fbpx
Connect with us

Mississippi Today

Mississippians plead their case to Corps over Jackson flooding, One Lake

Published

on

Federal officials repeatedly reminded an emotional room of Jacksonians that they have yet to pick a flood control plan for the capital . Still, nearly all the comments at Wednesday's public meetings centered on one design.

As has been the case for over a decade now, One Lake dominated the discussion on curbing from the Pearl River.

Staff from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent about four hours on Wednesday on a stage at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Jackson, listening to what flood victims, politicians, businessmen, and other concerned residents had to say about the controversial proposal.

The agency is starting a new environmental analysis of several options that include the One Lake proposal, voluntary buyouts, elevation or other floodproofing, a hybrid of those options, or an alternative that has yet to be presented to the public. Corps officials alluded to a proposal from the University of California Berkeley that they were looking into.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives Brandon Davis (left) with Christopher Klein (center) and Robyn Colosimo, discuss proposed Pearl River flood control options and field questions, during a public meeting held at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Sparkman Auditorium in Jackson, Wednesday, May 4, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

One Lake is the result of a decades-long effort among local officials to prevent flooding in Jackson like what happened in 1979 and, more recently, in 2020. The proposal would widen the Pearl River for several miles next to Jackson. Supporters say the plan would reduce flooding by giving the river more room to flow, and also point to business opportunities created within the plan's footprint. Opponents argue it would threaten wetlands downstream, harm struggling species, and wouldn't provide the flood protection that the $340 million advertises.

According to its current timeline, the Corps will release a draft of the analysis in September, hold a 45-day public comment period, and then come out with a final proposal in December. Then, Assistant Secretary of the Army of Civil Works Michael Connor will make a final around January of next year. Corps representatives said that decision could include no action if none of the options meets their criteria.

Advertisement

Citizens and stakeholders have until June 30 to submit a comment, which they can do through the Corps' website.

Many of the comments supporting One Lake focused on economic improvement just as much as they focused on flood control.

“It's way past time for this project to come to action,” Tamika Jenkins, executive director of the Hinds County Economic Development Authority, said. “If we have national news about flooding, companies are not going to come here.”

Socrates Garrett, a contractor and well-known business figure in the city, said Jackson has limited opportunities such as One Lake for economic growth.

Advertisement

“The only potential that (Jackson) has is within the (Pearl River) footprint,” Garrett said. “The only that we have now is to make this river, that God blessed us with, be a blessing for the citizens of Jackson, and provide the economic opportunity that makes this place become a tourist attraction, makes us have a river beach front that we can walk on, that we have hotels in the middle of the river, that we have all these businesses that are surrounded. It's the only chance Jackson has to grow and attract a new tax base.”

District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham questions U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reps, during a public meeting held regarding Pearl River flooding, at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Sparkman Auditorium in Jackson, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Those sentiments echoed throughout the night, including from pastors in Jackson — including Greg Divinity of Vineyard Church, CJ Rhodes of Mount Helm Baptist Church, and Ronnie Crudup of New Horizon Church — other figures, such as restaurant owner Jeff Good and Visit Jackson CEO Rickey Thigpen, and education leaders as well, including Renee Cotton, Chief of Staff at Hinds County Community College.

A bipartisan group of local and state lawmakers also pledged their support.

“We believe that the proposed project provides protection, opportunity and extends benefits to minority and low-income households in Jackson,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, who said that One Lake would also address a “chokepoint” that exists in between the city's current levees, leading to worse flooding in certain .

Other political figures supporting the project included Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, Hinds County Supervisor Robert Graham, former Hinds County Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry, Richland Pat Sullivan, Jackson Councilman Ashby Foote, and Rep. Shanda Yates, I-Jackson. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has also given his backing to One Lake.

Advertisement

Several backers also pointed to the recent support from Jackson's third-party manager Ted Henifin. Henifin said in a press release that the plan would allow the city to build a new treatment plant at a more optimal location for distribution, and where it'd be less susceptible to flooding.

