OPINION: Workshop advances the effort against gerrymandering Mississippi 

By Ivory Phillips

JA Contributing Editor

Last weekend, “Mississippi for a Just World” sponsored a workshop on the campus of Tougaloo College. The four-hour exercise consisted of five modules – Where Power Starts, How Power Flows, Voting Rights Act and Federal Rollbacks, and The Southern Power Play, enthusiastically led by the likes of Professor Jacorius Liner and Dr. Lawren Long. It closed with a Call to Action.

For the individuals involved, it was an opportunity to see the larger picture of the moves against voting rights. It was an opportunity to get an updated vocabulary in the area of political science. It was an opportunity to compare notes/exchange stories regarding voting rights and political representation. It was an opportunity to consider and develop strategies for preserving and even advancing Black democratic participation.

From the writer’s perspective in his continuing coverage of this unfolding story, it was another shot aimed at those who would deny the development of democratic government and participation for Black Mississippians. It followed on the heels of and continues the work of the recent townhall meeting held at Pearl Street AME Church in Jackson, the state-wide rally at the Jackson Convention Center, and the community strategy session at Mount Helm Baptist Church in Jackson. 

In that sense, the Tougaloo workshop builds on and continues the momentum to halt Mississippi Republicans’ effort to rob Black and Democratic voters of political representation in the state and federal government. Other such events are likely to and rightly should follow what was done by the organization, Mississippi for a Just World. Indeed, the community should remain alert and take advantage of opportunities to support these kinds of efforts.

With that thought in mind, we share herein several expressed ideas to take advantage of as the movement to preserve and promote political representation unfolds during the next several years. 

(1) The Black press, particularly the Jackson Advocate newspaper, should be supported and turned to in order to help understand the issues, the threats, and the opportunities facing Black and working class people. That advice derives from the days of the very beginning of the Black press in America. That press has helped build and spread the narratives critical to the people in an environment of confusion and contradictory voices. 

(2) Black colleges and universities, particularly their departments of education, political science, history, economics, and sociology, should be active through their research and graduate programs producing data and providing the assistance needed to advance the cause of civil and human rights. There is nothing partisan or that should be anathema about such efforts. Indeed, their mission ought to be that of promoting critical and creative thinking that develop the humanitarianism of our society. 

(3) Citizens of all ages should be “courted,” based upon their expressed needs and interests, in order to multiply their registration and turn-out rates and to increase their general participation in all levels of government. 

(4) Often parallel institutions or structures need to be created and relied upon to advance democracy in cases wherein the traditional ones have become too corrupt or otherwise ineffective so far as Black and working class people are concerned. 

(5) Rather than merely bemoaning the fact that the schools and other sources of education are not doing an adequate job when it comes to genuine history, civic education, and other such subjects that lend support to the effective functioning of non-white people in America, ways must be developed through the churches, community organizations, and individual volunteers to provide the same. It should also not be overlooked that citizens can and should seriously and repeatedly confront school and college officials about addressing their concerns.

Those are some of the things that surfaced as truisms during the Tougaloo workshop and elsewhere. They are the kinds of things that should be taken to heart and acted upon.

Finally, we express due appreciation to Mississippi for a Just World and other such organizations in whose events we have shared. We applaud them for their efforts and the participants who helped the workshop come alive.

Our prayer is that these groups and individuals continue to speak out, providing inspiration, encouragement, and wisdom to the community, for those who are newly exposed as well as for those who might be tempted to grow weary and drop out of the struggle. We further pray that other groups feel the need to organize in order to make their ideas operational and to coordinate their efforts with other groups in order to maximize their effectiveness.