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Tameshia Shelton, a Clay County mother of four serving life in prison on a murder conviction, will finally get what she said she’s been praying for — another day in court to try to prove her innocence.

In a 6-1 vote Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court declined to disturb the December decision by the state Court of Appeals ordering a new trial for Shelton. The appeals court held that prosecutors failed to prove Shelton was guilty of murder “beyond a reasonable doubt” when she stood trial in 2015 in the fatal shooting of her youngest sister’s 21-year-old boyfriend, Danelle Young.

“This nightmare is close to being finally over,” her middle sister, Shenikia Shelton, said Thursday. “The missing piece of our family’s puzzle is about to be home.”

The justices’ decision came days after Mississippi Today published its four-year investigation that found that Tameshia Shelton has remained behind bars for 11 years, even though much of the evidence in Young’s 2009 death suggested that he killed himself — including an apparent suicide note never presented to the jury.

Shelton’s trial lawyer, Rod Ray, failed to introduce Young’s apparent suicide note as evidence — a key reason why the courts have ordered a new trial for her. The appeals court found Ray was so “ineffective” as Shelton’s defense attorney that he violated her constitutional right to a fair trial.

Other gaps have emerged in Shelton’s case in the years since her murder trial. The prosecution’s case against her relied upon a deputy state medical examiner’s official ruling that Young’s death was a homicide. The pathologist later called the conclusion an “error” due to lack of experience. Prosecutors also used testimony from Clay County sheriff’s deputies that conflicted with actual records. 

“We’re very pleased,” one of Shelton’s current lawyers, Sandra Levick of the Mississippi Innocence Project, said of the Supreme Court decision. “We look forward to Ms. Shelton returning to Clay County where justice can finally be done.”

The case will return to the Clay County Circuit Court and the same trial judge, Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens, who previously denied Shelton a new trial after three days of hearings in 2021 and 2022.

Prosecution would fall to the office of District Attorney Scott Colom, who supported those hearings. In 2021, Kitchens reassigned the case to the attorney general’s office.

Colom could not be reached Thursday for comment, but he previously told Mississippi Today that if the case were returned to his office, he would “look at what the facts show and do justice.”

If Shelton is freed, she would become the seventh person prosecuted in Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District to be exonerated of murder — the most of any district in the state. Like Shelton, the district’s six exonerees were all prosecuted under Colom’s predecessor as district attorney, Forrest Allgood.

Shenikia Shelton said she and her family are “so very happy and thankful to God for everything.”

She thanked her sister’s lawyers and Mississippi Today for “shedding light on the injustices. So many doors have been closed in our faces trying to fight this.”

Madeline Nguyen is a Roy Howard Fellow at Mississippi Today. Ilyssa Daly is an investigative reporter who previously worked with Mississippi Today to help investigate this case.

BROOKHAVEN — Five days into rehearsals for “Singin’ in the Rain Jr.” and teens crowding the historic Haven Theatre stage have already nailed the commandment of one of the classic’s most iconic numbers, “Make ‘Em Laugh.” 

Director/Music Director Randy Redd chuckled with glee as they danced, romped and performed pratfalls their way through the song.

This week, for the fifth summer, Brookhaven native Redd is bringing his Broadway bona fides and three decades of professional theater experience back home to direct a show for the Brookhaven Little Theatre teen camp. 

In just under two weeks, he and a few colleagues take seventh- through 12th-grade campers, fresh out of school, from “show up” to “showtime” on the stage of the community theater.

Opening night is Friday for the musical’s three-day, four-show run at the Haven Theatre in downtown Brookhaven. A camp for younger kids (first- through sixth-graders), led by the Brookhaven Little Theatre’s volunteers, follows later this month, with performances of “Disney’s Aladdin KIDS” June 25-26.

“There was nothing like this in Brookhaven when I was a kid,” said Redd, an actor, director and writer now based in Los Angeles.

He recalled a Brookhaven Little Theatre production of “On Golden Pond” and a traveling marionette troupe as his sole memories of live theater from childhood. The kid in the cast of “On Golden Pond” caught his eye — ”I want to do that,” he thought — but no musicals crossed his path back then.

Musicals have peppered his theater career, though, including his Broadway debut in the original cast of “Parade” at Lincoln Center, Off-Broadway credits including “The View Upstairs” and “Pump Boys & Dinettes,” directing roles for “Million Dollar Quartet” and the “Sweet Potato Queens” musical at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, and much more.

Now, in the same auditorium where he once watched movies — since renovated and home for live performances  — Redd turns a practiced, professional eye on a stage where nearly two dozen teenagers tackle a beloved classic musical about movies.

“The thing that I always try to impress to the students and the kids is that when I was their age, there was no such thing,” Redd said of the teen camp. “So, the idea that they’re here in my hometown, rehearsing musicals … and that there are kids that repeat this program, from when they were in the little camp all the way up until they’re sort of kicked out after high school – it’s amazing to me.

“It is the reason that I come back and do this every summer.” 

Support of Brookhaven Little Theatre and Production Manager Steven McMorris, who has been the theater’s leader since 2021, is a factor, too. 

“He will do anything for the theater. He will do anything for these kids, anything for us,” Redd said.

Founded in 1968, Brookhaven Little Theatre is among Mississippi’s longest continuously operating community theaters. Area schools hosted early productions, and the theater bought the then-vacant Haven Theatre (built in the 1930s as a movie house) as its permanent home in the mid-1980s.

Its teen camp, started prior to COVID-19 and picked up again post-pandemic, initially followed a summer show format, with a month of rehearsal.

 In recent years, “We wanted to create more of a camp experience, where we bring in a professional directing team and make it more of a concise experience,” McMorris said, with a show coming together in less than two weeks. Minimal staging and projected scenic backdrops keep the production simple and efficient.

Participants go straight from full school days to full-time song and dance work, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily at the theater during the camp. First-timers find the confidence to get on stage. Veterans get a chance to sharpen their skills. 

