Connect with us

Mississippi

A proposed ‘takeover’ has sparked a battle for power in one of America’s Blackest big cities | CNN

Published

on

A proposed ‘takeover’ has sparked a battle for power in one of America’s Blackest big cities | CNN




CNN
 — 

Within the parking zone of New Jerusalem Church in Jackson, Mississippi, volunteers handed out free instances of bottled water to a line of arriving automobiles final week – a brand new regular in a state capital that has struggled with the fallout of a failing water system.

However contained in the church, a parade of pastors and organizers addressing the gang railed in opposition to one other risk they described as dire to the town’s future: their state legislature.

Republican state lawmakers are pushing “a takeover of the town of Jackson and disenfranchising native voters,” declared Danyelle Holmes, an area activist. “They’re banking on us to be quiet. They’re banking on us to again down.”

Advertisement

The T-shirt she wore underscored the political temper of the occasion – and the siege mentality that metropolis leaders say they’re feeling: JACKSON VS. EVERYBODY.

A proposal within the Mississippi legislature to reshape Jackson’s prison justice system has erupted right into a high-stakes battle between the Republican-dominated state authorities and the Blackest large metropolis within the US over a few of the most incendiary flashpoints of American politics: voting rights, public security and race.

The combat comes at a time when the legislature is debating different payments that might additionally slender the town’s authority, together with over its damaged water system. And across the nation, different Republican-controlled state legislatures are additionally clashing with big-city leaders over energy struggles and purse strings.

The Mississippi prison justice invoice, which handed the state Home of Representatives earlier this month, would create a brand new, separate courtroom system in a district that features Jackson’s downtown and a 3rd of its residents. Judges and prosecutors within the district could be appointed by state authorities officers, encroaching on the ability of regionally elected judges to listen to some instances.

Advertisement

A modified model of the invoice stripped of a few of its most controversial provisions handed a state Senate committee Thursday – though they could possibly be added again in as the 2 legislative homes come to an settlement.

Each variations of the laws would significantly develop the jurisdiction of the Capitol Police, a state government-controlled police drive that has been criticized by native leaders for aggressive techniques and a number of shootings by officers.

Taken collectively, the modifications within the Home invoice would put White, conservative state officers answerable for a lot of the prison justice system throughout a big swathe of Jackson. That prospect has mobilized opposition in a metropolis the place greater than eight in 10 residents are Black.

“It’s taking us again in time and it places us on the incorrect facet of historical past,” Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba mentioned in an interview. “It’s colonization, it’s apartheid, it’s the worst of what Mississippi will be.”

The GOP lawmakers pushing the invoice say it’s wanted to handle large courtroom backlogs and stem violence that spiked within the metropolis in recent times. Jackson reached a document variety of homicides in 2021, with one of many highest homicide charges within the US, though the quantity fell final yr.

Advertisement

“The invoice is completely racially impartial,” its sponsor, Rep. Trey Lamar, advised CNN this month. “I hate that the opposite facet used race as a lot as they did.”

Cliff Johnson, a College of Mississippi legislation professor and the director of the college’s MacArthur Justice Middle, mentioned the Home model of the invoice stood out for its audacity.

“You’d have a police division and judges and prosecutors who aren’t accountable to native voters, all of whom are appointed by White officers in a metropolis that’s 82% Black,” he mentioned. The invoice, he added, is “essentially the most radical piece of laws I’ve seen in 30 years of training legislation in Mississippi.”

Cliff Johnson, center, with the MacArthur Justice Center, voices his opposition to Mississippi House Bill 1020, on January 31 at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson.

One of many few issues that state and native leaders in Jackson agree on is that the town is going through steep challenges – from the breakdown in water infrastructure, to the spike in murders, to a dramatic drop in inhabitants that has sapped the town’s tax base.

As White residents moved out to the suburbs, Jackson’s inhabitants fell almost 25% from 1990 to right this moment. On the similar time, the town went from about 56% Black then to about 83% Black now – the very best share of any main metropolis within the US.

