OurTupelo

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice reversed Mississippi death-row convictions in the past seven years on the basis of racial bias in jury selection. Counsel for death row inmate Willie Manning say his conviction should be the next one overturned.

In a filing Friday with the Mississippi Supreme Court, Manning’s legal team argued that decisions by the nation’s high court in the Terry Pitchford and Curtis Flowers cases enable Manning to seek post-conviction relief.

The motion was filed eight days after Mississippi Today published its investigation that uncovered new evidence suggesting Manning’s innocence. 

On May 28, U.S. Supreme Court justices reversed the capital murder conviction of Terry Pitchford in Mississippi. In a 5-4 decision, they concluded the trial judge failed to follow all the steps required to make sure that then-District Attorney Doug Evans was not discriminating on the basis of race when he struck all four potential Black jurors.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the judge “erroneously omitted” part of the inquiry detailed in the court’s Batson v. Kentucky 1986 decision, which banned the use of jury strikes to remove potential jurors on the basis of race.

The Pitchford opinion followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019 decision that threw out the conviction of Curtis Flowers, who was on Mississippi’s death row. Evans also prosecuted that case.

In Flowers’ first four trials, Evans tried to strike all 36 Black prospective jurors. “The State wanted to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as possible, and ideally before an all-white jury,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Manning, who is Black, went on trial in 1994 for the 1992 killings of two Mississippi State University students, Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler, who were both white.

In that capital murder trial, 28 of 85 potential jurors were Black, but only two served on the jury. 

After then-District Attorney Forrest Allgood exercised seven of his 11 strikes against Black Mississippians, defense lawyer Mark Williamson objected, saying, “I would at this time like to interpose an objection to the State just arbitrarily striking every black as he’s gotten down to it.”

As a result of these strikes, Williamson continued, Manning does not have “a jury comprised of his peers.” At the time, white Mississippians made up 69% of Starkville’s population; they made up 83% of the Oktibbeha County jury that heard Manning’s case.

Asked by Circuit Judge Lee J. Howard to provide race-neutral reasons for striking jurors, Allgood responded that one Black man wore gold chains, “a ring in his ear” and “sunglasses hung in his shirt.” The prosecutor challenged another African American because he lived in a neighborhood similar to Brookville Garden Apartments, where many low-income Black residents live in Starkville.

Other reasons provided by the prosecutor to strike Black potential jurors? One “watches a tremendous amount of TV,” “made eye contact” with the defense counsel and was “wishy-washy” on capital punishment. But the juror actually said she could “go with the death penalty” during questioning.

But Allgood did not strike white potential jurors who held similar views on capital punishment. One white woman even said in her questionnaire that she could not impose the death penalty, only changing her answer during questioning that is part of jury selection. She still served on the jury. 

The prosecutor also excused his strikes of Black potential jurors by saying they read “liberal magazines.” Those magazines were Jet and Ebony — two publications focused on Black news and culture. In the recent motion, Manning’s counsel wrote that this reason “reeks of racial motivation.”

The magazines, Allgood said, included “a lot” of articles “espousing O.J.’s innocence” in the June 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Jet published 15 articles on Simpson in the months following the killings, but none of them declared Simpson’s innocence. Ebony featured people’s opinions on the crime, but the magazine didn’t weigh in on who committed the murders.

When striking one Black potential juror — Christi LaMarque Robertson — Allgood repeated that Robertson was someone who “read those same magazines … which has had those articles on O.J. Simpson.” She read Time and Newsweek, according to her questionnaire. White candidates read the same magazines and wound up on the jury.

Allgood struck two Black potential jurors because they were “unemployed.” In reality, one worked at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg. The other was disabled.

In contrast, four white potential jurors wrote “unemployed” or left the question blank in their questionnaires. One of them served on the jury.

The prosecutor struck a potential Black juror because a family member had been convicted of a crime. But Allgood raised no objections with three white potential jurors who had been arrested.

In the motion Friday, Manning’s counsel called these reasons “either inconsistent with the record or equally applicable to several white jurors.”

After being challenged, Allgood questioned why the defense’s strikes were all aimed at white potential jurors.

“There weren’t any blacks left to strike except one,” Williamson responded.

Williamson cried foul and asked the judge to strike the jury and declare a mistrial. Howard rejected that request, later saying, “All reasons stated by the State for the exercise of its peremptory challenges were for a race-neutral reason.”