“Some of the kids have the dream of going on and doing other things. Some of the kids, this is all they’ll ever do, and they’re fine with that,” McMorris said. ”We want it to be an outlet for anyone to just get some experience being onstage.”

Along with Redd, the production team includes couple Ben Newby-Kahre and Taylor Newby-Kahre as assistant director and choreographer, respectively. Professional actors in New York and later Memphis, with broader performance and directing credentials to boot, they are now based in Oklahoma City, where they’re starting an after-school theater program for children of all abilities. Gregor Patti, a New York-based actor originally from Jackson, joined the team this week.

Redd’s involvement is a tradition now, but it was not a given at the outset. First time out in 2019,  the teen camp production pick was “Les Misérables School Edition.”

“I had never done one of these,” he said. “I said no at first.”

The path to yes? He workshopped his dream project on the students — setting the musical in 1964 Mississippi during Freedom Summer. “The kids jumped in.”

Redd was Taylor Newby-Kahre’s vocal performance teacher at New York University and the two have worked together off and on for about 20 years. Still, she was skeptical about this small town gig. That first show in 2019 changed her mind.

“As soon as we got here … there were so many kids that wanted to do this, and were actually really good,” Taylor Newby-Kahre said. Many they see, summer after summer, back as participants. “It’s incredible how much they have just grown” in skills and self-confidence.

“It is like night and day,” she said. “And that, to me, is the best part about theater, just in general. Because most of the people that do it, they become lawyers or CEOs … they don’t necessarily do this for a living, but you can take it anywhere.”

She said theater performance has value in public speaking and making and building connections. “This helps with all of that.”

For the teens, the appeal is simple. “Fun” is a word that comes up a lot, but other factors, too, keep pulling them back to the stage — this one in particular — for a season show or camp production.

“This just gives me a space to be creative, and sing and share my love of music with other people,” Magnolia Jones, 15, of Bogue Chitto, said. “I love being on a stage, and I love getting a reaction from people, like making them laugh or, if it’s sad, making them tear up.”

Gage Dyess, 13, a rising eighth-grader at West Lincoln Attendance Center, enjoys the community and the people at Brookhaven Little Theatre, plus  “I like getting up there.” For “Singin’ in the Rain Jr.,” he is game for improv, trying out some gruff gravitas to voice his character, Hollywood producer R. F. Simpson.

Andrew Miller, 13, of Hazlehurst, embraces the camaraderie. 

“I like being part of something that multiple people are a part of, sort of like a team in football,” he said. “You have to be coordinated, communicate well with others, stuff like that. And I like making the community enjoy watching that team.” 

Summer fun was a magnet for Oliviah McCullom, 13, and Lorelai Gennaro, 17, both of Brookhaven, and the chance to work with professionals is a big benefit.

“It’s inspiring to me because I get to see, oh, they’ve actually done it. They’ve done the whole thing,” said Gennaro, who has the show’s lead role of Kathy and wants to continue in theater through adulthood. Scene and character work with Ben Newby-Kahre was a favorite part this year, beneficial for this show and her approach to future characters. “It’s just a big learning experience.” 

McCullom counted the summer production as her ninth show at Brookhaven Little Theatre, and appreciated acting help from directors who improved her actions and reactions onstage.

Gennaro praised it as a low-pressure intro to musical theater for teens, and a place to form easy friendships and connections, plus build confidence. “Throughout every year, I’ve gained more and more confidence, and I’ve gotten more comfortable not only speaking onstage, but out in the world,” she said.

“I think we’re blessed. BLT, I feel like, is such a hidden gem in Mississippi, because it’s in such a small town.”

Recalling the paucity of musical theater in his own growing up years, Redd counted off the current bounty in the area, including productions at Mississippi School of the Arts, Brookhaven High School and Copiah-Lincoln Community College as well as Brookhaven Little Theatre. “There’s so much, suddenly, right here in Brookhaven that the community has some options.”

He wants to make sure the community knows about this one, and a slate of build-up events — a play reading, “Wicked” film singalong and more — plus encouraging participants to talk it up, spread the word.

In the auditorium, Redd watched the camp’s teens trying on the well-worn classic and making it fresh for a new generation. His outlook was both professional and affectionate, likely with a dose of hometown pride. When 13-year-old Gage Dyess barked an order like some old-school Hollywood producer in the scene, Redd laughed and marveled at the comic surprise.

“That was awesome,” he said quietly, never breaking his gaze at the stage.

Mississippi is one of 10 states joining a federal program that funds community mental health centers to expand their services, enabling them to sustainably provide care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. 

Two regional community mental health centers were selected to host pilot programs, and will receive four years of federal Medicaid funding to help cover expenses. The pilot centers are Communicare, covering north-central Mississippi, and LifeHelp covering rural counties in the Delta. Leadership at the mental health centers see this support as a lifeline in a system that has struggled to stay financially afloat. 

“It’s truly a transformational moment for our public mental health system,” said Phaedre Cole, executive director of LifeHelp. 

The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model is the “gold-standard” when it comes to behavioral therapy, Cole told Mississippi Today, because it creates an accountability-focused framework to cover a coordinated system of care. In states that have shifted to this model, clinics have expanded treatment options beyond therapy, reduced wait times and increased staffing, data from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing shows.

Other recently added states included Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia, according to a May 28 press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Participating mental health centers must “provide 24/7 crisis care, timely outpatient services, and access to a comprehensive range of services” to any patient seeking mental health care, the press release said. 

Congress created the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Medicaid Demonstration Program in 2014, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, amid growing awareness about the need for community solutions for mental health treatment. “At the core of this program is the belief that everyone deserves access to behavioral health services and treatment, something DMH wholeheartedly stands behind,” wrote Adam Moore, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. 

Mississippi’s entry into the demonstration program comes after a 2025 bill authored by Sen. Rod Hickman, a Democrat from Shuqualak, directed the Department of Mental Health and state Division of Medicaid to apply for the program. Mississippi first applied in 2024, but was not selected that round. 

Hickman said the funding opens up resources for local clinics, and told Mississippi Today he is excited to see how the program is implemented at community mental health centers. 

“I’ve talked a lot with the CMHCs over the last year, and a lot of them have been saying that they are worried about collapsing,” he said. “[The program] allows for our mental health facilities to provide more services and benefits to the people that they serve.”

In Mississippi, four regional centers have closed since 2013, citing financial difficulties and stretching the coverage area of the remaining 12. Currently, community mental health centers operate under the “fee for service” model, which reimburses providers for billable appointments. This system rewards volume over value and doesn’t cover all of their costs, Cole said. 

By contrast, the certified behavioral health clinic model is a “prospective payment system” that has fixed reimbursements for a set of services, including ones the traditional model doesn’t cover. It is designed to pay a clinic back for providing a system of comprehensive care, such as through preventative screenings, treatment planning, case management and peer support. 

This program is rolled out through Medicaid, making it more reliable than the patchwork of grants community mental health centers across the country have historically relied on, Cole said. 

“You can’t really plan for the future when you don’t know if those grants are going to be there or not,” she said. “This is predictability that we desperately need.”

House Public Health Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany who authored the bill in his chamber, pointed to around-the-clock care as a high impact area for patients. 

“If a problem arises and it’s not during working hours, they end up being held in jail or the emergency room,” Creekmore said. “This provides them a place to go and be treated.” he said, adding that he hopes to see the program implemented across the state by 2030. 

As the executive director of a statewide organization for families of children with behavioral needs, Joy Hogge is more skeptical. The organization called Families as Allies has supported the certified behavioral health clinic model since at least 2021, their website shows. But when Mississippi applied for the demonstration program, Hogge said family advocates were excluded from planning. 

“It just seems bizarre to me that if you really want everyone at the table and all the different perspectives, I would assume that peer support would be a big part of this,” she said. To her knowledge, neither her group nor any other end users of the system, the people who receive treatment, were contacted to provide feedback on the application. 

Hogge said she is concerned the program will change community mental health centers’ billing structure, but not provide the systemic change she sees as necessary. 

“I think there’s definitely a risk that nothing will change as far as how responsive the system is to people,” she said. “I also think there’s a risk that Medicaid dollars won’t be used wisely.”

Still, she sees the opportunity the program funding provides, especially for at-home treatment options for youth behavioral health treatment. The potential for providers getting rewarded based on their patients’ outcomes is exciting, for instance if Mississippi chooses to offer clinics an end-of-year bonus for meeting certain benchmarks. She hopes that centers will actively seek feedback from people with lived experiences, update peer support requirements alongside peer-run organizations, and coordinate with schools to keep children in classroom learning rather than pulling them out for therapy sessions. 

Although Hogge will be retiring from Families as Allies by June 30, she plans to keep an eye on the demonstration program rollout and response from the pilot mental health centers. 

Meanwhile, Cole is enthusiastic about the program’s implications and grateful to the Mississippi departments that wrote the application. 

“This certainly gives me renewed hope,” she said. “This is not just a model that improves care, but it’s also a sustainability piece.” When the four years of the pilot are up, she hopes that Mississippi continues to opt in to the program, and to see the model become the statewide standard.

Mississippi Today mental health reporter Allen Siegler contributed to this reporting.

This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.

A Mississippi small business recently won an international award for its innovative, sustainable soap.

Bebot Simple Soaps created by Cleveland resident Ruth “Avvy” Capapas won a Green Product Award from White Lobster, a German sustainability company. 

The Green Product awards are given to companies for their sustainable product design, innovation and impact. The 2026 awards were presented May 28 in Berlin, with 36 recipients chosen from over 1,200 entries from across the world. 

A pharmacist by training, Capapas said her soap is 100% plant-based and helps with skin conditions, such as eczema. She said her patent-pending formula is a sustainable, natural alternative to deodorant and includes plastic-free packaging. 

The soap is inspired by her upbringing in the Philippines, where people would pick plants from their yards to eat and use as natural remedies.

Since her teens, Capapas struggled with a chronic skin condition. When she started testing her soaps on herself, she found they helped when nothing else had. She said many of her customers also struggle with chronic skin conditions and have found relief using her soap. 

Since starting her company a little over a year ago, Capapas has been asked to audition for the reality TV show “Shark Tank” and was a semifinalist for Whole Foods’ Local and Emerging Accelerator Program that places local products in Whole Foods stores. She said she has been surprised and encouraged by the response she’s gotten along the way, especially from her customers.

“You’ll see soaps that declare themselves all natural, but mine has proven itself,” Capapas told Mississippi Today.

Capapas sells her soaps at a local farmers market and online but thinks there is a growing demand for sustainable products.

A 2025 report by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business found that there continues to be consumer demand for products marketed as sustainable. According to the report, sustainability marketed products made up 25% of the market but were responsible for 44% of the sector’s growth over the last seven years. 

Capapas said the connections and advice that she received at the Green Product Awards in Berlin gave her skills as she continues to grow her business. 

“I’m so excited because I have not encountered a product like this on the market,” she said. 

Mississippi conservative politicians immediately started discussing ways to reconfigure legislative, judicial and congressional maps after the U.S. Supreme Court recently rolled back protections against racial discrimination in drawing political districts.

Attorney Carroll Rhodes has litigated redistricting cases in Mississippi for most of his career to help elect more Black candidates to office. But Rhodes, a 74-year-old Hazlehurst native, said he still has hope for the future after the high court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Rhodes said it could take a long time to undo the decades of work he and his colleagues in the civil rights community have done to create a majority-Black congressional district and majority-Black legislative districts in a state with a history of racist violence fueled by white supremacy.

