V16n11 - How Integration Failed in Jackson’s Public Schools

vol. 16 no. 11

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WORKS CHIEF TALKS POTHOLES Bragg, p 8

YOUR LOCAL TURKEY DAY GUIDE Helsel, p 22

KIRK FRANKLIN COMES TO TOWN Smith, p 26

HOW INTEGRATION

FAILED IN JACKSON’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Dreher, p 12 - 19

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Nomination Close Nov. 19. vote online bestofjackson.com

Shining more light on solar.

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November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

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10/17/17 11:56 AM

JACKSONIAN Sara Gatlin courtesy Sara Gatlin

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hotographer Sara Gatlin’s fascination with being behind a camera began with her in front of one. Her father, Cliff Gatlin, was an amateur photographer and would often take pictures of Sara and her sister, Nicki Gatlin, when they were kids. Before long, Sara became interested in taking photos for herself.

“I used to play with his cameras, and he got me just the bottom-of-the-line pointand-shoot when I was younger,” the Clinton native says. “Every Christmas, it just kind of morphed into a better camera until I got (a digital single-lens reflex camera). I started doing fine-art stuff. I just posted it on Facebook, so it wasn’t anything.”

That ended up being her first step toward a career in professional photography.

After graduating from Madison Central High School in 2010, Gatlin attended Holmes Community College. While there, a classmate asked her to take headshots, and after that, more and more requests poured into her Facebook. She created a business page for her photography just to keep her personal account separate. Sara Gatlin Photo has been growing ever since.

After two years at Holmes, Gatlin says that she took a year off to consider her major before moving to a four-year university.

“By the time I got to college, my business was thriving, especially after my years

contents

at home,” she says. “I just didn’t feel like I could pay money to have someone teach me what I had already learned. I decided to take graphic design because it kind of goes hand-in-hand, as far as being a creative.”

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Mississippi College in May 2016, which she began putting to work over the past three months as a graphic designer for Fresh Ink.

“It’s been the best job,” she says. “Everyone there is so nice and fun, and we like to have fun, so it’s great. I work there parttime and do my photography part-time.”

Gatlin, 25, says that when she first began her business at 18, it was a learning process—one that involved lots of Google searches. She would research lenses, portraiture techniques and other topics, developing skills in multiple areas. Today, she focuses mainly on wedding and lifestyle photography, and senior portraits. She says that the latter is her favorite because she enjoys interacting with the clients.

When not working, Gatlin says she enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, Zander Williamson, who is the manager of The Apothecary, entertaining friends at their home in Fondren, kayaking and playing with the rescue dogs that her mother cares for in Madison.

—Micah Smith

Photo of an African American mother and her child voluntarily integrating the all-white Davis Elementary School in Jackson in 1964 by The Associated Press

6 ............................ Talks 10 ................... editorial 11 ...................... opinion 12 ............ Cover Story 22 ........... food & Drink 24 ......................... 8 Days 25 ........................ Events 25 ....................... sports

6 JPS Commission at Work

The “Better Together” Commission started its work last week to help Jackson Public Schools get back on track.

22 Happy Local Thanksgiving

See what local restaurants and businesses are doing for the holiday on Thursday, Nov. 23.

26 .......................... music 27 ........ music listings 32 ...................... Puzzles 28 ......................... astro 29 ............... Classifieds

26 Kirk Franklin Comes to Town A lot of people use their faith as a blanket, and it’s not an area for them to grow; it’s an area for them to be comfortable in, the mega-star says.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

4 ............ Editor’s Note

Christian Lantry courtesy of RCA Inspiration; file photo; Stephen Wilson

November 15 - 21, 2017 | Vol. 16 No. 11

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editor’s note

by Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief

The Lies They Told About Jackson’s Children

I

t turns out that young Robert Gibbs, a junior at Murrah in 1970, wasn’t intellectually inferior after all, although much of white Jackson believed he must be.

After decades of diving into the roots of white beliefs about black children and families, I thought nothing could surprise me. Then I edited Arielle Dreher’s monthslong investigation into the integration and re-segregation of Jackson’s public schools (see page 12) and saw the words a federal judge wrote about our children of color.

“Defendants first presented evidence pertaining to the scholastic achievement and mental ability (I.Q.) of the members of the white and Negro races, as reflected by the records maintained by the Jackson Municipal Separate School District, and pertaining to such pupils within such District.

These records disclose that there is a wide discrepancy between the scholastic achievement and the mental ability, as shown by recognized tests used nationally,” U.S. District Judge Sidney Mize, a Scott County native, wrote in his opinion in Evers v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District.

Bam, there it is. I’ve long known that junk science about the inferiority of black people—called “scientific racism”—was key to convincing white folks in Mississippi and beyond to resist integrating schools and society. I knew pretend-science about black people being genetically more prone to crime was pushed in Mississippi in the 1960s by so-called intellectuals like Carleton Putnam, a graduate of Columbia and Princeton, who wrote the racist book, “Race and Reason: A Yankee View.” I knew our own Bill Simmons, head of the Citizen’s Council, distributed that book locally.

I did not know, however, that a federal judge had codified lies about how black

children in the 1960s were genetically inferior. The most uplifting part of Arielle’s jarring story is showing how African American students like attorney and former Judge Robert Gibbs proved the bigots wrong.

The most depressing part, though, is how easily inherited racism has long pickled too many white brains—leading many to swallow the tripe that black families cannot live up to societal standards of excellence and safety. We hear it today in a slightly tempered form every time someone blames “the black family” or refers to the “culture”

Imagine if they had stayed and worked together. in the black neighborhoods that most white people refuse to visit and historically helped create, segregate, ignore and neglect.

We can stipulate that strong families of any race or ethnicity are important. And even though a Centers for Disease Control study showed that black fathers are, over all, more engaged daily with their children than white dads, we also know that too many black families in Jackson suffer from generational poverty and trauma, and are victims of violence. Many have lost fathers and mothers to prison, often due to minor drug charges. And far too many black children are offered an inadequate education.

Arielle’s story helps us comprehend the mythical inferiority shell game white racists played to keep black children from getting an equal education in Jackson. To repair

JPS today, it is vital to study the circular logic that our grands and great-grands used to deny equitable education then. Judge Mize surmised that black students underperformed white kids on tests; therefore, they were inferior and didn’t deserve equal resources to help them perform better.

It was as absurd then as it is now to ignore gaps in resources and the effects of embedded poverty, trauma and discrimination—long enforced by under-resourced schools, the state-funded Sovereignty Commission and the Ku Klux Klan—that powered the cycle of under-performance.

Then there was Bill Simmons of the Citizen’s Council working with scientific racists nationally to keep schools segregated and black schools underfunded. He even told teenager Alan Huffman’s dad in 1970 that his son needed psychiatric help for questioning black-inferiority claims Simmons pushed in the Council magazine, which Huffman read in his Council school library before transferring to Murrah.

Simmons’ army of “upstanding” citizens fought to ensure that black kids wouldn’t succeed and labeled them inferior if they didn’t. That is evil, twisted logic.

That was then, but if you look at Jackson today, it’s obvious that Old Man Simmons has won so far. In 1970, panicked white families took the racist bait and fled our public schools, which they had gladly funded before black children got to attend them. Their tax base and resources followed, and JPS schools started serving mostly poor black children. Generational racism, which doesn’t have to be intentional and is rooted in false superiority beliefs, means most white Jackson families, and many black ones, now reject public schools.

Imagine if they had stayed and worked

together with black parents, forming diverse PTAs, getting to know each other, navigating differences—instead of fleeing integrating schools and neighborhoods, leaving behind children a federal judge proclaimed were inferior and couldn’t excel.

Instead, too many kids of all races are going to school with minimum contact with “the other.” There is nothing “welleducated” about that, and we see the effects in national divides, racist policing that increases crime and a spike in hate attacks.

Bottom line: Jackson has long been saddled with conniving white lies resulting in under-funded and segregated schools before 1969 and devastating re-segregation since 1970. The scam allows the Legislature to keep even “adequate” resources out of our majority-black schools, and for Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves to say out loud that “high-performing” (wealthier, whiter) districts should be rewarded with more resources siphoned from “failing” majority-black districts.

But there’s new hope now of collapsing the house of cards. Gov. Phil Bryant, who attended the racist Council McCluer school, and Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba, a JPS alum and son of a black-power activist, recently announced they were collaborating with a politically and racially diverse team of experts to help local schools improve from the “F” rating they’ve fallen to since white families bolted in 1970. Maybe this unlikely alliance, even if late, can roll back the con game against public schools.

Most of us did not make those horrendous decisions back then, but we can all be part of the solution now if we’re willing. We owe it both to kids long branded as inferior and those brainwashed to spread despicable lies about their fellow human beings.

Follow @donnerkay on Twitter.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

contributors

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Arielle Dreher

Ko Bragg

Stephen Wilson

Amber Helsel

Micah Smith

Kimberly Griffin

Zilpha Young

Stephen Wright

News Reporter Arielle Dreher is working on finding some new hobbies and adopting an otter from the Jackson Zoo. Email her story ideas at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com.

She wrote the cover story on school integration in Jackson.

City Reporter Ko Bragg is a Philadelphia, Miss., transplant who recently completed her master’s in journalism. She loves traveling and has been to 25 countries to date. She interviewed Department of Public Works Director Robert Miller.

Staff Photographer Stephen Wilson is always on the scene, bringing you views from the six. He took photos for the issue.

Managing Editor Amber Helsel is a Gemini, feminist, writer, artist and otaku. She loves travelling, petting cats, hoarding craft supplies and more. Email story ideas to amber@jacksonfreepress.com. She wrote about Thanksgiving catering.

Music Editor Micah Smith is married to a great lady, has two dog-children named Kirby and Zelda, and plays in the band Empty Atlas. Send gig info to music@jacksonfreepress. com. He interviewed Grammy Award winner Kirk Franklin.

Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin is a Jackson native who loves Jesus, her mama, cooking, traveling, the Callaway Chargers, chocolate, her godson, Mississippi University for Women and locally owned restaurants, not necessarily in that order.

Zilpha Young is an ad designer by day, and a painter, illustrator, seamstress and freelance designer by night. Check out her design portfolio at zilphacreates.com. She designed ads for the issue.

Sales and Marketing Consultant Stephen Wright is a Clinton native who lives life through the four Fs: faith, family, football and food. For your advertising needs, reach out to him at stephen@jackson freepress.com.

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November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

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“We thought, as white people, that integration was all about us. It never occurred to us that it was about black people.”

— Alan Huffman, local writer and researcher, on integration at Murrah High School. Read more on Page 12.

Wednesday, November 8

A Mississippi Department of Education panel decides to recommends that as many as three districts be folded into a new statewide achievement school district aimed at improving academic performance. … Jackson developer David Watkins turns himself in to authorities after being indicted for embezzling bond money from the Mississippi Business Finance Corporation.

Friday, November 10

Comedian Louis C.K. confesses that sexual-harassment claims five women made against him in a New York Times report are true.

Saturday, November 11

Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore insists that allegations that he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl and three other teenagers decades earlier are false and refuses to withdraw his candidacy for the Senate.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Sunday, November 12

Donald Trump says he believes U.S. intelligence agencies, which have concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but also says he believes Vladimir Putin’s claims that Russia did not interfere.

6

Monday, November 13

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann gives a $414,265 check to Jackson and Hinds County officials, representing income from tax sales.

Tuesday, November 14

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he has “no reason to doubt” accounts by women accusing Roy Moore of groping or pursuing romantic relationships with them when they were teens, and says the Justice Department may open a federal probe against Moore.

Get breaking news at jfpdaily.com.

JPS Commission Gets to Work

by Arielle Dreher

M

ore than 50 Jacksonians filled the Mississippi Museum of Art lobby on Nov. 8, eager to hear what the newly formed “Better Together” commission would do for Jackson Public Schools. The coalition of stakeholders represents the curve ball Gov. Phil Bryant pitched instead of opting for the state education department to take over Mississippi’s second-largest school district.

Unlike most government meetings, however, after the “Better Together” commission members each said their names and what they do to kick off the gathering, they had every person attending the meeting introduce themselves, too.

Before the commission got far in its business, Claiborne Barksdale, the former CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute, suggested adding structure to the large coalition. In what felt premeditated, Barksdale nominated Charles McClelland, who also serves on the Mississippi Board of Education, and Ivye Allen, the president of the Foundation for the Mid South, as co-chairs of the commission. The rest of the commission members voted to approve them.

The commission plans to split into two “action tables” to complete their work.

One will address the business side of the mission, issuing a request-for-proposal to conduct an independent gap analysis study of JPS. The other group will address the community-engagement piece through surveys and listening sessions to determine

and shape the Jackson community’s vision for its public schools.

“We had a lot of funders reach out to all of our offices about wanting to help. … This will help leverage exactly where the funding needs to go—what we find in the outside evaluation and the community engagement pieces,” Laurie Smith, the gov-

a Jackson-based program officer at the foundation, said her group is considering providing mini-grants to neighborhood groups to expand conversations communities are already having about education.

For now, the commission will meet weekly to get the request-for-proposal out soon to find a company and start the study.

Stephen Wilson

Thursday, November 9

The Jackson City Council unanimously confirms four new members to the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees. … Gov. Phil Bryant addresses veterans at the G.V. Sonny Montgomery Medical Center to commemorate Veterans Day.

New Public Works Director Rober Miller answers our pothole questions. p8

All but one commissioner met Wednesday, Nov. 8, to discuss how the “Better Together Coalition” will work to solicit feedback from the Jackson community and hire a company to conduct an in-depth study on Jackson Public Schools.

ernor’s adviser on education and workforce development policy, said.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the four entities on the memorandum of understanding that formed the commission, is funding the coalition’s work as well as the contract for the group that conducts the study. Additionally, Yumeka Rushing,

“The RFP group is really going to need to dig in (because) that needs to go out as soon as possible,” Smith said.

Commission members did not sign up for specific “action tables” on Wednesday, but Smith said they can choose through email before the next meeting.

Dr. Freddrick Murray, interim

6 Things to do with Sinkholes Until They’re Fixed

by JFP Staff Start a hieroglyphic exhibit underneath the city.

Start a small bat sanctuary.

Issue an RFP for yet another Jackson hotel called the Sunken Inn. Turn it into a supply bunker in case North Korea nukes us.

Find Nemo. Start aquarium.

Neighborhood fishing hole.

Excavate Yazoo clay for fossils.

Keep kids and dogs away from them.

“There’s no reason that Highway 80 can’t look like Lakeland Drive, so this is about developing all of Jackson.”

— Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba when announcing the city and Hinds County were getting $414,265 from tax sales.

“It was very evident that we needed to improve our teacher corps.”

— Dr. Freddrick Murray, interim superintendent of JPS, on filling the teacher shortages when he took control of the district a year ago.

Gone But Not Forgotten in Mt. Olive Cemetery

by Ko Bragg

superintendent of JPS, gave the commission an overview of the district at the meeting. More than half the schools in the district received an “F” grade from the state this year, and the district received its second “F” in a row. However, the district’s academic challenges are coupled with socioeconomic ones. Ninety-nine percent of students in the district are eligible for free and reduced lunch, and more than 4,000 students are homeless. Upwards of 3,000 students live in “shared residences,” mean-

Jackson State University unveiled a refurbished statue of James (Jim) Hill on Thursday, Nov. 9, in Mt. Olive Cemetery on J.R. Lynch Street.

her research and statue-preservation efforts.