But Manning’s counsel argued that, just like in the Pitchford case, the trial judge had “failed to undertake a meaningful review of the prosecutor’s reasons,” quickly moving on after he professed them. “In one sense,” the motion reads, “the trial judge’s treatment of Batson was even more egregious than in Pitchford.”

This filing is an additional challenge to Manning’s standing motion in front of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

In September 2024, his lawyers asked for a rehearing after this court upheld Manning’s death sentence in a 5-4 decision, clearing the way for his execution. 

According to court observers, justices usually rule on such rehearings within 60 days. It’s been more than 700 days, and a decision has yet to be made.

The attorney general’s office has previously said that Manning’s Batson claim is barred because the courts have already ruled on the issue. Manning’s counsel called this justification “unreasonable.”

The state has yet to respond to the most recent motion, but Attorney General Lynn Fitch has previously called on justices to schedule the execution. “What he is doing is a blatant attempt to delay his lawful execution,” Fitch wrote in a 2023 brief.

In a brief filed by the Innocence Project, ACLU and the NAACP on behalf of Manning, lawyers wrote that “the jury selection for Mr. Manning’s trial was replete with blatant racially motivated strikes that could never survive a Batson challenge today.”

“Mr. Manning never stood a chance to prove his innocence even before he entered a courtroom.”

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit against Jackson alleging the city knowingly allowed residents to drink contaminated water. A group of residents filed the lawsuit in 2022, before it was dismissed in U.S. District Court in 2024.

The plaintiffs — residents Priscilla Sterling, Raine Becker, Shawn Miller and John Bennett — alleged that the city’s actions and failures caused lead to enter Jackson’s drinking water and that city officials later misrepresented that the water was safe to drink. The lawsuit claims the contamination violated Jacksonians’ right to “bodily integrity.”

The allegations point to testing from the Mississippi State Department of Health from 2010 to 2013 that showed lead in the city’s water was “increasing at an alarming rate.”

“Rather than take the needed steps to stop lead from leaching further into the water, the City ignored warnings, even actively switching a section of the City’s water source from a safe groundwater system to the corrosive surface water system that was already causing lead to leach from its pipes into residents’ drinking water,” the plaintiffs wrote in their 2024 appeal.

The lawsuit named as defendants: the city, former mayors Chokwe A. Lumumba and Tony Yarber; former public works directors Kishia Powell, Robert Miller and Jerriot Smash; and Trilogy Engineering Services.

In affirming the district court’s 2022 ruling, the court said that while the alleged deprivations of clean water and honest information are “grievous,” they “do not infringe upon any deeply rooted constitutional right.” The opinion added that the allegations aren’t comparable to bodily integrity cases the court has previously ruled on, such as those arguing assault or forced surgery.

“We are skeptical that the right to not be harmed by lead-contaminated water fits within the right to bodily integrity, and Plaintiffs point us to no historical tradition or Supreme Court precedent convincing us otherwise,” Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote.

Engelhardt added there is no “constitutional right to truthful information from officials during a public health crisis.” The plaintiffs, though, have other avenues to pursue justice in the matter, he said.

“The Constitution does not provide a remedy for Plaintiffs’ injuries,” the opinion argued. “But that does not mean they are without a remedy. Plaintiffs may pursue tort claims against Defendants, elect officials who will better manage the water system and provide accurate information to the public, or petition their state and federal legislatures for other remedies.”

Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement Friday, “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal of these claims. The City remains committed to the health, safety, and well-being of every Jackson resident.”

Arma Cooper got an apology from school officials responsible for the strip search of her son. But she didn’t get accountability. 

LeRoy Wise, the school resource officer who allegedly inspected her son’s genitals, said in a recording submitted in a court case that the search might not have been legal. Mississippi Today could not confirm his employment status with the district. Dietrich Harmon, the McAdams High School principal who oversaw the searches, still leads the school.

“They were hoping it could be swept under the rug,” said Cooper, who has since pulled her son from McAdams High School.

Cooper recorded a meeting she and her son had on Feb. 11, the day after the searches, with Wise, Harmon and coach Kenyon Ross. The recording, filed Wednesday with the Attala County circuit court, captures a school official’s apology and a school resource officer’s admission of potential wrongdoing in wake of the searches. Cooper authenticated the recording under oath.

The recording is the latest piece of evidence in a case Cooper and six other parents brought against the Attala County School District after they said their sons were strip-searched at the high school in February.

