All results / Stories / Donna Ladd
SUNSHINE WEEK: Public Needs Year-Round Access to Documents, Meetings, Donation Information
The JFP has long focused on the serious problem of campaign donation transparency in the state, especially that shielded by political action committees, and more recently the problem with city …
EDITOR'S NOTE: 19 Years of Love, Hope, Miss S, Dr. S and Never, Ever Giving Up
"I dedicate this first 19 years to Charles Corder, Herman Snell, Stephen, Jimmy, Alisa, Bingo, staffers over the years, advertisers who got it, and all of you who have believed …
Great Expectations
All of us need to be believed in, regardless of the luck of our early circumstances.
From Nothing to Something
When I moved back to Mississippi 12 years ago, it felt as if the majority of people I met, especially younger ones, constantly had one foot out the door in …
The Truth About Today’s Youth
Today's generation of young people may be the safest, smartest and most resilient we've ever experienced. Yes, including here in Jackson and Mississippi.
Hunting and Gathering
Last week, I had a young documentary crew called subSIPPI in my office asking me questions about whether Mississippi has changed.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Love, Good Deeds and the Jackson Zoo
One can't really have it both ways—everything can't be about race when you want it to be, but not when it makes you uncomfortable.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jackson, Lil Lonnie Must Not Die in Vain
When Lil Lonnie died in his car near the home where a white supremacist shot down Medgar Evers in 1963 in front of his children, in a neighborhood where kids …
An Editor and a Gentleman
An odd fluke of fate brought me to the patch of dirt where three civil rights workers were murdered in my home county, holding the hand of James Chaney's daughter …
In ‘Trying Times,’ Demand Safer Policing
The understanding that black (and brown) lives do matter even when it's someone doing something unpredictable in a poor neighborhood must break through all the noise.
UPDATED: Attorney Sues City of Jackson for Race Discrimination, 'Malicious' Termination
A former deputy city attorney is suing the City of Jackson for race discrimination, racial harassment, retaliation and violation of her First Amendment and due-process rights in federal court.
Living and Loving in a Know-It-All Nation
I doubt I'm the only one who has struggled to find the holiday spirit this year. Mind you, I'm a holiday fanatic—decorate, give, wrap, deliver, entertain, even cook—but I've had …
It’s Time to Change ‘The Game’
In most every election, we just move around the chess pieces but no one ever really wins, certainly not the voters.
Setting Up Women for Failure ... or Success
Too many people are still in denial about the way our culture treats even successful and educated women differently. So it makes a lot of sense that poor and less-educated …
The 42 Vote: Mississippi’s Time of Reckoning
When Mississippi Rep. Lester "Bubba" Carpenter stepped to the microphone at a Republican rally in Tishomingo County and started warning about a "black judge" taking away funds from white schools …
Conceiving a Smarter Future
We're on an arc of history where too many of our lawmakers (and voters) aren't willing to address the disparities that our racist history created—unequal school funding due to forced, …
Mississippi: Clawing to the Top
As we've all been riding high in recent weeks over the Mississippi State football team's meteoric rise on the media radar, we've all seen those tweets. You know, the anti-Mississippi …
From Affleck to Baltimore: Sh*t Our Ancestors Did
Forget a "sagging feeling"—it's a gut-punch to discover you descend from a slave owner or plantation overseer, especially when your relatives have laughed off such a notion your whole life, …
Mrs. Truth, Mr. Humanity
I first visited Battle Creek's monument to Sojourner Truth, an illiterate woman who shed her slave name and chose "Truth," saying "... and truth shall be my abiding name."
EDITOR'S NOTE: A Woman’s Life in the Mississippi Minefield
It's tough being a woman in Mississippi. In fact, it's probably the most difficult state for women to speak our minds and publicly engage on political and policy fronts, and …