Rhodes compared the Callais ruling to the end of Reconstruction when the federal government removed troops who had been protecting the rights of Black men to vote and hold elected office in the South. Departure of the troops ushered in the era of Jim Crow and voter disenfranchisement.

“Callais pulled the protection of the Voting Rights Act,” Rhodes said. “And I foresee that there are efforts underway to break up Black-majority districts, Latino-majority districts throughout the old Confederacy, throughout all the states in the old Confederacy.”

Mississippi Today interviewed Rhodes about his work, the history of redistricting lawsuits and what he thinks the Supreme Court’s recent ruling means for Mississippi.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: Has most of your legal work been about civil rights, redistricting, things like that?

Carroll Rhodes: Most of it’s been civil rights. A lot of it is redistricting. Of course, I’ve had to do other things over the years to pay the bills.

MT: Remind me, where did you go to law school?

CR: The University of Mississippi.

MT: So what drew you to the legal profession? Where did the drive come from to want to be a lawyer?

CR: You’re not gonna believe this. I ought to make this off the record, but I’m gonna go ahead and tell you.

Ever since I was 5 years old, I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer, and ever since I was 5, we had just gotten a television. Seeing some of the fights for the rights of Black people. So I just knew. It was a calling. Like some ministers. It was a calling.

MT: And did you know it always wanted to be for civil rights litigation?

CR: I knew I always wanted to be about civil rights ever since I was a young guy, which is unusual. I’m going to tell you why it’s unusual. As far as role models, I didn’t know anything about R. Jess Brown, Jack Young. I didn’t know anything about any Black lawyers, really. Back then, I just knew that I wanted to be a lawyer doing civil rights.

MT: Were you one of the first African Americans to attend law school at Ole Miss?

CR: No. Reuben Anderson was the first. And there was another lawyer. I forgot his first name, but Reuben gets the credit for not just being the first one there but the first to graduate. (Editor’s note: In 1963, Cleve McDowell became the first Black student to attend the law school. University officials expelled him after they caught him with a pistol for self-protection. He went on to receive his law degree from Texas Southern University in Houston.) And I remember Constance Slaughter Harvey came. So there were several other lawyers who had who had gone through before.

And I would’ve gone probably sooner, except I went to Millsaps College. I wanted to go to law school, but couldn’t afford it. And so I tried to get a job here in Mississippi. Everywhere I went, I couldn’t get one. I finally had a lady, a white lady, at it was called South Central Bell back then, who told me, “You qualify to be here, but you’ll never get hired.” And I said, “Why?” She said, “You’ve been blacklisted.”

Like with the Sovereignty Commission files, because we did civil rights stuff. So I wound up joining the Air Force instead and worked for a couple of years. So that’s why. Otherwise, I would’ve been in law school in ’73, but I went in ’76. 

MT: We don’t know if the Legislature will try to tackle congressional or legislative redistricting in a special session or the next regular session. But we do know that they’re thinking about it, at some point. And, I know that there were decades of litigation that went into trying to create a majority-Black congressional district, several majority-Black legislative districts. You mentioned you were involved in the ’91 litigation. 

CR: From ’91 onward.

MT: Everything didn’t just get better after the Voting Rights Act?

CR: Irrespective of what the Supreme Court said. It didn’t get better on its own. 

MT: What was the first redistricting case in Mississippi that you worked on or that you remember having some sort of involvement in?

CR: The first one I remember having involvement in was in 1976. The year I started Ole Miss Law School.

Frank Parker was a lawyer with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and they had an office here in Mississippi. And Barbara Phillips. And I graduated from a segregated all-Black high school in Hazlehurst called Harris High School. And one of the teachers there was a man by the name of Fred Jones.

And Fred Jones could pass for white. He was just that light-skinned. But he was also president of the Hazlehurst NAACP. And Fred Jones and some others had brought a suit against the city of Hazlehurst, my hometown, to change the method of election, because the members of the board of aldermen were elected at-large.

And Hazlehurst’s population at that time might’ve been 38% or 40% Black. No Black could win, and the NAACP got the lawyers committee to handle it. And Frank Parker asked me, I was more like an interpreter. He asked me to talk –

MT: To speak Southern? 

CR: Yes. Frank was a Harvard-trained, Harvard-educated lawyer and lawyers often speak in legalese. You know, it’s hard for people to understand. And I was in law school, and Frank knew I was from Hazlehurst. So Frank asked me if I would come down sometimes and help explain. I was the interpreter. I would interpret it into plain English.

MT: What did you learn from him?

CR: He was a doer. As a matter of fact, Frank handled most of the early voting rights cases in Mississippi, dealing with congressional and legislative reapportionment.

Frank, I know he was involved in going to the U.S. Supreme Court, even on the legislative side, I think that was 14 times. So Frank was the one who started training me. And it just so happened, I got into it because Fred Jones, one of my school teachers, had gotten me to file the suit.

MT: What do you remember about that case? Did that spark your interest in redistricting, or fuel the fire?

CR: Yes, it did. And I had a good constitutional professor at Ole Miss, George Cochran.

And George Cochran had clerked for, I think, he had worked for the chief justice on the Supreme Court. And Cochran was interested in civil rights stuff, too. So I had the experience with the lawyers’ committee.

MT: So what, other than the local Hazlehurst redistricting, what was the first major redistricting that you were involved with? Was it congressional or legislative?

CR: And the reason I was giving the history about Frank was in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with the Mobile versus Bolden decision, and that was the first time the Supreme Court said that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act required proof of discriminatory intent. And so the civil rights community back then wanted Congress to amend Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and was willing to extend Section 5.

And, after Congress amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the civil rights community had a big meeting in Birmingham with lawyers and civil rights activists on whether we would map out a strategy for challenging racial discriminatory redistricting plans and challenging at-large elections, because most, a lot of elections were at-large back then. And, so not only did we get additional training there, but that’s where I got involved.

