People in Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city say the mostly white state Legislature is trying to encroach on their rights of self-government.
Timothy Norris, a licensed mental health counselor and owner of Mom's Dream Kitchen in Jackson, Miss., speaks during an interview Feb. 14, 2023. Random gunfire, repeated break-ins and an unreliable city water system are constant challenges for the soul food restaurant his mother opened 35 years ago in Mississippi's capital city.
The proposals for state control have angered Jackson residents who don’t want their voices diminished, and are the latest example of the long-running tensions between the Republican-run state government and Democratic-run capital city. Still, Black lawmakers say creating courts with appointed judges would strip away voting rights in a state where older generations of Black people still remember the struggle for equal access to the ballot.
Jackson residents have a longstanding distrust of the water system; during crises in August, September and December, people waited in long lines for bottled water. Still, opponents of a regional water board note state officials sought a role only after the federal government approved hundreds of millions of dollars for the troubled system.
Maati Jone Primm, who owns Marshall’s Music & Bookstore in a struggling Black downtown business district, said she’s not surprised by the majority-white Legislature’s attempts to control Jackson.
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Black Mississippi capital distrusts plans by white officialsPeople in Mississippi's majority-Black capital city say the mostly white state Legislature is trying to encroach on their rights of self-government
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