Social upheaval has Mississippi voters searching for the soul of America

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By Jewels Tauzin
Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting

In a state where Christianity has been a weapon in the hands of those justifying segregation and the like, some are now summoning the faith as a tool to fight for social justice.

In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests at the Capital, as well as the Legislature’s decision to rid the state flag of its Confederate battle emblem, some Mississippians say they can’t support a president who not only refuses to condemn white supremacy on a national debate stage but also tells them to “stand back and stand by.”

Gillian Raley, a senior at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, participated in the protests when she found herself unexpectedly at home this summer because of COVID-19. She said her faith tells her how wrong it is that the nation has a health care system that punishes people because they’re poor, spends more money sustaining the military industrial complex than creating educational equity, has so many politicians in the pockets of massive corporations, and enslaves people of color in prisons. She grew up in the Episcopal Church and worked throughout high school as a counselor at Camp Bratton-Green, the summer camp attached to the diocese.

“To me, faith and politics are intimately related,” she said. 

Whether the Nov. 3 presidential election will register a seismic shift in this Republican stronghold because of voters like Raley is questionable.

‘I don’t like Trump, but here’s why I vote for him’

Mississippi is one of the reddest states in the nation, with Trump winning 58% of the vote in 2016 and, according to Pew Research Center, also repeatedly ranks No. 1 (occasionally tying with Alabama) for most churches per capita. 

Tyler Blaylock, a sophomore at Ole Miss, shared why he plans to vote for Trump this coming November.

“I don’t like Trump,” he said, “but here’s why I vote for him: his stance on pro-life. He does believe that pro-choice is murder. I am pro-life, too – a woman has complete control over her body, but her baby is not her body. That’s what’s important to me. Though Planned Parenthood may be able to reduce the rates of abortion, it doesn’t attack the problem at its root. We must, as a nation, deal with abortion at its root. Perhaps we could fund adoption centers or counseling for women — lots of ideas that don’t involve abortion.”

Blaylock’s single-issue voting stance is not uncommon among some groups of Christians.

His views are echoed by Laszlo Pasztor, an evangelical Protestant who works with the Republican evangelical coalition in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He recently told ABC News he believes his community has been attracted to Trump's conservative policies such as anti-abortion and protecting their "right to exercise our faith." 

Pasztor told ABC News that evangelicals flocked to Trump because of signs he would make appointees to the high court such as Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who would overturn Roe v. Wade. When Trump nominated Catholic conservative Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in September, his support among evangelicals went from the mid-50% range to 71%, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, that conducts research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy.

Earlier this summer, a poll by the Washington Times reported that 82 percent of white evangelicals — a solid base of support for President Trump in 2016 — were likely to vote for him again in November. And according to Pew Research Center, 41% of Mississippians identify as evangelical Protestants.

The latest Mississippi poll conducted on Oct. 1 by Axios-SurveyMonkey, found that 55% of those likely to vote said they would cast their ballots for President Donald Trump, while 44% said they were likely to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.

However, Trump’s support with Catholic voters may be waning. Pope Francis has insinuated that Trump’s policies are anti-Christian, which could have a strong effect on Catholic voters. Additionally, both Biden and Trump garner the Catholic vote in different ways, and both men have worked to play up their strengths to this demographic. Trump, by nominating a pro-life U.S. Supreme Court justice, Biden by being Catholic. 

In the wake of protests against racial injustice, many of these Trump supporters have doubled down in resisting calls for change.

In an informal survey the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting disseminated through social media, one person responded, “Churches have no obligations to address racial injustice.”

Others responded similarly, saying that churches should preach the word of God, not social issues.

Jemar Tisby of Jackson, author of The Color of Compromise who took part in MCIR’s informal poll, wrote that, “White Christians have largely responded the way they always have — protecting the status quo (see recent poll by Barna showing they have actually dug in since the George Floyd protests) Black Christians have responded as usual as well, calling for change through voting and some forms of protest. The church should stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the associated protests. This should be true in spite of efforts to smear the organization or related efforts as anti-Christian and or violent.”

‘Finding a home at the intersection of God’s word and social justice’

When asked how their faith will influence their vote in November, Biden supporters unanimously wrote that their Christian faith compels them to support their Black brothers and sisters in calling for racial justice in America and that Trump was adding fuel to the fire.

And while Mississippians of all backgrounds and ages have voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, it has specifically been the younger generation that has led the call for change. Many students who returned home in March when COVID-19 closed their college campuses saw a window of opportunity to enact lasting change in Mississippi. This summer, four local college kids organized protests at the Capitol and founded the organization BLM ‘Sip.

One of them is Maisie Brown, 18, a first-year student at A&T State, an HBCU university in North Carolina where she received a full scholarship. She said her faith compelled her to organize the protest. 

“During the week of the protest, I had to focus myself on divine intervention, not only for sanity, but for energy to block out the negativity and focus on the end goal,” she said. “It was only divine intervention from Jesus, as well as the power and the spirits of our ancestors who had marched those streets before us, who gave their lives so that we can do this without fearing ours, that helped. It was reaching deep down and staying grounded in what our purpose was.”

Brown was a student in Jackson when an assignment to draw a new state flag awakened her call to act against racial justice.

“When I saw discrepancies and just blatant symbols of racism embraced by so many, I felt compelled to speak out on it,” Brown told the Clarion Ledger in an Aug. 16, 2020, article. “In the words of the late John Lewis, if we see something wrong, we have a moral obligation to do something about it.” 

She was 14 when she attended her first protest held in the wake of the deaths of two black men – Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philandro Castile in St. Anthony, Minnesota – at the hands of police. 

Now Brown doesn’t just attend protests, she also organizes and speaks at them.

The Murrah High School graduate is majoring in history with an emphasis in secondary education.

Social activists in Mississippi are finding a home at the intersection of God’s word and social justice. Signs at the Black Lives Matter protest at the state Capitol bore Bible verses like 1 John 4:20 (“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar”) and Amos 5:23 (“Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-falling stream.”

While it doesn’t reflect a Democratic shift in the state, there was overwhelming support for a new state flag from Christians individuals and groups previously politically silent about the issue, including the Mississippi Southern Baptist Convention.

In addition, some Mississippi voters are taking to social media to express why they’re voting for a Democrat for the first time in their lives.

Among them is Caroline Greene, a teacher from the Delta.

She said she believes her life calling is to invest in Mississippi youth.

“I chose to stay in Mississippi,” she said. “The Delta students are constantly overlooked by everyone, but I believe they are the best and brightest our country has to offer. I am committed to using my life to dismantle systems of oppression and injustice and the most important work we can do in dismantling the systems of oppression is here in Mississippi.” 

When asked who she was voting for, Greene said, “I’m voting for Harris and Biden. I’ll always use my vote for the person who I believe is most aligned with putting marginalized communities first, listening to people who don’t normally get heard, who fight to make real change for oppressed groups. I’ll always vote for the candidate who is most aligned with those things, because that’s what Christianity calls me to do.”

Jewels Tauzin is a rising junior at Barnard College of Columbia University. This story was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that seeks to inform, educate and empower Mississippians in their communities through the use of investigative journalism. Sign up for our newsletter.