Demonstration, held at historic location where the ‘Mississippi Plan’ was enacted, comes as southern states race to dilute Black voting power

Thousands of Mississippians, along with allies from other southern states, gathered at the state’s War Memorial Building auditorium on Wednesday in support of voting rights. It was the latest in a series of actions protesting the supreme court’s recent decision gutting the provision of the Voting Rights Act preventing racial discrimination, and held on a site integral to the state’s history of Black disenfranchisement.

Section 2 “stopped states, counties, cities, from passing redistricting maps that discriminate against Black voters and it led to the biggest growth of Black political power since Reconstruction”, said Amir Badat, the southern states director at the voting rights group Fair Fight Action.

Mississippi politicians are threatening to redraw the district of Bennie Thompson, the state’s lone Democrat in Congress

The supreme court decision that effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) “was red meat to the Republican legislators of the south” the US House representative Bennie Thompson said.

Conservative lawmakers in Mississippi, where Thompson is both the state’s lone Black and only Democratic congressional representative, have used the opportunity to explicitly target him, threatening to redraw the second congressional district, that he represents.

However, Tate Reeves said he expects to redraw state’s four congressional districts before the 2027 elections

On Wednesday morning, Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said that he is canceling a special legislative session that was scheduled to redraw the state’s supreme court districts next week. However, Reeves, a Republican, noted that he does expect the state to redraw its four congressional districts at some point in the near future.

Reeves, in an appearance on SuperTalk radio, a conservative talk radio network, also said that it would be difficult for the state to redraw the congressional districts in the Republicans favor in time for the upcoming midterm elections, slated for November. Doing so might also hurt Republicans in congressional races.

jwtPhoto.com posted a photo:

Photographic images captured throughout the state of Mississippi, featuring southern landscapes, small towns, historic locations, rural backroads, and everyday life. These photographs highlight the character, atmosphere, and natural beauty found across Mississippi.

Students aged 12 to 15 steered bus to safety and called for help after driver lost consciousness from asthma attack

Middle school students in Mississippi acted quickly to halt their school bus from crashing after their driver passed out while on a highway, prompting the operator to declare: “They saved my life.”

The bus in question had just left the Hancock middle school in the Mississippi community of Kiln on Wednesday when the driver, Leah Taylor, suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness.