Mississippi Today
On this day in 1962


Jan. 18, 1962

Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Officials at Southern University at Baton Rouge, Louisiana — under pressure from the state — closed the doors after students protested those kicked out of school for taking part in sit-ins.
State police occupied the campus to try and end these protests, and when SNCC field secretary Dion Diamond tried to meet with students, police jailed him on charges of criminal anarchy for “attempting to overthrow the state of Louisiana.”
The white guards told Black inmates if they gave Diamond a difficult time, “you may get time off for good behavior,” he recalled. After the guards left, the inmates promised to protect him instead. He wound up serving 60 days in jail before being released.
He was only 15 when he began his activism, sitting at “whites-only” lunch counters. When he was involved in a 1960 sit-in in Arlington, Virginia, American Nazi leader George Rockwell spewed insults at him.
In May 1961, he became a Freedom Rider. He said he was thinking it might be a long weekend; instead it turned out to be two and a half years. After he and other riders arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested and sent to the state’s worst prison, Parchman, because the city ran out of jail space.
In all, Diamond was arrested about 30 times. He remains grateful for the experience. “Any time I pick up a historical publication,” he told NPR, “I feel as if a period or a comma in that book is my contribution.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Ole Miss graduate facing new charge for hiding Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee’s body

The University of Mississippi graduate accused of killing Jimmie “Jay” Lee was indicted for tampering with physical evidence, a new charge that comes on the heels of the unexpected discovery of Lee’s body last week.
Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. reported to the Lafayette County Circuit Court on Tuesday to face a new indictment that alleges he obstructed justice by hiding Lee’s body after he killed Lee on July 8, 2022.
Herrington, who pleaded not guilty, was also appointed a public defender, Oxford-based attorney Denise Fondren, according to multiple reports. Then he was taken to jail where he will remain until his bond hearing next week.
That’s when Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore said he would announce if the state will seek the death penalty or life in prison in the event Herrington is convicted of capital murder at the next trial, a date for which has yet to be set.
Creekmore did not pursue the death penalty at the trial in December, but he told the Daily Journal that the finding of Lee’s body last week was a “material change in circumstances.”
READ MORE: ‘Hopelessly deadlocked’: Judge declares mistrial in Tim Herrington trial
Lee’s body was discovered last week at a well-known dumping site in Carroll County, about a half-hour from Herrington’s parent’s house. The day Lee went missing, Herrington was seen on video retrieving a long-handle shovel and wheelbarrow from his parent’s house and putting it into the back of a box truck that belonged to his moving company, according to evidence released in the case.
Also last week, the Oxford Police Department pulled from the court’s evidence file a partially used roll of duct tape that was discovered in Herrington’s apartment after police brought him in for questioning. Herrington purchased duct tape the morning Lee went missing, according to a receipt that police obtained.
READ MORE: Police investigation into Ole Miss student killing: Timeline, what we know so far
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Marshand Crisler heading to federal prison for 2 ½ years

Former Hinds County interim sheriff Marshand Crisler has been sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison for soliciting and accepting bribes during his unsuccessful 2021 campaign.
U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee sentenced him Tuesday for the two counts he was convicted of in November. Crisler received concurrent sentences of 30 months in custody of the Bureau of Prisons, followed by three years of supervision and an order to pay a $15,000 fine, according to court records.
Crisler faced up to 10 years in prison. He remained out on bond until his sentencing.
The court recommended Crisler to be assigned to the nearest facility to Jackson. Nearby federal facilities are in Yazoo City, Aliceville, Alabama, central Louisiana and Memphis.
Crisler was charged with soliciting and accepting $9,500 worth of bribes during his 2021 campaign for Hinds County sheriff in exchange for favors from a man with previous felony convictions and giving ammunition the man can’t possess as a felon.
The jury heard from several witnesses, including Crisler himself and Tonarri Moore, the man with past felonies and pending state and federal charges who the FBI recruited as an informant.
Parts of recorded conversations between the men, which Moore made for investigators, were played in court.
During several meetings in Jackson and around Hinds County in 2021, Crisler said he would tell Moore about investigations involving him, move Moore’s cousin to a safer part of the Hinds County jail, give him a job with the sheriff’s office and give him freedom to have a gun despite prohibitions on Moore having one.
Crisler was found guilty after a three-day trial in Jackson. The jury took about two hours to reach a unanimous verdict for both charges .
In November after the verdict, his attorney, John Colette, told reporters his client and family were disappointed in the decision and Crisler planned to appeal.
Crisler was indicted in April 2023 – the same year he ran again for Hinds County sheriff. He lost in a runoff election to Tyree Jones, the incumbent Crisler faced two years earlier.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Court-ordered redistricting will require do-over legislative elections this year

Five House seats will be re-decided in a November special election, pending court approval, under a resolution the House approved to comply with a federal court order.
Even though voters just elected members of the Legislature in 2023, the races will be held again because a three-judge federal panel determined last year that the Legislature did not create enough Black-majority districts when it redrew its districts.
The panel ordered the state to redraw the districts and create a new majority-Black district in north Mississippi’s Chickasaw County.
House Elections Chairman Noah Sanford, R-Collins, told House members he believes the new map complies with the federal Voting Rights Act and will allow Black voters in Chickasaw County to elect a candidate of their choice.
“I tried to keep the number of members affected minimal,” Sanford said.
The House plan does not require incumbent legislators to run against each other. The main change in the new map is that it makes the District 22 seat in Chickasaw County, currently held by Republican Rep. Jon Lancaster of Houston, who is white and a majority-Black voter district.
The other four House districts that lawmakers voted to redraw are:
- House District 16: Rep. Rickey Thompson, D-Shannon
- House District 36: Karl Gibbs, D-West Point
- House District 39: Dana McLean, R-Columbus
- House District 41: Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus
Lancaster told Mississippi Today he did not want to comment on the proposed maps since the litigation over the legislative districts was still pending, and he did not know if he would run in a November special election.
Under the legislation, the qualifying period will run from May 19 to May 30. The primary election will be held on August 5, with a potential primary runoff on September 2 and the general election on November 4.
The federal courts also ruled that the Senate must redraw its districts to create a new Black-majority district in the DeSoto County and Hattiesburg areas.
Senate Rules Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, has introduced a measure to change some Senate districts. However, he told Mississippi Today he is still tweaking the plan and does not know when the Rules Committee will debate it.
Once the Legislature passes a redistricting plan, it must go back before the federal courts for approval.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
News from the South - South Carolina News Feed5 days ago
32-home development in Horry Co. halted after community outcry
-
Mississippi Today6 days ago
‘This is a stupid bill’: Mississippi House advances DEI ban
-
Mississippi Today4 days ago
Mississippi parents, owed $1.7 billion in child support, could collect gambling winnings
-
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed7 days ago
Arkansas school districts close due to illness
-
Mississippi Today6 days ago
Black women in the Delta with cervical cancer more likely to die because of health system failures
-
News from the South - Alabama News Feed7 days ago
News 5 Now at 8 | Feb. 5, 2025
-
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed3 days ago
Losing state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s legal case to overturn 2024 election results hits obstacle • Asheville Watchdog
-
News from the South - Texas News Feed5 days ago
How did a Texas man spend almost 50 years on death row without being executed?