“It made me emotional because we’re in the state of Mississippi,” Wilcox told the Jackson Free Press later. “To know that there was servitude and there were slaves and many of them are buried in the cemetery, and that we have these beautiful statues that we want to pay homage to, but they weren’t able to be built anywhere else but a cemetery— it makes you emotional, it makes you cry.”

Historic African American cemeteries are the only place where statues of black people would have been erected in the early to mid-1900s. They were out of the public eye and never visible to the deceased people who had dedicated their lives to swimming upstream against currents of racism and the structural discrimination that

ing kids living with parents that do not have a home or apartment and are currently living with someone else.

Murray said more than half of the district’s teachers are in their first three years of teaching. “It was very evident that we needed to improve our teacher corps,” he said. Murray says several teachers in exit interviews said they did not feel equipped to support their students, which fueled Murray’s curriculum department move.

JPS is in the midst of completing a

made them second-class citizens in the South.

Wilcox’s research on Mt. Olive Cemetery is documented in a 33-page pamphlet including 1,461 records of individuals buried there likely between 1909 and 1943.

The locations of the 268 identifiable burial sites are also online at jsums.edu/cubd.

The men buried there had a range of jobs from blacksmiths and brick masons to physicians and even umbrella repairers. Many of the men and women lived in the Washington Addition neighborhood south of the cemetery and adjacent now to Jim Hill High School. Nearly a quarter of those buried in Mt. Olive were children under age 5. Approximately 77 percent of the African American women whose jobs are known were domestic laborers.

The Whole Story

Virginia Ford, who is buried in Mt. Olive, was a midwife and later became a school teacher at Smith Robertson School, Jackson’s first public school for African Americans.

Ford’s mother, Mary Green Scott, was born into slavery, and the homes they lived in, respectively, are the cornerstone of a restoration project. Scott, as well as Ford’s husband, are also buried in the Mt. Olive Cemetery.

Wilcox hopes that their legacy among others in the cemetery will not be forgotten. “Today, I feel like we really told their stories, and we helped carry on their legacy,” she said, “and we’re really excited about that.”

Wilcox’s research came to fruition through funds from the City of Jackson, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the Humanities Council, said Mt. Olive was selected as an “ideal bicentennial project” for their grant program because it uplifts the story of the west Jackson African American community, especially given the national conversation surrounding Confederate monuments.

“Monuments aren’t the same as history,” Rockoff said.

“They are a version of history. So to call attention to things that present a fuller picture is just wonderful.”

Email city reporter Ko Bragg at ko@jacksonfreepress.com

corrective action plan, which was supposed to address what MDE found in the limited audit of the district at the start of this year.

The district must submit another CAP to MDE by Jan. 16, 2018, after the state board voted to put the district back on probation this fall. In February, the new CAP will go to the state board for approval and then must be complete by July 31, 2018.

Robyn Rosenthal, communications manager with the Kellogg Foundation, emphasized that while similar work has been

done in Michigan, Jackson is different. She said surveys and canvassing are good starts to getting public input.

“The most successful work and the most successful energy and change have really happened when the community has stopped and come together to identify their values and their vision, and everyone has had the opportunity to weigh in on that,” she told the commission on Nov. 8.

The commission meets again Thursday, Nov. 16, location to be announced.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Hidden Heroes

About halfway through a hour-long program on Nov. 9 celebrating the statues at nearby Jackson State University, Heather Wilcox, a neighborhood development assistant at JSU’s Center for University-Based Development, stepped to the podium at the Amour event space. She got visibly emotional, choking back tears as she thanked her family and loved ones who supported

Stephen Wilson

A

s a boy growing up in west Jackson, Larry Thurman said he used to go down to Mt. Olive Cemetery on John R. Lynch Street to play around the statue of James (Jim) Hill, a former slave who was elected during Reconstruction as Mississippi’s secretary of state from 1874-1878, becoming one of the few African Americans elected statewide in Mississippi.

Coming of age during the wave of segregation, Thurman is a proud 1972 graduate of Jim Hill High School, where he now teaches.

On Nov. 9, he stood admiring that same statue, which has been newly refurbished, hoping that it offers his students, who also stood in the cemetery laughing and joyful, “renewed pride and respect for an area that once thrived and served African Americans when nobody else would.”

Amid a national discussion on which monuments of old white men should stay or go, Jackson State University unveiled two refurbished ones that day dedicated to Mississippians who achieved benchmarks they would not even have dared to dream of before the South lost the Civil War. Or since Reconstruction ended, in Hill’s case; state voters have not elected another black person to statewide office since a federal compromise ended Reconstruction in 1877.

The other refurbished monument is for Ida Revels Redmond, who was an organizer around women’s selfimprovement and social services for youth, voter-registration drives and solutions to other inequities. She was the daughter of Hiram Revels who was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress for Mississippi in 1870 and 1871. Her son, Sydney Revels Redmond, was an NAACP lawyer.

7

DISH | city

Miller Wants to End Waiting Games in Public Works

by Ko Bragg

R

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

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Where does wastewater treatment stand?

Jackson has two wastewater plants.

The primary focus is on the largest by far—which is the Savanna Street plant.

That’s where we have a lot of investments we need to make on the (EPA) consent decree. I’m kind of excited. We’re going in preventively where some of the piping there has reached the end of its useful life; we’re taking that piping out and putting

every day: billings and collections everyday.

So that happens at machine speed. We have to have the machine set up right ...so that these things happen accurately.

What are your plans with the 1-percent sales tax?

First of all, I think the citizens were very wise to adopt that (to pay for infrastructure).

But as I understand it, that is intended to be an interim measure. The approach that Dr. Stephen Wilson

obert “Bob” Miller, the newly appointed director of Jackson’s Department of Public Works, makes a lot of car references when he talks about city infrastructure. Miller recently purchased a 1951 Ford, which isn’t quite junk, either, nor will he make it shiny and new again, he said. However, he seems dedicated to restoring Jackson to be as close to new as possible. With a sustainable approach that he developed during his time in Louisville, Ky., he plans to replace 1 to 2 percent of the infrastructure system every year in order to achieve a brand-new system in the next 50 to 100 years.

Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba contacted Miller as early as December 2016 while he was still deputy director of the Sewerage and Water Board in New Orleans, a position he held for eight years. Attracted to a role with more community impact, Miller took the Jackson position in mid-October.

Before New Orleans, Miller spent 26 years in Louisville, working in water services, including a two-decade stint as chief financial officer of the Louisville (Kentucky) Water Company. Both Louisville and New Orleans profited from an improved credit rating, allowing those cities to borrow more debt to repair the sewer and waters systems.

Entering what he calls the “fourth quarter of his career,” Miller, 59, is hopeful about the future of Jackson. In an interview in his office, he shared his plans to fix potholes, leverage the 1-percent tax and respond to the Environmental Protection Agency’s consent decree against Jackson for dumping raw sewage into the Pearl River.

until around after 8 p.m.

My belief is as public works director, I’ve got to engage the public.

Second thing that I hope that they’re seeing is the tone at the top being set by the mayor and his executive leadership team of engagement with the community, accountability to the community, (and) frankly a change in direction by the leadership of the community.

The third thing I hope people are seeing is a change of pace. This is kind of a sappy story, but it’s true. I walked in the first day, and I noticed a coffee table with magazines on it, and I said, ‘What’s this?’ I picked them all up and walked over to the recycling bin and threw them away. I said, “There’s no waiting area because there’s no waiting.”

Jackson, Mississippi, does not have the time money or patience to wait any longer.

And then the final thing I hope they’re seeing is closing the loop on things so that when a customer calls in to the 311 center, it doesn’t die there.

What convinced you to come to Jackson?

Robert “Bob” Miller began as the director of Jackson’s Department of Public Works in October, touting decades of experience to help restore Jackson’s infrastructure. Now he faces myriad water and street challenges.

new piping in and putting new valves in.

So we’ve got a tremendous volume of work to be done with the consent decree to be in compliance with the Clean Water Act.

Potholes are on everyone’s minds. Will roads to the two new museums be repaired?

What is the status of the Siemens contract and the water meters?

Yes. I’ve got paving scheduled for the blocks immediately adjacent, surrounding the museum and also some additional blocks beyond that. And that will start in the last week of November and depending on the weather, we intend to be done before the opening (in early December).

With the other leaders within the city government (I plan) to do coordinated capital planning because when you look at a street, there’s more of what you don’t see than what you see. Underneath there are typically drinking-water pipes ... and then sanitary sewer lines. … As we’re looking at all of our assets, (we must ask): What condition are they in? What should be replaced as we replace the street?

I am just getting started on that because that is going to require a significant amount of my time. Customers deserve to have accurate and timely water bills, and we’ve got some folks that have been getting inaccurate bills and some folks that are getting untimely bills, where they don’t get a bill for some amount of time, and then when they do it’s a fairly large bill.

Have you ever been to the Indy 500?

The cars go by at close to 200 miles an hour, and it’s faster than your eyes can follow. So you have to pick a spot ... and just watch that spot and watch as the cars come through. That’s a little bit like how it is in managing a billing and collections system.

We have a large number of meter readings

Robert Blaine, the (city’s chief administrative officer), and I agree on is that we have to have comprehensive plans—we can’t have a whole bunch of piecemeal plans; we have to fold all these plans together. The 1-percent sales tax becomes an important funding element, but it’s not the only one that has to be folded in.

My belief is that, and I wasn’t here when it was adopted, that there’s a sunset time period on that. And while the community may choose to renew it, in the meantime, I believe the community is expecting us to get our financial house in order so each of the systems pays their own way.

What tangible action items should the public have been able to see so far from you?

The first thing that I hope that they’re seeing is visibility—me. I go to the neighborhood association meetings in the evening. Now there’s occasions when I miss them; last night, I didn’t roll out of here

I’ve given that a lot of thought. Mayor Lumumba’s folks reached out to me because I had enjoyed some considerable success in the financial turnaround of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. As I got to know them, I noticed, this was a little bit different. Mayor Lumumba is not like anybody else.

This community has a lot to offer, especially culturally. My wife was an actress and director and producer, and the arts here are very strong. It’s a nice amenity.

But most of all, the biggest reason was prayer. When Mayor Lumumba first started talking to me about coming here, I was like, “No, my wife and I are pretty settled in New Orleans ...,” and he’d say, “OK, but would you pray for my community and pray for me as I go to lead this community?” And then he would text me and say, “I’m praying for you; are you praying for me and my community?”

I believe I serve my God by serving his people, so then it’s a matter of where do I serve? And I believe I was led to Jackson.

This interview was edited for length and clarity. Email city reporter Ko Bragg at ko@jacksonfreepress.com. See this story at jfp. ms/miller for links to previous coverage of issues discussed here. For history on the Siemens controversy, visit jfp.ms/water.

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9

Invest in Your Future

T

he holiday season is upon us. This is the time of the year when we celebrate and spend quality time with family and friends. It is the season for school and office festivities, and most exciting for some, Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties. We will be spending a lot of extra time and income during this season for gifts and other items that we really don’t need. Many will stress over children wanting certain gifts, and most of us make sure they get them.

Tax season is also right around the corner. A lot of people may go into debt from holiday purchases and then spend all of their tax refunds trying to purchase items that have little value. We see it every year. Some families get $4,000-plus in tax refunds, and then spend all of that money on a vehicle that may last half a year, or even apartment leases or other quickly depreciating materials. I am simply trying to convince people to invest that money in their future instead. Stop buying items with no return on investment. Purchase something that has a long-time return: land.

Houses all over Jackson are selling for $10,000 and less that don’t need much renovation work. A lot of these same families are spending more than $800 per month in rent. They can save this money to renovate a property.

Now, this property may not be anything extravagant, but you have the opportunity to make it what you want without paying a costly mortgage at the same time. This idea may not be for everyone, but people who are willing to do things this way get a chance to save a lot of money in the future.

I am also pushing people in this way because things will change for Jackson in the future, and these same possibilities may not always be around. Think about cities across the nation that have gone about this type of change—for example, Brooklyn, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Portions of these cities were all suffering from economic downturn at one point, but things shifted, and now property value is up, and the cost of living is expensive.

Some people wish they had purchased property in Brooklyn when they were selling it for $10. I don’t want people to lose out on the opportunity to better themselves financially.

I also don’t want people to lose out on the opportunity because of the fear of crime. Without a doubt, crime is happening in Jackson. Some of it is random, but most of it is not. We need to admit what it is and face it head on. Some people will take the challenge, but some won’t. We need to get young professionals to move back into the communities to show our children what that looks like. We need families to move back into the inner cities, because our children need to see family. We need positive males to move back into the neighborhoods=, because boys need to see how disciplined and positive males behave.

This is not what professionals in the financial industry typically teach, but we need a bit of a radical change and a radical mind shift when it comes to our economic behavior. Someone has to teach and lead by example.

Someone has to show this to residents, step by step.

This is the time to start planning for your future. Think about having something that you can pass along to your children and future generations.

Land is one of those things. Most people don’t own their homes straight out, but the ones who do have extra money to purchase the things that they want. I want to help a few people get to that place where they don’t have to wonder how they will pay their mortgage. I prefer their concern to be “how can I get more property for my family’s future.”

So don’t overspend during this holiday and tax season. Create the opportunity to invest in yourself and in your future!

10 Ronnie Crudup Jr. is the executive director of New Horizon Ministries.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

We need a bit of a radical change.

Dangerous Sinkholes Demand Immediate Responses

A

dog fell into a sinkhole this weekend, and that could have just as easily been a child. Apparently, that sinkhole had been uncovered for months, leaving us to wonder what the City is doing immediately about infrastructure problems that present an immediate danger to the citizens (and pets) of Jackson. Sure, there’s a pressing, and evident, demand for smoother roads, but beyond that sinkholes threaten Jacksonians’ safety.

In an interview with newly elected Public Works Director Bob Miller, we learned about the city’s plans to fix potholes on the streets leading up to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History before they open in December. Miller detailed long-term plans based on his past successes in Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans. At press time, Miller could not be reached for comment about the plan for deep, uncovered sinkholes.

Outside of smoothing streets around the museum and discussing a possible new pothole technology at least twice this year, it’s not immediately clear to us if this administration is working expeditiously to rectify infrastructure so dilapidated that a dog fell into it and couldn’t get out alone. What is the emergency plan?

Just yesterday at a press event where Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s office presented Hinds County, City of Jackson and state public officials a check for tax sales on local

property , Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba assured everyone when asked about sinkholes and infrastructure that “it’s about continued maintenance but it’s also about developing a strategy that will see a larger effort towards infrastructure roles that we’re seeing across the city.”

Lumumba talked more about leveraging funds, as he’s done in the past, citing a $2.5-billion infrastructure problem and the reality that we only receive about $13 million annually plus the 1-percent sales tax. He spoke of turning our “crumbling infrastructure into an economic frontier,” but fell short of outlining an immediate action plan for repairing and blocking access to dangers like sinkholes. Instead, he turned to his inspiring messaging about putting citizens first, building infrastructure with us in mind to create more jobs and taxpayers to contribute to the system. While that sounds good, we’re also eager to see real-time efforts beyond orange cones and yellow tape to keep children safe.

This summer a viral video circulated of a Jackson resident sitting in a sinkhole filled with water as though he were in a hot tub. While Jacksonians have learned to find humor in our endless infrastructure demands, urgency about safe communities and a responsive, proactive Public Works department will go a long way towards helping city residents breathe easier.

