingly turning to problem-solving courts as a way to reduce incarceration rates and provide better outcomes for justice-involved individuals.

Mississippi has created some problem-solving courts, but the state’s work in this area lags behind other jurisdictions. Grading Justice, which rates the state’s progress on criminal justice issues, gives Mississippi a grade of C for its problem-solving courts. The scorecard provides an overview of problem-solving courts in the state and ways this infrastructure can be expanded to provide better outcomes for Mississippians.

Mississippi’s Grade of C is derived from its work in four areas relating to problem-sovling courts: availability, policies, access, and services. The state receives top rankings for availability due to its statewide framework for drug courts. Drug courts are managed by individual circuit court districts, funded by state appropriation, and managed by the Administrative Office of the Courts and Drug Court Advisory Committee.

Mississippi’s policies relating to problem-solving courts are rated poorly due to the lack of standards in place. Mississippi’s drug court policies are determined by a Drug Court Advisory Committee comprised primarily of judges, who are not appropriately incentivized to adopt evidence-based practices. This arrangement results in a lack of evidence-based policies, with many drug courts extending participation periods far beyond the nationally recommended time frame, and imposing sanctions that result in undue financial hardships on defendants.

The state also receives low marks for access since scholarships are limited and poor individuals are often excluded from participating in these programs. The breadth of services is also limited, with mental health courts only available in select jurisdictions.

Mississippi can improve outcomes for individuals in the criminal justice system by improving its policies related to problem-solving courts. Improvements would allow Mississippi to catch up with states like neighboring Louisiana, which received a B for its problem-solving court policies from Grading Justice. These programs are proven to reduce incarceration rates, address underlying issues that lead to crime, and improve public safety. Expanding access would create a safer and more productive state for all Mississippians.

As part of our member-only newsletter, The Exclusive, Mississippi Today caught up with Laurel-based artist Adam Trest. This interview was originally published on July 27 and shared with Mississippi Today members. Each month, we bring our members exclusive interviews and events, such as this conversation with Ben and Erin Napier, to thank them for their support of our newsroom. Become a member by donating any recurring amount today and be the first to hear about our upcoming exclusive interviews and events.

Trest is a part of the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Roster, which selects artists from various medias and helps organizations fund presenting the artists through grants. His work is featured in the Caron Gallery and in a current exhibit at the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience in Meridian, Mississippi.

His unique style caught the attention of many when he was featured on HGTV’s “Home Town” with Ben and Erin Napier. Recently, Trest illustrated a children’s book written by Erin Napier titled “The Lantern House,” which made him a New York Times bestselling illustrator.

The post Mississippi Today with Artist Adam Trest appeared first on Mississippi Today.