Advertisement

In 2017, state legislators aiming to assist help the town created the “Capitol Advanced Enchancment District” to fund avenue repairs and infrastructure tasks within the neighborhood surrounding the state Capitol, the place authorities workplace buildings sit close to empty storefronts.

Final yr, with bipartisan help, the legislature added funds for policing in that district with an growth of the state Capitol Police. Previously a sleepy division patrolling state buildings, the drive has considerably elevated in officers for the reason that center of final yr, and its shiny SUVs are a ubiquitous presence downtown. 

Now, Republican leaders say extra modifications are wanted, pointing to a big backlog of prison instances within the county courts, which depart some defendants ready months or longer for trials.

People rally outside the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson in opposition to Mississippi House Bill 1020.

The Home model of the controversial invoice, often known as HB 1020, would develop the Capitol Advanced district to cowl a few third of Jackson’s inhabitants, and create a brand new judicial district with state government-appointed judges who might hear instances within the district. The judges could be appointed by the state Supreme Courtroom chief justice, and prosecutors could be appointed by the state Legal professional Basic, each of whom are conservative White elected officers.

The newly expanded district would stretch from the museums and Capitol constructing downtown, to the northeast metropolis limits of Jackson, encompassing a lot of the town’s enterprise district in addition to key establishments corresponding to Jackson State College and the College of Mississippi Medical Middle.

Advertisement

In keeping with CNN’s evaluation of US Census information and the invoice textual content, about 55% of individuals residing within the district are Black, in contrast with 83% of Jackson as an entire. The district consists of many of the densest White neighborhoods within the metropolis, that are additionally a few of Jackson’s most prosperous areas.

The proposed district “seems to be like a redlining map from the ’60s,” Johnson mentioned, referring to the decades-old discriminatory follow of denying loans in minority neighborhoods.

Lamar, the invoice’s sponsor, has framed the measure as a approach to assist Jackson by rising safety and addressing the courtroom backlog.

“There are too few legislation enforcement officers, too few prosecutors, too few public defenders, and too few judges to successfully administer justice,” Lamar, who represents a rural group two and a half hours north of Jackson, wrote in a current op-ed.

However native leaders argue that the legislature ought to improve the variety of judges who’re elected regionally in Jackson’s Hinds County – not usher in appointed judges.

Advertisement

“In the event that they’re actually involved about serving to velocity alongside how instances are dealt with, why not add extra elected judges, as we do in each different district within the state?” requested Winston Kidd, the county’s senior elected decide, in an interview final week.

State Rep. Trey Lamar answers questions regarding proposed House Bill 1020 on February 7.

The model of the invoice authorized by a Senate committee on Thursday responds to a few of that criticism by dropping the growth of the Capitol Advanced district and the brand new courtroom system. As a substitute, it will add 5 new short-term judges in Hinds County, appointed by the State Supreme Courtroom chief justice. These judges would get replaced by a single new regionally elected decide beginning in 2027.

However the amended invoice would develop the Capitol Police jurisdiction citywide, as an alternative of simply within the Capitol district. Any dispute over policing between the state-run division and the city-run Jackson Police Division could be resolved in favor of the state, in keeping with the invoice – except the 2 departments signal a memorandum of understanding by July, which the mayor has declared he is not going to do.

Assuming the amended invoice passes the total Senate, the 2 legislative homes must iron out the variations in a convention committee within the coming weeks.

A coalition of activists and religion leaders have organized in opposition to the invoice, holding rallies on the Capitol steps and at church buildings across the metropolis, and are planning to combat it out in courtroom if it turns into legislation.

Advertisement
Over 200 people gather on the steps of the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, to voice their opposition to Mississippi House Bill 1020 on Tuesday, January 31.

Supporters say the invoice is on strong authorized floor as a result of the brand new courtroom within the Home model could be below the supervision of the elected judges, and the courtroom’s selections could possibly be appealed to them.

However Jarvis Dortch, the manager director of the ACLU of Mississippi, argued that proposal would violate the state structure by diluting the authority of elected judges, and go in opposition to Voting Rights Act provisions defending illustration for minority teams.

“You’re going to have a metropolis inside a metropolis the place Black people are going to be second-class residents and haven’t any say over their policing or their judicial system,” Dortch mentioned. “It’s blatantly unconstitutional.”

Some locals say they’re additionally involved about how each variations of the invoice would result in a dramatic growth within the jurisdiction of the state-run Capitol Police.

Because the division expanded final summer time, some residents have complained of officers unnecessarily escalating interactions with suspects – particularly in a sequence of high-speed automotive chases across the metropolis which have left civilians injured or led to shootings. Within the span of three months final yr, officers shot a minimum of 5 folks, one fatally, in keeping with native information stories.

Advertisement

On September 25, Capitol Law enforcement officials fatally shot 25-year-old Jaylen Lewis, a father of two. In a closely redacted incident report obtained by CNN by a public data request, officers reported that earlier than the taking pictures, they noticed Lewis run a purple mild and tried to conduct a site visitors cease.

The division says that the taking pictures continues to be below overview by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and it might probably’t launch extra particulars till that investigation is full. The opposite 4 incidents have been additionally reportedly investigated by the MBI, however the division didn’t reply to a request searching for particulars about them.

A family photo shows Jaylen Lewis carrying his son, Zahari Brown, on his shoulders.

Arkela Lewis, Lewis’ mom, mentioned she hadn’t acquired any rationalization or a cellphone name from any state official, leaving her household outraged. If the Capitol Police territory is expanded, “it’s going to be a horrible factor for the town of Jackson, for folks of colour in Jackson,” she mentioned in an interview.

In keeping with the redacted report, the officers who shot Lewis have been a part of the division’s “Flex Unit,” a plainclothes avenue crime unit that drives unmarked automobiles. Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey advised an area paper final yr that the aim of the unit was “having boots on the bottom and proactively policing.”

However critics say the plainclothes unit’s aggressive techniques make it much like the infamous Scorpion Unit of the Memphis Police Division, which was disbanded final month amid nationwide anger over the beating dying of Tyre Nichols.

Advertisement

A pal of Lewis’ who was within the automotive with him in the course of the taking pictures advised the household that that they had realized they have been being adopted however didn’t understand the automotive behind them was a police automobile, Arkela Lewis and her daughter Alexus Lewis mentioned.

The string of shootings has sapped help for Capitol Police in Jackson’s Black group – even amongst some residents who say that, usually, they’d prefer to see a stronger police presence of their neighborhoods.

In December, a Capitol Police site visitors cease of a stolen automobile led to a high-speed chase throughout the town that led to gunshots. A bullet punched by the wall of Latasha Smith’s house in northwest Jackson, sailed over her 13-year-old daughter asleep in mattress, after which hit Smith within the arm as she slept. Two bullet holes nonetheless adorn Smith’s wall – and a bullet stays in her forearm.

A bullet hole is seen from inside Latasha Smith's home.

A quick assertion by the Capitol Police on the time mentioned that an “officer-involved taking pictures” had taken place that evening and “pictures have been fired” subsequent to Smith’s house. The division mentioned that the MBI would examine the taking pictures, however has not launched additional particulars.

Smith, who lives a number of blocks from the house the place civil rights chief Medgar Evers was assassinated six many years in the past, believes Capitol Law enforcement officials shot the bullet that hit her. That evening, after she ran exterior shouting “I’ve been shot,” she mentioned she noticed a Capitol Police officer holding a gun.

Advertisement

She mentioned she needs her neighborhood to be secure, however that the division’s aggressive techniques run counter to that.

“Capitol Police are supposed to guard and serve, however who’re going to guard us from them?” Smith requested in an interview. If the division’s jurisdiction is expanded citywide, she mentioned, “I’m leaving – we Black people can dangle it up in Jackson then.”

The town-run Jackson Police Division has additionally confronted allegations of extreme drive in recent times, and has suffered from understaffing and lengthy 911 response occasions. However residents say that a minimum of the division is accountable to their native elected officers – in contrast to the state-run Capitol Police. 

Extra broadly, there’s a big divide in how some White and Black residents of Jackson see the Capitol Police. Johnson, the College of Mississippi professor, mentioned a lot of his White associates seen the division as “a much-welcomed presence, a solution to a urgent downside, that they need everybody in Jackson might have.” However some Black associates, he mentioned, have advised him they have been “scared to dying for his or her Black sons to even drive by” the division’s jurisdiction.

Dwayne Pickett, an area pastor at a Black church, mentioned he’s had parishioners name him and ask him to remain on the road with them after they see a Capitol Police cruiser pull up behind them on the highway.

Advertisement

“There’s monumental quantities of concern in the neighborhood,” he mentioned.

A spokesperson for the Capitol Police didn’t reply to requests for remark concerning the criticism. At a group assembly shortly after Lewis’ taking pictures, state Public Security Commissioner Sean Tindell, who oversees the division, mentioned that “anytime there’s a lack of life, it’s tragic,” however defended the Capitol Police’s practices as “doing policing the way in which it’s speculated to be completed.”

In Jackson, the combat over the prison justice system is the newest energy wrestle between the town and state governments in recent times.

The town, which has skilled a water high quality disaster that has pressured residents to depend on neighborhood distributions of bottled water, acquired about $800 million in federal funding for water infrastructure upgrades, most from a spending invoice that handed Congress final yr.

However one other invoice at the moment being debated within the state legislature would create a brand new regional board to take management of Jackson’s water and sewer system, with a majority of board members being appointed by the governor and lieutenant governor. That has raised the alarm of the federal monitor appointed to supervise the system.

Advertisement

In the meantime, across the nation, comparable energy struggles have been happening between GOP-dominated state legislatures and Democratic large metropolis governments in recent times, each over public security and different points.

In Missouri, a brand new invoice would let the governor strip regionally elected prosecutors of the ability to deal with violent crime instances. The transfer comes because the state lawyer normal is attempting to oust the Democratic St. Louis prosecutor from workplace over allegations of neglect, which she denies.

In North Carolina, GOP legislative leaders have signaled that they could block Charlotte, the state’s largest metropolis, from issuing a gross sales tax that might pay for a significant growth of its public transit system. The state home speaker has referred to as the plan impractical.

And in Tennessee, the state legislature is shifting ahead with payments that might successfully lower Nashville’s metropolis council in half and take state management over the town’s airport and stadiums – after the town council killed a bid for the 2024 GOP conference.

On the similar time, native leaders in conservative corners of blue states have additionally clashed with their state governments – from California sheriffs who refused to implement masks mandates in the course of the pandemic to New Mexico’s Democratic lawyer normal suing native cities which have handed restrictions on abortion.

Advertisement

Whereas rigidity between metropolis halls and state capitols has lengthy been a fixture of American authorities, consultants say the fights have gotten extra frequent – and extra high-stakes – because the nation’s politics develop into extra polarized and acrimonious.

One 2021 research discovered that GOP legislators have been extra probably than their Democratic colleagues to vote for proposals to restrict native governments’ authority, and that these efforts have been commonest over “sizzling button” points like weapons and LGBTQ rights.

In some instances, rural legislators goal liberal cities as “a solution to rating political factors” and “pour just a little extra fuel on the tradition wars,” mentioned Keith Boeckelman, a political science professor at Western Illinois College, who co-authored the paper.

In Jackson, some locals say that the unhealthy blood over the prison justice invoice will stay even when the farthest-reaching proposals don’t make it by the legislative course of within the coming weeks. 

After she completed main chants of “kill the payments!” on the church rally final week, Holmes, the activist within the “JACKSON VS. EVERYBODY” shirt, sat within the entrance pew and took inventory of the state of affairs.

Advertisement

“It seems like a few of our leaders desire a piece of Jackson for themselves,” she mentioned. “So, it’s crucial that we proceed to say that Jackson isn’t for the taking.”



Source link

Mississippi

Texas A&M transfer edge rusher Malick Sylla signs with rival SEC school

Published

on

Texas A&M transfer edge rusher Malick Sylla signs with rival SEC school


Former Texas A&M edge rusher Malick Sylla will transfer to play for Mississippi State this upcoming season, On3’s Pete Nakos reported. Sylla played the past three seasons with the Aggies and will have one year of eligibility remaining.

The 6-foot-6 edge rusher appeared in eight games this past season to finish with six total tackles and two sacks. He played in 33 total contests across his career in College Station to record 26 tackles (six for loss) and four sacks.

Sylla played high school football for Katy (TX), where he was a four-star prospect out of the 2022 class. He ranked as the No. 124 overall player and No. 12 edge rusher in the cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

“It was just the best opportunity for myself,” explained the 6-foot-6 and 245-pound Sylla to Maroon and White Daily. “I saw an opportunity to help them turn the program around. I have one year left and I want to make the most of that opportunity.”

Advertisement

Prior to his commitment to the Bulldogs, Sylla also made visits with Syracuse and SMU. He is the 14th overall player and the second edge rusher that MSU has added through the portal so far, joining Nevaeh Sanders from Northern Illinois.

Malick Sylla ranks as the No. 295 overall player and No. 29 edge rusher according to On3’s Transfer Portal Player Rankings. He joins a Mississippi State team that is coming off of a 2-10 finish in the inaugural season under coach Jeff Lebby and will look to help bolster a unit that ranked last in the SEC in total defense.

The portal officially opened on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. More than 2,800 FBS scholarship players entered their names into the NCAA’s transfer database during the 2023-24 school year. Removing those who withdrew or went pro, the final total sat at 2,707 transfers.

So far this cycle, 2,079 players have entered the transfer portal with 551 of those already having committed to new schools.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

Advertisement

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.





Source link

Continue Reading

Mississippi

Kentucky transfer Koby Keenum commits to Mississippi State

Published

on

Kentucky transfer Koby Keenum commits to Mississippi State


Kentucky has seen 20 scholarship players leave the program for the transfer portal since the end of the regular season. Another one found a new home on a power conference team. Redshirt freshman center Koby Keenum was only in the transfer portal for four days.

The former three-star recruit committed to Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.

The Florence (Ala.) Mars Hill will move closer to home and play for head coach Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State. Koby Keenum will be a redshirt sophomore with three years of eligibility remaining in 2025. The class of 2023 signee only played 32 offensive snaps during his two-year career in Lexington.

Koby Keenum is one of 11 players in that 2023 high school signing class to leave the Kentucky roster for the transfer portal with multiple years of eligibility remaining.

Advertisement

The transfer portal is open for business and so far we know of 20 players who will be seeking out greener pastures this offseason.

  • DL Keeshawn Silver (Committed to USC on Dec. 19)
  • DB Avery Stuart
  • LB Jayvant Brown
  • TE Tanner Lemaster
  • TE Khamari Anderson
  • TE Jordan Dingle (Committed to South Carolina on Dec. 18)
  • OL Courtland Ford (Committed to UCLA on Dec. 17)
  • OL Ben Christman
  • OL Dylan Ray (Committed to Minnesota on Dec. 21)
  • OL Koby Keenum (Committee to Mississippi State on Dec. 22)
  • DL Tommy Ziesmer (Committed to EKU on Dec. 15)
  • WR Dane Key
  • WR Barion Brown (Committed to LSU on Dec. 14)
  • WR Anthony Brown-Stephens
  • WR Brandon White
  • EDGE Tyreese Fearbry
  • EDGE Noah Matthews
  • EDGE Caleb Redd (Committed to Kansas on Dec. 20)
  • RB Chip Trayanum
  • QB Gavin Wimsatt

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. Keep closer tabs on the Cats with our staff-only sticky thread on KSBoard, which will have updates on departures and targets throughout the offseason. Not a KSR+ member? Try it out today.



Source link

Continue Reading

Mississippi

Meet the Mississippi artists behind the Governor’s Mansion Christmas decorations

Published

on

Meet the Mississippi artists behind the Governor’s Mansion Christmas decorations


Each holiday season, the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson comes alive with twinkling Christmas lights and festive decorations. All of these magical touches are made possible by Mississippi artists.

This year’s theme is “Made in Mississippi,” and honors the state’s many industries including small businesses, agriculture and tourism. Back in July, Gov. Tate Reeves and First Lady Elee Reeves’ team chose the theme to honor the local businesses, big and small, that have shaped the state.

April Hunter of Quitman was chosen as this year’s guest decorator. Hunter took over Fantasy Cottage Flowers and Gifts in 2008, eight years after its opening. In the 16 years since, Fantasy Cottage has flourished and become a community staple. Hunter provides flowers for weddings, funerals and everything in between, not just for Clarke County, but for all of Mississippi and even for some surrounding states.

Advertisement

Hunter’s work within the Governor’s Mansion began when she was chosen as a featured florist in Nov. 2022. Shortly after moving in to the Governor’s Mansion, the First Lady began the featured florist initiative as a way to support Mississippi artists. Each florist chosen provides floral arrangements for the mansion for the duration of their month. Hunter served as featured florist four more times in March and November of 2023 and in July and September of 2024.

Fantasy Cottage was set to serve as featured florist once again in November 2024. However, once Hunter and her team were chosen for the Christmas decorations, November was swapped out for December.

Guest decorators for Christmas in the Governor’s mansion are chosen each year out of a pool of applicants. Hunter’s application was one of seven proposals submitted to the First Lady in July. Hunter and her son Cody Hunter worked on the proposal, which outlined in detail her vision for the “Made in Mississippi” theme if Fantasy Cottage were to get chosen.

“We didn’t want to just scatter (the decorations) completely all over and it just be hodgepodge everywhere,” Hunter said. “We kind of wanted each room to have its own thing. For example, one of the bedrooms is the tourism room. Another bedroom we kind of geared more to mom-and-pop shops in Mississippi. Another one we geared towards Mississippi artists — your basket weavers, your potters. There’s a lot of Walter Anderson, McCarty’s (Pottery), Peter’s Pottery and Wolfe Studio.”

Advertisement

On Sept. 5, the Mississippi First Lady called Hunter and told her Fantasy Cottage had been chosen to decorate the Governor’s Mansion. Hunter and her team spent the next two months preparing. On Sunday, Dec. 1, Hunter and eight team members got to work bringing in the decorations. Everything had to be set up by the following Wednesday for a gathering in the mansion.

By 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, Hunter’s work was complete. Hunter’s decorations fill several bedrooms, the entry way, a conference room and two parlors in the mansion.

“I believe that sometimes big things come in small packages,” Hunter said. “You don’t necessarily need a team of 50 to get a job done. Sometimes it’s better to have a small number of hardworking individuals, and each person plays an essential role.”

Gov. Reeves provided Hunter with a list of more than 300 Mississippi-owned businesses that have been established or that he felt have flourished during his tenure as governor. In order to incorporate all of the businesses, Hunter made a gold star with the name of each printed on the front. The gold stars hang on the only live Christmas tree in the mansion, a 14-foot tree in the Rose Parlor.

Advertisement

The talk of the season, Hunter said, is the stuffed deer standing in front of a Christmas tree in the Gold Parlor, the room decorated to honor Mississippi’s agriculture industry. The deer, harvested by Danny Joe Jones in 2008, previously spent the better part of a decade greeting diners in Long’s Fish Camp, a restaurant in Enterprise, MS.

After long-time owner Rep. Troy Smith sold Long’s Fish Camp a few years ago, the new owners sent the deer back to Jones. While brainstorming about which decorations to put in the agriculture room, Hunter suddenly thought about that deer. She called up Rep. Smith who told Hunter the deer had been returned to Jones, who happened to be a frequent customer of Fantasy Cottage. Jones then lent the deer, who’s mount had since broken, to Hunter’s team. Hunter got the mount fixed up, and the deer traveled from Enterprise to Jackson.

“Apparently nobody’s ever brought in a deer to the mansion,” Hunter joked. “We did it… If I could have bottled up the reaction of the mansion staff when we showed up that day to start decorating and we literally came in with a real deer… we went pretty heavy.”

Advertisement

The deer is joined in the Gold Parlor by alligator head replicas and a turkey fan contrasted with some more traditional, festive Christmas decorations like the gold pine cones dotted throughout the room.

Among the extravagant Christmas decorations in the entrance, a gingerbread replica of the Governor’s Mansion sits greeting guests. The replica was made entirely by hand by Madison-based baker Beth Hennington.

Hennington has nearly a decade of experience under her belt with her cookie company The Vanillan. In 2022, Hennington’s career took an unexpected turn when she won Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge”. Since her Food Network victory, Hennington’s business has grown in ways she never thought possible. Hennington sold her first dozen cookies for $35. Now, a dozen of Hennington’s cookies go for $125, and as of December, she is booked until next August.

Looking at the detailed work on the gingerbread replica of the Governor’s Mansion, you may think Hennington has a long career of making gingerbread houses. In actuality, Hennington had never made anything like the replica in her life. Previously, the only gingerbread houses she made were the simple, four-walls-and-a-roof kind that come in pre-cut kits. In the summer, Hennington reached out to the Governor’s Mansion and asked if she could provide the replica for Christmas.

Advertisement

“I’ve made several different structures, but I’d never made a really big structure,” Hennington said. “So, why not? Let’s do a replica of the Governor’s Mansion as the first one. I mean, what was I thinking?”

Armed with cookie cutters and piping bags, from Saturday, Nov. 30 to Wednesday, Dec. 4, Hennington said she spent around 80 hours in her own kitchen constructing the gingerbread replica, leaving only a few hours for sleep. She used her own pictures of the mansion and some provided aerial photos as a guide. The process, Hennington said, consisted of a lot of trial and error.

“I debated on putting it together at the mansion, and then I thought, if I have calamities, problems, issues in the mansion kitchen where I’m not comfortable, where I don’t know where everything is, it might make it worse,” Hennington said.

In total, Hennington crafted 56 royal icing wreaths placed on the replica’s front door and 55 windows, all made individually by hand. She indented every single brick with a paintbrush before putting the walls into the oven. The completed structure is four feet long, two and a half feet tall and three feet wide at its widest point. The house is completely hollow inside, and the only non-edible features are the little decorations on the replica’s lawn and some paper on the inside of the windows.

The replica is held together solely by icing, and no glue was involved in the building process. Hennington used isomalt as an adherent, a sugar substitute that the baker called “hot glue for bakers.” Some of the structure’s walls are made from classic, soft gingerbread dough, and some are made from what’s known as “construction gingerbread,” which doesn’t contain eggs so the final product is stronger and studier.

Advertisement

After she had finished the replica, which was built on a piece of plywood, Hennington and her husband, Jackson Fire Department Captain Kenneth Hennington, laid down the seats of her Nissan Rouge and loaded up the structure. She then drove the replica from her home with her husband holding it steady from the front seat and delivered it straight to the Governor’s Mansion.

Despite the hard work and long hours, Hennington said she had a great time recreating the Governor’s Mansion out of gingerbread.

“I’m playing with icing and gingerbread,” Hennington said. “My house smells good. I got Christmas music playing… my house has been the North Pole. I have always wanted to be an architect. I just didn’t know my medium was going to be gingerbread.”

All of the decorations will come down Jan. 2. Hennington said if the Governor doesn’t want to keep the gingerbread replica, she will take it back and preserve it with resin.

Advertisement

As for Hunter’s decorations, the Quitman florist said Jan. 2 will be a bittersweet day. Hunter called her decorations a “work of heart,” emphasizing what an honor the whole experience has been, especially for a small-town florist. Fantasy Cottage sits right across from the Quitman post office in a town with only two red lights, Hunter quipped.

“It takes my breath away sometimes when I think about the magnitude of it, but I’m so thankful and so proud that we were chosen,” Hunter said. “I hope that we have made Clarke County proud and Mississippi. This has been a Christmas to remember.”

Got a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at mboyte@jackson.gannett.com



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending