by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
June 9, 2025

America lost a gentle giant in journalism when Stanley Nelson, who investigated some of the nation’s most notorious racially motivated slayings in Mississippi and Louisiana, died unexpectedly last week. He was 69.

CBC reporter David Ridgen, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and podcast host, worked with the reporter for years. “Stanley Nelson is the best of us,” he said. “A doer. Not a reminiscer. A teller. Not someone to leave anyone behind. A brotherly guy who you’d trust anything to.”

In 2008, Ridgen and I joined forces with Nelson and fellow journalists John Fleming, Ben Greenberg, Pete Nicks, Robert Rosenthal, Hank Klibanoff, Ronnie Agnew, Melvin Claxton, Peter Klein and others to form the Civil Rights Cold Cases Project. Our dream was to create a documentary that would capture our continuing work on these cases.

The big picture documentary never happened, but many other projects emerged for radio, print and film. Nelson never missed a beat, writing hundreds of stories for the 5,000-circulation Concordia Sentinel, where he served as editor.

In 2012, he became a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his stories on the 1964 killing of Frank Morris in Ferriday, Louisiana, by Klansmen who belonged to the violent wing, the “Silver Dollar Group.”

Best-selling author Greg Iles depicted the journalist as the character Henry Sexton in his novel, “Natchez Burning.” Nelson chuckled to me about the portrayal, saying his alter ego lived a much more adventurous life: “He is a musician, has a girlfriend and is tech savvy — that’s something I don’t know a damn thing about.”

Iles said the most important writing he’s ever done “would not exist were it not for the inspiration and selfless collaboration of Stanley Nelson. I never knew another man who always did the right thing regardless of fear or favor, not motivated by hope for profit or fame. Stanley eventually gained a wide reputation for excellence, but not because he sought it. Because he earned it. And God knows the world is a better place because he lived and worked in it.”

First case: Frank Morris

On the last day of February in 2007, Nelson heard the name of Frank Morris for the first time. He learned that the Justice Department would be taking a second look at the 1964 killing of Morris.

That surprised Nelson because he thought he knew almost everything about this small town and had never heard the name.

He reached out to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which shared about 150 pages of redacted FBI reports on the Morris case, and he wrote his first article.

He didn’t see how he could advance the story anymore until he received a call from Morris’ granddaughter, Rosa Williams, and began to learn more about the man and the killing.

On a cold December morning in 1964, the 51-year-old Morris was asleep in the back of his shoe repair store when he heard glass breaking. He bolted to the front of the store and saw one man pouring gasoline and another holding a shotgun, who yelled, “Get back in there, n—–!”

By the time Morris escaped, his feet were bleeding, and nearly all his clothing had been burned from his body. He survived long enough to tell FBI agents that he didn’t know his attackers, but friends wondered if he had been afraid to say.

‘His curiosity never waned’

In 2011, Nelson reported that family members of Arthur Leonard Spencer said he had confessed to them years earlier, but Spencer denied that claim to Nelson. A federal grand jury met on the matter, but no one was ever arrested.

Klibanoff, who works with Emory University students on civil rights cold cases and hosts the Peabody-winning podcast “Buried Truths,” helped Nelson edit those stories. “We were going over them till 9, 10 or 11 at night, because we both had full-time jobs,” he recalled. “Stanley was busy covering police juries, the city council and other things during the day.”

Nelson remained rock solid in his reporting, Klibanoff said. “I admired him immensely, and his curiosity never waned.”

The journalist moved beyond the Morris killing to document other violence by the Silver Dollar Group, depicted as the “Double Eagles” in “Natchez Burning.” The group, which included some law enforcement officers, was suspected of planting bombs in the vehicles of two NAACP leaders in Natchez, George Metcalfe and Wharlest Jackson. Metcalfe was injured in the blast, and Jackson was killed.

Nelson also reported on possible involvement of the Silver Dollar Group in the 1964 disappearance of a 21-year-old Black man, Joseph Edwards. His white and green Buick was found abandoned near a local bowling alley in Vidalia, Louisiana.

Ridgen said Nelson has been telling him for years that he believed he had found where Edwards’ body was buried.

When Ridgen worked with Nelson, he would stay with him on his Cash Bayou farm near the Tensas River. At night, they would drink together, Nelson sipping a glass of Old Charter.

“I shared and pored over thousands of pages of FBI files with him over the years. Confronted Klansmen, and visited the families so awfully affected by them,” he said. “Stanley’s passion was writing and local reporting but also investigation and uncovering the history that surrounded him and that he grew up with.”

He collected old investigative documents, FBI interviews and local police reports. “Saw them as treasures that contained just the beginnings of the actual story,” Ridgen said. “He reported all the ends of the story, all the shades of gray. Always with an eye for the restorative power of the work.”

Ridgen believes that Nelson’s work, which includes two books on the Klan, should be required reading for Americans and the rest of the world. He “will be missed dearly by the state and country,” Ridgen said. “I wish we could travel those roads together forever.”

In 2009, the Louisiana State University Cold Case Project began helping Nelson with his research, and a decade later, Nelson began sharing tips and techniques with students on how he worked on these civil rights cases.

Christopher Drew leads LSU’s Manship School’s experiential journalism curriculum, which includes the project. Under Nelson’s tutelage, “our students proved that Robert Fuller, a businessman who later became a top Klan leader, killed four of his Black workers in 1960, not in self-defense, as the local authorities had allowed him to claim, but in an ambush following a dispute over back pay,” Drew said.

In 2022, a series by LSU students on the 1972 killings of two students at Southern University in Baton Rouge won a national award from Investigative Reporters and Editors as the best investigative series by students at a large university.

“Stanley was always low-key, humble and determined to hear people out –– the model of what a reporter should be,” Drew said. “But the students were always leaning forward in their seats when he talked about how he got old Klan leaders to talk. ‘Most of them (Klansmen) lived on dirt roads at dead ends,’ he’d say, ‘with barbed wire fences and signs on the gate saying, ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Trespassers Will Be Shot.’ Sometimes he’d send them letters saying he’d be coming at a certain date and time to mitigate those odds.

“But his heroism did not just come at those moments. It was his courage, the students could see, to dig up the dark facts in these communities for the sake of justice–and to take personal risks to hear what the suspects and perpetrators had to say–that make him such an exceptional journalist.”

LSU students plan to continue Nelson’s work on the Edwards’ case with a forensics team, Drew said. “We know where Stanley thinks the body might be, and we will continue to pursue that story.”Many of the stories written by Nelson and LSU students can be found at lsucoldcaseproject.com.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Civil rights investigative journalist Stanley Nelson, ‘the best of us,’ died last week appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article honors the life and work of journalist Stanley Nelson, focusing on his dedication to uncovering civil rights-era racial violence and his impact on investigative journalism. The tone is reverent and empathetic, emphasizing social justice, historical accountability, and the systemic failings of past law enforcement practices—hallmarks of center-left reporting. While it does not promote partisan ideology, it frames its narrative around advocacy for truth, civil rights, and journalistic courage in confronting racism, aligning it with center-left values. The article maintains factual reporting but with an unmistakable moral perspective favoring justice and equality.

by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
June 18, 2025

A screening of the award-winning film “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” will be held June 21 at 7 p.m. at the Strand Theatre in Vicksburg as part of a fundraising event for the Mississippi Humanities Council. 

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion exploring Hamer’s enduring legacy with the film’s producer and Hamer’s niece, Monica Land, and activist and Humanities Council Board Chair Leslie Burl McLemore. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC, will moderate the discussion. 

“I am really excited to be a part of the screening on the life of Fannie Lou Hamer,” McLemore said. “She was a personal friend of mine, and I remember when I first met Mrs. Hamer back in 1963. We were riding a bus from Cleveland, Mississippi, to Dorchester County, Georgia, to participate in a Citizenship Education Workshop.

“We were talking about our background and what we had been doing in the movement, and Mrs. Hamer, in less than a year,” he continued, “had been evicted from the W.D. Marlow III plantation in Sunflower County. And as she told her story about that eviction, the history of Sunflower County and the history of her family, there were about 25 to 30 of us in the room, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Mrs. Hamer really impacted my life profoundly.” 

Organizers said the event is also a call to action. The Department of Government Efficiency eliminated National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The Humanities Council is turning to the community to help sustain the programming that federal support once made possible. DOGE’s cuts jeopardizes more than 35 grants that the Humanities Council already had awarded for programs like an oral history of former Gov. Kirk Fordice’s time in office, a museum exhibit on Mississippians who fought and died in the Vietnam War, and lectures about the work and legacy of artist Walter Anderson.

Proceeds from Saturday’s screening will directly support the Mississippi Humanities Council’s ongoing work to bring public programs, educational opportunities and cultural initiatives to communities across the state.  

“The Mississippi Humanities Council gave us our first grant and several grants after that to fund our mission to preserve and amplify Aunt Fannie Lou’s voice,” Land, the film’s producer, said. “Without their support, there would be no Fannie Lou Hamer’s America.” 

Premiering on PBS and WORLD Channel in February 2022, “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” allows the late activist and humanitarian to tell her own story in her own words – spoken and sung – through archival audio and video footage. In December 2022, the film was named “Best TV Feature Documentary Or Mini-Series” by the International Documentary Association and in 2023, it won the “Best Documentary” award by The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications.  

The goal of the film and its website, www.fannielouhamersamerica.com is to teach others about Hamer’s work, accomplishments and legacy, and to serve as a clearinghouse of all things Fannie Lou Hamer. Its K-12 Educational Curriculum, Find Your Voice, features original lesson plans written by educators in the Mississippi Delta, a children’s book, an animated BrainPOP movie and a free STEM program, the Sunflower County Film Academy for high school students in Hamer’s native Mississippi Delta. 

The MHC has funded each element of the curriculum and in March 2022 awarded the project the Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award at their 25th annual gala. 

“Participating in this event is so important to me because of the work the MHC has done to continually support our vision,” Land said. 

Hamer’s educational website will soon feature a digital library and museum.  
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at the Strand Theatre, 717 Clay St., Vicksburg, with the screening at 7 p.m. followed by the panel discussion. Admission is free but contributions are encouraged. To RSVP, go to this link.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Screening of Fannie Lou Hamer film highlights fundraiser for Mississippi Humanities Council  appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article celebrates the legacy of civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer while promoting a community-centered fundraiser for the Mississippi Humanities Council. Though it is primarily informational, the tone leans sympathetic to progressive cultural values, emphasizing the importance of preserving humanities funding, which the article notes has been cut by the Department of Government Efficiency. References to those cuts—especially in connection with former President Trump and Elon Musk—introduce subtle criticism of conservative policy decisions. However, the reporting avoids overt editorializing, and the coverage remains largely factual and event-driven, with its bias stemming more from topic selection and framing than explicit commentary.

by Maya Miller, Mississippi Today
June 17, 2025

Tucked away in west Jackson right off Capers Avenue are the remains of what used to be housing for people transitioning out of the Mississippi State Hospital. Now, it’s fallen into disrepair, its brick building crumbling and overcome by plastic waste and graffiti. 

Putalamus “Tala” White, executive director of the Jackson Resource Center, has a vision for the space and what it could become for people who are experiencing homelessness. 

“Almost the entire street is 18 acres, and on this end is where the tiny homes are gonna be,” she said, pointing to an overgrown patch of weeds and debris. “Then on down, you got the rest of the campus.” 

This spot, supposedly the future home of The Junction, is the place where White intends to build a village of 80 tiny homes and a community hub. But the project has been delayed after White’s organization received less funding than it anticipated. 

In 2021, the city of Jackson accepted just over $3 million in HOME Investment Partnerships – American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) Program funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those funds are dedicated toward reducing homelessness. 

In September of 2023, the city published a request for proposals for the Safe Space: Safe Place tiny home development, a 30 unit pallet shelter village. Jackson Resource Center was the only respondent, said Melissa Payne, Director of Constituent Services and Communications. 

On February 13, 2024, the city allocated an amount “not to exceed $2.87 million” of those HOME-ARP funds to the Jackson Resource Center. 

But last month, the Jackson Resource Center received a memorandum of understanding from the city of Jackson for just over $1 million.

