The Battle Over Black Representation in a White Mississippi County

The Battle Over Black Representation in a White Mississippi County

DeSOTO COUNTY, Mississippi. — Hester Jackson-McCray witnessed the beginning of the economic boom in this Mississippi Delta county when she moved south from Chicago in 1999. Year after year, she has watched the county attract newcomers and grow culturally and economically, cotton fields giving way to subdivisions and shopping centers. Other Black families like hers — from the rural Delta to Tennessee — were drawn to DeSoto for the promise of jobs…