Email letters and opinion to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019 or mail to 125 South Congress St., Suite 1324, Jackson, Mississippi 39201. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, as well as factchecked.

Renee Shakespeare

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O

n the evening of July 17, 2006, I prepared my favorite childhood meal—potatoes and onions fried in a cast-iron skillet, with smoked sausage from Wilson’s Meat House and homemade biscuits with syrup. I then retired with a glass of wine to read and relax.

I woke up around 3 a.m., the devil’s hour, to find a man in my bed. I had not invited him. The next hour of my life was pure tortured darkness. The blackout curtains in my bedroom made it impossible to see the person I awoke to find straddling my back with a hand around my nose, choking the breath out of me. I felt a hard object at the back of my head. With a lump the size of an egg in my throat, I could only focus on how to stay alive.

After the rape ended, I thought everyone I knew would respond with horror and helpfulness. But people first asked questions about why it happened, wrapped in insensitivity and callousness.

It is their way of trying to make sense, but those questions only make a victim feel worse and somehow inadequate to the challenge of being raped. So when the same person returned the following year, again around 3 a.m., I reported it to the police, but did not share with many because I could no longer stand under the weight of the assault and their questions.

I was no stranger to the abuses of evil people. From age 5, I had witnessed a murder; had a knife thrown at me (intended for someone else) that stuck my dress to the floor as I played with my dolls; been the object of a sick relative’s sexual desires between the ages of 7 and 9; endured sexual assault by a church deacon; was pulled into a car at age 13 and fondled, then put out on I-55 North until kind strangers returned me home; endured 10 years of domestic violence, including having my children’s lives threatened; and the list goes on. One might think that by the 2006 rape, nothing could shake my resolve, but that wasn’t true.

I spent years trying to put myself back together. I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression and anxiety.

From the sudden urge to run when no one was after me to the panic that came out of nowhere, the over-the-top reactions were unnerving, especially the angry ones. I had turned into a person who didn’t want to go anywhere or even talk on the phone. If I was angry, I was screaming mad; if I was

sad, it was an all-day crying festival. Minor insults, once ignored, had become major issues that must be handled firmly and loudly. This was all coming from a woman whom many had described as strong, caring, helpful, generous and kind.

I had become someone else, and this person scared me so much that in 2014, I tried to kill her. I drove to my family’s ancestral home and visited the house where my father was born, after which I checked into a hotel and swallowed 150 sleeping pills, muscle relaxers and blood-pressure pills, along with a gallon of water.

I know it is 2017, but for me it is still July 18, 2006, and I don’t know when the clock hands will move again. There are many reasons the hand hasn’t moved, but while some of those were unavoidable, and others are preventable. Victim shaming and bullying are two things that keep others and me stuck in tragedy.

The hashtag #metoo is trending across the nation, and our attention has been drawn to the larger-than-life stories of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. We point our fingers and chat with each other about the latest scandal “over there with those folks”—but what about our folks? When do we decide to respond to people who engage in online bullying and shaming right where we live?

Someone recently sent out a group email slamming and misrepresenting me for my violent experiences simply because, I surmised, I supported a different political candidate. And he is not the only person who does this to women. I will not let it go, and I will not be afraid to speak my opinion about political issues that affect me. And who the hell said that if I don’t agree, it’s acceptable to embarrass me using the worst times of my life?

He said I didn’t report being raped. A lie. He said I accused every man I’ve ever dated of raping me. A lie. He said I tried to commit suicide to get attention. A lie. He said I stole money. A lie. Why is he lying?

I don’t know. But had this person given truthful information, it would be just as bad. Both men and women have a hard time believing a woman is targeted for any reason other than sex, so they keep trying to understand what I did to cause this, but that only makes my ordeal worse.

Did I do something? Yes. I voiced my opinion. And, still, I am not afraid.

The next hour of my life was pure tortured darkness.

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November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Editor-in-Chief and CEO Donna Ladd Publisher Todd Stauffer Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin

#MeToo: Don’t Shame Me for Being Raped

11

An African American first grader clutched his mother’s hand as he arrived for the first day of school at previously all-white Davis Elementary School in Jackson on Sept. 14, 1964. Black students could voluntarily integrate white schools back then, but local public schools would not fully integrate until 1970. (AP Photo)

How Integration Failed in Jackson’s Public Schools

AP Photos

From 1969 to 2017: The Integration and Re-segregation of Jackson’s Public Schools

I

by Arielle Dreher

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

t was a cold winter day in 1969, but Brenda Walker was not thinking about the weather when she put her coat in her locker. After all, Central High School in the middle of downtown Jackson had radiators to heat the classrooms.

Central was traditionally an allwhite high school, but Walker was one of a handful of black students who opted to attend Central despite little encouragement from family or friends.

Black students were allowed to voluntarily integrate white schools in Jackson after Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

When Walker walked into her biology class, she noticed all the students sitting on the side of the room nearest the door—but that was not unusual. She was usually the sole black student in her classes, and she was accustomed to her white counterparts never sitting in the same row as her due to her race. This day, however, she noticed that her classmates wore coats and hats.

As she took her place in a row of her own next to the windows, she realized the large glass panes were wide open. She had 12 walked into a trap, and she was stuck.

“Oh God, they planned this,” she thought to herself, realizing that she could not just get up to go to her locker for her coat and still get back to class on time.

The biology teacher, who Walker remembers was not white or black but cannot recall his name, came in and began teaching. Walker, the only black student in the class, was shivering. The white students, bundled in their coats and hats, were warm and smug. The biology teacher walked over to the window and began closing them one-by-one as he taught. Soon, the class was stifling hot, and the white students began to remove their gear.

“No, everybody that has a coat or a hat on leave them on until the next period,” the teacher told the class.

Walker remembers that day with gratitude because her biology teacher at least in an indirect way acknowledged the discrimination she had experienced. She recalls her choral music teacher never saying a corrective word to her white classmates, who always managed to make sure that the books she placed neatly on a chair during practice ended up on the floor.

Jackson’s public schools, like the ma-

jority in the state, remained solidly separate and unequal in the 1950s and 1960s despite the ruling in the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision in 1954, which struck down school segregation by race.

One look inside Central High School, and it was clear that Mississippi had no intention of integrating its schools. Walker knew this when she decided to enroll. Her parents, a cement finisher and a seamstress, worked hard to send her to an all-black Catholic school, Christ the King, for all of elementary and part of middle school. In middle school, she had to go to Blackburn, however, which was a shock for the somewhat sheltered, youngest child in her family. Blackburn was all-black.

For high school, Walker had the option to attend a white school, technically speaking. By then, students had the legal choice to go to white schools, but few black families were willing to send their children to all-white, potentially hostile schools.

Walker was determined, and based on her life experiences up to that point, she did not see any reason white classmates should treat her differently. All of the white people she had encountered had not treated her

any differently on account of her skin color.

And she was determined to show she could succeed in an integrated school. “I read an article, and I can’t remember who it was by, but it said if you put a black student and a white student together, the black student couldn’t keep up,” she recalls.

That motivated the determined teen to tell her parents she wanted to attend Central. Once she enrolled, her father would pick her up every day right when school ended to make sure she did not linger in hallways or on the school grounds because he believed it was potentially dangerous for her. Walker says she found a group of white girls who befriended her and walked her to class every day.

The posse ended up protecting Walker, she believes, because no one would harass her or say anything to her after that.

In Jackson’s public schools, Walker was an anomaly at the time. The majority of students stayed in schools separated by race. By 1969, Walker’s junior year, more than 39,000 black and white students were enrolled in the school district in Jackson, mostly attending separate but decidedly unequal schools.

opened its first school in the fall of 1964.

The all-white Legislature implemented a “freedom of choice” program, enabling students to choose which school they wanted to attend and enabling some black students to attend white schools, if they dared.

Bolton describes “freedom of choice” as a delaying tactic for white officials in Stephen Wilson

Brenda Walker graduated from integrated Lanier High School in 1971 after experiencing frequent school days cut short at Provine High School.

no compulsory [sic] attendance law),” a bulletin released by the Jackson’s Citizens’ Council in August 1964 said.

In a special session in 1964, the allwhite Mississippi Legislature passed the tuition-grant law, allowing public funds to be used on private, non-sectarian schools. This allowed white people to send their children to “council schools” using taxpayer dollars.

In the capital city, the Citizens’ Council

Brenda Walker is pictured here in a portrait taken during her time at Central High School, in 1969.

Mississippi that worked quite effectively in courts until almost the end of the decade.

“Freedom-of-choice desegregation was viewed by Mississippi segregationists as a way to bend their devotion to racial segregation just enough to satisfy federal laws and black demands while preserving as much of their dual school system as possible,” Bolton wrote in his book.

Thus, for more than a decade after integration was federal law, Mississippi successfully kept most white and black children through a network of laws.

The Council schools, listed in archived non-public school records as “C 2, C 3, etc.,” were mainly named after the streets they were built on. Council Manhattan was on Manhattan Road, for example.

The Citizens’ Council opened five schools in Jackson, records show. By 1979, the Council schools are listed as “academies” in archived data from the Mississippi Research and Development Center. In 1979, three “segregation academies” remained in Jackson: Manhattan Academy, Magnolia Academy and McCluer Academy (spelled McCleur in archived records). The academies faded out in the mid-1980s, some turning into or taken over by Christian academies.

Woodland Hills Baptist Academy moved to the Manhattan Road address where the Council school previously sat. Gov. Phil Bryant’s south Jackson alma mater, Coun-

cil McCluer, became Hillcrest Academy in 1985, for instance.

Enter ‘Scientific Racism’

After the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964—in response to racial violence including the murder of three civil-rights workers in Neshoba County—school districts were required to file desegregation plans.

Jackson’s white district leaders refused, and several black parents filed a lawsuit. They alleged that the Jackson Municipal Separate School District was “a compulsory biracial school system,” which violated due-process rights of the black parents and students.

The school district mounted a defense, based largely on faulty science, that argued that the natural differences between black and white children were enough reason to keep the two races separate. In the Citizens Informer newspaper, The Citizen magazine and openly at public appearances, the head of the Citizens Councils of America, William J. “Bill” Simmons of Jackson pushed the myths of “scientific racism” that argued that black children were genetically inferior and, thus, could not learn as well as white kids and were more prone to crime.

“We have segregation because there are distinct differences between the white and black races that make it advisable. I am not talking about total inferiority or superiority—I am talking about differences,” Simmons said at a speech he made at Notre Dame University in Indiana in 1963.

The federal U.S. District Court in the 1960s agreed with the scientific-racism “evidence” that Simmons and others pushed, saying the judges in the Brown case may have erred based on “evidence” presented at the Darrell Kenyatta Evers v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District case.

“Defendants first presented evidence pertaining to the scholastic achievement and mental ability (I.Q.) of the members of the white and Negro races, as reflected by the records maintained by the Jackson Municipal Separate School District, and pertaining to such pupils within such District.

These records disclose that there is a wide discrepancy between the scholastic achievement and the mental ability, as shown by recognized tests used nationally,” U.S. District Judge Sidney Mize wrote.

“These records disclosed a noticeable and substantial difference in the scholastic achievement of the members of the Negro and white races and a difference in the scores attained on the nationally recognized mental ability tests, with the white pupils consistently scoring above the national average and the Negro pupils consistently scoring below the national average. The disparity between the members of the two races as reflected by the mental ability tests

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Citizens’ Council leaders grew increasingly worried about integration actually occurring in the state’s public schools, and began to plan accordingly. The Council disseminated a swath of public documents with “racial facts” and newsletters to Jackson parents warning them of the rising tide of integration. “It is better to miss school altogether than to integrate. (Mississippi has

Stephen Wilson

Disseminating ‘Racial Facts’

While much of the country grappled with how to integrate schools in light of the 1954 Brown decision, Mississippi doubled down on keeping public schools separate and unequal. Instead of combining student bodies or distributing students evenly across public schools in Jackson, school leaders here opted to raise more funds to give to the black schools—even though still less than the predominantly white schools enjoyed.

The Jackson Municipal Separate School District was separated by race into all-black and predominantly white schools.

Brinkley, Jim Hill and Lanier High Schools served only black students, while Murrah, Central, Provine and Wingfield served predominantly white students. Central had the most black students voluntarily attending, with 84 enrolled in 1969, while Wingfield had no black students attending the fall before court-ordered integration, an archived report from the state auditor’s office shows.

Historic public-school enrollment records from the Mississippi Department of Education show that, pre-integration, black schools in Jackson were overcrowded in comparison to the white schools. Charles Bolton notes in his heavily researched book, “The Hardest Deal of All,” that in 1968, the district served 10,000 black students and 11,000 white elementary-aged students— but had 26 white elementary schools and only 13 black elementary schools.

Soon after the 1954 Brown decision—a day many white Mississippians called “Black Monday”—a former Mississippi State University football star, Robert “Tut” Patterson,” started the Citizens’ Council in Indianola, Miss., to push back on integration. The white-supremacist organization quickly attracted a strong membership of business owners and leaders from around the state, including Jackson.

It fought integration, through economic boycotts and intimidation of black and white people who might go along with it, and eventually boasted more than 80,000 members in chapters across the South i.

In 1956, the Legislature appropriated funds to the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state spy agency that investigated “suspicious” white and black citizens for any possible efforts at integration, including a white business owner allowing a black person to use their public restroom. The Sovereignty Commission also helped fund the Citizens’ Council; both were supported by an extremely racist media network in the state, led then by The Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News in the capital city.

Early in its tenure in the 1950s, the Citizens Council used intimidation to keep citizens of all races from acting on their new federal right to integrate public schools.

But by the mid-1960s, with more schools in surrounding states allowing segregation,

more INTEGRATION, see page 14 13

The Integration and Re-segregation of Jackson’s Public Schools from page 13 became more pronounced as the age of the pupils increased.”

After the Evers ruling, black parents continued to fight segregation in the courts.

One of the federal lawsuits, Singleton v.

Jackson Municipal Separate School District, ultimately produced the desegregation plan for the state’s largest district in 1970.

Outside the courtroom, Jackson’s local school leaders attempted to keep the peace with their black counterparts in local public schools during the Civil Rights Movement.

Black schools did see an influx of money in the 1960s, but it still did not equal the funding in white schools.

Jackson spent $149 on each white student in 1962 and $106 per black student, data from an unpublished Mississippi Department of Education document Bolton uses in his book shows.

School funding decisions became tense, as black Jacksonians began demanding their rights to more taxpayer funds for their schools.

William Dalehite, an educator and administrator in the district at the time, notes in his book, “A History of Jackson Public Schools,” that the NAACP helped successfully block the district from making planned classroom additions to white schools in the 1960s.

In 1969, a bond issue to make Lanier High School, which was black, also a junior high school and to convert Callaway, a white school, into a senior high school failed. Dalehite notes this was the first time a bond issue failed. White and black taxpayers in Jackson suddenly were not willing to increase funding for their public schools in the face of the uncertainty that came with impending integration.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Culture Shocks

Fifteen years after Brown v. Board, the patience of the U.S. Supreme Court had worn out, and it lowered the boom on resistant states in the Alexander v. Holmes case—which included dozens of Mississippi school districts resisting integration— saying on Oct. 29, 1969, to integrate now.

“Continued operation of racially segregated schools under the standard of ‘all deliberate speed’ is no longer constitutionally permissible. School districts must immediately terminate dual school systems based on race and operate only unitary school systems,” the Supreme Court said.