The teenage boys were escorted out of a restroom when a vape detector went off. The parents say Wise made the boys strip naked and expose their genitals for an inspection. He found no contraband on any of them. 

The parents, on behalf of their sons, filed a federal lawsuit on June 15 against Wise, Harmon and Superintendent Rhyne Thompson for their roles in the strip searches. The plaintiffs said the searches violated their sons’ civil rights and broke district policy.

School district leadership would not comment on the recording. They acknowledged receipt of the lawsuit in an unsigned statement and said the safety and well-being of students and staff are priorities.

Defendants filed responses to the lawsuit last month. William Allen, Wise’s attorney, argued that the resource officer’s actions weren’t reckless and didn’t rise to the level of a civil rights violation. The attorney also claims Wise’s actions didn’t stray from his job duties. Harmon denied, through his attorney, violating any of the boys’ constitutional rights and asserted that the principal acted in good faith on the job. Attorneys Danny Griffith and John McClain, who represent the district and superintendent, argue there was no proof Thompson or the district didn’t adequately train Wise or that the reported lack of training led to the alleged strip search.

Read more: Federal lawsuit accuses Attala County school resource officer of strip-searching high school boys

Six parents of the students who were searched told Mississippi Today their sons’ behavior has changed since the incident. Some have dropped athletics and other activities they used to enjoy. Others retreated from friends and family. Others feel too humiliated and afraid to go to school.

“We want our students that are in the Attala County School District to know they’re safe,” Cooper said. “We want justice.”

‘Down to your ankles’

In the recorded meeting, Cooper’s son recalled the series of events that led to the strip search in Wise’s office.

The student said he was on a bathroom break with other classmates when a vape detector went off. Then coach Kenyon Ross and Wise escorted the group to the hallway. Ross looked for a wand to scan the boys for an electronic cigarette. 

The boys were later led to a hallway outside Wise’s office. Each boy spent about eight minutes inside, Cooper’s son estimated. He waited and wondered what was happening inside.

Then it was his turn.

“He said take my hoodie off, take my shirt off and pull my pants down. And so I did that. And then I started to pull my pants back up. He said, ‘No, no, no. Go to the chair and pull your drawers down to your ankles,’” the boy said in the recording.

Wise’s explanation for the search didn’t provide any comfort for Cooper. She felt he was making light of the incident in their conversation.

“Situation with that is, in the past, we have had kids to have vapes,” Wise said to Cooper in the recording.

A history of abuse repeated

Cooper said withdrawing her son before his senior year of high school was difficult. She enrolled him at a private Christian school she founded in 2015. He had to give up on activities like band along with easier access to scholarship opportunities. She said it was the right choice, though.

“They would still have to look up in the face of the principal and the assistant principal who allowed it,” Cooper said of her son and the other boys.

Some parents chose to keep their students enrolled at McAdams High. They said financial and transportation concerns were deciding factors.

Angenette Haymer’s son still attends the school. He decided to stay so he could compete in basketball and football. She also couldn’t transfer him to a neighboring district without a different address.

“I’m happy he will graduate this year, but I hate he was forced to make this decision,” she said. 

Her son will graduate a year early. He told her he “wants to get it over with.”

Tiffany Greer also kept her son at McAdams High. She said the tuition to attend a private school was too steep. She also would need to handle his transportation, which would be an added inconvenience.

He also told her he wanted to continue with the band. She said he is “doing well enough to get through the days.” But she’s paranoid he could face harassment again.

She said she hasn’t seen Wise around the high school. 

Cooper said she and her son were far from strangers to Harmon and Wise before the incident in February. She taught at the school for a decade. Harmon was her son’s elementary school principal. 

Her son had been to Harmon’s home, too. He had played with Harmon’s children, she said.

“The district doesn’t want to take ownership when these things happen,” Cooper said. “The principal doesn’t want to take ownership. So where does it end?”

She said she hoped to protect her son. She knew his pain well. A teacher physically assaulted her as a student in the 1980s at the same school, she said. She also had to transfer to a different district before her senior year to avoid her abuser. She said she feels as though history has repeated itself.

While no trial date has been set yet for the lawsuit, Cooper said she wants justice for her son.

“As a parent, I sometimes feel I’m constantly preaching greatness to my children when the world around them tries to say something different. And I keep telling my son that just because someone mistreats you doesn’t make you the villain.

