The mayoral candidates at the forum agreed: Poverty in Jackson is a reflection of how the government distributes its resources. 

Where they differed, however, was over where those resources should be targeted, if the city or state government is more responsible, and whether the current mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, has been doing enough to create economic opportunity in the city. 

At the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign forum on Wednesday night, poverty was the first of several topics discussed, including water, public safety, affordable housing and empowering the city’s youth. 

Six democratic mayoral candidates, who will face off in the April 1 primary against six others who did not attend, were asked about their specific plan to eradicate poverty in Jackson. They answered from left to right in the order in which they were seated, and their answers are listed here in that order. 

The first to go, Marcus Wallace, a former mayor of Edwards, focused on what the city of Jackson could be doing to invest its $334 million budget in local businesses. Owner of a local construction firm, Wallace said he has been contracting with the city for 27 years, and it hurts him to see out-of-town companies taking work that could be done by Jacksonians. 

“We should do a better job in the city of protecting and preserving our businesses,” he said. 

Likewise, businesses should be incentivized to create more jobs in Jackson, said candidate Tim Henderson, a retired air force lieutenant colonel and U.S. Space Force consultant. He also advocated for raising the city’s minimum wage to $20 an hour. 

“We’ve gotta create those economic opportunities in south Jackson, as well west Jackson and northwest Jackson to give people an opportunity to make their money at home and not spend all their money traveling to Madison, Flowood and the other surrounding areas,” Henderson said.

Lumumba said that every city talks about incentivizing business, but he questioned whether businesses have the same care for the city, referencing the departure of Walmart-owned wholesale chain Sam’s Club.

“When Sam’s was in Jackson, they did very well,” he said. “The unfortunate thing was that they didn’t have value in our community, and they assumed when they moved to Madison that you would follow.” 

The city can also use revolving loan programs to invest in areas that banks won’t, he added. 

“The Fondrens, Belhavens and downtowns of the city of Jackson are considered ‘investor ready,’” he said. “It’s our communities that are often left in the fray.” 

Candidate Socrates Garrett, a longtime city and state contractor, spoke from experience when he said it is hard to build a business as an African American in the poorest city in the poorest state in the nation, even though a majority of Jacksonians are African American.

“If I was in Seattle, or if I was in Maryland, the whole opportunity would be tremendously different,” he said. “But in Jackson, Mississippi, it is twice as difficult, even though we are the majority in this city, and we’ve got to figure out why that is.” 

(Jackson is not the poorest city in the state by every metric, but its median household income of about $42,000 – which falls under a living wage – is lower than that of the state’s at $54,000.) 

“We don’t have an economy of Jackson, that’s the problem,” Garrett said. 

But the mayor can work to fix that, Garrett continued, by using his power to award city contracts to local minority-owned businesses. And Lumumba, he said, was not doing that enough. 

“Any contract under $50,000, this city has the ability to pick up the telephone and call three businesses of their choice,” Garrett said. “Without a bid, without anything other than just pick up the phone and call, and yet I don’t see no minority businesses.” 

The city can fund minority businesses even with a request-for-proposal process, he added. 

“It’s a puny contest. You choose who you want to do that work, and the mayor let folks get in his ears, started giving away the power of that office when he started going through his blind process,” Garrett said, referencing the city’s practice of scoring contract proposals without the names of the vendors attached. “We need a mayor that has his foot on what’s going on in Jackson and make sure that our people are working and that these contracts are benefitting them. Under my leadership, we will build and create our own economy with the dollars that we have.” 

In fact, much of Lumumba’s second term has been dominated by a battle with the city council over replacing the white-owned corporate behemoth Waste Management, who had long held the city’s garbage collection contract, with Richard’s Disposal, the Louisiana-based, minority-owned firm Lumumba’s staff selected. 

The mayor eventually prevailed with Richard’s Disposal receiving a 6-year, $64 million contract in 2024, Clarion Ledger reported.

Delano Funches, a personal injury attorney, talked about the power the federal government has to address poverty when he said Jackson should work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create more affordable housing.

In contrast, David Archie, former Hinds County supervisor, mostly focused on the role of the state. He asked if everyone in the room understood that while Jackson is a Democratic city, the state is run by Republicans.

“With the biggest bank of free money that goes all over this state other than to Jackson, Mississippi,” he said. “That’s the first thing that you got to understand.” 

Number two, Archie said, is that the jobs are in Jackson, but the congestion on I-55 in the mornings and evenings is proof that Jackson’s jobs are not going to Jacksonians. 

“They come to Jackson to drain us every day like a vacuum cleaner, and nobody is saying anything about it,” he said.

On rebuttal, Lumumba got a chance to respond to Garrett. He reminded the audience that the biggest contract in this city does, in fact, go to a minority business — Richard’s Disposal. 

But Richard’s Disposal winning the contract was not about enriching individuals, he said. 

“I don’t have anything against a minority business that wants to do well, but my goal isn’t to make you rich, my goal is to make wealth generate in the community, right, and those are the things that we have to stand on,” he said. 

Timing of the years-long garbage conflict, in which Lumumba made bribery allegations against council members, seems to coincide with the FBI’s corruption investigation and undercover sting operation in Jackson that ensnared former Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee, who pleaded guilty, as well as outgoing Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks and Lumumba, both of whom pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. 

“The reason we had to do a blind bidding process is people are more loyal to their political connections,” Lumumba said, “than to a process that gave legitimate opportunity.” 

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