The ruling forced the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to mandate school-district leaders involved in the Singleton v. Jackson case to complete an integration plan immediately. This meant an extended 1969-70 winter break for students in Jackson as dis14 trict leaders submitted, then re-submitted

their integration plans to the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Superintendent John S. Martin, staff and attorneys met with federal officials in Atlanta over the break, Dalehite writes, and hammered out the re-districting plan.

“The superintendent and three staff members flew to Atlanta on Dec. 21 for a two-day meeting. Armloads of cumbersome maps and much pupil data were carried to the borrowed work space. A plan acceptable to HEW representatives was hammered out within hours of the Christmas

Source: “Comparison of Enrollment by Race in Mississippi Public Schools,” (1969-1971), archived report by Mississippi Department of Audit.

Eve rush out of Atlanta,” Dalehite wrote.

The district closed schools for two weeks near the end of January to implement the plans, but students at the time remember the initial desegregation plans in spring 1970 as mainly a mix-up of teachers with a few students switching schools.

The noticeable integration plan kicked in when students were districted for different schools come fall 1970.

Robert Gibbs’ world was completely segregated from the white world in Jackson. He attended all-black schools. Now a prominent trial attorney and former circuit judge in Jackson, Gibbs lived in the Virden Addition and attended an all-black church. He had no white friends or any real contact with white people, except the two white students who came to Brinkley in spring 1970 after the integration order took effect. But that fall, Gibbs was forced to leave the familial warmth of Brinkley, an all-black high school known for its culture.

He lived four houses away from being slated to attend Callaway, which is where his best friends would go. Gibbs, however, was slotted into the Murrah zone.

Gibbs’ school experience—from Brin-

kley to Murrah—was a huge shift for the 11th grader. He had played drums in the band at Brinkley and recalls the upbeat, soulful music with majorettes who danced to almost every song with swag.

“My band at Brinkley went from playing songs by James Brown to doing the Bishop Lollipop,” Gibbs told the Jackson Free Press. “You talk about a culture shock, that was a culture shock.”

Murrah also meant that Gibbs was now on his own in the classroom—not that it mattered. Gibbs says he got good grades at both Brinkley and Murrah, but the attention he got from teachers changed.

“The teachers that we had at Brinkley were nurturing. They wanted to make sure we did well, and if we didn’t do well, they would pick up the phone and call our parents,” Gibbs recalled. “Then when we integrated into Murrah, you didn’t have that kind of nurturing, you know, it was like if you get, you get it and if you don’t get it, that’s tough.

If we didn’t do well, you didn’t have to worry about nobody calling your home or coming to talk to you parents. You just got a bad grade and that was it.”

Angering Bill Simmons Alan Huffman, a local writer and researcher who was attending Chastain as a ninth grader in 1969-70, remembers disarray after winter break. He said while things did not get violent, it was more just disorganization and confusion at the administrative level after court-ordered integration.

From 1970 to 1971, Dalehite notes in his book that 56 teachers left the Jackson school district.

Huffman asked his parents to attend Council Manhattan because that was where his best friend at the time was going.

Huffman attended the Citizens’ Council school on 5055 Manhattan Road for his 10th-grade year. Huffman said as a 15-yearold white kid, air conditioning and the ability to drink Coke in a Council school was enough to convince him to go. However, he did not last long there.

Huffman found Council Manhattan in the same disarray as Chastain, he recalled.

He had a two study-hour periods back-toback with no instruction, and he began reading copies of The Citizen, a magazine Simmons and the Citizens’ Council produced, that sat in the school’s library.

“It was all about how black people are genetically inferior to white people and that their mental capacities were less, and all that kind of stuff … but it was so shocking to me,” Huffman recalls.

Huffman knew only a few black peo-

ple growing up, he said. His parents were reasonable people, he said, but not so liberal that they were interested in going to newly integrated restaurants. He has fond memories of Helen, the family’s housekeeper, but never learned her last name. Huffman said his parents never used her surname that he remembers. Reading the Citizen magazine, however, Huffman realized the writings seemed to imply Helen was inferior, too.

“They were saying Helen was biologically and mentally inferior to me, and it just bothered me so I started writing letters… rebutting all of these articles,” he said.

Huffman’s letters made their way to William J. Simmons, who called Huffman’s father in for a meeting and told him that Alan needed psychiatric help. Huffman’s father asked to see one of his letters, and after reading it, told Simmons, “I pretty much agree with everything he said.”

The confrontation with Simmons meant the end of Council school for Huffman, who was excited to transfer to Murrah High School. By fall 1970, Murrah still had a majority of white students, but 44 percent of the student body was black, archived data from the state auditor’s office show.

White Rush to Academies

Integration in Jackson meant students could only attend certain schools within the geographic vicinity of their houses. For Dana Larkin, this meant attending Brinkley for 10th grade, after school district officials converted the formerly all-black high school into a 10th-grade attendance center.

Larkin was at Bailey, on the corner of State Street and Woodrow Wilson, when the integration court order came down the spring before. Larkin’s mother, however, decided public schools were out of the question after she attended a meeting at Brinkley.

“The story goes, my mother went to orientation at Brinkley for me. …

She said that they really scared her and said that the dads should drive them, and it’s a bad neighborhood, ‘be careful.’ So she said that she left there, took her car, and went to Jackson Prep and registered me, and that was that,” Larkin says.

Larkin was unhappy at the then-allwhite Jackson Prep, which opened its doors in August 1970, because all her friends from the synagogue were in public schools.

During her junior year, Larkin lobbied to go to Murrah, which she was slated to attend as her family lived in Eastover. They conceded, and Larkin graduated in 1973.

The private Jackson Academy had opened back in 1959, but the opening of Jackson Prep, Woodland Hills Baptist Academy and two Council schools coincided with court-ordered integration, nonpublic school records show. The school names

Realizing that it was just as challenging to them was eye-opening.”

In a way, black and white students brought integration to their households with birthday parties and the social scene.

Larkin remembers inviting several of her friends from Murrah to her pool at home.

“My parents … it’s hard to admit but they were definitely prejudiced,” Larkin said. “One of the rebellious things I did is we had a swimming pool in our backyard, and my senior year, I invited my African American friends to come swimming because I knew it would push every button my mother had, and it did. It was a scene— she didn’t do it in front of them—but it makes me feel guilty because I used them to … rebel against my mom and my dad.”

As several of Huffman’s Murrah classmates echo in “Lines Were Drawn,” those first graduating classes in the early 1970s in Jackson experienced a special situation.

“We were very, very fortunate. It (Integration) opened our eyes to so many things,” Huffman said. “… It made us all better people, and now when you talk to your classmates, they recognize that.”

Re-segregation Sets In

The Mississippi Department of Education began publishing student enrollment data by race in the early 1990s, but anecdotal evidence as well as national trends show that integration, while it lasted, peaked in the 1980s. City and county census, school-district and private-school population numbers suggest that white flight set in immediately in 1970 and continued throughout the decades following, with white families fleeing both the public schools and previously white neighborhoods such as neighborhoods around Westland Plaza and Metrocenter in west Jackson and south Jackson.

Some groups, like Mississippians for Public Education—a group of mainly white women fighting for better, integrated schools—worked to keep white families in public schools and fought for the funding and resources needed throughout the district in the 1970s. Parents for Public Schools picked up their work in 1989, attempting to convince middle-class white and black families to consider staying in Jackson Public Schools and continue living and investing in the city to keep it from decaying and failing from flight and disinvestment.

Susan Womack led PPS of Jackson from 2000 to 2012, where Larkin also worked. Womack would give school tours and talk to families about options in Jackson’s public schools available to them, showing them the benefits of public schools.

“We continued to see people just leave in droves because they weren’t happy more INTEGRATION, see page 16

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Imani Khayyam

are all handwritten into the back of the school enrollment records show. Eventu- … but just that it was constant conflicts in 1969-1970 nonpublic school enrollment ally, both schools grew their student-body the school. We would end up leaving school records stored in archives. The schools be- populations to include high school-aged early almost every day.” gan recording enrollment numbers during students—and still serve those grade levels With so little productivity in a school fall 1970, when they opened their doors to today, with majority-white student popula- day, Walker asked to transfer to Lanier white students. Jackson Prep’s enrollment tions. Like Jackson Prep, St. Andrew’s and High School, which had a 99-percent grew in those first years from 652 students Jackson Academy works to recruit and black population even after integration. in the fall of 1970 to 968 students the fol- maintain diverse student bodies today.

Walker participated in a work program at lowing school year, archived state departthe district’s film library, so she only spent ment of education records show. The other ‘Constant Conflicts’ half-days on-campus then. Still, when she private schools, including Jackson Academy As white families fled to academies graduated in 1971, students selected her as and Woodland Hills, saw a bump in enroll- and private schools, many black families class representative to speak at graduation. ment after court-ordered integration too. were forced into new schools or feeder pat- “I really felt like what I went through—

“Some of Jackson’s wealthiest citizens terns. While the black public schools by all that stuff—was to get to that point,” she established Jackson Preparatory School, then were mostly overcrowded, the black says. “I felt appreciated.” which had ample resources and soon devel- community made do with them, and many Gibbs said he and his black classmates oped into a top-notch school, although it students lamented seeing the traditions of stunned his Murrah teachers. “They were was only available to those who could af- the schools dissipate with integration. surprised at how smart and how bright and ford the tuition,” Bolton wrote in his book.

Under the desegregation plan, Brenda how advanced we were,” he said. “I know Prep today is still majority white, but re- Walker was forced to attend Provine High most of the people I hung out with, we did cruits black students and teachers.

School in her neighborhood in west Jack- extremely well academically at Murrah. I

Private-school enrollment shot up son when the court order took full effect in think it really shocked some of the (white) overnight after forced integrateachers because I do not think tion. The Citizens’ Council they expected we would perincreased to five schools in form at a level as the students Hinds County, serving more who were already there.” than 5,000 students by the Gibbs, who went on to 1972-1973 school year.

Tougaloo College and later

Huffman and Larkin are law school at the University two of thousands of white stuof Mississippi, says he believes dents who fled Jackson’s public his education at both Brinkley schools in the face of integraand Murrah got him to where tion immediately, but both rehe is today. He does not believe turned to graduate from pubthat the courses at Murrah got lic schools. The majority of more academically challengwhite students who left would ing than the ones he had at never return or bring future Brinkley, and his grades stayed generations back, at least to constantly solid throughout date. In 1969, 39,205 stuhis high school education. dents attended public school Generally, black students in in Jackson, and the very next the district had to do the hard year, enrollment dropped to work of integration, leaving 30,713 students, historic enhomogenous schools and interollment records show. Nearly grating white ones.

9,000 white students pulled “I understand why we had out almost immediately after to integrate into the white the Supreme Court decision, school because I don’t think an auditor’s report shows. they could have integrated into

While Jackson’s publica black school because if they school system would swell to had to come into the culture more than 33,000 students in that we had, I don’t think they the early 1990s, the district’s could have adapted as well,” population has not reached Gibbs said of white kids.

Alan Huffman, pictured at his home in Bolton, attended pre-integration levels since Huffman and two of his a Citizens’ Council school for a year before returning and 1970. The district’s whitewhite classmates co-edited graduating from integrated Murrah High School in 1971. student numbers continued a book called “Lines Were to decrease every school year Drawn” about the Murrah following court-ordered integration, based fall 1970. She could not continue attending class of 1971. While writing the book, he Central downtown. Walker was entering realized through interviews with his black on anecdotal and census data.

Dalehite estimates that in the three her senior year at previously majority-white classmates what a sacrifice integration was years after integration, more than 11,000 Provine. “I don’t remember so much hostil- for the black community in Jackson. whites fled the district, mostly for private ity towards me. I think it was a mass (opin- “We thought, as white people, that inschools where black students were then not ion) thing. Here were these students, we’re tegration was all about us. It never occurred coming in their school and stuff like that, to us that it was about black people,” Huffwelcome nor could afford the tuition.

Both St. Andrew’s Episcopal School so it was just conflicts at the school in a big man said. “It was about us needing to let and Jackson Academy began adding way,” Walker said. “I don’t really remember black people go to our schools. That’s how grade levels starting in 1971, nonpublic anyone saying or doing anything (drastic) we saw it, which goes back to privilege.

15

The Integration and Re-segregation of Jackson’s Public Schools from page 15

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

‘It’s What You Model’

Brenda Walker adopted an infant daughter in 1991. Initially, Walker thought about sending her daughter to Christ the King but when she got laid off from her job, she sent her to JPS, unsure of being able to pay for private school. Her daughter, Alexis, grew up in the predominantly black Jackson Public Schools, attending Pecan Park, Hardy Middle School and then participating in the IB Program at Jim Hill High School. Walker said Pecan Park 16 felt like a small, private school, noting how

much she appreciated the principals Alexis had there during that time.

Alexis had almost the opposite experience as her mother. Brenda estimates there were about four to five white kids in Hardy Middle School, but said her daughter was involved in enough programs and clubs outside school to expose Alexis to kids who do not look like her, like Girl Scouts.

“The reason why I love integration is because that’s the world,” Walker says. “(In segregated schools) you really, you know, you’re leaving your kids to not really seeing what it’s going to be like when you get out and get a job or go to college or you know, just do these things, because it’s just not a true look of what’s out there.”

Larkin and her husband, Jonathan, sent their two daughters to JPS schools all the way through high school with them later attending Brown University and George Washington University. She says public education and fighting for her kids to have the best education possible is connected to the practice of her faith. One of the tenets of Judaism, tikkun olam, means to “repair

“People would say, ‘where does your son go to school?’ I would say Casey Elementary in JPS, and they would say ‘Oh,’ and walk away,” Womack said. “It’s really disturbing that the (white) community and the public have abandoned public schools so drastically in communities like Jackson, and in other communities where the majority population is black.”

Why Integration Matters

Gary Orfield, a researcher at UCLA who has studied integration and re-segregation in public schools extensively, says segregating housing policies and a lack of follow-through on integration court orders has stalled integration attempts in the U.S. In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court authorized school districts to stop enforcing integration, which largely ended any efforts to integrate schools on a national level.

“There hasn’t been any effective desegregation plans on the demographics for a quite a long time, but the demographic changes continued because it was mostly driven by the housing market all along,” Imani Khayyam

for one reason or another. It’s too easy for families who have needs to give up and go somewhere else if they don’t like what they’re getting,” Womack said. “(Families gave mainly) reasons that could have been translated to ‘I’m not comfortable in this environment once the population became majority-black,’ and I fully believe that’s what landed us where we are today.”

When the Mississippi Department of Education first published race data for school districts in 1994, the district was already a majority-black district by a large margin: By then, 27,868 of the district’s 32,731 students were black or 85 percent of the student body, historic MDE enrollment records from the Department of Archives and History show.

Before the court order in fall 1969, black students made up 47 percent of the total student body, archived race data from the state auditor shows, but by fall 1970, 61 percent of the student body was black.

Private-school enrollment skyrocketed as a result, and as the decades ticked by, Jackson schools steadily lost white students—and total enrollment numbers.

Womack, who is now the associate vice president for developmental operations at Millsaps College, saw many white families who sent their children to private schools who had left public schools themselves as children after integration.

“Over time, families became so accustomed to going to private schools that it became a generational thing. You know, Mississippi is such a legacy place, so that if my parents went to Jackson Prep, St. Andrew’s or Jackson Academy, that’s where I’m going, and now we have two generations of people who have never been inside public schools,” she said.

