mississippi
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Black Man Takes Miss. Flag to Supreme Court Because … Look at It
A black Mississippi man who argues that the state’s flag is a symbol of white supremacy is taking his fight to the Supreme Court of the United States, setting the stage for the possibility that SCOTUS could ban all official use of Confederate imagery. According to an Associated Press report, in February 2016, Carlos Moore…
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‘You Can Kill a Man, but You Can’t Kill an Idea’: Remembering Medgar Evers on the 54th Anniversary of His Assassination
On June 12, 1963, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith assassinated Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers in the driveway of his Jackson, Miss., home. Evers’ wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams, and their three children, Darrell, Reena and James, were all inside when they heard the shotgun blast. The children were 9, 8 and 3 years old,…
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Black Man’s Severed Head Found Near Headless Burned Body in Jackson, Miss.
Authorities in Jackson, Miss., are investigating two separate crime scenes that appear to be connected … or not, as it happens. On Saturday morning, a group of children found a severed head on the front porch of a home, WLBT reports. Hours later, a headless burned body was discovered less than a mile away. Both…
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8 Killed in Miss. Mass Shooting: ‘I Ain’t Fit to Live,’ Says Suspect
A 35-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed eight people, including a police deputy who the suspect said “was just there,” on Saturday in rural Mississippi. Willie Cory Godbolt, 35, confessed on video to a reporter from the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, who was on the scene before the suspect was transported to jail.…
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Miss. Sued Over Unequal Education for Black Students
Mississippi is being hit with a lawsuit—accused of violating the federal law that allowed the state to rejoin the Union after the Civil War—because of what the lawsuit charges is the unequal education that black students receive. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of four African-American mothers with children in public…
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Miss. Man Accused of Intentionally Locking Disabled Child in Hot Car
A Mississippi man was arrested and is facing felony child abuse charges after being accused of intentionally locking a disabled child in a hot car as a way to punish the child’s mother. According to the Clarion-Ledger, 31-year-old Brandon Windham was taken into custody Thursday after witnesses saw him roll up the windows of the…
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‘They Should Be Lynched’: Miss. Lawmaker Karl Oliver on La. Leaders Taking Down Confederate Monuments
Mississippi state Rep. Karl Oliver says that Louisiana leaders should be lynched for removing Confederate monuments and that he will do everything within his power to make sure that Mississippi does not follow suit. As previously reported by The Root, the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed last Friday, making it the…
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Byron McBride, 19, Identified as Gunman in Killing of 6-Year-Old Kingston Frazier
Byron McBride, 19, has been identified as the gunman in the shooting death of 6-year-old Kingston Frazier. WAPT reports that Dwan Diondro Wakefield, 17; D’Allen Washington, 17; and McBride will all be charged with capital murder in Frazier’s death, according to Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest. As previously reported by The Root, there were…
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Lawsuit: Miss. Sheriff’s Department Illegally Targeted Black Population for Decades
Betty Tucker had invited a few guests over for a cookout in the garden of her Canton, Miss., home when two plainclothes sheriff’s deputies walked into her home. Even though they didn’t have a warrant, they came in, checked her pockets and the pockets of her guests, searched her patio on their hands and knees,…
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Happy Anniversary, White Supremacy!
Because many people have accused The Root of not being inclusive and focusing on issues of race too much, please allow us to extend our most heartfelt, warmest wishes on this—your day of celebration. As Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama celebrate Confederate Memorial Day (which I have long proposed be renamed “White Tear-mas”—because who else but…