“Since approval, the City and JRC have worked with HUD to draft a compliant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). However, JRC repeatedly altered its plans — doubling costs, expanding to 80 units, purchasing modular homes from China at significantly larger sizes, and proposing rental use—changes far beyond the scope of the original RFP, and created additional HUD compliance issues,” Payne said. “In May, the City offered JRC an MOU with $1,086,440 in funding and access to additional grants if needed. Despite this, JRC is now demanding a $2.5 million guarantee to begin the project.”

Jackson Resource Center issued a statement in response to “correct the record for the sake of public trust, our partners, and—most importantly—the hundreds of unhoused individuals in Jackson still waiting on relief.”

“…While the modular homes are comparable in cost to earlier models, it is the site infrastructure—sewer, water, electrical, environmental remediation, and ADA compliance – that represents most of the budget increase,” the statement reads. “These are unavoidable costs that have continued to rise over the past year and a half we’ve been waiting.”

Jackson Resource Center secured an additional award of $2 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas for a project involving 80 homes, hence the expansion from the original proposal, the statement said.

“This was a net gain for the City, not a deviation,” the statement reads.

White said JRC can’t make any movement on The Junction because the lender won’t disperse its funds until the city of Jackson does. 

“When we wrote that grant to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, it was as a subsidy to the original grant. So we can’t do everything that we proposed to do with the Federal Home Loan Bank until we have those funds as well.”

While the organization hasn’t received any of the city funding for the tiny home project so far, it has received over $350,000 from the city in the last two years for other programming, including workforce development and operation of its permanent supportive housing campus called Langley. 

Now, White said she’s waiting to meet with the city’s new administration and gain what she said are necessary funds to start work on the development.

“That’s where we are, hoping that after the new administration gets in office, we can sit down, have a conversation, and finally get this ball rolling,” she said.

The Junction, a multi-phase project, includes the tiny homes and the creation of a community complex complete with a pet kennel, a medical wing, a detox center, post office and a food court. White hopes that in creating The Junction, she’ll cultivate a safe space where people who are experiencing homelessness can have a place to thrive.

“Having all of those services right there in the community on the campus would assist in them changing their mindset,” she said. “We’ve got to come in and be able to give them the help they need to get back on the right track.”

The Junction project has many detractors in local government, some of whom said the creation of the tiny homes will lead to more homeless people in Jackson. Jackson’s city council was divided on the vote 4-3, with Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley voting against the project.

 ”We need to have a program in the city with a coordinator that can coordinate with nonprofits to help manage this issue, but just to create 60 homes? That’s one more thing for other municipalities to do with the shuffling them off on Jackson, because now it’s like we got another program,” Hartley said in an interview with Mississippi Today back in February. “Build it and they will come. Build it and municipalities will send them to Jackson.” 

White said that she’s tried to have conversations with city leaders about the project, and a few have understood her vision. She points to unaffordable housing as one of the leading factors in Jackson’s homelessness statistics. 

“You say you don’t want the homeless in the community. You say we’re gonna bring more homeless people into the community, but they are already here and if we don’t give them somewhere to go and something productive to do to help, then it’s not gonna change,” she said.

According to the annual Point in Time Count, a national census of homeless populations, Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of homelessness, though some advocates have said the local count is likely artificially low. White agreed that in the downtown area, there may be close to 1,000 homeless individuals. 

“My biggest hope is that this campus will be a light in Jackson and that it will assist individuals that feel like they’ve been forgotten, and that it will assist the city as a whole in being able to bring more revenue to the city, so that we can be a thriving city so that we can take care of the least of these. We have to take care of the least of these,” White said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Tiny homes project for Jackson’s homeless delayed due to funding appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article presents a generally sympathetic view of the Jackson Resource Center’s efforts to build a tiny home village for the homeless, emphasizing the organization’s vision, the hardships caused by delayed funding, and the structural issues impeding progress. It highlights systemic barriers such as infrastructure costs, unaffordable housing, and city-level political opposition. While the city’s explanation for the funding reduction is included, the framing leans toward amplifying the perspective of project proponents, particularly Tala White. The article’s tone and narrative structure reflect concern for social equity and housing advocacy, aligning with a center-left perspective on homelessness and urban policy.