Feature
Green Space
If you want to see how differently various people approach the idea of planning for Jackson's future, listen to a discussion of parks and green space.
Editor's Note
The Devil Is In the Questions
I really don’t get hating people because they ask vital questions.
Editor's Note
A Battle Worth Fighting
“A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements.” — Orison Swett Marden
Editor's Note
From Emmett to Trayvon
Crazies will always be there, and we will always have to deal with them. But when trigger-happy men shoot kids of color under cover of Stand Your Ground or Castle …
Editor's Note
Hope and Loving in Mississippi
When we make a choice, whether about who to marry or what our opinion is of a mayoral candidate, someone won't like it. But if we mean this American experiment, …
Cover
Mr. Dylan, Mr. Evers
It was raining the morning of May 17, 2003. I was in my office, worrying about what the Jubilee! JAM organizers must be going through. It's hard to make this …
Editor's Note
Anticipating the Best
Without the facts, people cannot make good decisions for themselves. They cannot come together in social or activist forums; they can't celebrate what's great about their community while tackling what's …
chickball
10 Easy and Fun Ways to Help the Chick Ball & Fight Sex Trafficking
Here are 10 easy ways you can help:
It is JFP Chick Ball season in Jackson, and we need your help to fight domestic abuse—this year to start a rape crisis center and raise awareness about sexual assault …
Editor's Note
The Future of Jackson Depends on You
The signs showed up overnight around Ward 1 and parts of Ward 7: "Vote Today: The Future of Jackson Depends On It."
City & County
Campaign Trickery: Lumumba a 'Race Traitor,' Lee a 'Rankin Republican'?
Supporters of men who are vying to be Jackson's next mayor were busy over the weekend with last-minute election trickery, some anonymous and some not, with much of it targeting …
Editor's Note
The Hard Stuff
We have an amazing staff. And I don't just say because they work for me at the Jackson Free Press; I say it because of what they have to weather …
Ergon, Homebuilders, Nucor, 20/20 PACs Quietly Helping Candidates
Political action commissions are way to quietly donate to a candidate in Mississippi—if they wait until the last minute.
City & County
Lee’s Legal Troubles Multiply
The week before the Democratic primary went from bad to worse for mayoral candidate Jonathan Lee when news emerged Monday that a fifth supplier, Diversey Inc., is suing his family …
Editor's Note
Great Expectations
All of us need to be believed in, regardless of the luck of our early circumstances.
Candidate
‘It’s Not About Me’: The JFP Interview with Mayoral Hopeful Frank Bluntson
Jackson City Councilman Frank Bluntson, 77, is not exactly a newcomer to local politics: He has served almost eight years on the Jackson City Council, and several as council president.
Editor's Note
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
No Means No
I have read accounts of the now-infamous Steubenville, Ohio, rape with horror.
Editor's Note
Time to Think Small
I've been a bit amazed of late to hear all the hoopla over Sam's Club deciding to leave Jackson for suburban pastures.
Editor's Note
Between Man and His God
Consider this: Why should a free government that we all pay into support the beliefs of some over others?
Editor's Note
Weapons of Mass Destruction
The gun lobby has become too strong, too strident and a bit insane.
Editor's Note
A Kinder, Gentler Union
Picking on food stamps has long been a way to gather votes from people who don't bother to pay attention to who is poor and why (call them the 47-percenters).
Feature
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty
“Poverty in the Midst of Plenty is a paradox that must not go unchallenged in this country.” — John F. Kennedy
Feature
How Poverty Happens
It’s one thing to lose your job and suddenly face possible eviction if you don’t find a different one; it’s quite another to exist in a cycle of poverty surrounded …
7 Poverty Triggers
There is a reason that blaming the poor for their plight is useless, not to mention offensive. It’s usually not their fault, especially if they stay poor for long.
Feature
Idea Central to Escape From Poverty
It is vital to get food and necessities to the poor for basic day-to-day living. But to help people escape poverty, it takes the kind of programs that systemically enable …
Editor's Note
Where There's A Will ...
I understand well that cycles of poverty originate from historic events that, if not equalized, create generations of people who cannot defeat the fate of their elders.
Feature
Making Solutions to Poverty Stick
It is easy to desire to help someone escape poverty, but it is harder than it might seem because they have to ultimately do it themselves.
Editor's Note
The Southern Strategy's Last Stand?
This entire arc of ugly is good for us all, ultimately.
Editor's Note
The Deal With a Racist Devil
We seem to be going backward, not forward, on race and other bigotry issues.
Editor's Note
Beware the GOP's (Un)Scientific Sexism
The majority of Mississippians who voted last fall to block the passage of the "personhood" initiative should be very nervous about the Nov. 6 election.
FBI Arrests Three Cops, Former Hinds DA Bodyguard, 1 Other
FBI agents have arrested four (4) individuals, three of whom are former or current law enforcement officers, on charges of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and …
Editor's Note
Fire and Brimstone
For a minute, we toyed with having debates back at Neshoba Central High School in the 1970s.
Editor's Note
Raising An Army
This past Monday night, I sat in an auditorium at Millsaps College packed with students—mostly female, but many males as well—and watched the documentary "Half the Sky."
Civil Rights
Evers, Winter: Mississippi Moving Forward, But ...
Few eyes were dry when Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of Jackson civil-rights hero Medgar Evers, stood in front of 600 people in downtown Jackson Thursday night and declared her love …
Books
A Mad Insurrection
Fifty years ago this week, James Meredith integrated Ole Miss, causing violent upheaval. Here are three books from men in the thick of the uprising.
Editor's Note
Walking with Mr. Meredith
F*ck you, n*gger!" It was Oct. 1, 1962, and James Meredith was finally a student at the University of Mississippi.
Business
Living Local
When the Jackson Free Press launched in 2002, one of our primary goals was to help strengthen locally owned businesses.
Business
The Saga of Flood Control
Ever since the massive Easter Flood of 1979, the fear of another "big one" has loomed over Jackson.
Editor's Note
An Inconvenient Joke
If there is anything we now know here in Mississippi and in neighboring states, rising (or surging) oceans are nothing to belittle or use to score cheap political points.
Editor's Note
Flipping the 'Race Card'
I almost spewed coffee all over my screen. I had just opened a "Haley Barbour" news alert and read that our esteemed former governor had accused Democrats of playing the …
Editor's Note
Beating the Spread
When I think of my childhood, I remember love and drama, my alcoholic daddies, a hard-working mother and lots of football.
Editor's Note
A More Intolerant Nation
This week, a local dentist showed up on Facebook agitated that we had dared publish a story about guns in a public-health context.
Feds Indict Five Jackson Men on Drug Charges
Five men indicted in federal drug charges include one man who was close to the late Mayor Frank Melton.