And after the 1982 amendment, they extended Section 5, and I was involved with the Crystal Springs NAACP. The president at that time was challenging the county. She was the one who wanted to challenge the districts for members of the Board of Supervisors in Copiah County. At that time, all five supervisors were white. And so every time the Board of Supervisors came up with a redistricting plan, back then, they had to be pre-cleared. And I was involved with helping the community put together comprehensive objections to every plan that they came up with. And this was in ’82. So many different discriminatory plans throughout the country had been pre-cleared by the Justice Department, and we were successful in putting together the first comprehensive package to get the Justice Department to enter an objection to redistricting plans.

The Copiah County redistricting plan was the first one they entered an objection to, and it was in 1982, and we set the model for it.

MT: Across the state?

CR: Across the country. Across the country, where they had Section 5 coverage, and objections started flowing after that. And we had to bring lawsuits because not only were the plans discriminatory, but the reason they had to redistrict was because they were malapportioned. 

They did not meet the one person, one vote. And so we brought suits. We brought several suits that were comprehensive. Copiah, Madison and many counties in the state, at one time. And so that was my first case. Actually, Frank was the lead counsel. But he let me handle the litigation. So, in ’82, after the Voting Rights Act was amended, that was my first foray into redistricting. 

MT: So, have you ever been involved in any litigation with the 2nd Congressional District?

CR: Yeah. Back in ’84. Frank was involved with that, too. And I wasn’t. I was on the sidelines. When the first suit was brought in ’82, and then, I think, in ’84 was when the 2nd Congressional District was redrawn.

And although I wasn’t actually involved in the litigation part, I was involved in the community organizing.

MT: As you know, in the mid-’60s to, I would guess, the mid-’80s, correct me if I’m wrong, the way the Delta was drawn, was you had districts that would sort of run from east to west to split up the Delta. 

CR: Yeah, and that’s where Frank was involved in litigation that took multiple times to go back and forth with the Supreme Court till they got it. Finally, the Delta remained intact.

MT: And I believe one of the judges involved in the three-judge panel was former Gov. J. P Coleman, who was a federal Court of Appeals judge?

CR: Yes.

MT: And, I know there were two other district judges, but they kind of dragged their feet a lot of times. 

CR: They did. That’s why, that’s why Frank had to keep going back to the Supreme Court. An interesting side note on J. P. Coleman, when he was elected governor in 1955, when he did his gubernatorial address, he was opposed to integration. And he told them it would be easier to dip the Atlantic Ocean dry with a teaspoon than it would be for integration across the Mississippi. So it just shows you his way of thinking.

 So that’s why Frank and they had to go to court so many times. Because every time the Supreme Court said, “No, I think y’all did it wrong. Redo it.” He makes only a slight little change. But, still discriminatory, they had to go back. 

MT: Switching gears now. What about legislative redistricting? You said it was the ’90s when you first got involved in legislative redistricting. What were the circumstances surrounding that litigation?

CR: The 1982 amendments to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and Henry Kirksey at the time was the guru map maker. As a matter of fact, he was the one who did all the maps for congressional redistricting for Frank. And Kirksey had looked at legislative districts on the House and Senate side and said the way they were drawn, the criteria they would be, the Legislature was using to draw a whole lot more Black member districts, would give Black voters more of a chance to elect candidates of their choice. 

And as a matter of fact, Kirksey drew some alternative plans for us that showed that we could double the number of Black-majority seats in the legislature. And we tried to negotiate with the Legislature to get the Legislature to create additional districts.

They would not do it. And so we wound up having to litigate that issue. And we settled the case. We doubled, more than doubled, the number of Blacks in the Legislature from 20 to 40-something districts.

MT: This may seem like a silly question, but what were the political effects, the political results of having more Black representation in the Legislature and having a Black congressman from Mississippi?

CR: Prior to having a Black congressman, and prior to having Blacks elected in the Legislature, Black communities’ interests were ignored. And for a long time in Mississippi, it was a one-party state. The Democratic Party ruled, and getting the Democratic nomination was tantamount to winning the general election.

That only started changing in the ’80s and, and the ’90s when more white Democrats started fleeing the Democratic Party and going to the Republican Party, singing out of the same hymn book, saying that, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.” And the reason they were saying that was because the Democratic Party’s stance on civil rights issues.

And so when that change took place, and you have Black-majority districts, Black communities could have people who press their issues within the Legislature. The downside was that as more Blacks got elected, more white voters fled to the Republican Party, or started voting for Republicans. And up until today, the Democratic Party is viewed as a Black party. The Republican Party is almost viewed as a white party. And you still have one-party rule. But we, we just changed that with the last case.

MT: Up until when you had Billy McCoy as House speaker, you would have certain Black legislators serve in leadership roles. There were white Democrats, too. And you had Black members who were the chairs of powerful committees. Like Robert Clark – 

CR: Yes, and Percy Watson.  They had a lot of Blacks as chairs of powerful committees, but whites still led the Democratic Party. As more Blacks got elected, more Blacks became chairman and whites fled to the Republican Party. And voting in Mississippi is racially polarized. And the Voting Rights Act did not have anything to do with the polarization. It was polarized before there was a Voting Rights Act. 

MT: After the Callais decision, and I know you’re a bit of an optimist – 

CR: I’m an eternal optimist.

MT: But, what do you think the effect of the Callais decision will be on redistricting now, especially in Mississippi, but across the country?

CR: The Callais decision is a Hayes versus Tilden compromise moment in history. Now let me explain that. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes was the Republican candidate for president, Samuel Tilden was the Democratic candidate. The Republican Party was formed in part by abolitionists. The Dred Scott decision, one of the most horrible decisions ever by the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Taney talked about, Blacks didn’t have any rights to associate with whites in any way, said, were so inferior and a person born of African descent had no rights which a white man was bound to respect.

And he and others on the court and within the legislative body, a lot of them were slave owners, and particularly Democrats in the South. They were Democrats. The Republican Party was formed in part with the abolitionists. They got Abraham Lincoln elected. And folks finally convinced Lincoln that slavery was wrong.