Families who left the city altogether likely account for the growth in publicschool populations in Madison and predominantly Rankin County. Today, however, despite 20 percent of Jackson’s population being white, white students make up less than 5 percent of the student body at JPS, indicating that they are enrolled in private institutions or home-schooled instead.

As president of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson for 12 years, Susan Womack worked to keep middle-class black and white families in Jackson Public Schools, but found that many who could afford it left the public schools.

the world.” Larkin said this belief drives a lot of her justice work currently but also influenced her parenting.

“(It’s) what you model, not what you teach your kids or preach to your kids. It’s what you model, so they saw me fighting for public schools and volunteering on the PTA and at the temple,” she said.

Womack and her husband have one son, whom they sent to JPS, while she was still working at PPSJ. She said when they enrolled her son in Casey Elementary, his classes were much more integrated then when he later graduated from Murrah. He was one of no more than 20 white students to walk across the stage in 2014.

Orfield told the Jackson Free Press.

Orfield and a team of researchers work on the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, which produced the “Brown at 60” report in 2014.

The report found that enrollment trends in the schools between 1968 and 2011 show a 28-percent decline in white enrollment, a 19-percent increase in black enrollment, and a 495-percent increase in the number of Latino students. As resources track lower in those schools due to decimated tax bases to support them, the quality of the education and the teachers tend to drop, keeping an under-educated generational cycle going for populations who were not originally allowed access to quality education.

“One of the reasons that racial segregation is harmful is the strong connection between schools that concentrate black and Latino students and schools that concentrate low-income students,” the Brown at 60 report says. “Prior Civil Rights Project reports have referred to this as double segregation (e.g., segregation by race and class), and we continue to see the strong relationship between the two when examining segregation in schools in 2011-12.

“In 2011-12, 45.8 percent of all public school students were classified as lowincome, meaning that they were eligible for free and/or reduced lunch.”

In JPS, 99 percent of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch, as determined by federal poverty guidelines.

Orfield and his team found that in deep southern states, including Mississippi, black students make up at least one-third of the states’ enrollment in public schools.

This data matters because it affects black students’ performance in school and then keeps the cycles of poverty and underperformance going for future generations.

A 2010 study, “Schools and Inequality,” analyzed student performance and race data, mirroring the Coleman Report, published following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to document the correlations between race and student performance. The report unearthed the lack of “equality of educational opportunity” in the country.

University of Wisconsin researchers in 2010 found that “going to a high-poverty school or a highly segregated African American school has a profound effect on a student’s achievement outcomes, above and beyond the effect of individual poverty or minority status. Specifically, both the racial/ethnic and social class composition of a student’s school are 1-3/4 times more important than a student’s individual race/ ethnicity or social class for understanding educational outcomes,” Geoffrey Borman and Maritza Dowling, who published the research, wrote.

Their research found that racially segregated schools are hindering African American students’ ability to achieve.

“(It) is clear that racially segregated schools compromised African American students’ opportunity to achieve educational outcomes equal to those of their peers at majority-White schools,” the study says.

“… (T)his analysis suggests that both within-school interactions among students and educators, and racial segregation across schools deny African American children equality of educational opportunity.”

School composition, and what happens inside the walls, can affect the performore INTEGRATION, see page 18

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The Integration and Re-segregation of Jackson’s Public Schools from page 16 mance of that school, in other words, as well as outside factors contributing to students’ well-being including poverty.

Richard Kahlenberg, a writer and senior fellow at the Century Foundation, cites a study on housing policies in Montgomery County, Md., where low-income students were allowed to attend fairly affluent schools and live in middle to upperclass communities with remarkable results.

The study compared those students to their peers living in majority low-income neighborhoods and attending schools with new and innovative resources.

“The results were unmistakable: lowincome students attending more-affluent elementary schools (and living in more-affluent neighborhoods) significantly outperformed low-income elementary students who attend higher-poverty schools with state-of-the-art educational interventions,” Kahlenberg writes in a paper titled “From

“It would start around middle school and parents whose families who were diehard public-school people would move to Madison County. Parents who wanted to stay in Jackson would choose a private school,” Womack said.

Orfield says that while private-school enrollment is trending downward nationally, those institutions are getting whiter.

The decline in private-school enrollment is among predominantly minority students, so while private schools get whiter, the public schools get less integrated—leading to the re-segregation of public schools.

While the racial composition of Jackson Public Schools stayed solid throughout the 2000s, the academic performance of students deteriorated. Then, despite bringing in an out-of-state superintendent, Cedrick Gray, the district persistently received a “D” grade for most of his tenure, until 2016 when it received its first marks as a

sults, then something has gone wrong.”

Uniformity for Williams’ son would mean that he could attend a school that is equal to that of Madison Station Elementary School’s academic rigor and resources.

“While at Madison Station, J.E. had access to experienced teachers, fresh food in the cafeteria, a host of creative classes, an array of afterschool programming and a modern computer lab,” the lawsuit says.

“In contrast, at Raines (Elementary), J.E. first-year teacher had 32 students in her class at the beginning for the school year and not enough resources to support the needs of her students.”

The lawsuit seeks declaratory relief for the court to declare the State of Mississippi adhere to its 1868 constitutional educational clause to provide a “uniform system” of public schools. “Uniformity means offering kids, no matter where they are in the state, the same chance to get a meaningful

Source: Mississippi Department of Education archived public school enrollment data (1966-2006 archived; 2007-2016 online). *Enrollment for individual school districts was not available in archives for 1989-1993.

All Walks of Life.”

Ultimately, the Montgomery County housing policy had the most significant, positive educational impact for low-income kids in that county. It follows that black students attending more affluent schools, largely outside Jackson, perform better than low-income students in predominantly low-income schools in the city.

Clinton, Pearl and Madison County public school districts, the three most integrated districts in the Jackson metro, received “A” grades in the 2017 accountability results. The median household income in Clinton is $55,486, in Pearl is $42,323 and $64,376 in Madison County. The median household income in Jackson is $32,250.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Back to ‘Separate But Equal’?

Hispanic students outnumber white students attending the 58 schools in JPS today, although 96 percent of the school district is African American. At some point in the mid-2000s, Womack says PPSJ shifted its focus, while still fighting to ensure the best education for everyone attending public schools. It was clear that keeping middleclass families, both white and black, in the 18 school district had become too difficult.

“failing” school district. During this time, enrollment data show that white students, as well as some black students, steadily left JPS to go elsewhere.

Rankin County School District’s population jumped from 13,663 in 1994 to 19,205 today, and while the majority of the student body there is white, the number of black students steadily increased every year. Similarly, Madison County Schools increased in student population each year.

Indigo Williams’ son has seen the difference between schools in Jackson Public Schools and Madison County Schools. She is one of four mothers suing the state in federal court for failing to provide a “uniform system of public free public schools.”

The lawsuit, brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, points out the difference in facilities and academic rigor between the two schools. The lawsuit is not asking for integration, however. “Our case really isn’t about segregation as much as it is about a lack of uniformity,” SPLC senior staff attorney Will Bardwell said. “When you’ve got these schools that are overwhelmingly black, and you compare those to schools that are overwhelmingly white, and you can see dramatically different re-

education that prepares them to participate in the political process,” Bardwell said.

John Sewell and his wife, Kim, who are both white, made the conscious choice to send all three of their children to Jackson Public Schools at one point despite both attending private schools in Jackson themselves. Two of the couple’s three children currently attend JPS in the Murrah feeder pattern, and Sewell says his kids attended McWillie Elementary and then tested into Bailey APAC Middle School.

Even though his kids are minorities in their classes, he said they do not see it that way and believe going to schools where they are the minority is important for their futures. “Building a healthy worldview is not something that should happen when you go to college. I think, you know, just being in a diverse group of people from the time you’re 7 years old is not an unhealthy thing, and it just builds a mindset that’s healthy,” Sewell said.

One of Sewell’s children attends St. Andrew’s, he says, to take more challenging math courses like pre-calculus that were not offered at the right grade level for him to benefit in JPS. “Him moving to St. Andrew’s is not saying JPS is not a good

place to get an education,” Sewell clarified.

“I think it’s a compliment to JPS that he’s moving to a place that’s harder because of the foundation that he’s built.”

Similarly, Sewell says he does not disparage parents who choose private schools.

“I don’t knock anybody who does the private-school route. Everybody is going to do what they think is best for their child or children, but for us it comes down to our core beliefs and our faith,” he said. “We think Jackson is a great city, and the people who live here are good, and we want to support things that make more good people.”

Not all kids in JPS have the option of looking at private schools, and the now second-largest district in the state recently fended off state control, at least for now.

Walker, who was heavily involved in her daughter’s education on both her middle school and high school PTAs, made sure Alexis participated was exposed to different kids. Alexis participated in clubs like the Civil Rights and Liberties Club, where she was able to meet and befriend some white kids. By and large, however, the district is homogenous in nature with a scarce chance of changing any time soon.

Today, some JPS students, especially at schools such as Jim Hill, say they seldom interact with white people at all.

Orfield suggests regionalism or magnet schools as a way to integrate schools, but regionalism requires the appetite for busing kids across district lines and for predominantly white communities to opt to attend majority black schools. If a community is fairly integrated itself, then bridging the school integration gap gets easier.

“If you can manage to hold so the neighborhood stands to be integrated, what many whites want isn’t just to just flee continuously, they just want to be in a school that gets their kids ready for college,” Orfield said. “(They want) a school where their kid isn’t the only white kid. You have to plan to do it.”

Black families in Mississippi, however, want a chance at a school system and resources they were promised over and over again, but ultimately never received on an equal basis—as majority politics in Mississippi since 1969 have increasingly focused on rewarding “good” districts and giving fewer resources to “failing” districts.

Today, Gibbs said he wants to see an integrated JPS in every way because everyone involved, and society over all, would benefit. “I would love to see the schools become more integrated, not only racially, but economically as well,” he said.

Read a slightly longer version of this story, comment and see additional information at jfp.ms/integration. Email state reporter Arielle Dreher at arielle@jacksonfreepress.com.

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LIFE&STYLE | food&drink

Your Thanksgiving Guide

Primos Café (515 Lake Harbour Drive, Ridgeland, 601-898-3600; 2323 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, 601-9363398)

by Amber Helsel FILE PHOTO

For Thanksgiving, Primos has dinner packages that serve 10 to 12 people and include a ham or turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, large vegetable, choice of pie and more. Primos also has sides such as cranberry sauce, sweet-potato casserole and green-bean casserole; and desserts such as lemon ice box pie, pound cake and more available for purchase. For more information, visit primoscafe.com.

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Celebrate Thanksgiving with family—and through buying locally.

McDade’s Markets (multiplelocations, mcdadesmarkets.com)

This Thanksgiving, McDade’s will have deluxe turkey or ham dinners for eight to 10 people.

The dinners include a ham or turkey, a gallon of homemade cornbread dressing, a pumpkin pie, a pint of gravy, a dozen dinner rolls and a choice of sides such as broccoli-and-rice casserole, baked-potato casserole and a green-bean casserole. McDade’s also has gallon sizes for sale such as turnip greens, macaroni and cheese and candied yams.

Broad Street Baking Company (4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 101, 601362-2900)

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

For Thanksgiving, Broad Street will have breads and king cakes such as breakfast biscuits, brioche and a caramel-apple king cake; soups such as roasted cauliflower soup and sausage gumbo; salads such as cranberry relish and Caesar salad; sides such as Yukon gold mashed potatoes and corn maque choux; brunch items such as potato-hash casserole and rustic deep-dish vegetarian quiche; main courses such as an oven-roast-

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ed honey-glazed ham and fried turkey breast; and treats such as hummingbird cake, carrot cake and fudge cake. People must order by Sunday, Nov. 19, and they must pick orders up on Wednesday, Nov. 22, by 2 p.m. For more information, visit broadstbakery.com.

Olivia’s Food Emporium (820 Highway 51 N., Madison, 601-898-8333)

For Thanksgiving, Olivia’s will have meats such as a smoked or fried turkey, oven-roasted turkey breast and Ya Ya seafood gumbo; Momma’s cornbread dressing; sides such as a baked-potato casserole, and macaroni and cheese; appetizers such as pimiento cheese, spinach dip and Mediterranean dip; breakfast items such as sausage rolls and bacon-and-cheese quiche; cakes in flavors such as chocolate and Italian cream; and pies such as lemon ice box, Hershey and sweet potato. Olivia’s also has a meal plan that includes a smoked turkey, cornbread dressing, turkey gravy, green-bean casserole, a dozen rolls and pecan pie. Customers must place orders by Friday, Nov. 17, and pick them up

by Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. For more information, find the business on Facebook.

This Thanksgiving, Cookin’ Up a Storm will have sidles such as stuffing with sage sausage, apples and pecans, spinach Madeline and corn soufflé; a spinach salad with strawberries, pecans and poppy-seed dressing, and broccoli salad with raisins, pecans, bacon and sweet dressing; desserts such as banana pudding, and a vodka-and-coffeeliqueur chocolate cake; and breakfast dishes such as pecan-pie muffins and mini cinnamon rolls. For more information, visit cookinupastorm.kitchen.

Hickory Pit (1491 Canton Mart Road, 601-956-7079, hickorypitms.com)

This Thanksgiving, Hickory Pit will have smoked turkeys, lemon and Hershey pies, coconut and carrot cakes and pecan pie. Customers must place order at least 24 hours in advance. The order deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 22, and customers can pick their orders up as early as 11 a.m. that day.

Amerigo Italian Restaurant (6592 Old Canton Road; 155 Market St., Flowood; amerigo.net)

For Thanksgiving this year, Amerigo will have entrees such as chicken Margarite, which has mozzarella cheese and basil with a choice of a tomato, garlic-butter or scallion cream sauce; fettuccine imperial, which is chicken, ham, garlic and mushrooms tossed in an alfredo sauce; and roasted vegetables

and penne with tomatoes, peppers, squash, asparagus and garlic in an herb-and-pesto sauce; and tiramisu with Kahlua chocolate and vanilla cream, and a pecan-butter-crunch cake. The order deadline is Monday, Nov. 20, and customers must pick orders up by Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 5 p.m. To place orders, call the Ridgeland location at 601-977-0563 or the Flowood location at 601-992-1550.

Table 100 (100 Ridge Way, Flowood, 601-420-4202)

This Thanksgiving, Table 100 will have meats such as four whole sweet-tea-brined chickens and a sweet-tea-brined and hickorysmoked turkey; sides such as green-bean casserole and roasted cauliflower; and pumpkin pie and bread pudding. The restaurant also has a package that includes a choice of meat, three sides, dressing and gravy, cranberry relish and a choice of dessert. Customers must order by Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m., and pick orders up by Wednesday, Nov. 22. For more information, visit tableonehundred.com.

The Pig & Pint (3139 N. State St., 601-326-6070, pigandpint.com)

This Thanksgiving, The Pig & Pint’s menu includes meats such as smoked brisket or pulled pork; sides such as collard greens and potato salad; housemade Carolina mustard sauce and Mississippi “sweet” barbecue sauce; and bananas Foster pudding, and white-chocolate-and-cranberry bread pudding. For more information, visit pigandpint. com. Customers must place and pay for orders by 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 20, and pick them up by Wednesday, Nov. 22.

La Brioche Patisserie (2906 N. State St., 601-988-2299)

For the Thanksgiving holiday, La Brioche has treats such as pumpkin cheesecake, Swedish ginger snaps, the business’ Fall Collection macarons, pumpkin spice tarts and more. For more information, visit labriochems.com.

This is not a complete list. To see and add more, visit jfp.ms/Thanksgiving2017.