But while supporters zeroed in on the financial benefits of building the project, opponents of One Lake also latched onto that very point.

“The big picture is not being shown,” said Rep. Ken Morgan, R-Morgantown. “This thing is one of the biggest realty scams that ever took place in the state of Mississippi.”

Multiple opponents shared that view.

Advertisement

“One Lake is a private real estate development scheme masquerading as a flood control project,” Lea Campbell with Mississippi for a Green New Deal said.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposed flood control options are viewed during a public meeting held at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Sparkman Auditorium in Jackson, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Elected leaders of downstream communities, including Monticello Mayor Martha Watts and Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, said that creating a lake would disrupt the flow south of Jackson, including for large employers like Georgia Pacific that rely on water intake.

“Don't come looking south of Jackson for a vote, let me assure you, because we're all mad,” Currie said.

At a Tuesday meeting in Slidell, Louisiana, other downstream residents voiced similar concerns.

While most comments took a stance on One Lake, others simply urged the Corps to find the best solution.

Advertisement

“The main solution I want to see is what we can implement the fastest,” said Shawn Miller, who said flooding has already displaced him twice since moving to Jackson in 2018.

In addition to the Corps' website, commenters can e-mail PearlRiverFRM@usace.army.mil, and or mail their feedback to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CEMVK-PMP, 4155 Clay Street, Vicksburg, MS, 39183-3435.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=244428

Advertisement

Mississippi Today

Judge erred, double jeopardy shouldn’t apply, say AG attorneys seekng to retry acquitted assailant

Published

on

mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-03-28 13:30:00

Nearly a year after a north Mississippi judge acquitted a 22-year-old who stabbed a man in the neck, nearly killing him, 's office lawyers want to re-prosecute the case. 

They are appealing the ruling, saying the victim's absence at trial, the reasoning the judge used for his ruling, did not violate the defendant's constitutional rights and prevent trial from proceeding.

But legal experts say a retrial can be a high barrier to overcome because of double jeopardy,  a clause in the U.S. and state Constitution that prevents defendants from being retried for the same crime an acquittal or conviction. 

Advertisement

“This is a textbook case of double jeopardy,” said Matt Steffey, a professor at Mississippi College School of

In his May 11, 2023 dismissal of the attempted murder indictment and acquittal for Lane Mitchell, Union County Circuit Court Judge Kent Smith focused on the victim's absence, finding that it violated the defendant's due and compulsory process rights, which is the ability to subpoena and secure favorable witnesses to testify. 

“This precedent thus makes the state responsible for and unable to go forward on nearly every criminal cause when a recalcitrant victim refuses to appear at trial,” the state wrote in a March 4 appellant's brief filed with the Court of Appeals. 

The victim, Russell Rogers of Tennessee, nearly bled out and suffered a stroke. As a result of the stabbing, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental issues and placed under a conservatorship. 

Advertisement

The state is asking the Court of Appeals to correct the trial court's “misstatements of law.” Alternatively, the state is asking the court to reverse and remand the trial judge's order and in its place issue an order that would allow the state to retry Mitchell. 

The defense has 30 days to respond to the appellant's brief, which is expected sometime early next month if no extensions are granted. The state will then have time to reply, and then the case can be submitted. Oral arguments were not requested. 

The 2019 stabbing

On Feb. 9, 2019, Rogers spent several hours in  Tallahatchie Gourmet in New Albany. When then-18-year-old Mitchell arrived there, he joined his parents and their friends in the bar area. 

presented in court and included in records as pictures shows Mitchell, about an hour after his arrival, taking a knife from the bar and holding it behind his back as Rogers talked with a waitress. The   – Mitchell's father – and Rogers then talked, and when Rogers reacted negatively, Mitchell approached from behind and stabbed Rogers in the neck three times. 

Advertisement

Mitchell testified he was to defend his father and the waitress, according to court records. The defendant said he thought Rogers had a gun, but in fact he was unarmed. 

