Donna Ladd | Stories | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

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Donna Ladd

Commentary by Donna

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The Art and Craft of Dak Prescott

I love that the 23-year-old tells anyone who will listen that his success so far is about how hard he works on his craft. It's almost like he is intentionally …

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The Road Less Traveled in Jackson

Young Jacksonians are literally the city's future. We must listen to them, take their advice, invite them into spaces where they've never been and introduce them to museums, restaurants and …

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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.

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Of Love and Orlando

The day before a gunman massacred 49 mostly Latino men and women at the gay club, Pulse, in Orlando, I was wandering through the Brooklyn Pride festival in New York …

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Living the Dream in Post-1523 Mississippi

Progressive thinkers here are working to leave hate-drenched politics behind, to get enough people motivated to vote to use our purple demographics to send a strong message at the polls …

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After HB 1523, We Must Seek Higher Ground

It was at Good Hope Baptist Church in the early 1970s that I first heard God used to justify hatred of black people, of "homosexuals," of feminism, of anything that …

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Trump’s Politically Correct Call for Bigotry, Hate

It's really hard to find a stronger sign that Donald Trump hopes to become a fascist dictator of people and thought in America, and he's playing to very ugly instincts …

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Dear Gov. Bryant: Stop Pandering to Racism

Leaders like Gov. Phil Bryant must stop holding white Mississippians down to the bigotry of low expectations for fellow white people.

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Stop Tone-Deaf Attacks on ‘Black Lives Matter’

Martin Luther King Jr. would not approve of #BlackLivesMatter. Dr. King was about bringing people together. He would say, 'All lives matter,'" the tweet declared confidently.

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A Nation ‘Intoxicated with Bad Policing’

Nowadays, everyone is an amateur videographer, and police actions are under more scrutiny than ever. It doesn't mean, though, that there are more incidents of police brutality or over-policing; it …

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Jedis, Space Mountain and Love

Yes, I'm a serious person, and I care deeply about injustice and hatred. But the reason that I do is because I love so many things and people and cultures …

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Donald Trump’s Most Vicious Lie, Yet?

It's a tough contest, but Donald Trump just spread his most poisonous lie yet in his race to become the fuehrer of the 21st century.

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A Girl Strikes Back

I was astounded to read in a recent Associated Press story that Mississippi House of Representatives Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, refers to fellow legislators exclusively as "men."

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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 …

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The Curse of the Mississippi Flag

The 1894 Mississippi flag, with the Confederate battle emblem as its canton, represents much more than an antiquated piece of cloth.

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‘Blood Sells’ No Excuse to Sell Out Young People

It's as if struggling media outlets want a quick fix of attention from trotting out young faces accused of bad things more often than they feature kids doing amazing things.

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Swift Kicks in the Game of Life

Sometimes we need a swift (verbal) kick to tell us we need to step up our game. Whether it's football or media, we have to work hard, really hard to …

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My Advice for Mississippi Politicians

Being inspired is pretty much the same whether you're trying to decide who to elect or to stay excited about your career.

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Of Bill Cosby, Frank Melton and Public Moralizing

You'd think that Bill Cosby's targets would have had more power than Frank Melton's troubled "boys," as he called them, but women of any race have never had credibility when …

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Driving Old Dixie Down

It is long past time to declare independence from a "lost cause" that wasn't worth fighting for and from those who insist on keeping us stuck there. Mississippi now is …

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O, Speak and We Shall Live

On the night of June 16, 1964, Bud and Beatrice Cole, along with four other adults and two children, were attending a stewards' meeting to discuss finances at the Mt. …

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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, …

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Creating Better People

It's hard to watch a grown man cry. It's even harder to see a distinguished judge break down in front of an audience decades after a white teacher lied about …