FROSTY'S favorite cinnamon to warm your body and soul C U P S E S P R E S S O C A F E.C O M

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Martin’s Restaurant and Lounge 4PVUI 4UBUF 4U +BDLTPO t Lunch specials, pub appetizers or order from the full menu of po-boys and entrees. Full bar, beer selection.

STEAK & SEAFOOD

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MEDITERRANEAN/GREEK

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November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

menu features everything from curries to fresh sushi.

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23

THURSDAY 11/16

SATURDAY 11/18

TUESDAY 11/21

The Youth Media Project Student Showcase is at the Capital Club.

12Ks for the Holidays is at the Fondren Green Space.

“Wild About Gobblers” is at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

BEST BETS Nov. 15 - 22, 2017

“American Freakshow” is at 9 p.m. at Martin’s Restaurant & Bar (214 S. State St.). The EDM showcase features performances from artists such as Bear Grillz, PhaseOne, Dirt Monkey and Kompany. $15 in advance, $25 at the door; email contact@flvshbvng.com; martinslounge.net.

R&B artist Leela James, a Los Angeles native, performs Wednesday, Nov. 22, at The Hideaway.

flickr Patrik Hamberg

WEDNESDAY 11/15

THURSDAY 11/16

Museum After Hours: “Art Gumbo” is at 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). The pop-up exhibition features art from Hoopsnake Press, music from Seth Power and the Part-Timers, an art activity, a screening of “Duck Soup,” a ‘sipp-Sourced menu, and more. Free; msmuseumart.org. … “The Rebel, The Soul & The Saint Tour” is at 7:30 p.m. at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Kirk Franklin is a Grammy Awardwinning gospel artist, and Ledisi an R&B artist whose latest album is titled “Let Love Rule.” PJ Morton also performs.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. $25.50-$79.49; ardenland.net.

his 21st birthday and is set to be released from his apprenticeship with a band of pirates. Additional dates: Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, 2:30 p.m. $35; msopera.org.

courtesy Mississippi Opera0

SATURDAY 11/18

The Handworks Holiday Market is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 High St.). The arts and crafts shopping event features more than 120 exhibitors. Handmade products include art, jewelry, pottery, children’s furniture and clothes, gourmet foods, spa products,

by Rebecca Hester gifts, holiday decorations, garden art, and more. Additional date: Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. $8 per jacksonfreepress.com person, free for ages 12 and Fax: 601-510-9019 under; handworksmarket.com. …

Daily updates at “Building the Wall” is at 7:30 p.m. jfpevents.com at the Warehouse Theatre (1000 Monroe St.). The play centers on a historian’s interview with a former prison warden in a near future where anti-immigration rhetoric has led to the mass incarceration of undocumented people. Additional date: Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m. $10; newstagetheatre.com.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

events@

Elana Gleason stars in the Mississippi Opera production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” which runs Nov. 17-19 at Duling Hall.

FRIDAY 11/17

Cabaret at Duling Hall: “The Pirates of Penzance” is at 7:30 p.m. at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.). The Mississippi Opera presents the Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical 24 comedy, which tells the story of Frederic, who just reached

SUNDAY 11/19

“Concert 1” is at 3 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral (305 E. Capitol St.). The Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra performs Brahms’ “Tragic Overture, Op. 81” and Combs’ “Symphony No. 1,” featuring soloists and Kinetic Etchings Dance Project. Free; mcojackson.org.

MONDAY 11/20

The “Journey to the North Pole” Preview Party is from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Mississippi Children’s Museum (2145 Museum Blvd.). The members-only event includes a sneak preview of the new holiday exhibit, which features a winter village with a train, a 45foot Snowflake Slide, and more. Exhibit officially opens Nov. 21 and runs through Jan. 7. Annual membership levels: $85, $145 and $205; call 601-981-5469; mschildrensmuseum.org. … The Mississippi Fine Arts String Trio performs at 7:30 p.m. at Millsaps College (1701 N. State St.) in the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall. Millsaps College’s ensemble-in-residence performs with pianist Lynn Raley. Free; call 601-9741000; millsaps.edu.

TUESDAY 11/21

The JAG performs at 8 p.m. at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.). The Jackson-native psychedelic rock band’s latest singles are titled “A Star Is Born” and “Dead Animals.”

Greater Pyrenees also performs. Doors open at 7 p.m. For all ages. $10 admission; call 877-987-6487; ardenland.net.

WEDNESDAY 11/22

Leela James performs at 8 p.m. at The Hideaway (5100 Interstate 55 N. Frontage Road). The Los Angelesnative R&B singer’s latest album is titled “Did It for Love.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. $27.50 standing, $42.50 seated, $47.50 VIP seat; call 601-291-4759; find it on Facebook.

Fall Youth Media Project Student Showcase Nov. 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at The Capital Club (125 S. Congress St.). YMP students present their documentaries, read selections of written work, give tours of the newsroom on the 13th floor and answer questions about the program.

Donate what you can at door to support the project. Visit youthmediaproject.com and see student work at jxnpulse.com. To sponsor, email donna@youthmediaproject.com.

Christmas Wonderland Nov. 15-16, 10 a.m.11 p.m., Nov. 17-19, noon-11 p.m., Nov. 20-22, 10 a.m.-11 p.m., at Trustmark Park (1 Braves Blvd., Pearl). The Christmas event includes ice-skating, a double ice slide and inflatables. $2 admission for ages 12 and under, $3 for ages 13 and up, activity prices vary; find it on Facebook.

Holiday Ornament Auction Nov. 16, 5-8 p.m., at The Cedars Historic Home (4145 Old Canton Road). The silent auction features holiday ornaments that local artists have designed. Free; call 601-981-9606; fondren.org.

Handworks Holiday Market Nov. 17, 9 a.m.7 p.m., Nov. 18, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., at Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 High St.). The crafts shopping event features more than 120 exhibitors. $8, free for ages 12 and under; handworksmarket.com.

Bringing Washington to You Nov. 21, 8 a.m., at Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.) Congressman Gregg Harper speaks on topics such as the budget and tax reform, upcoming legislation more. $35 members, $50 nonmembers; greaterjacksonpartnership.com.

KIDS Events at Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive) • Tea Party with a T-Rex Nov. 18, 10 a.m.-noon.

Includes a reading of Molly Idle’s “Tea Rex,” playtime in the fossil pile and a visit with a dinosaur. $6 for adults, $4 for ages 3-8, $5 for seniors, free for ages 3 and under; mdwfp.com.

• Wild About Gobblers Nov. 21, 10 a.m.-noon.

Participants of all ages can examine turkey feathers, make their own turkey headbands, and investigate egg anatomy and more. $6 Adult, $4 ages 3-18, $5 seniors; call 601-576-6000.

Kid’s Club Nov. 21, 10 a.m., at Northpark Mall (1200 E. County Line Road, Ridgeland). At Center Court. The children’s event includes activities such as making placemats for Thanksgiving. Free; northparkmall.com

FOOD & DRINK Beaujolais Nouveau Day Celebration Nov. 16, 4 p.m., at Anjou (361 Township Ave., Ridgeland).

The French holiday dinner features a prix fixe menu and music from Swing de Paris. Reservations encouraged. $48-$54; anjourestaurant.net.

Gold: A Gala for Special Olympics Mississippi Nov. 16, 7-10 p.m., at The South Warehouse (627 E. Silas Brown St.). The gala includes a silent auction, food, music from Bill & Temperance with Jeff Perkins, drinks and more. $75 individual, $125 for couple, $25 for individual athlete/region director, $50 for couple athlete/ region director; specialolympicsms.org.

SPORTS & WELLNESS Jackson Black Pride Health Symposium Nov. 17, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., at Jackson Marriott (200 E. Amite St.). The symposium focuses on the health of black LGBT youth and adults in Mississippi. Speakers include Linda Rigsby, Kerry Johnson and more. Lunch for registered participants. Free; find it on Facebook.

Monster Jam Nov. 17-18, 7 p.m., Nov. 18, 2 p.m., at Mississippi Coliseum (1207 Mississippi St.). The motorsport competition features

SLATE

“Fruitcakes” Nov. 16-18, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, 2 p.m., at Black Rose Theatre (103 Black St., Brandon). The holiday play is about Jamie, a boy who runs away from his home in the city and lands in a community of friendly eccentrics during the Christmas season. $15 adult, $10 children; call 601-825-1293; blackrosetheatre.org.

Cabaret at Duling Hall: “The Pirates of Penzance” Nov. 17-18, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 19, 2:30 p.m., at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.). The Mississippi Opera presents the Gilbert & Sullivan’s musical comedy. $35; msopera.org.

the best in sports over the next seven days

by Bryan Flynn, follow at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports

Alcorn State won the SWAC East division for a fourth consecutive season. That means the Braves are the first team in the conference to play in four straight championship games and one of the last two teams in the final SWAC Championship.

THURSDAY, NOV. 16

NFL (7:25-11 p.m., NBC): The Pittsburgh Steelers host the Tennessee Titans in what could be a playoff preview between two top AFC teams.

FRIDAY, NOV. 17

College basketball (6-8 p.m., SECN+): The UM Rebels men’s basketball team plays its third game of the season as they host Georgia State.

SATURDAY, NOV. 18

College football (11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., CBS): MSU tries to bounce back on the road against Arkansas after a close loss to Alabama. … College football (6-9:30 p.m., ESPN2): The UM Rebels take on Texas A&M in hopes of a sixth win this year, but either way, they’re not eligible for a bowl game.

SUNDAY, NOV. 19

NFL (noon-3:30 p.m., FOX): The New Orleans Saints look to win their eighth-straight game when they host the Washington Redskins.

monster trucks such as Grave Digger, MaxDTM and more. $15-$73; monsterjam.com.

12Ks for the Holidays Nov. 18, 6:30-10:30 a.m., at Fondren Green Space (622 Duling Ave.).

Good Samaritan hosts the holiday race featuring a 12K and 5K run, a 5K walk and a free children’s one-mile fun run with Santa. Runners can participate in a Holiday Costume Contest to win prizes. $45, $50 race day; christmas12k.com.

STAGE & SCREEN Commedia Dell’Arte Nov. 16-18, 7-8:30 p.m., at Millsaps College (1701 N. State St.). In the Campbell Conference Center. The Millsaps Players present a take on the 16th-century Italian form that inspired everything from “The Honeymooners” to “Family Guy.” Free; millsaps.edu.

MONDAY, NOV. 20

NFL (7:30-11 p.m., ESPN): The Atlanta Falcons will try to keep pace with their NFC South competition, the Saints and the Carolina Panthers, in a road game against the Seattle Seahawks.

TUESDAY, NOV. 21

College basketball (7-9 p.m., ESPN3): Spend the night streaming the Mississippi Valley State men’s basketball team facing Loyola-Chicago.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 22

College basketball (7-9 p.m., SECN+): The MSU men’s team hosts a good Stephen F. Austin squad on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Last weekend’s football action included JSU earning its second straight win, USM getting six wins to become bowl eligible and DSU making the Division II playoffs. Unfortunately, the season ended with losses for MC, Millsaps and Belhaven on Saturday.

“Building the Wall” Nov. 18-19, 7:30 p.m., at Warehouse Theatre (1000 Monroe St.). The play centers on a historian’s interview with a former prison warden in a near future where anti-immigration rhetoric has led to the mass incarceration of illegal aliens. $10; newstagetheatre.com.

“A Better Life” Film Screening Nov. 19, 2-4 p.m., at Millsaps College (1701 N. State St.) The Mississippi Humanist Association hosts the screening and discussion of author Chris Johnson’s latest book. RSVP. Free; mshumanists.org.

CONCERTS & FESTIVALS Kirk Franklin & Ledisi—The Rebel, The Soul & The Saint Tour Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m., at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). Kirk Franklin is a multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning

gospel artist, and Ledisi an R&B singer-songwriter whose latest album is titled “Let Love Rule.”

PJ Morton also performs. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. $25.50-$74.49; ardenland.net.

Events at Duling Hall (622 Duling Ave.) • The JAG Nov. 21, 8 p.m. The Jackson-native psychedelic rock band’s latest singles are titled “A Star Is Born” and “Dead Animals.” Greater Pyrenees also performs. Doors open at 7 p.m. For all ages. $10; call 877-987-6487; ardenland.net.

• The Molly Ringwalds Nov. 22, 9 p.m. The ’80s tribute band is known for its theatrical performances and costumes. Doors open at 7 p.m. $25 in advance, $30 at the door; ardenland.net.

LITERARY SIGNINGS Events at Lemuria Books (Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 202) • “Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South” Nov. 15, 5 p.m. Karen L. Cox signs copies. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $26 book; call 601-366-7619; lemuriabooks.com.

• “Paris in the Present Tense” Nov. 16, 5 p.m.

Mark Helprin sign copies. Reading at 5:30 p.m. $28.95 book; lemuriabooks.com.

“Mary’s Story & Song” Nov. 18, 1-3 p.m., at Afrikan Art Gallery (800 N. Farish St.) Mary Haralson Coleman discusses her memoir and signs copies. $10.98 book; meredithetc.com.

CREATIVE CLASSES Vocal Performance Workshop Nov. 16, 6:30-8 p.m., at Jackson Preparatory School (3100 Lakeland Drive, Flowood). In the Center for Arts and Leadership Lindsay Hall. The speaker is Nashville-based vocal coach Diane Sheets. $10 per person; capitalcitytalent.org.

Introduction to Watercolor Nov. 18, 2-4 p.m., at Jax-Zen Float (155 Wesley Ave.) Eli Childers leads the workshop, which will teach participants how to work with the nature of the medium. $30, includes supplies; find it on Facebook.

EXHIBIT OPENINGS Piece by Piece Nov. 16, 5-9 p.m., at Jax-Zen Float (155 Wesley Ave.). The art show features pieces from Millsaps College junior studio-art majors and takes place at both Jax-Zen Float and Offbeat next door. Includes music, games, food and drinks. Free admission; find it on Facebook.

Museum After Hours: Art Gumbo Nov. 16, 5:30 p.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Includes art from Hoopsnake Press, music from Seth Power & the Part-Timers, a screening of “Duck Soup,” a ‘sipp-Sourced popup menu and more. Free; msmuseumart.org.

Taylor Guitars Road Show Nov. 16, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Lakeland Music (5200 Highway 25, Flowood). Representatives from Taylor Guitars present a collection of exclusive and custom instruments, and demonstrate some of the latest models from Taylor. Free; find it on Facebook.

Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings, or to add your own events online. You can also email event details to events@jacksonfreepress.com to be added to the calendar. The deadline is noon the Wednesday prior to the week of publication.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

COMMUNITY

25

DIVERSIONS | music

K

irk Franklin will be a familiar name to many people who grew up in church in the 1990s, but it’s a name that is still picking up steam today.

Since his arrival in the gospel scene, the Fort Worth, Texas, native has become a New York Times best-selling author and a 12-time Grammy Award winner, the most recent being 2017’s Best Gospel Album for his 12th record, “Losing My Religion,” and Best Gospel Performance/Song for Tamela Mann’s “God Provides,” which Franklin co-wrote.

However, he also received plenty of attention this year outside of the gospel realm for his appearance on Kanye West’s song “Ultralight Beam” alongside Chance the Rapper, The-Dream and Kelly Price.

Now, Franklin is currently on the road for the 27date “The Rebel, the Soul & the Saint Tour,” which pairs him with Grammy-nominated R&B artist Ledisi, who released her eighth studio album, “Let Love Rule,” on Sept. 22.