“And even the people that we trust the most can do us the most harm.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Adam Telle, who is currently helping oversee the Army Corps of Engineers, will serve as acting Army secretary. 

Telle was a former longtime staffer and top adviser for the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and helped lead federal efforts for the state’s recovery after Hurricane Katrina. More recently, Telle has been influential in advancing the Yazoo Backwater Area Water Management Project, or the “Yazoo pumps,” in the Mississippi Delta.

“I am pleased to announce that Adam Telle, the current Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will become Acting Secretary of the Army, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on social media. “He is a Great Patriot, who is respected by all.”

Telle also served as the White House’s liaison to the Senate in the first Trump administration.

Telle, who worked for U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama before joining Cochran’s staff, is a graduate of Mississippi State University, where he was elected student body president. 

Gov. Tate Reeves on Friday called Telle’s appointment “a tremendous choice.”

“Adam has been a great friend to Mississippi over the years and has done a lot for our state,” Reeves wrote. “And it’s hard to go wrong with a Mississippi State University grad!”

Telle takes over for Dan Driscoll, who resigned recently. Driscoll gave no reason for his resignation, but there have been numerous reports that he clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump has not said whom he will nominate for the job on a permanent basis. Hegseth on Friday praised Trump’s choice of Telle.

LELAND – Uninsured and underinsured residents of the Mississippi Delta can access affordable dentistry and physical, occupational and speech therapy through a new initiative based in Leland of Delta Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to improve access to health services. 

A year after breaking ground, the Delta Cares Center opened its doors Thursday. 

Patients can pay for services on a sliding scale that starts at $3 – and can receive a free ride to and from the clinic, said Karen Matthews, CEO of Delta Health Alliance.

“They assume they can’t come get care because they don’t have insurance or because they have Medicaid or whatever – and they can,” Matthews said. 

Funded by a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Delta Cares Center is attached to the comprehensive Leland Medical Clinic that has served the region since 2013.  

Dane Maxwell, Mississippi’s director for USDA rural development, called projects such as the Leland clinic expansion “the exact type of economic development projects that we aim to support” in an email to Mississippi Today. Maxwell echoed this remark during a speech at the clinic’s grand opening Thursday. 

Among the patients hoping to be first in line for an appointment is Billy Tucker, a 50-year-old single father from Greenville. In 2024, Tucker and his two sons, now 8 and 10, nearly died in a car crash. For the first time in two years, Tucker said he has hope he might begin to address the intense back and nerve pain that leaves him “hurting all the time” and unable to return to work, stand for more than five minutes or even sign his name. The former truck driver said he has been denied disability benefits from the state several times, exhausted his savings, sold all his valuables and experienced wait times up to six months for occupational and physical therapy.

“Providing – that’s what I miss most,” Tucker said about not being able to use his hands to cook, clean and play with his kids the way he used to. He said he knows he provides for his sons emotionally and in other ways, such as helping them with their homework. But as a former foster child, Tucker said he wants to do as much as he can to give them the childhood he didn’t have. 

At Leland Medical Clinic, up to 500 patients like Tucker will be able to access rehabilitative therapy as a result of the expansion, said Hilary Meier, vice president of health at the clinic. Additionally, the new space will have openings for about 2,000 dental patients in the first year, she said. Meier expects those slots to fill up quickly.

“We have a lot of patients with pain,” Meier said. Many of them go without preventive care and ultimately suffer chronic health problems, she said.

To make its expansion possible, the nonprofit hired a dentist and four rehabilitative therapists for physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapy.

Those who stand to gain the most from the clinic’s opening are those who have historically lost the most. People in the Delta have often felt overlooked when it comes to public investment and healthcare. The region has some of the worst health metrics in the state and country, including higher rates of untreated diabetes leading to amputations. 

For people like Tucker, the opening couldn’t come soon enough. In the absence of physical therapy services, Tucker has been using the wellness center at Leland Medical Clinic to exercise on his own. But he is excited by the possibility of getting support that could improve his quality of life and keep him around longer for his boys. 

“I sit here at the house and I feel like I’m wasting away,” Tucker said. “I don’t want to waste away. I want to get better.”

Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.