Mitchell and Rogers had not met or talked prior to the stabbing, according to court records. 

Months after the stabbing, a Tennessee probate court found Rogers met criteria to be considered disabled and appointed his father, Robert Rogers, as his conservator. Russell Rogers remains under the conservatorship. 

Mitchell enrolled in two colleges while under indictment, first at the University of Mississippi and then Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, Tennessee, where he graduated days before his 2023 trial began. 

Advertisement

The attorney general's office took over the case in 2021 when the district attorney recused himself from the case. 

Victim testimony central in case 

Mississippi law states victims can exercise their right to be present and heard in court proceedings, but their absence does not prevent the court from moving forward with a proceeding. Victims can be served with a subpoena, which Mitchell's attorneys sought to do with Rogers.

The state argues the trial court seemed to ignore the Tennessee probate court's order quashing the defense's attempt to subpoena Rogers, saying his mental problems stemming from the attack made him incapable of testifying.

The state argues the trial court only determined Rogers “appear[] to be intentionally unavailable” to testify in court, but it did not find what from his testimony would be favorable to the defense. 

Advertisement

The defense wanted to question Rogers about his behavior the night of the stabbing and prior conduct and mental health issues, but the state wrote these factors “would not be material to a showing that Michell acted reasonably or that [Rogers] was the initial aggressor.”

Additionally, Rogers didn't witness the stabbing because Mitchell approached him from behind, the brief states. Regardless, the state argues, Mitchell's intent to defend others was already presented to the jury through other witnesses. 

The defense has argued in court filings and at trial that the conservator inserted himself into the case, including accusing him of working with the prosecution and denying access to the victim. 

The state had denied these claims, noting Robert Rogers was following his fiduciary duties as conservator when fighting the subpoena and other efforts. 

Advertisement

Acquittal and double jeopardy

 Another issue raised in the state's brief is how the trial court violated the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure by dismissing the indictment against Mitchell and entering an acquittal.

No rule of criminal procedure allows an indictment to be dismissed because a witness failed to appear, and acquittal isn't the proper remedy under the rules, the state argues. Instead, the valid remedies for a discovery violation are continuance or mistrial, which would have needed to have happened before a jury was sworn in and double jeopardy was in place. 

In its alternative remedy, the state asks the Court of Appeals to reverse and remand the trial court's decision and order a mistrial, which the state says would preserve its right to retry Mitchell. 

Former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz called acquittal an unusual position for a trial court and an example of how Judge Smith of the Union County court acted in a way that other trial courts don't tend to do. 

Advertisement

He said the state may be asking the Court of Appeals to clarify the law and find that the judge ruled improperly, instead of seeking retrial and running into double jeopardy. 

“(A)ny judges in the future who consider this issue can know clearly and [it's] well stated by the court [that] you can't just order an acquittal if a victim doesn't show up,” he said. 

Crime victims' rights

Rogers and his conservator are asking the Court of Appeals to allow them to file an amicus curiae brief for the court to consider additional information, including victim's rights. 

A March 11 proposed amicus brief argues the trial judge's refusal to submit the case to the jury stripped Rogers of his constitutionally-protected rights as a victim. As of Thursday, the brief has not been approved. 

Advertisement

Meg Garvin, executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, provided feedback to craft the amicus brief. 

She said the Mississippi Constitution gives crime victims the right to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect, and just because those terms are broad, it doesn't mean they are empty. 

Mitchell's attorneys want the court to deny the amicus brief, citing a May 2023 Supreme Court order denying an emergency petition filed by the conservator to halt the trial court from filing a judgment of acquittal. In it, Justice Leslie King said the victim and conservator lack standing to contest the disposition of Mitchell's case, or any charge. 

Garvin said this challenge highlights a misunderstanding about what victims' rights are. Victims asking for their rights to be protected doesn't make them a party. 

Advertisement

She said it is possible for someone to exercise another's rights on their behalf, such as what happens for parents acting on behalf of their children or on behalf of someone who is mentally incapacitated, including someone under a conservatorship. 

If Mitchell's case is upheld, it would be a sign that Mississippi victims' rights aren't meaningful or are being adequately considered, Garvin said. 

“The statement to the victim would be you actually don't have rights, you are just a piece of evidence in a case against someone else,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Mississippi lawmakers look to other states’ Medicaid expansions. Is Georgia worth copying?

Published

on

mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-03-28 10:58:47

As the Mississippi Republican-led Legislature considers expanding for the first time after a decade-long debate, Senate leaders have referenced other Southern states' expansion plans as alternatives to full expansion. 

On Wednesday, the Senate Medicaid Committee passed the House Republican expansion bill with a strike-all and replaced it with its own plan, which Medicaid Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, called “expansion light.” The Senate is expected to take the bill up for a floor vote Thursday, with a plan that's nearly identical to Georgia's. 

Problems with “Georgia Pathways”

Advertisement

care policy experts don't think Georgia's plan is worth emulating. The 's plan, called “Georgia Pathways,” misses out on the increased federal match of 90% that the law grants to newly expanded states, and it also doesn't qualify for the additional $690 million federal dollars that would make expansion free to Mississippi for four years.

And the plan, touted as a conservative alternative to what critics call “Obamacare,” has cost state taxpayers $26 million so far, with more than 90% of that going toward administrative and consulting costs, according to KFF Health . Implementing work requirements is costly and labor intensive because it involves hiring more staff and processing monthly paperwork to confirm enrollees are employed. 

“Georgia's plan has proven to be very profitable for large companies like Deloitte (the primary consultant for Georgia's project) but has provided health care to almost no one who needs it,” said Joan Alker, Medicaid expert and executive director of Georgetown 's Center for Children and Families. “It's been a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars so far.”

If the Senate plan were signed into law, Mississippi would fare the same – receiving its regular federal match of only 77% instead of 90% – and risk large administrative costs for enforcing a 120-hour-a-month work requirement and a provision that says recipients must be recertified four times a year.

Advertisement

Work requirements ‘costly' to enforce

In theory, a work requirement isn't controversial. A majority of Mississippi lawmakers in both chambers want to reserve Medicaid coverage for those who are working or exempt, with legislation that incentivizes employment in the state with the lowest labor participation rate. The problem, experts say, is that in practice, it can do more harm than good. 

Policing and enforcing the work requirement costs more than it would cost to insure the small population of unemployed people who would become eligible for Medicaid under traditional expansion, explained Morgan Henderson, principal data scientist at the Hilltop Institute, a nonpartisan research group that conducted several studies detailing what Medicaid expansion would look like in Mississippi. 

“Medicaid work requirements are costly to implement,” Henderson said. “States have to develop new administrative systems which can cost millions, or tens of millions, of dollars. Additionally, employment reporting requirements can be confusing and burdensome for individuals, so people who are legitimately employed and income-eligible for Medicaid may be denied coverage – thus, hurting the exact individuals who are supposed to qualify for Medicaid with work requirements.”

Advertisement

In Georgia, only 3,500 people have signed up since the program began in July – despite the millions of dollars taxpayers have paid to run the program and ' previous estimate that roughly 25,000 people would sign up in the first year and 52,000 by the fifth year. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in an interview in February that the Mississippi Senate plan likely wouldn't be as strict as Georgia's, calling their work requirement “onerous.” 

But the Senate plan is even stricter than Georgia's, calling for at least 120 hours of work a month instead of the 80 hours required in Georgia. 

In Arkansas, a work requirement was briefly implemented in 2018 before it was overturned.

Advertisement

A study by the New England Journal of Medicine found Arkansas' work requirement to be unsuccessful at increasing employment. The main consequence of the state's work requirement was an increase in the number of uninsured persons to full expansion and “no significant changes” in employment associated with the policy, according to the study. 

In addition, “more than 95% of persons who were targeted by the policy already met the requirement or should have been exempt.”