He did the Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War, when the North won, they, kind of, I say, corrected the Constitution with the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. And the Republican Party was part of the push for the ratification of those amendments. The Democratic Party opposed it. You have whites in Mississippi, ever since then, even like Yellow Dog Democrats, they would remain loyal to the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party believed in states’ rights.

States’ rights believed that you could own people as property. And so Democrats were for keeping the Black people segregated. Republicans said let’s treat them as equals.

So that’s the background for the Hayes-Tilden compromise because, in the election of 1876, there was some controversy about three Southern states, Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida, about their delegations.

And it went on for a while until some of the Republicans got with some so-called moderate Democrats and decided to do the compromise. And the reason for the compromise, after the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870, Blacks began to vote in record numbers. We got two Black senators. Well, all were elected from the state Legislature.

But we had 15 or 16 Black representatives in the House. After the Hayes versus Tilden compromise, we had federal troops who were protecting the rights of Black people to vote. After that compromise, Hayes had to withdraw the federal troops. That started the reign of terror and then the second Mississippi plan with Jim Crow came into place. And the number of Blacks in Congress fell. The number of Blacks elected, because we had lieutenant governors, governors, members of the House and Senate. We had sheriffs. All of those went away because of the protection of the federal government. The federal troops were pulled out.

Callais pulled the protection of the Voting Rights Act. And I foresee that there are efforts underway to break up Black-majority districts, Latino-majority districts throughout the old Confederacy, throughout all the states in the old Confederacy. But I think history might not repeat itself this time.

MT: Why do you think that? Or why do you hope that it won’t? 

CR: Well, the Blacks back then and now are not quite the same. Blacks back then were more easily intimidated.

Things might not go as smoothly this time around as they did. But it’s the same effect, withdrawing federal protection. The Voting Rights Act was a federal protection that we had. And that’s why I’m saying this is a repeat of the Hayes versus Tilden compromise with the federal protection. 

MT: Do you think that there can be any realistic VRA challenges or VRA lawsuits filed with redistricting now going forward? 

CR: It might as well be constitutional challenges because this Supreme Court has done away with what Congress intended. So I think there will be a tussle, but there’s one thing different. There are benchmark districts established now. And so I think it’d be easier with lower federal judges to defend those benchmark districts. We’ve learned something from J.P. Coleman. Every time they make a small tweak, it keeps those districts in play. 

MT: Do you think that, say, the 2nd Congressional District, do you think that if the Legislature wanted to, they could just carve it up? Or do you think that there’s some protection?

CR: There’s a long history in Mississippi that was litigated, and before Section 2, the district was shaped because of the 14th and 15th Amendments. So that district is the way it is. And the criteria that the state has used for the redistricting, we use compactness, contiguity, it’s going to make it hard for them to break it up without it being shown to be racially motivated. They can use politics all they want. And the other thing they need to worry about is being careful what they ask for. Like in Texas, they came up with five new Republican seats.

They might not win in any of those because the sentiment of voters has changed. And if you break up this huge swath of Black voters and put them in, you might not wind up with a Republican being elected.

MT: Are you scared or worried that essentially your life’s work, everything that you fought for since the ’70s, in terms of redistricting, all the legal motions, the hearings that you’ve attended to try to get more Black representation and more majority-Black districts, are you worried that essentially all of that could go up in flames?

CR: It would take a long time to dismantle that work. And before that work gets dismantled, there might be a change in the makeup of the Supreme Court.  

MT: Is there anything else you want to talk about, or that you want to say that I didn’t ask about? 

CR: For so long, Mississippi was just like the Supreme Court. Most of the elected officials were white. They would fight the creation of Black-majority districts.

But whenever they went across the country or other places to recruit business, they’d tout the number of Black elected officials in Mississippi’s history. But here, they fought those changes.

It’s the same way as the Supreme Court. They would tout the advancements made, but those advancements were made under the Voting Rights Act – not in spite of it. But they tout it as if these advancements were made in spite of the Voting Rights Act. 

And white Republicans need to be careful what they wish for. They might get it and not like it. 

Jackson Police Department Chief RaShall Brackney is refusing to answer questions about a memo that directed some officers in the investigative branch to reapply for their positions and if it means robbery-homicide detectives must do the same. 

As Brackney walked back to the department’s headquarters after a Jackson City Council meeting on Tuesday, her chief of staff, Tonya Norwood, asked if a Mississippi Today reporter was seeking information for people within the police department. 

“Who on the inside are you getting this information for?” Norwood asked. “I want to know who is — see this information must have been sent to you.”

The memo was first reported by WLBT. 

Brackney issued the memo on May 27, calling on officers across the department to submit a letter of interest and a resume to be considered for a position within the investigative branch. 

The invitation followed up on a pledge she made during her city council confirmation hearing to offer more professional development opportunities to officers. 

But for some officers, Brackney’s memo went a step further, directing them to reapply if they wanted to remain in their current positions. The memo specified four units but did not state if those were the only units in the investigative branch required to reapply. 

“Additionally, personnel currently assigned to units with a nexus to federal partnerships and specialized investigative operations, including those serving as: Task Force Officers (TFOs), NIBIN-Ceasefire Personnel, Narcotics Personnel, (and) Intelligence Personnel shall also submit a Letter of Interest and current resume for consideration and alignment with the department’s future operational objectives,” the memo states. 

Most JPD officers are assigned to precincts under the patrol division, according to public records. One of four bureaus within the department, the investigative branch has fewer employees but encompasses a wider variety of roles: accident investigations, property crimes and special victims.

But it’s unclear if the memo applies to the department’s robbery-homicide unit, which has long been the subject of community calls for better investigations. Eight officers are assigned to that unit, according to a ledger of JPD employees. 

David McElreath, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Mississippi, said it’s common for new police chiefs to overhaul the ranks, especially those who take over a department in which they hadn’t served. 