This summer has been full of big moments. We celebrated our nation’s 250^th birthday, and  more recently, Medicaid and Medicare – two health care safety net pillars that have helped  generations of Mississippians get the care they need, from babies to grandparents – turned  61. Summer is also peak time for back-to-school physicals and immunizations; services  largely supported by the Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

But this summer also marked another anniversary, one that brings less celebration and  more trepidation, the one-year anniversary of H.R. 1 — what President Donald Trump and  Congressional leaders have called the “one big beautiful bill.”

Unfortunately, for Mississippi  families the effects will be anything but “beautiful.” Cuts to care to the tune of $1 trillion nationally mean stripping health care coverage away from people who need it and forcing  our state leaders to make tough choices on which essential services to keep running.

The  budget bill took a hatchet to funding for health care programs, shutting many  Mississippians out, and forcing the state to figure out how to keep the lights on.

The most stringent requirements of H.R. 1 impact states that have expanded  Medicaid, which Mississippi has not done. Our state budget will still feel significant  impacts due to H.R. 1’s cuts, such as restrictions on how Mississippi can generate revenue to support its Medicaid program. 

Unfortunately, our state’s Medicaid budget is facing other pressures, too.

In Mississippi, state financial support for Medicaid has been flat over the past 10 years.  Despite rising health care costs and budget pressures within the state Division of Medicaid, the state has done little to preserve Medicaid. Mississippi  has instead relied on short-term COVID-19 era federal funding to plug Medicaid budget gaps.

However, now that COVID funding has run out, Mississippi Medicaid faces a significant  funding deficit — one that will only grow due to policies in H.R. 1. This fiscal reality is concerning, and some legislators are worried that without changes, “[we’re] going to be in  the same boat” next year when it comes to balancing the Medicaid budget.

Without new solutions, the perpetual lack of state investment in Medicaid will jeopardize the health of nearly 700,000 children, pregnant women, older adults, disabled Mississippians and their families.

Amid these budget pressures, expanding Medicaid in Mississippi still remains a key  opportunity. Mississippi is one of just 10 states that still refuses to expand Medicaid, a decision that leaves tens of thousands of working families without affordable health coverage and deepens the strain on our hospitals, communities and economy. And although H.R. 1 adds additional barriers for states that expanded Medicaid, the benefits far outweigh these challenges.

In fact, an analysis by the Care4Mississippi coalition and Families USA found that Medicaid expansion would unlock significant savings for our state. By not expanding in 2026, our state is leaving $73.8 million on the table in the form of lost state tax revenue and state health care spending that could otherwise be covered by the federal government. From a  dollars-and-cents perspective, this funding would have made up for approximately one fifth of the department’s $390 million shortfall this year.

Plus, these expansion dollars could be counted on annually. When Mississippi expands Medicaid, the federal government will pay 90% of all costs. This federal matching  arrangement is permanent, supporting Mississippi’s Medicaid budget now and into the  future. Permanent funding provides security, allowing our state to maintain critical health programs and access to care.

Under Medicaid expansion, 67,000 more low-income Mississippians would have health coverage, dramatically reducing the costs of uncompensated care – health care that is  provided but not paid for when people cannot afford their care. That cost currently falls on Mississippi taxpayers and hospitals.

The budget challenges that lawmakers and the Division of Medicaid are grappling with are very real. Mississippi Medicaid has already warned that budget cuts will force the agency to  cut payments to providers. In addition, Mississippi must contend with H.R. 1’s substantial cuts to provider reimbursements, which dramatically limit Mississippi’s ability to boost  payments to hospitals and nursing facilities. These are payments that incentivize providers to see Medicaid patients.

Taken together, the state’s ability to adequately pay Medicaid and safety-net providers is in jeopardy, and the resulting downstream effects on patients’ quality care, access to doctors and health care affordability could be dismal.

Medicaid expansion in Mississippi would not only provide a more immediate counterweight to these budget pressures but also help generate significant economic growth in the long run.

Despite slowed momentum to expand access to care, Mississippi needs to consider additional investments that would bolster its Medicaid budget and offset costs.

For example, directing opioid settlement funds to the Division of Medicaid to support treating opioid use disorder or raising tobacco taxes to generate over $100 million per year are both strategies that would support the Medicaid program.

In addition to Gov. Reeves’s recent request for waivers to ban the purchase of sugary drinks and unhealthy processed foods using SNAP benefits, we should consider a statewide tax on sugary drinks. Researchers  have estimated a soda tax could bring over $100 million annually in revenue to the state. Taken  together with Medicaid expansion, which is a key investment in the future of the state’s health care system, these options would help our state overcome Medicaid budget challenges.