What's next?

The only expansion bill still alive in the Mississippi Legislature is House Bill 1725, authored by Speaker Jason White, R-, and Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, which is now before the Senate. The bill, as passed by the House, has a provisional work requirement, but would expand Medicaid to 138% of the federal poverty level – even if a work requirement is not approved by federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Advertisement

That's important because during the Biden administration, the federal   has rescinded work requirement waivers previously granted under the Trump administration and has not approved new ones. 

But the Senate version is entirely contingent on the work requirement, calling for a minimum of 120 work hours a month and quarterly recertification. Eligibility also only goes up to 100% of the federal poverty level. 

If the Senate were to stand firm on the work requirement, expansion might not go into effect until well into 2025. That is, if a new administration takes office. 

A provision in North Carolina's recent expansion bill could prove useful as Mississippi lawmakers debate the details of expanding Medicaid.

Advertisement

A North Carolina expansion bill passed in 2023 is a mostly-traditional expansion plan with a unique work requirement provision. Expansion originally passed without a work requirement, but included a provision that says if or when a federal administration that favors the concept takes office, the state will change Medicaid eligibility rules and adopt the work requirement. 

If Mississippi were to include this kind of language in its own bill, it could expand Medicaid in 2024 or at the start of 2025, instead of waiting well into a new presidential term.

In theory, work requirements make sense, Henderson said. But they haven't produced the desired outcome of increasing the labor force participation rate in other states. That fact, coupled with the costly administrative burden of enforcing them and the unfortunate consequence of eligible enrollees losing coverage make the work requirement an unworthy pursuit, Henderson and Alker conclude. 

“In theory, it's true that, under Medicaid expansion, individuals earning slightly more than 138% of the federal poverty level could have an incentive to reduce their earnings in order to qualify for Medicaid,” said Henderson. “However, there are reasons to believe that this will be rare.”

Advertisement

The three reasons Henderson gives are: “First, not all workers know their exact income as a fraction of the current federal poverty limit, which changes every year and is a function of household size. Second, not all workers can control their hours. Third, individuals earning just above 138% of the federal poverty level have access to generous subsidies through the insurance marketplace, which could reduce the incentive to reduce income to qualify for Medicaid.”

And in practice, Henderson said, “no studies I'm aware of have found evidence of Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions adverse effects on employment outcomes.”

The Senate is expected to vote on House Bill 1725 on Thursday. While the bill only needs a three-fifths vote to pass the floor, it realistically needs a two-thirds majority from both chambers to show it has the potential to override a threatened veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

J.Z. George’s descendant advocates for removing the statue of the Confederate icon from the nation’s Capitol

Published

on

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-03-28 09:17:10

The great-great-great grandson of icon J.Z. George wants to see his ancestor's statue moved from the U.S. Capitol back to Mississippi.

Each day, hundreds visit the Capitol's Statuary Hall to glimpse the two statues from each state. Mississippi is the only state represented strictly by Confederate leaders. They are George and Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy.

In recent decades, states such as Alabama and Florida have replaced statues of those who fought in the or supported secession with notable leaders or trailblazers. States pay for the statues, which represent deceased citizens “illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services such as each State may deem to be worthy of this national commemoration.”

Advertisement

Beyond Confederate figures, Ohio replaced a slave-supporting governor with inventor Thomas Edison. California replaced a little-known minister with former President Ronald Reagan. North Carolina replaced a white supremacist politician with evangelist Billy Graham.

Mississippi, however, has stood pat.

It is time that changed, said George's ancestor, Charles Sims of New Braunfels, Texas, a combat veteran, graduate and founder of The Dream 2020. “Racial hatred or racism shouldn't be honored.”

He would love to see Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery, take the place of George, a Civil War veteran, he said. “I'd like to replace a soldier with a soldier.”

Advertisement
Charles Sims tells 's Jerry Mitchell he would like to see the statue of his great-great-great grandfather J.Z. George replaced.

