January 6–On This Day in Mississippi History . . .

Image via Wikipedia

In 2005, a Neshoba County grand jury indicted Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of murder. When the Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state took action against the perpetrators. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner‘s widow, testified in the trial. Afterward she said to the press,

“You’re treating this trial as the most important trial of the civil rights movement because two of these three men were white,” she said. “That means we all have a discussion about racism in this country that has to continue. And if this trial is a way for you to all acknowledge that, for us to all acknowledge that and to have that discussion openly, then this trial has meaning.”^[19]

On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers.^[20] Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. He appealed, claiming that no jury of his peers would have convicted him at the time on the evidence presented. The Mississippi Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in 2007.^[21]

Related articles

• Salter – Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• FBI says end near in civil rights-era prosecutions (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• African American History: Differing Racial Perceptions (egrejeen.wordpress.com)

Salter: Double whammy of unemployment and gas prices hurts Mississippi more than most

The weekend’s wall-to-wall coverage of Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate ignored what for many of us in the “flyover” states are the hard facts of the 2012 presidential election.

At the Neshoba County Fair, the state’s elected officials preached slow and cautious optimism on the state’s economy. That optimism is justified. But here in what is still the poorest state in the union, there are two numbers that have a great deal to do with establishing an accurate measure of the state’s economic health — the unemployment rate and the price of gasoline.

As of the latest numbers from the state Department of Employment Security, Mississippi’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.8 percent. The unadjusted number was 9.8 percent — and both those numbers compare against a national unadjusted unemployment rate of 8.4 percent.

Those numbers, however, are somewhat deceiving. On the up side, a number of counties are well ahead of the national jobless average of 8.4 percent with Rankin at 5.9 percent, Madison at 7.2 percent, DeSoto at 7.3 percent, Lamar at 7.4 percent, Jones at 7.7 percent, Neshoba at 7.8 percent and Scott at 8 percent.

But beyond those seven counties, the jobless rate in the remaining 75 counties exceeds the national average and 56 of the state’s 82 counties have jobless rates that exceed the state average as well with jobless rates ranging from 10 percent to 17.9 percent. Eight counties — Sunflower, Tunica, Noxubee, Claiborne, Humphreys, Jefferson, Holmes and Clay — exceed 15 percent rate of joblessness with Clay highest at 17.9 percent.

Couple those facts with the rising price of gasoline and one begins to see the old Mississippi economic “double whammy” at play. The state’s economy takes a big lick with high jobless rates and then takes a corresponding second blow when gas prices rise and consume an even higher percentage of family, business and government budgets.

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• Gas Prices Dip Below $3.00 (wtok.com)
• Jobless claims number at good level. What does that mean for Friday’s unemployment report? (thesunnews.typepad.com)
• Salter gives a rundown of upcoming campaigns to watch at Neshoba County Fair. (mississippipep.wordpress.com)

Reader’s top 5 picks of the week for July 30-August 5

This weeks top reads on Mississippi PEP cover the topics of school choice, free speech of christian values, political one-upmanship at the Neshoba County Fair and federal seizure of weapons and ammo in Jones County.

If you missed any of those, here’s a list of the Top Five Reads of the Week:

1. Not as Good as You Think: MCPP Liberty Luncheon speaker Lance Izumi delivers a sobering message about “affluent” government school districts in Mississippi The top read of the week is by Keith Plunkett and covers the subject of a recent visit by education expert Lance Izumi. Izumi is the Senior Director of Education Studies from the Pacific Research Institute. He also interviewed with Keith for the PEP Talk Podcast. To hear that interview be sure and subscribe to the Mississippi PEP Newsletter at the top of the page to receive a password for access.
2. McDaniel: Christians rally to support their values one chicken sandwich at a time. Senator Chris McDaniel writes that Christians support of Chik-fil-A was a demonstration for the restaurant president’s right to freely oppose same-sex marriage, and also has a foundation in the principles that built our national identity.
3. Performance based compensation for teachers is patching leaks, we need a new ship. Governor Bryant’s call for teacher merit pay may be a good idea. But, Plunkett argues that despite the Governor’s best attempts, public education in Mississippi is still a sinking ship.
4. Feds look to seize weapons, ammo in Jones County. An excerpt from a Jesse Bass written piece in the Hattiesburg American about the federal governments move to seize weapons from a Jones County doctor following a shoot out with deputies.
5. Hall from Neshoba: Lt. Governor Reeves throwing elbows at Governor and Speaker Rounding out the top five is this excerpt from a piece by the Clarion Ledger’s Sam Hall. Hall notes the Lt. Governor’s attempts to run a few victory laps around Governor Phil Bryant and Speaker Philip Gunn.

Salter gives a rundown of upcoming campaigns to watch at Neshoba County Fair.

 

English: Neshoba County Fair cabins at night, 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the Neshoba County Fair now little more than a month away, the political speaking focus at the Founder’s Square Pavilion will be on Mississippi’s congressional general elections and the state’s “nonpartisan” elections for the appellate judiciary.

Mississippi appellate court races find familiar competing interests (Salter) | gulflive.com.

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June 21–On this day in Mississippi history . . .

Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

in 1964, three anti-racism and social justice activists visited the site of a burned church in Neshoba County. On their way back to Meridian, they were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and taken to the county jail in Philadelphia, Miss. In a conspiracy with local members of the Klan, Price released the three from jail at 10 pm. The civil rights workers’ station wagon was overtaken on a rural road, the three were beaten and shot and their bodies buried in an earthen dam.^[8]

The murders of James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from nearby Meridian, Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old white Jewish anthropology student from New York; and Michael Schwerner, a 24-year-old white Jewish CORE organizer and former social worker also from New York, demonstrated the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the South, especially during what became known as “Freedom Summer”, dedicated to voter education and registration.

January 6–On This Day in Mississippi History . . .

Image via Wikipedia

In 2005, a Neshoba County grand jury indicted Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of murder. When the Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state took action against the perpetrators. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner‘s widow, testified in the trial. Afterward she said to the press,

“You’re treating this trial as the most important trial of the civil rights movement because two of these three men were white,” she said. “That means we all have a discussion about racism in this country that has to continue. And if this trial is a way for you to all acknowledge that, for us to all acknowledge that and to have that discussion openly, then this trial has meaning.”^[19]

On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers.^[20] Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. He appealed, claiming that no jury of his peers would have convicted him at the time on the evidence presented. The Mississippi Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in 2007.^[21]

Related articles

• Salter – Mississippi’s racial politics distorted by lazy reporting | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
• FBI says end near in civil rights-era prosecutions (seattletimes.nwsource.com)