Our state’s Medicaid program needs greater investment, not less, and there are common sense, tried-and-tested solutions that can help do that. When we reflect on milestone  moments for our nation and our cornerstone public programs, our future — whether next year, the next 60 years, or the next 250 years — inevitably comes to mind. We need to set  up strong and sustainable programs where everyone in Mississippi can be their healthiest and access the care they need, regardless of their income.

As we sail into next year, we must take more sustainable solutions like Medicaid expansion and taxes on considerably unhealthy goods seriously. In short, we can’t just fix the leak in the hull; we need to build a better boat.

Bio: Dr. John Gaudet is a native Mississippian who has practiced pediatrics in Hattiesburg for many years. Since retirement, he has been involved in medical education, helping to train the next generation of physicians. 

This could be another column about how we’re in the first big weekend of the college football season and how the sport has gone absolutely bat-dung crazy. I could write about the court case down In Baton Rouge where a judge ruled eligible for LSU two former Ole Miss players who were recruited right out of NFL training camps.

Or I could write about how the SEC has filed a federal lawsuit in Birmingham against LSU and its coach, Lane Kiffin, the Snidely Whiplash of college football. But if you read this column regularly, you already know how I feel about that issue, the state of college football in general and Kiffin in particular.

Besides, you can read about all that, ad infinitum, on practically every sports website in America. Bottom line: Nobody knows where all this is headed.

Instead of rehashing, I write today to tell you that these eligibility issues are nothing new in college football. Such controversies have been going on since before this aging sports writer was even a gleam in the eyes of his daddy, a sports writer himself. In fact, my late father, Ace Cleveland, loved to tell the story that follows. Much of it comes from him.

Our story begins in 1948. Ace Cleveland, who would go on to a Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame career in sports writing and sports publicity, was a young sports editor of the Hattiesburg American, his hometown newspaper. Only a couple years before he had returned home from World War II where he served in the Navy, primarily in The Philippines.

His main beat was Mississippi Southern, a salty small college team coached then by Reed Green. The Southerners featured many World War II veterans and one young scatback named John Melvin “Bubba” Phillips. Ace – yes, I called my dad by his nickname – would tell anyone who would listen that Phillips was the best broken field runner to ever step on a football field. Ace called him Bubber.

“You should have seen ol’ Bubber,” Ace would say.  “He was so quick and fast, nobody could tackle him. Hell, most people couldn’t even touch him.”

Quick story: Bubba Phillips, recruited by all the prominent Deep South football schools as a high school wunderkind in Macon, was en route to LSU to play for the Tigers. Someone alerted Green that Phillips’ bus would be making a pit stop in Hattiesburg. Green met the bus. Phillips’ luggage made it to Baton Rouge. Bubba never did.

Bubba was also gifted in baseball. In fact, that spring, he had signed a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers after an amazing workout in Detroit. But he still wanted to play football for Southern.

The rules were different then. Some college conferences allowed pros in one sport to play college sports in another. So Phillips’ eligibility that 1948 season was decided on a week-by-week basis.

On Oct. 23 of that year, the Southerners, as they were then known, were to play at Oklahoma City University, an undefeated team heavily favored because Philllips was ineligible for the game. Oklahoma City wasn’t in a conference but was trying to get into the Missouri Valley Conference, which barred professional athletes across the board. News reports all week said Phillips would not play.

Back then, it was a two-day bus trip from Hattiesburg to Oklahoma City, four days round trip. The newspaper couldn’t spare their one-man sports department  to be away that long – and probably didn’t want to pay the travel expenses either.

So it was that on Oct. 23, 1948, Ace was at the Western Union Station in downtown Hattiesburg getting a play-by-play account of the game. 

“It kept saying that this big ol’ lineman was scoring touchdowns and making long runs for Southern,” Ace said. “The guy was a guard, for goodness sakes. Here I was, 600 miles away from Oklahoma City and I knew who was wearing that guard’s uniform. It was Bubber!”

It was, indeed. Bubba Phillips scored on runs of 23, 48 and 95 yards and set up another touchdown with a 56-yard scamper. Southern won 55-20 on Oklahoma CIty’s homecoming.

Fast forward 11 years. Ace and his 6-year-old baseball-crazy son watched on TV as Bubba Phillips batted .300 for the Chicago White Sox in the 1959 World Series. Two nights after the series ended, Dad grilled steaks and our dinner guest was Bubber himself. I wanted to hear about the World Series and batting against Sandy Koufax, but they mostly talked about old times and certainly about the day Bubber ran wild while wearing somebody else’s jersey.