The Jackson Free Press recently spoke with Franklin by phone to discuss the tour and the success of his most recent album.

With Ledisi having more romantic lyrics, what has it been like for you to then move into a different headspace for worship material?

I haven’t had to move at all! If she goes from a song talking about, “I love you,” then I have a song that I’ve written from “God’s Property” (Franklin’s 1997 album) that goes, “Love, a word that comes and goes, but few people really know what it means to really love somebody.”

And if she goes from something like her song (“I Blame You”), then I can go to “I Smile.” So it’s been very fluid.

What kind of impact have you seen from your 2015 album, “Losing My Religion,” since its release?

(I’ve seen) the ability to have conversations about

Love for the Rebel and the Saint

how a lot of the systems that people have created in society for millennia have not always been to their benefit when it comes to seeing God as a father who loves them, seeing God as a creator who cares for creation. A lot of times, we’ve lived in fear of the systems, and the systems made us fearful and condemning.

We use that to try to control people’s actions instead of allowing them to fall in love with the fact that they are loved and allowing that power to be source of transformation in the hearts of men and women.

So to be able to have that conversation, to push that conversation, and to really be amazed at how afraid people are of having that conversation has really been amazing.

What songs from that record have you been surprised to see people latch onto?

You know, I haven’t really thought about it like that, but there’s a song called “My World Needs You” that was very timely with all of the killings and issues and different things we’ve gone through over the last couple years. That song really seemed to connect with a core audience strongly.

What’s something you learned from “Losing My Religion” that you want to apply to your next record?

You know, I really learned how difficult it is to open up our eyes, to be able to consider something different and new. A lot of people use their faith as a blanket, and it’s not an area for them to grow; it’s an area for them to be comfortable in.

It’s my job—for some reason, it’s always been my motivation—to kind of pull that away. I’ve been doing that from day one. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.

I hope people begin to see God as this loving father instead of this list of rules.

by Micah Smith

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For you, what is it about those genres that makes them fit together so well?

Well again, it’s all similar. It’s just the lyrical content. It’s just what we talk about. But the mu26 sic and the style—and you know that about black

Chr

What is something interesting that has come out of joining R&B and gospel in one concert?

More than anything, it’s just kind of diversifying the genres. I think the communities are just used to seeing one thing, and I think that it’s been very new and different for them to sing about the God they love and the man or woman they love at the same time that night.

So that’s just a really different type of twist, to be able to love people and love God in one night, and to really be able to think about it that way and just be reminded. You know, it’s really the same food on the same plate. We’re just not used to the food touching. So we’re not reinventing the food; we’re just showing you that it can be on the same plate and showing you that it’s really always been on the same plate.

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November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Being from different genres, what gave you and Ledisi the idea to pair up for this tour?

Well, first, Ledisi and I have been friends for a very long time, and she had contacted me last year to write a song (“If You Don’t Mind”) for her last album, and that really got us even closer. Her management team had an idea about us going on tour together, and you know, the (gospel and R&B) communities know both of us, so we thought it would be a good way to share some love and hope together at the same time. We just thought it’d be a little different of an idea—something fresh to inspire people.

Hopefully, we’ve done that, and hopefully, we’re doing that.

music—black music is so fluid, and it always has been.

We talk about the black church birthing soul and R&B and blues and gospel. It really is the same river. It’s always been the same river.

Kirk Franklin and Ledisi perform at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 16, at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.). PJ Morton also performs, and doors open at 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $25.50 to $79.49 at ardenland.net. For more information, visit kirkfranklin.com.

Kirk Franklin, a 12-time Grammy Award-winning gospel artist, performs with R&B artist Ledisi at Thalia Mara Hall on Nov. 16.

Music listings are due noon Monday to be included in print and online listings: music@jacksonfreepress.com.

Alumni House - Pearl Jamz 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Hal & Mal’s - Thomas Lovett 6 p.m. free Kathryn’s - Gator Trio 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Martin’s - Bear Grillz, PhaseOne, Dirt Monkey & Kompany 9 p.m. $15 advance $25 door Old Capitol Inn, Rooftop - Ron Etheridge 6 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Shaun Patterson 6 p.m.

Shucker’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 7:30 p.m.

Table 100 - Andy Henderson 6 p.m.

Nov. 16 - Thursday Anjou - Beaujolais Nouveau Day Celebration feat. Swing de Paris 4 p.m. $48-$54 Capitol Grill - Jesse Robinson & Friends 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Cups, Clinton - Jordy Searcy, McKenzie Lockhart & John Hart 7 p.m.

Drago’s - Johnny Barranco 5:30-8:30 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Raul Valinti & the F. Jones Challenge Band 10 p.m. $5 Georgia Blue, Flowood - Aaron Coker Georgia Blue, Madison - John Causey Hal & Mal’s - D’Lo Trio 6-9 p.m. free Iron Horse Grill - James Travis 6 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Greenfish 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Kemistry - DJ Airbrush 9 p.m.

Old Capitol Inn, Rooftop - Lee Harrington 6-9 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Josh Journeay 6-10 p.m.

Shucker’s - Sid Thompson & DoubleShotz 7:30 p.m. free Soulshine, Flowood - Jason Miller Band 7-10 p.m.

Table 100 - Andrew Pates 6 p.m.

Thalia Mara Hall - Kirk Franklin & Ledisi w/ PJ Morton 7:30 p.m. $25.50-$74.49 Underground 119 - Chris Gill 7-10:30 p.m.

Vibe - Kerry Thomas & Akami Graham 8 p.m. free

Nov. 17 - Friday Ameristar Bottleneck Blues Bar, Vicksburg - Area Code 8 p.m.

Char - Ronnie Brown 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Joseph LaSalla 6-9 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Keeshea Pratt midnight $10 Georgia Blue, Flowood - Jonathan Alexander

Georgia Blue, Madison - Shaun Patterson Hal & Mal’s - Eric Stracener 7 p.m. free The Hideaway - Jacob Bryant w/ Burnham Road 8 p.m. $15 advance $20 door Hops & Habanas - AXL JXN 8-10 p.m.

Iron Horse Grill - Sister Lucille 9 p.m.

ISH - DJ Unpredictable 601 & DJ Phingaprint 5 p.m.-2 a.m.

Kathryn’s - Bill & Temperance 7-10:30 p.m.

Kemistry - DJ Trigga 9 p.m.

M Bar - Flirt Fridays feat. DJ 901 free Martin’s - The Stolen Faces 10 p.m.

Pelican Cove - T Baby 6-10 p.m.

Pop’s Saloon - Spunk Monkees 9 p.m.

Shucker’s - Will & Linda 5:30 p.m.; Hunter & the Gators 8 p.m. $5; Aaron Coker 10 p.m.

Sombra, Flowood - Twisted Grass 6-9 p.m.

Soulshine, Ridgeland - Chris Gill 7-10 p.m.

Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Underground 119 - Good Paper of Rev. Robert Mortimer 8:30 p.m.

WonderLust - DJ Taboo 8 p.m.

The JAG

Nov. 18 - Saturday Alamo Theater - Michael Jackson Tribute Show 7-10 p.m. $20-$50 Ameristar Bottleneck Blues Bar, Vicksburg - Area Code 8 p.m.

Anjou - Stevie Cain 6-9 p.m.

Char - Bill Clark 6 p.m.

Drago’s - Robin Blakeney 6-9 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Big Money Mel & Small Change Wayne 10 p.m. $1; Sister Lucille midnight $10 Georgia Blue, Flowood - Andy Tanas Georgia Blue, Madison - Jason Turner Hal & Mal’s - Thomas Jackson 7 p.m. free The Hideaway - DJ Sean Blaze & DJ Tony Tone 9 p.m.

Iron Horse Grill - Vinnie C. 9 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Lucky Hand Blues Band 7-10:30 p.m.

Kemistry - KujoNastySho 9 p.m.

Martin’s - Cedric Burnside Project w/ Trenton Ayers 10 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Ronnie McGee 6-10 p.m.

Pop’s Saloon - Miles Flatt 9 p.m.

11/17 - DMX - Varsity Theatre, Baton Rouge 11/18 - Hiss Golden Messenger - Saturn, Birmingham

Shucker’s - Acoustic Crossroads 3:30 p.m.; Hunter & the Gators 8 p.m. $5; Todd Smith 10 p.m.

Spacecamp - Particle Devotion w/ El Obo 8 p.m. $5 Table 100 - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Underground 119 - Keeshea Pratt 9 p.m.

WonderLust - Drag Performance & Dance Party feat. DJ Taboo 8 p.m.-3 a.m. free before 10 p.m.

Nov. 19 - Sunday 1908 Provisions - Knight Bruce 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Char - Big Easy Three 11 a.m.; Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

The Hideaway - Sunday Jam 4-8 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Xtremez 6-9 p.m.

Offbeat - DJ Young Venom 6-9 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Ronnie Brown noon-4 p.m.

Shucker’s - Greenfish 3:30 p.m.

St. Andrew’s - Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra 3 p.m. free Table 100 - Raphael Semmes Trio 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; Dan Michael Colbert 6-9 p.m.

Nov. 20 - Monday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Duling Hall - The Busty Petites w/ Hood Baby & the Barnacles 8 p.m. $10 Hal & Mal’s - Central MS Blues Society (rest) 7 p.m. $5 Kathryn’s - Stevie Cain 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Millsaps - MS Fine Arts String Trio w/ Lynn Raley 7:30 p.m. free Table 100 - Andrew Pates 6 p.m.

Nov. 21 - Tuesday Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Duling Hall - The JAG w/ Greater Pyrenees 8 p.m. $10 Fenian’s - Open Mic Hal & Mal’s - Raphael Semmes & Friends 6-8:30 p.m. free Kathryn’s - Keys vs. Strings 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Last Call - DJ Spoon 9 p.m.

Table 100 - Chalmers Davis 6 p.m.

NOV. 22 - Wednesday Alumni House - Kern & Denise 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Char - Tommie Vaughn 6 p.m.

Duling Hall - The Molly Ringwalds 9 p.m. $25 advance $30 door The Hideaway - Leela James 8 p.m. $27.50-$47.50 Kathryn’s - Larry Brewer & Doug Hurd 6:30 p.m.

Martin’s - European Theater 10 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Acoustic Crossroads 6-10 p.m.

Shucker’s - Shayne Weems 7:30 p.m. free Table 100 - Andy Henderson 6 p.m.

WHAT’S THE MARK OF A GREAT PARTNER? They work as hard as you do.

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From Kiplinger's Personal Finance, May © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors. All rights reserved. &v;7 0 r;ulbvvbom -m7 ruo|;1|;7 0 |_; or ub]_| - v o= |_; &mb|;7 "|-|;vĺ $_; rubmঞm]ķ 1or bm]ķ u;7bv|ub0 ঞomķ ou u;|u-mvlbvvbom o= |_bv om|;m| b|_o | ; ru;vv ub ;m r;ulbvvbom bv ruo_b0b|;7ĺ

Trustmark - Jackson Free Press 4.375 x 8.375 Oct

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

Nov. 15 - Wednesday

Courtesy Echo Ave

MUSIC | live

27

Last Week’s Answers

BY MATT JONES

41 Old Dead Sea kingdom 42 Capacity of a liner, perhaps 46 Bikini or Brazilian, e.g.

48 Up to date with, with “of” 49 Microsoft’s counterpart to Siri and Alexa 50 Tied up, to a surgeon 51 Sanders, for one 52 A, in France 53 Hosp. features 54 Image worship

32 Free 33 French Revolution radical 34 Ricky Ricardo’s theme song 36 “Possession” actress Isabelle 37 ___ Farm (cheap wine brand) 38 Prepare for mummification 41 Glorify 43 Predetermined outcome

44 Person at the computer 45 1960s-’80s Ford models that go by initials 47 Woody Guthrie’s son 49 Half of CDII ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@ jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800 655-6548. Reference puzzle #850.

Down

“Grid Expectations” —freestyle for now.

Across

1 Attribute (to) 8 Hebrew letter before nun 11 Mil. VIP 14 Like most candy canes 15 The slightest amount 17 Fisher-Price toy that teaches animal noises 18 Fixes up the lawn 19 Momentarily 20 Scratches like a cat 21 Meh 22 “Good” cholesterol 25 Move, as merchandise

26 “The Waste Land” author’s initials 27 Gather wool from sheep 29 “It is ___ told by an idiot”: Macbeth 30 Quality of a spare tire holder?

32 Eight days out from the beginning of the work week, often 33 “Ultimately, we have the upper hand” 34 Bygone brand of “flavor bits” 35 Hoopster Archibald and statistician Silver, for two 36 “Honest” presidential nickname 39 Dull soreness 40 Azerbaijan, once (abbr.)

1 Give a hand 2 Dictation experts, once 3 Ironer’s target 4 Old detergent brand with a selfdescriptive name 5 ___ dixit (assertion without proof) 6 Changing areas on some seasides 7 William Dreyer’s ice cream partner Joseph 8 Ford make until 2011, informally 9 Knievel of motorcycle stunts 10 Miniature plateau 11 Lets up 12 Ultimate goals 13 Swiss company that owns Butterfinger and Buitoni 16 Group that breaks stories 23 Dr. of old pajamas 24 Series gaps 27 Marching band section 28 “Gone With the Wind” character Butler and “Good Mythical Morning” cohost McLaughlin, e.g.

29 Chile’s mountain range 30 Drink from India or Sri Lanka 31 Author Christopher whose writing inspired “Cabaret”

BY MATT JONES Last Week’s Answers

“Sum Sudoku”

Put one digit from 1-9 in each square of this Sudoku so that the following three conditions are met: 1) each row, column and 3x3 box (as marked off by heavy lines in the grid) contains the digits 1-9 exactly one time; 2) no digit is repeated within any of the areas marked off by dotted lines; and 3) the sums of the numbers in each area marked off by dotted lines total the little number given in each of those areas. Now do what I tell you— solve!! psychosudoku@gmail.com

MEDITERRANEAN GRILL

BEST OF JACKSON

NOMINATE US

Jackson’s New Preferred Address November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

in the middle of Historic Fondren.

28

BEST GYRO BEST MEAL UNDER $10 BEST HUMMUS WWW.BESTOFJACKSON.COM 730 Lakeland Dr. Jackson, MS | 601-366-6033 | Sun-Thurs: 11am - 10pm, Fri-Sat: 11am - 11pm W E D ELIVER F OR C ATERING O RDERS Fondren / Belhaven / UMC area

Nominate Eslava’s Grill for

Best Seafood 601.376.9874

MeridianAtFondren.com

2481 Lakeland Drive Flowood | 601.932.4070

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” —Charles H. Duell, director of the U.S. Patent Office, 1899. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” —Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895. “All the music that can be written has already been written.

We’re just repeating the past.” —19th-century composer Tschaikovsky. “Video won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a box every night.” —filmmaker Darryl F. Zanuck, commenting on television in 1946. I hope I’ve provided enough evidence to convince you to be faithful to your innovative ideas, Scorpio. Don’t let skeptics or conventional thinkers waylay you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Sagittarians are most likely to buy a lottery ticket that has the winning numbers.

But you’re also more likely than everyone else to throw the ticket in a drawer and forget about it, or else leave it in your jeans when you do the laundry, rendering the ticket unreadable. Please don’t be like that in the coming weeks.

