The Mississippi Independent

08/20/2026

Mississippi’s funding formula for colleges and universities will remain in place for now after the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning met Thursday, Aug. 20, without taking up a proposed performance-based funding model.

IHL, the board that governs Mississippi’s eight public universities voted June 18 to move toward a funding formula that would tie state dollars to graduation rates, student retention and how much graduates earn.

Some lawmakers have warned that measuring universities this way could penalize Jackson State University, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University because the metrics take no account of the decades those schools went underfunded by the state.

Mississippi’s funding formula for colleges and universities will remain in place for now after the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning met Thursday, Aug.

08/17/2026

Some call it “The Talk,” as though it happens once. It doesn’t. It is a conversation black folks have been having children their entire lives. As questions continue to swirl about the mysterious death of Nolan Wells on Mississippi's Horn Island, Black parents in Mississippi and across the country, are talking about "The Talk" that African American parents must have with their children about the realities and dangers of being Black in the United States of America. In this latest piece, Talamieka Brice, writes: "The Talk was never about surviving the South. It’s about surviving America."

This commentary is in response to an Aug.

08/14/2026

Mississippi’s only dedicated immigrant detention facility received its worst inspection report since operations began in 2019, with inspectors finding 23 use-of-force violations after the CoreCivic-owned facility failed to investigate whether detainees were subject to excessive pressure on their throats, heads and chests, or whether video evidence contained unexplained gaps or missing sequences.

And, yet, they "passed."

Previously unreported federal inspection found serious failures in how facility reviewed uses of force, raising new questions about oversight of expanding detention system

08/13/2026

Since the Nolan Wells case started, I've seen a lot of Black people online saying the same thing.

"Black people need to leave Mississippi.”

And every time I read that, I just sit there.
Because I don't think people realize that's part of how we got here in the first place.

Let's talk about why telling Black folks to leave Mississippi is anti-Black.

08/11/2026

Assma Ali was recently sworn in as municipal judge in the small town of Benoit in southwest Bolivar County. The reaction from racists around the state was not so small, however.

Within days, a false claim spread online that Ali had been appointed in Ridgeland, 130 miles away, where her law office is located. The city of Ridgeland issued a release refuting the claim.

Mississippi has a very limited history of Muslims in public office (Ali Shamsiddeen, a former municipal judge in Jackson, is Muslim). The state’s other Muslim figures of note include Yazoo City-born journalist Askia Muhammad; McComb civil rights organizer Curtis Muhammad; activist Hollis Watkins Muhammad; and NBA player and activist Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a Gulfport native. None were officeholders.

When Assma Ali was sworn in as municipal judge of Benoit on Aug.

08/07/2026

The recent death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells has brought the importance of the talk to the forefront of public discussion.

Wells, who was Black, was on a boat trip along the Mississippi Gulf Coast with a group of white friends when he disappeared on July 4. Wells’ mother reported him missing later that evening, and a park ranger found his body on July 6.

Mississippi’s history of racist violence casts a long shadow and has fueled intense online speculation about what happened to Wells. So far, investigations are ongoing and the nature and cause of Wells’ death remain undetermined.

Alongside this speculation are reminders to parents of Black children about the importance of the talk.

Republished from The Conversation US.

By James M. Thomas, University of Mississippi

08/05/2026

In formally kicking off her campaign for governor, Attorney General Lynn Fitch leaned into the two accomplishments she’s most proud of: helping overturn Roe v. Wade and being a Donald Trump-style Republican.

Yet both issues carry more political complexity in Mississippi than the campaign’s launch suggests.

Two reasons:

1. Even in Mississippi, Trump’s approval has fallen below 50% with more Mississippians disapproving of the president than approving of the job he’s doing.

2. Personhood. In 2011, Mississippians rejected the so-called “personhood” constitutional amendment l failed by a 58% to 42% margin despite the state’s conservative electorate.

Both issues are more complicated in Mississippi than one might think

08/03/2026

“The early evidence suggests Callais may have produced an unintended consequence,” write the report’s authors. “While the decision strengthened Republican efforts to protect their House majority, it also appears to have reenergized Black political participation across much of the Black Belt, a region where Democratic engagement had largely plateaued.”

Years of Republican-led efforts to disenfranchise Black citizens appears to be having the opposite effect, new data show.

07/30/2026

CoreCivic and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, have partially dismantled an alleged, yearslong predatory scheme that exploited immigrants released from one of the nation’s largest detention centers, following an exclusive investigation by The Mississippi Independent.

CoreCivic, which operates the Adams County Correctional Center outside Natchez, said it reviewed questions raised by the investigation that one of its senior detention officers had since at least 2020 helped steer released detainees to a taxi service operated by the officer’s husband, Otis Anderson. Former detainees and immigration advocates have accused Anderson of using threats and charging fares of more than $300 per passenger.

The Mississippi Independent, reporting in collaboration with the Spanish-language newspaper El Molino Informativo, found that Anderson had for years charged immigrants hundreds of dollars each for rides from the Adams County facility to transportation hubs in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Read the stories below.

Action followed allegations that released immigrants were threatened and charged exorbitant transportation fees

07/28/2026

“Mississippi is the new Georgia.”

That’s how U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat and vice chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, characterized the state’s political trajectory during an appearance on MSNOW Monday night.

Rochester added that she is personally paying close attention to the state’s Senate race, suggesting national Democrats increasingly see Mississippi as an opportunity rather than safe Republican territory unworthy of investment.

Currently, incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican, faces tandem challenges from Democrat Scott Colom, a prosecutor from North Mississippi, and Ty Pinkins, an independent.

“Mississippi is the new Georgia.”