The Cleveland boys celebrate the end of the longest offseason ever and the return of meaningful football, plus we catch up with Mississippi’s most decorated volleyball player, Jackson native Parker Bracken.

Athlete after athlete took the stand in a state courtroom near LSU on Thursday to explain why they should be allowed to return to play college sports after turning pro while the commissioner of the powerful Southeastern Conference argued against them and the league doubled down by filing a lawsuit against the school in federal court.

The extraordinary confrontation came just two days before the 11th-ranked Tigers open the football season at home against Clemson a few miles from the courthouse. East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden scheduled the hearing over his temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from barring former pros or fifth-year college athletes, a stance also taken by the SEC and other Power Four conferences with rules adopted last week.

Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright, two players who hope to suit up for LSU, sat next to each other in the gallery as the hearing began and both took the stand.

Wright testified that he would not have tried to turn pro had he known about the possibility of getting another year in college. He said he was paid a $25,000 signing bonus by Philadelphia and would gladly pay that back for the chance to play for LSU, adding that he made around $1 million during four years in college.

Two LSU soccer players, Jazmin Ferguson and Jocelyn Ollivierre, won court earlier court orders and have already played this season. Ferguson testified that she was paid $4,500 by a USL team, but ended her contract and paid the money back in hopes of clearing the way to play for the Tigers again.

The athletes testified after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on the stand for more than two hours, defending the league’s authority to enforce its week-old rules barring former pros from returning to play at its 16 member schools. He said school presidents and chancellors felt that they needed to establish a line between professional and college sports and that there needed to be ways to hold schools accountable.

“The line between professional sports and college sports needs to be maintained,” Sankey testified, adding that the league was concerned about incoming athletes being displaced from limited roster spots.

As he spoke, the SEC filed the federal lawsuit against LSU and its leadership in Alabama, alleging the school had “waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes” in defiance of league rules. The court filing against one of the league’s founding members in 1933 seeks an injunction barring LSU from violating the SEC’s First Amendment rights by forcing it to “associate with conduct that is contrary to the conference’s purpose and mission.”

Legal experts said the filing was a backup in case the the SEC loses in state court. Outside the courthouse in Baton Rouge, plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Clayton said: “I got a problem with that. I mean, you go around, you can file this suit in any state. You’re suing LSU. Sue them in Louisiana. You go to our nemesis: Alabama. Really? So, so that lets you know what the commissioner is all about.”

Questioning of Sankey turns sharp

In questioning Sankey, attorneys for the athletes cited numerous examples of when SEC eligibility rules align with NCAA rules, suggesting the potential of collusion. They questioned why league members met last week to adopt stiff penalties for the very actions addressed in the Louisiana state court’s temporary injunction against the NCAA.

The attorneys also asked why the SEC singled out players who signed contracts with specific U.S.-based leagues — the NFL, NBA and WNBA — but not overseas pro leagues or women’s pro soccer leagues. When Sankey tried to qualify an answer about whether the SEC had previously punished a school for adding a player with previous pro experience, Clayton said, “I didn’t ask how to build a clock. I’m just asking what time it is.”

Sankey acknowledged that there had previously been no such punishment, but that it had been considered against Alabama last basketball season when the Crimson Tide briefly added a former G-League player.

There was no indication when Jorden might rule but the football season is already underway and most teams playing this weekend. The SEC requires its schools to submit final 2026 rosters for the season by Friday.

Players going to court has become common

The players in question also include former Denver Broncos defensive back Blake Cotton, who like Harris and Wright is hoping to join LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin.

Wright, who played for Kiffin last season at Mississippi, started practicing at LSU this week, too late to be eligible for Saturday’s home opener against Clemson under the NCAA’s required seven days of practice. Harris, who also played at Ole Miss last season, has committed to LSU, while Cotton, who played at Utah last fall, has been recruited by Kiffin.

All three are among a host of athletes who’ve argued in lawsuits around the country that they are unfairly being denied an opportunity to spend a fifth year in college under newly adopted NCAA rules allowing for five full years of competition. In all, the NCAA says there are approximately 450 athlete plaintiffs seeking additional eligibility through litigation, with some 300 of them winning the ability to play at least for now.