Make sure you do what’s necessary to fully cash in on the good fortune that life will be making available.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

In the game of basketball, if a player is fouled by a member of the opposing team, he is given a “free throw.” While standing 15 feet away, he takes a leisurely shot at the basket without having to deal with any defenders. Studies show that a player is most likely to succeed at this task if he shoots the ball underhanded. Yet virtually no professionals ever do this. Why? Because it doesn’t look cool.

Everyone opts to shoot free throws overhand, even though it’s not as effective a technique. Weird! Let’s invoke this as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks, Capricorn. In my astrological opinion, you’ll be more likely to accomplish good and useful things if you’re willing to look uncool.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

In 1991, Aquarius rock star Axl Rose recorded the song “November Rain” with his band Guns N’ Roses. It had taken him eight years to compose it. Before it was finally ready for prime time, he had to whittle it down from an 18-minute-long epic to a more succint nine-minute ballad. I see the coming weeks as a time when you should strive to complete work on your personal equivalent of Axl’s opus.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor whose work led to the creation of electric lights, recorded music, movies and much more. When he was 49 years old, he met Henry Ford, a younger innovator who was at the beginning of his illustrious career. Ford told Edison about his hopes to develop and manufacture low-cost automobiles, and the older man responded with an emphatic endorsement. Ford later said this was the first time anyone had given him any encouragement. Edison’s approval “was worth worlds” to him. I predict, Pisces, that you will receive comparable inspiration from a mentor or guide or teacher in the next nine months. Be on the lookout for that person.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

“Many people go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after,” observed Henry David Thoreau.

The spirit of Thoreau’s observation is true about every one of us to some extent. From time to time, we all try to satisfy our desires in the wrong location, with the wrong tools and with the wrong people. But I’m happy to announce that his epigram is less true for you now than it has ever been.

In the coming months, you will have an unusually good chance to know exactly what you want, be in the right place at the right time to get it and still want it after you get it.

And it all starts now.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

I predict that during the next 10 months, you will generate personal power and good fortune as you ripen your skills at creating interesting forms of intimacy. Get started!

Here are some tips to keep in mind. 1. All relationships have problems. Every single one, no exceptions! So you should cultivate relationships that bring you useful and educational problems. 2. Be very clear about the qualities you do and don’t want at the core of your most important alliances. 3. Were there past events that still obstruct you from weaving the kind of togetherness that’s really good for

you? Use your imagination to put those events behind you forever.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

You may be entertaining an internal dialog that sounds something like this: “I need a clear yes or a definitive no ... a tender revelation or a radical revolution ... a lesson in love or a cleansing sex marathon—but I’m not sure which! Should I descend or ascend? Plunge deeper down, all the way to the bottom? Or zip higher up in a heedless flight into the wide open spaces? Would I be happier in the poignant embrace of an intense commitment or in the wild frontier where none of the old rules can follow me? I can’t decide! I don’t know which part of my mind I should trust!” If you do hear those thoughts in your brain, Gemini, here’s my advice: There’s no rush to decide. What’s healthiest for your soul is to bask in the uncertainty for a while.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

According to storyteller Michael Meade, ancient Celtic culture believed that “a person was born through three forces: the coming together of the mother and father, an ancestral spirit’s wish to be reborn, and the involvement of a god or goddess.” Even if you don’t think that’s literally true, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to have fun fantasizing it is. That’s because you’re in a phase when contemplating your origins can invigorate your spiritual health and attract good fortune into your life. So start with the Celtic theory and go from there. Which of your ancestors may have sought to live again through you?

Which deity might have had a vested interest in you being born? What did you come to this earth to accomplish?

Which of your innate potentials have you yet to fully develop, and what can you do to further develop them?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

I predict that starting today and during the next 10 months, you will learn more about treating yourself kindly and making yourself happy than you have in years. You will mostly steer clear of the mindset that regards life as a numbing struggle for mere survival. You will regularly dream up creative ideas about how to have more fun while attending to the mundane tasks in your daily rhythm. Here’s the question I hope you will ask yourself every morning for the next 299 days: “How can I love myself with devotion and ingenuity?”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

This may be the most miscellaneous horoscope I’ve ever created for you. That’s apropos, given the fact that you’re a multifaceted quick-change artist these days. Here’s your sweet mess of oracles. 1. If the triumph you seek isn’t humbling, it’s not the right triumph. 2. You may have an odd impulse to reclaim or recoup something that you have not in fact lost. 3. Before transmutation is possible, you must pay a debt. 4. Don’t be held captive by your beliefs. 5. If you’re given a choice between profane and sacred love, choose sacred.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

The next 10 months will be an ideal time to revise and revamp your approach to education. To take maximum advantage of the potentials, create a master plan to get the training and knowledge you’ll need to thrive for years to come. At first, it may be a challenge to acknowledge that you have a lot more to learn. The comfort-loving part of your nature may be resistant to contemplating the hard work it will require to expand your worldview and enhance your skills. But once you get started, you’ll quickly find the process becoming easier and more pleasurable.

Homework: Is there a belief you know you should live without, but don’t yet have the courage to leave behind? FreeWillAstrology.com

NOTICES Copyright Notice This is actual and constructive notice of the copyright protections for SAMUEL ALBERT ROBINSON©, trade-name/trademark an original expression created on or about June 9th, 1991, with all rights reserved held by Robinson, Samuel Albert Trust hereinafter Trust, domiciling Clarksville, Tennessee. Said commonlaw trade-name/trademark may not be used, printed, duplicated, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed neither in whole or in part, nor in any manner whatsoever, without prior written and expressed consent and acknowledgement of the Trust, hereinafter “Secured Party.” With the intent of being contractually bound , any juristic person, assents, consents and agrees that neither said juristic person, nor the agent of said juristic person, shall display, nor otherwise use in any manner, the common law trade-name/trade-mark, nor the common-law copyright described herein, nor any derivative, variation and/or spelling and printing of Samuel Albert Robinson, including but not limited to all derivative, variations in spelling, abbreviating uppercase/ lowercase rendering and writing of said trade-name/trademark and all unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

Mutual Assent Implied and Express Contract Executed by Unauthorized Use of Secured Party’s Common Law Copyrighted Property, self executing Security Agreement in Event of Unauthorized Use of Secured Party’s Common Law- Copyrighted Property.

By these terms, both the person and the agent of said person engaging in the use of copyrighted property hereinafter jointly referred to as the “interloper” does assent, consent and agree that any use of the tradename/ trademark, except the authorized use as set above constitutes unauthorized use, unauthorized reproduction, copyright infringement, and counterfitting of Secured Party’s common law copyrighted property is contractually binding upon said interloper, securing interest in the interloper’s assets, land and personal property for equal consideration and not less than the equivalent of

$1,000,000.00 (US Currency) per violation. Any person claiming an interest, challenging, or rebutting the right of the Secured Party may write to the Trust in care of Samuel Albert Robinson P.O. Box 20753. Clarksville Tennessee[37042] Non Domestic without the US. Nov 10, 17,24, 2017

FOR SALE 96 Kubota L2900 GST 4WD Tractor,Loader,Backhoe,Heavy Duty Forks,796 hours.$3000 601-640-1511

SERVICES Book Publishing Become a published author!

International distribution, print and digital formats. Books sold at major retailers. Contact Page Publishing for your FREE author submission kit. CALL 1- 844-206-0206 AT&T U-verse NEW AT&T INTERNET OFFER. $20 and $30/mo plans available when you bundle.

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PERSONALS Meet Singles!

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Browse greetings, exchange messages and connect live. Try it free. Call now: 800-513-9842

HELP WANTED DRIVERS NEEDED J&D Transit now hiring non-emergency drivers in Byram/Jackson area. Must be 25 with clean background and MVR. Come to 120 Southpointe Dr, Ste D, Byram MS 39272 for application.

TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD:

Post an ad, call 601-362-6121, ext. 11 or fax to 601-510-9019.

Deadline: Mondays at Noon.

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

BULLE TIN BOARD: Classifieds As low as $25!

29

11.16.17

EVERY THIRD TH U R S DAY 5:30 PM-until

ES

HIGH NOTE JAM CONCERT with Seth Power & the Part-Timers

2017 METRO JACKSON

6 PM Saturday, December 2, 2017 Mississippi State Capitol – Downtown Jackson 8:00 a.m. – Registration Begins 9:15 a.m. – Walk Begins

Duck Soup 7:30 PM

RICA AME N FI

SERVICE C ELD

PORATION OR

TS

(601) 853 1000

Drop-in art activity | Food available for purchase | Cash bar MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM of ART |STREET 380 SOUTH| LAMAR STREETMS | JACKSON, | 601.960.1515 380 SOUTH LAMAR JACKSON, | 39201MS| 39201 601.960.1515

Register today at www.metrojacksonheartwalk.org

Housing Discrimination Against People With Disabilities Is Illegal The Fair Housing law provides protection for people with any physical or mental impairment, or who have disabilities, including:

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

UÊ Ì > Ê` Ã À`iÀÃ UÊ-iÀ ÕÃÊ «> À i ÌÃÊ Ê eyesight, hearing or speech UÊ V Ã Ê> `ÊÌ ÃiÊÜ Ê>ÀiÊ recovering from drug addiction UÊ-«iV wVÊ` Ãi>ÃiÃ]ÊÃÕV Ê>ÃÊ -

30

9 ÕÊ>ÀiÊi Ì Ì i`ÊÌ Ê,i>Ã >L iÊ VV `>Ì Ã]Ê or waivers of rules or policies to allow you to enjoy the housing as others do.

If you suspect housing discrimination, please report it.

Housing Education and Economic Development 3405 Medgar Evers Blvd | Jackson, MS 39213

(601) 981-1960

O RO M

E TH G

E RE N

Don’t forget to nominate us Best Place to Play Pool

www.bestofjackson.com

INDUSTRY HAPPY HOUR Daily 11pm -2am DAILY 12pm BEER- 7pm SPECIALS

POOL LEAGUE Mon - Fri Night

DRINK SPECIALS "52'%23 s 7).'3 s &5,, "!2 '!4%$ 0!2+).' s ")' 3#2%%. 46 3 LEAGUE AND TEAM PLAY B EGINNERS TO A DVANCED I NSTRUCTORS A VAILABLE

444 Bounds St. Jackson MS

601-718-7665

It’s Best of Jackson time!

Nominate us for Best Bar and Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade for Best Annual Event

www.bestofjackson.com _________________________

COMING UP _________________________ WEDNESDAY 11/15

THOMAS LOVETT

Dining Room - Free _________________________

THURSDAY 11/16

D’LO TRIO

Dining Room - Free _________________________

FRIDAY 11/17

ERIC STRACENER Dining Room - Free

_________________________

SATURDAY 11/18

Nominate Bonfire Grill for

Best Meal Under $10 Hibachi Lunch and Dinner, Thai Entrees, Sushi Combos

All under $10!

THOMAS JACKSON

Dining Room - Free _________________________

MONDAY 11/20 CENTRAL MS BLUES SOCIETY PRESENTS:

BLUE MONDAY Dining Room - 7 - 10pm

$3 Members $5 Non-Members _________________________

TUESDAY 11/21

DINNER, DRINKS & JAZZ W/ RAPHAEL SEMMES

Dining Room - 6-9pm - Free _________________________ OFFICIAL

HOUSE VODKA

Dine In or Carry Out Open Every Day 11:00 am - 9:00 pm 118 Service Dr, Suite 17 Brandon, MS 601-591-7211

Visit HalandMals.com for a full menu and event schedule

601.948.0888 200 S. Commerce St. Downtown Jackson, MS

Come Check Out Our Remodel!

WEDNESDAY

11/15

Tuesday, November 14

AMERICAN FREAKSHOW 10 P.M.

THURSDAY

11/16

OYSTERS ON THE HALF SHELL 5-9 P.M.

FRIDAY

11/17

STOLEN FACES (Grateful Dead Tribute) THE

10 P.M.

SATURDAY

11/18

CEDRIC BURNSIDE W/ TRENTON AYERS 10 P.M.

TUESDAY

11/20

SHRIMP BOIL

KARAOKE UPCOMING SHOWS

11/22 - Thanksgiving Show w/ European Theater 11/24 - the Quickening 11/25 - Flow Tribe 11/30 - Patrick Sweany 12/1 - CBDB MARTIN12/2 SEXTON - Universal Sigh if you missed out on martin’s show in march, - thetwice Vegabonds don’t make the12/14 same mistake w/ Riverside Voodoo 12/15 - Black Oak Arkansas w/ Flaming the Red 12/16 - Wrong Way w/ Crane 12/22 - the Weeks w/ Dream Cult 12/23 - Robby Peoples and Friends 12/31 - NYE Blow Out w/ Young Valley WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

214 S. STATE ST. DOWNTOWN JACKSON

601.354.9712

JOHN MARK MCMILLAN singer-songwriter/rockstar extraordinaire.

Monday, November 20 THE BUSTY PETITES / HOOD BABY AND THE BARNACLES oxford’s + starkville’s finest rock your world

Tuseday, November 21 THE JAG/ GREATER PYRENEES

mississippi indie rock night done right

Wednesday, November 22 THE MOLLY RINGWALDS the world’s greatest 80’s experience returns!

just announced!

Saturday, December 23 BISHOP GUNN

country’s next big act, straight out of natchez just announced!

Friday, January 5 TODD SNIDER

hard working americans’ member coming to jam! just announced!

Saturday, February 17 BRENT COBB

up and coming country star coming to jackson!

JX//RX COMPLETE SHOW LISTINGS & TICKETS

dulinghall.com

November 15 - 21, 2017 • jfp.ms

-Pool Is Cool-

31

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SAMPLE BALLOT

0DOFROP +DUULVRQ '(02&5$7

~ a

a Gerald Mumford mford Martin Perkins

Thank you for supporting me on7, November 7.

ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2017 We need you to come out one more time on 9RWH

0DOFROP +DUULVRQ NOVEMBER 28 +LQGV &RXQW\ $WWRUQH\

3URYHQ

3ULQFLSOHG

Trusted Leadership

Public Servant

'HYRWHG Husband and Father

-DFNVRQ DQG DOO RI +LQGV &RXQW\ 0LVVLVVLSSL 3DLG IRU E\ WKH FRPPLWWHH WR (OHFW 0DOFROP +DUULVRQ +LQGV &RXQW\ $WWRUQH\ 3 2 %R[ -DFNVRQ 06 |

TAYLOR, OXFORD, AND DOWNING COURT APARTMENTS

WELCOMES HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES TO ALL VETERANS AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES For more information regarding your housing opportunities here at one of these communities, please visit MS Regional Housing Authority at www.mrha6.org or by phone at 601.373.7040 today!

We look forward to serving you!

Taylor, Oxford, and Downing Court Apts.

301 Taylor St, 100W, Jackson, MS 769.447.5880

Support the brand!

Nominate

Artisan Hair Co. “Best Salon� and Leondria Brown “Best Stylist� www.bestofjackson.com 400A Cynthia St, Clinton

(844) 321-2426

An Open & AďŹƒrming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ Home of Voices of MS Choir Services Wed. 6:30pm Sun. 6pm 1345 Flowood Dr, Flowood (601) 906-8934 www.safeharborfamilychurch.org

Nominate The Country Squire for Best Locally Owned Business!

Security Cameras • Attendant On Duty Drop Off Service • Free Wi-Fi

In The Quarter shopping center 1855 Lakeland Dr B10 www.thecountrysquireonline.com

1046 Greymont Ave. (behind La Cazuela) M-F 8am-9pm • Sat & Sun 7am-7pm CALL US AT 601-397-6223!