Medgar Evers fought in Normandy and later became part of the Red Ball Express, a convoy system that used Army trucks to haul food, gasoline, ammunition and other supplies to U.S. forces as they raced across France.

When Evers returned home, he and his brother and other Black soldiers tried to vote, only to be turned away by white men with guns. After that, he began battling in the movement and became the first field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP.

Sims knows all about fighting. He spent more than eight years in the Army, much of it in combat in Iraq.

Many of those in his lineage, like George, were slave owners. Three of his ancestors signed the Mississippi Articles of Secession, which called for the state to secede from the nation: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.”

Advertisement

Two years after the Civil War ended, Reconstruction began, and so did a reign of terror against Black Mississippians and those who supported them.

George became known as the “Great Redeemer” for his role in returning white supremacy to power after Reconstruction ended. That work culminated in the 1890 Constitution, designed to disenfranchise Black Mississippians through poll taxes and constitutional .

“There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter,” future Gov, and U.S. Sen. James K. Vardaman declared, “Mississippi's constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n—– from .”

The changes worked. Within a decade, the number of Black registered voters fell from more than 130,000 to less than 1,300. 

Advertisement

Other Southern states followed Mississippi's lead, barring Black voters in every way they could. Grandfather clauses. White primaries. Violence. Voter intimidation.

“We cannot erase the past, but neither should we be a prisoner of it, either,” Sims said. “J.Z. George was the architect of the Jim Crow laws. I am not proud of this. … I think the statue should be removed from the Capitol because we cannot honor racial hatred.”

He said family members may not agree on whether the statue should be removed from Statuary Hall, but all agree that if that happens, the statue should come home to the Cotesworth Plantation in Mississippi.

Leslie McLemore, who helped found the Mississippi Democratic Party, said he would vote for civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer to take George's place at Statuary Hall.

Advertisement

After 44 years as a sharecropper, she joined the movement and eventually captivated a nation with her story and her songs, he said. “She inspired a generation of people to get involved in the movement. To honor somebody like that is special.”

Sims said he once heard civil rights pioneer James Meredith, the first known Black American to attend the of Mississippi, remark, “Mississippi is at the center of the universe, the center of the racial issue, the center of the poverty issue.”

Those words struck a chord with Sims. “I thought, ‘Wow, Mississippi could be the center of something.'”

Despite these days of division, Sims feels the winds of change.

Advertisement

“I feel it is important to change the narrative about Mississippi and show that we have the ability to reach across party and racial lines in search of conflict resolution,” he said. “This is to highlight that we have the power to sit down and to people about the things that divide us.”

The past can be overcome, he said, “once people stop shouting at each other and begin listening to each other.”

Some people believe there's been so much hatred for so long that they can't reach out to a Black family because “they're not going to accept my hand in reconciliation,” he said. “Well, that's how I've done it, and I'm not close to done.”

He has met with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake, all victims of police violence. He also met with the niece of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat and sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Advertisement
Charles Sims, the great-great-great-grandson of Confederate icon J.Z. George, has met with Rosa Parks' niece,Shelia Keys. They are pictured here in front of Parks' statue in the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Courtesy of Charles Sims

“It's been truly amazing,” Sims said. “If I could do this as the great grandson of Jim Crow, what is anybody else's excuse?”

The truth is that people aren't willing to do what it takes to move the nation forward, he said. “If we value reconciliation, we have to be willing to put the hard work in to achieve it. If we value the dream, we have to be willing to live it and pray about it fully, not just talk about it fully.”

In his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered to those gathered at the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

When Sims heard those words, he said he felt they were aimed at him. “I think Dr. King sent me an invitation through history.”

(function (c, i, t, y, z, e, n, x) { x = c.createElement(y), n = c.getElementsByTagName(y)[0]; x.async = 1; x.src = t; n.parentNode.insertBefore(x, n); })(document, window, “//publicinput.com/Link?embedId=23713”, “script”);

Advertisement

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

News from the South

Trending