The athletes in the case who signed pro contracts have argued they did so only because current rules that would have allowed them another college season weren’t adopted until after their decisions to leave for the chance to make an NFL roster.

The SEC contends the question before the judge should be a narrow one regarding whether the conference “can enforce and require its member institutions to comply with SEC rules.” The SEC’s proposed punishments include significant fines, up to half-season suspensions for coaches and member universities’ loss of voting privileges on league business matters.

Sankey provided an affidavit stating that SEC university presidents had voted 15-0 in favor of the new rules, with LSU’s Wade Rousse abstaining.

The fight over eligibility between schools and their own conferences and the NCAA has simmered for months and spilled into politics.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reportedly sent a letter of support to Sankey, encouraging him to take “all measures available” to punish LSU if it added former NFL players. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who attended the hearing and chatted with plaintiffs’ attorneys before the proceeding, countered in a brief that the NCAA had subjected athletes in the case to a “classic bait-and-switch.”

Leaders of historically Black colleges and universities want their institutions to prepare students for the rapidly changing workforce and careers in industries such as infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare and education. 

They also said they want to ensure companies benefiting from the talent HBCUs produce also reinvest in those colleges and communities.

The leaders discussed those issues in two panels Wednesday during the first day of DELTA FEST, a three-day event that brought dozens of nonprofit executives, business leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians and community leaders to downtown Jackson. The event focused in part on how communities across Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Georgia can benefit from more than $200 billion in capital investment in the region from industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and education.

Bobbie Knight, president of Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, said HBCUs shouldn’t just produce talent that companies can recruit away. Instead, Knight said, leaders should create partnerships with corporations and companies to generate investments and opportunities for students that can also benefit the colleges and their surrounding communities.

One example is the Bessemer Built, a college scholarship initiative in Alabama. QTS Data Centers, a Virginia-based company and developers of a $14.5-billion data center campus called “Project Marvel,” committed $8 million to the program, which will pay Bessemer City High School graduates through the class of 2030 at least $10,000 each to attend specified Alabama schools including Miles College. The program is part of the company’s long-term investment in the city of Bessemer. 

Elsewhere in Alabama, Tuskegee University has tried to align its academic programs with workforce needs, said Kellei Bishop Samuels, chief of staff at the university.

As demands for pilots and aviation workers grew, the university expanded its aviation science  program after receiving $5.29 million more in federal funds in February.

“We are supplying the talent pipeline for the state to ensure that needs of the state are being met,” Samuels said. 

Building corporate, nonprofit, governmental and private partnerships also requires stable university leadership, Knight said. Frequent leadership turnover can make it more difficult for HBCUs to develop the long-term corporate and philanthropic relationships needed to attract investment.  

“As president of a college, your main job is to bring resources into the institution,” Knight said. “If you’re going to have major donors and partnerships, they want to make sure you’re there, or the leadership is going to be there for the long term, whether it’s board or presidency.” 

In general, university presidents are serving an average of 5.9 years, according to the American Council on Education. The average tenure is even shorter for HBCU presidents: 4.22 years, according to a January report from the United Negro College Fund. Presidents of private HBCUs are serving an average tenure of 4.42 years, according to the report. 

The evolving use of artificial intelligence could provide an early test of how HBCUs navigate corporate partnerships. AI is one of the biggest changes institutions have confronted in recent years, said Yolanda Page, president of Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. College faculty should embrace and update curriculum to mold students skills for the future workforce, she said. 

Tougaloo College has become central to discussions around AI and data center development, President Corey Wiggins said. Plans to build a data center near the Tougaloo campus have sparked community conversations about how local resources such as water, energy and land will be affected. 

Tougaloo leadership aims to build relationships with corporate and governmental partners to drive economic change at the college and in Jackson and Hinds County, Wiggins said. Part of that relationship-building will center on a justice framework, which is part of the legacy of the private historically Black college. 

Tougaloo leadership will hold institutions and people accountable for how they treat the community, Wiggins said.

“Our students deserve more, right? How do we strengthen the institution so we can deliver for our young people on campus and deliver for the community around us?” 

Ultimately, Page said, the goal of any HBCU leader is to ensure their graduates stay in their communities after graduation. 

It is also important for leaders to find employment for local residents, not just the students they serve, she said.

“We have to think outside of our box and beyond our respective gates,” Page said. “That’s how we can have community impact and see more communities thrive.”