“We recognized covering a desegregation process playing out in 2017 was important to chronicle, and we wanted to do that in a way that reflected the uniqueness of the situation. We’ve had plenty of hard news to report, but sometimes there’s more to the story. This is our effort to show you how much more there is to that story – to illustrate what this means to the students and the town, to show that their stories matter, to let them speak for themselves, and to help people outside of Cleveland learn about how all of this is playing out.”
— Kelsey Davis, Reporter

“Many felt the national headlines weren’t telling the entire story. So, why not give students, administration, community members the right to tell their own story in their own words? We wanted this project to heavily lean on visuals whether that’s still photo or videos. We didn’t want to write a full-story every week, but vary the type of content we’re producing so you never know what to expect. We also wanted to make it social media friendly because Mississippi Today is a digital-only platform.”
— Aallyah Wright, Reporter

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

CLEVELAND CENTRAL

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“I hope it gets better. I hope they get more pride. I hope they build new things.” Click for her story

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“I’m really pleased with how it did come together. Of course there are logistics that need to be changed and worked on … but the social aspect of it is just so much better than I thought it was going to be. And it’s just going to keep on getting better when people get more comfortable. When our ninth graders are seniors I think it’s going to be perfect because you’ll have years to get adjusted and you’ll have years for that mindset to leave because no one then will have been a Wild Cat or a Trojan.”

Click for her story

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“As far as I can say, despite all of the negativity and things that didn’t go as planned, we’re most definitely beating the odds. And, I’m for it. I support it. I support Cleveland Central. I’m proud to be Homecoming queen. I’m looking forward to being proud to have Cleveland Central on my diploma. So, despite everything else that’s going around, I will soon be an alumna of that school. I’m looking forward to it, and I’m excited. And I hope, as the future goes on, I’m pretty sure they’ll get everything together so future seniors won’t have to go through the things we went through. But, for the most part, we’re beating the odds. That’s all I have to say.”

Click for her story

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“We’re accomplishing more than people thought they were going to do. They didn’t think we were going to succeed the way we are. They didn’t think we’d come together like we are. Rather than being one way this school or that school, we’ve come together and we’ve put aside a lot of childish things. It’s still is a struggle, like I say, but we are coming together.”

Click for his story

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“I’m not the most social person, but I’ve made a few friends from the other school (D.M. Smith) — one really good one. There’s lots of people who are good friends with each other who live in the house next door or even  living in the same house with somebody that were going to two different high schools. Now, everyone is friends with each other. It’s a good welcoming atmosphere. At the beginning of the year, everybody was really really excited. Everything has gone a lot better since the two schools were separated, in my opinion.”

Click for his story

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