We took a look back at the past few years of reporting at Mississippi Today to celebrate our 6th anniversary. I wanted to remind you of some popular stories you may remember in 2019 that show how Mississippi Today works to tell your story.
Our cover of Olecia James not receiving the title of salutatorian at Cleveland Central High School went viral after it was posted. James sued the school district who claimed she was stripped of her salutatorian title due to negligence and skewed grading after East Side High School merged with Cleveland Central . By not receiving her title, she lost her chance to get a scholarship for Ole Miss.
Later in 2019, our photojournalist Eric Shelton captured a day in the life of Kaitlyn Barton, a teacher at Clarksdale High School. The result was an insightful look at the challenges teachers across the state face living off their salaries. At that time, Barton was working part-time in addition to her full-time teaching job to make ends meet. We’ve covered teacher pay during the current legislative session, where lawmakers passed a historic pay increase for Mississippi teachers.
Why are these stories important? They are your stories. Our mission is to take charge of the issues that matter to you and to hold public officials accountable. Throughout our six years we have told many of your stories, but the work is far from done.
To our current members: Your generous support allows us to continue this important work and for that, we thank you.
To our readers who are not yet members: Since we are a non-profit organization, our newsroom relies on members and donors to fuel our work. You can become part of our community of passionate members by creating a recurring donation today. To celebrate our 6th anniversary, our goal is to welcome 60 new members during our 6 days back on our top stories. Will you help us achieve our goal?