“For a new chief coming in, they don’t even know — with all respect to them — who they can depend on,” he said. “You’re going to hear good things about officers and bad things about officers, and you don’t know which one of those narratives is true.” 

McElreath said he could not think of an operational reason why Brackney would refuse to clarify which units the memo applies to. 

“I hope the chief is not one of those that sees the press as adversarial and the only thing they want to do is ‘no comment’ or some version of that,” he said. 

Mississippi Today repeatedly sought clarification on the memo, but Brackney and her office did not provide it. 

Brackney also did not respond to an email seeking more information. 

In a text message, JPD Public Information Officer Tommie Brown responded “no” when asked if the memo applied to every unit under the department’s investigative branch. He did not respond to follow up questions. 

After a city council meeting on Monday, Brackney told Mississippi Today the memo is “self-explanatory.” 

“Read the memo as to, if you’re a speciality unit that has a nexus to the federal government which has to be vetted differently, you have to reapply,” she said. “The federal government has standards.”

Under Brackney, JPD is seeking millions in federal grants, but it’s unclear if the funding will be used to support the robbery-homicide unit. 

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, a Mississippi Today reporter sought further clarification. Deputy Chief Sequerna Banks, who oversees the investigative services bureau, initially told Mississippi Today robbery-homicide detectives will not have to reapply. 

“No,” she said repeatedly. 

A few minutes later, Brown walked away when the reporter explained the chief’s answers were not clear. “Excuse me,” he said. 

After the council meeting, a reporter explained to Brackney the memo doesn’t answer the question of whether robbery-homicide officers will have to reapply to keep their jobs. She responded, “It does.” 

“If you read the memo, rather than trying to read into the memo…,” she said, but the end of her statement could not be heard as she walked down the back steps of City Hall.  

Norwood, who recently came to Jackson after working as a community engagement specialist for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, then turned to face a reporter on the sidewalk and asked, “Who are you asking on behalf of?” 

“So, it feels like you’re having trouble understanding the memo,” Norwood said. “Because the memo states straight what has been said and it stands alone. So, I’m feeling like either you’re not understanding how to read the memo or there’s something that you’re not explaining for us.”

The memo encouraged all employees to submit a resume and letter of interest through the chain of command. It stated that materials must be completed “no later than Friday, June 6” – a typo, as Friday is June 5 – and submitted to the chief of police by Tuesday, June 9. 

Rep. Price Wallace, a Republican state lawmaker from Mendenhall who was known for his big cowboy hat, his knowledge of agriculture issues and his effort to restore a state ballot initiative process, has died, House Speaker Jason White said Wednesday.

Wallace was 64. White did not mention the cause of death in a statement he posted on social media.

Wallace had served in the House since winning a 2018 special election in Simpson and Rankin counties. He rose to become chairman of the House Elections Committee, where he had been pushing to restore the state ballot initiative process, an effort that has fallen short.

He is survived by his wife Cindy Stevenson Wallace, children and grandchildren.

“He believed in restoring the constitutional right for Mississippians to have a fair and accessible means of influencing state policy,” White said. “Price was a proud Republican and an asset to our state. He was always so proud of his kids and certainly enjoyed the title of granddaddy. We will miss our friend in the House. Please join me in keeping his wife, Cindy, and his family in your prayers. A good man, may he rest in peace.”

A poultry farmer who was often seen donning a cowboy hat, Wallace was remembered on Wednesday by White and other officials as a strong advocate for Mississippi’s agriculture industry.

Rep. Fred Shanks, a Republican from Brandon, said Wallace was one of the first people he met in the Legislature. He quickly learned Wallace was a reliable colleague and an expert on all things agriculture.

“Price Wallace was a stand up man who you could always count on to come through in a pinch!” Shanks wrote on social media. “If anyone has ever asked or reached out to me on an agricultural question, since I’m a concrete cowboy, I can promise you that Price was the one who ultimately answered it! He was the real deal!”

In addition to his work as a state representative, he also served as an election commissioner, according to the Simpson County Republican Party.

Brad White, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said Wallace was like family to him.

“His word was gold,” White said. “And, if you needed someone in your corner, he was the type of fella you wanted. He leaves a strong legacy behind.”

At the Capitol, Wallace spoke often about his Christian faith and how it influenced his worldview. In a statement on social media, the Church of Mendenhall wrote that Wallace helped lead its board, “greeting you at the door with a smile and a bulletin every Sunday to grilling burgers for our youth.”

A no-holds-barred bout of partisan redistricting has been won by Republicans. Now it’s up to voters to decide whether it matters for control of Congress.

Republicans could net about 10 additional U.S. House seats in the November elections if redrawn voting districts perform as they were intended. The question is whether that’s enough for the GOP to hold on to a majority in the chamber, where Democrats need to gain only a few seats to take control.

Political trends and historic patterns favor Democrats. President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are negative. And the incumbent’s party has lost House seats in every midterm election over the past two decades.

This election season already has been unusual. Voting districts typically are redrawn only after a census at the start of each decade. But Trump urged Republicans last summer to redraw congressional districts to their advantage to try to prevent losses in the 2026 midterms.

Since then, Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Nearly 145 million people — about two of every five U.S. residents — live in states with new congressional districts for this election.

Yet the mid-decade redistricting battle didn’t go as far as it could have.

Republicans in Kansas and Democrats in Illinois both rebuffed party pushes to take up redistricting. In Republican-led Indiana and South Carolina and Democratic-led Maryland, new congressional districts passed the state House but ultimately died in the state Senate. The Virginia Supreme Court invalidated new voter-approved districts that could have helped Democrats win up to four additional seats. And the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a lower court order that could have helped Democrats gain a congressional seat in New York.

Here’s a look at the states with new U.S. House maps:

Texas

Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats. Democrats think they could still win some of those seats.

Missouri

Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat by reshaping a Democratic-held district based in Kansas City. Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has until Aug. 4 — the date of Missouri’s primaries — to decide whether to reject an initiative petition seeking a statewide vote on the map.

North Carolina

Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Ohio

Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats. Democrats think they could still win those seats.

California

Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Utah

Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat in the Salt Lake City area.

Florida

Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed revised House districts in May that improve the GOP’s chances of winning four additional seats. Legal challenges are pending.

Tennessee

Current map: one Democrat, eight Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed new House districts in May that improve the GOP’s chances of winning an additional seat by carving up the lone Democratic-held seat, a majority-Black district based in Memphis. Legal challenges are pending.

Louisiana

Current map: two Democrats, four Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed off on new House districts in May that improve Republican chances of winning an additional seat by eliminating a majority-Black district held by a Democrat that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Alabama

Current map: two Democrats, five Republicans

New map: The U.S. Supreme Court in June allowed the state to use a congressional map approved by Republican state lawmakers that improves the GOP’s chances of winning an additional seat by reshaping a Democratic-held district that has a large number of Black voters.

Special Judge Barry Ford ruled Wednesday in favor of a claim by former Hinds County Supervisor David Archie that materials from the 2023 Democratic primary were not handled properly, making the winner unverifiable.

Ford ordered a special election for the District 2 seat within 45 days, finding that significant errors occurred in the safekeeping of ballots. He also cited Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace’s testimony about the lack of a chain of custody of voter materials. 

“I cannot determine the will of the voters, ” Ford said. “And case law says when the will of the voters can not be determined, then a do-over is required.”

The district’s current supervisor Anthony “Tony” Smith will remain in office during the time leading up to the special election. Smith told Mississippi Today that he has no plan to appeal the ruling, and that he is sure he can beat Archie again.

In a press conference outside the courthouse, Archie spoke about the ruling, and its importance to future Hinds County elections. 

“No matter what your party is, whether you are independent, a Republican, Democrat, or whatever you are, if you are a voter, Hinds County now will take your vote serious, based on the outcome of this case today,” Archie said. “And everybody in the nation would be looking at this place in Hinds County Mississippi.”

Warren Martin, who represented Smith, criticized the ruling, saying the county was invalidating Black votes.

“In a day and time where we see an assault on the Voting Rights Act at the federal level, state level, today a specially appointed circuit judge invalidated 8,000 Black votes in Hinds County District 2,” Martin said. “You saw it real time today, in Hinds County with a Black special circuit judge. That is an abomination.”

Martin also told reporters that Wallace should be held accountable for the missing materials instead of Smith. 

The ruling comes after an extended proceeding that began in February. Both Archie and the defense rested their case in Archie’s lawsuit on April 29. The group of election commissioners met with Ford through May 15 to advise him about their findings from the case.

Clarification, 6/3/2026: This article has been updated to show that the judge’s ruling focused on the mishandling of election materials, which he said made the results of the primary unverifiable.

Baptist Memorial Health Care will take over the lease and operations of Merit Health Rankin this year, making it the third Merit Health facility in Mississippi to change hands in the past two years, officials said Tuesday.

Memphis-based Baptist Memorial, a nonprofit health system, plans to invest $70 million in the 134-bed Brandon hospital and to enhance its services. The organization will retain more than 175 employees of Merit Health Rankin, according to a press release.

“We believe we can deliver exceptional community-based health care that will connect this community to our network,” Baptist Memorial Health Care President and CEO Jason Little said in the release. “With our resources and best assets, which I believe are our people, we can fulfill our 114-year mission of providing quality health care that aligns with the three-fold ministry of Christ while ensuring continued access to sustainable, affordable health care for this community.”

In a statement to Mississippi Today, Merit Health spokesperson Alicia Carpenter said the hospital system will continue providing safe, quality care to the community.

“Baptist Memorial Health Care is a highly respected organization and equally committed to quality and service,” Carpenter said. “We look forward to working together in service to our patients.”

In 1969, the Brandon facility opened as Rankin General Hospital, a county-owned, short-term acute care hospital. The Rankin County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to transfer the lease from Merit to Baptist after it completes the transition and receives regulatory approval. 

Merit Health hospitals are owned by Community Health Systems, based in Franklin, Tennessee, one of the nation’s largest hospital operators. The company currently carries over $10 billion in long-term debt and has struggled financially in recent years, leading it to sell or transfer hospitals across its network. 

The system owned or leased 69 hospitals in 2025, a 32% decrease since 2019, according to financial reports. In 2014, the company owned or leased 203 hospitals. 

On Monday, the hospital system announced the sale of four Arkansas hospitals to a Missouri-based nonprofit healthcare network in a $110 million transaction.

The hospital systems’ string of divestitures includes several Mississippi facilities. 

In 2025, the University of Mississippi Medical Center became the sole owner of the 67-bed former Merit Health Madison. The Canton hospital is now called UMMC Madison. 

Earlier that year, Memorial Health System purchased Merit Health Biloxi, which became Biloxi Memorial Hospital. Seven months after the acquisition, the hospital announced it would discontinue labor and delivery services, directing patients to its Gulfport location. 

Community Health Systems owns or leases six other hospitals in Mississippi, all operating under the Merit Health name. They are located in Flowood, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Natchez and Vicksburg. 

“Community Health Systems has been proud to provide quality health services for the residents of Rankin County,” Merit Health Rankin Chief Executive Officer David Henry said in the press release. “…We look forward to facilitating a smooth transition of operations of this hospital to Baptist Memorial and to continuing to serve Central Mississippi through our other Merit Health hospitals and services in the area.”

Carpenter, a spokesperson for Merit Health, did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about whether the system is considering selling or transferring any other facilities. 

Baptist Memorial spokesperson Kimberly Alexander said the system currently has no plans to acquire other Merit facilities.

Baptist operates 14 other hospitals in Mississippi. Since 2016, Baptist Memorial has added nine hospitals to its Mississippi network.