03 Sep Foster a Resilient Recovery – 15 Years After Katrina

Posted at September 03, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

Hurricane Katrina’s powerful surge swept casino barges onto highways, upended bridges, and inundated areas untouched by any prior storm, making the point with sheer brute force that status quo precautions no longer were adequate. As Mississippians emerged from shelter to face a new reality, the...

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02 Sep Plant a Flag of Equity – 15 Years After Katrina

Posted at September 02, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina became clear to the public, a popular saying took hold: the storm was “an equal-opportunity destroyer.” What this phrase neglects is the fact that this storm struck a profoundly inequitable society shaped for generations by Jim Crow law. For...

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01 Sep MCJ Argues At Court Hearing That Mississippi Voters Have The Right To Vote Absentee During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted at September 01, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

On Friday, August 28, MCJ brought its case regarding absentee voting during the COVID-19 pandemic to a socially distanced courtroom in the Hinds County Chancery Courthouse, where we contended that Mississippi’s absentee ballot law should be interpreted to give voters the choice of voting absentee...

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27 Aug Reflections on Emmett Till – Barbara Lipman

Posted at August 27, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

Fifty years ago, almost to the day, I began working at the Wilkes Elementary School in Money, Mississippi – literally a hundred feet (across the Money Road) from the Bryant Grocery Store. I, of course, knew all about the Bryant Store. And I knew about...

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01 Jul Fight for DACA and Dreamers Continues After Supreme Court Decision

Posted at July 01, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

There were an estimated 900,000 young Americans without authorized immigration status in 2012. Today there are over 1.3 million. These individuals were brought here as children, sometimes just days old, and America is their only home. Undocumented persons do not have Social Security numbers. They...

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24 Jun COVID-19 brings Mississippi nearer to closing the digital divide

Posted at June 24, 2020 in Blog by Mississippi Center for Justice

At the Mississippi Center for Justice, we know from experience that disasters accelerate social trends already in place, for good or for ill. We saw it in housing after Hurricane Katrina and in our coastal ecosystems after the BP oil disaster. And it is just...

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16 Feb KNOWING OUR HIV STATUS IS OUR GREATEST FIGHT

Posted at February 16, 2018 in Blog by Linda Dixon Rigsby

February 7, 2018 was National Black HIV Awareness Day. This year’s theme was “Stay the Course, the Fight is Not Over.” Our greatest fight yet is stressing the importance of individuals getting tested to know their HIV status. The Centers for Disease Control recommends individuals...

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11 Jan MCJ Provides Legal Support to Local Affordable Housing Initiatives

Posted at January 11, 2018 in Blog by John Jopling

Not very long ago, the shortage of affordable rental housing was only a concern of those living in the dense population centers of the East and West Coasts. Unfortunately, rising rents and declining household incomes are now crippling low and moderate- income renters here in Mississippi. Meanwhile,...

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21 Sep The Crippling Effect of HIV Stigma on Legal Rights

Posted at September 21, 2017 in Blog by Linda Dixon Rigsby

The stigma of HIV has robbed countless individuals the freedom to exercise their legal rights. Perhaps more devastating, the stigma surrounding HIV has prevented individuals living with HIV from knowing the legal protections afforded to them after experiencing discriminatory conduct.  In our great country, we...

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31 Aug Legal Representation Critical Component of Recovery for Disaster Victims

Posted at August 31, 2017 in Blog by John Jopling

Watching, along with the rest of America, the catastrophic flooding in Houston, my heart goes out to the people of South Texas as they confront the immediate aftermath of this disaster. Every affected individual captured by the television camera has his/her own unique story. And...

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