The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Is Focusing On Mississippi Schools, Jails, and Law Enforcement

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is taking a hard look at the jails, schools, and law enforcement in Mississippi, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

The Associated Press reports that Clarke told reporters on June 1 that 32 school districts in the state were still under desegregation orders even after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Clarke is in the state to ensure its school districts provide black students with equal access to educational programs.

“In our ongoing efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education, we currently have 32 open cases with school districts here in Mississippi,” Clarke told residents, local leaders, and reporters Thursday at the Holmes County Circuit Court Complex.

“And in each of those cases, we are working to ensure that these districts comply with desegregation orders from courts.”

Clarke is currently on a “listening tour” in the Deep South, where the Justice Department is learning where to direct resources and file civil rights lawsuits.

Mississippi, which has the highest percentage of black people in the U.S., is no stranger to lawsuits concerning desegregation, including in 2017 when two high schools were finally merged after more than 40 years of litigation in which a district sought to maintain racially segregated schools.

Earlier this year, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against Gov. Tate Reeves and his administration claiming it’s only a matter of time before “separate and unequal policing” returns under the new state-run police department.

Clarke told reporters that at least five Mississippi correctional facilities, including the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, and a county jail, are under federal investigation as to whether they protect prisoners from violence and meet basic housing standards.

Additionally, Clarke and the Justice Department are investigating the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and whether its deputies used excessive force in the shooting of Michael Corey Jenkins during a drug raid. According to an AP investigation, several deputies in the department have been involved in numerous violent encounters with black men since 2019, two of which resulted in the deaths of black men and a third which left a man with permanent injuries.

Jill Collen Jefferson, president of JULIAN, a civil rights organization that has filed a federal lawsuit claiming police have “terrorized” black residents by subjecting them to false arrests, excessive force, and intimidation, told the AP she hopes Clarke addresses the issues in Mississippi.

“What I hope she’ll do is seriously address the issues. Not gloss over them — say that she has heard about these violations, talk about them in detail, and say that it is wrong if it is happening,” said Jefferson.