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Why are people still talking about The Mayor of Holly Springs, Mississippi?

NNPA NEWSWIRE — “…I still get chills when I walk inside the Eddie L. Smith Multipurpose Building on North Memphis Street. As one of his final projects, he envisioned it as a common ground for the whole town. How often do you literally get to walk around inside your father’s vision?”

Published

7 years ago

February 16, 2019

Oakland Post

By Lee Eric Smith, lesmith@tsdmemphis.com

Thirty years ago this year, in 1989, my father, Eddie Lee Smith Jr., made history as the first African American elected mayor of my hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi.
It was a pretty big deal at the time, though when you think about it, it shouldn’t have been. I think most people intrinsically know the color of your skin has nothing to do with your qualifications for the job. It certainly doesn’t measure the impact you leave behind.

My dad died on Jan. 25, 2001, while serving the final months of his final term. That same year, a health fair was named in his honor. A few years later, a street would bear his name. For many years, there was an annual program commemorating the day he was born.

And I still get chills when I walk inside the Eddie L. Smith Multipurpose Building on North Memphis Street. As one of his final projects, he envisioned it as a common ground for the whole town. How often do you literally get to walk around inside your father’s vision?

It says something about the life he lived, that people still want to actively celebrate his life. On the 18th anniversary of his death, my hometown paused for a candlelight vigil, a chance to reflect on the impact he left. As I listened to the stories people told, I realized: Whenever I’m in Holly Springs, I’m always walking around in his vision.

He had a vision that Holly Springs needed a good doctor, preferably African American – not just for health reasons, but so that young people of color could SEE what a career in medicine looks like in the flesh. That’s the pitch he used on Dr. Kenneth Williams, who opened Williams’ Medical Clinic there in the 1990s.

My dad would call on Williams again, this time to prevent the local hospital from closing in the late 1990s. He convinced Williams to purchase the facility, which is now Alliance Healthcare System. No coincidence, Alliance now hosts the Eddie L. Smith Health Fair each May – at the Eddie L. Smith Multipurpose Building.

He also had a vision that Holly Springs should recognize its most famous daughter, Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Though she made her name in Memphis and Chicago, she was born in Holly Springs, where she attended Rust College. When my dad identified the “home house” where she was born, he got the city to acquire the property, then leased it for $1 to what is now the Ida B. Wells Museum.

As mayor, he quickly corrected those who called him a politician. He preferred “elected official” or “statesman;” both of those terms carry a greater sense of service and integrity than “politician.” He remained his own man, turning down political donations if they came with even a hint of strings attached. And his character won him respect from the town’s black and white citizens – even his political adversaries.

“I’m not the black mayor or the white mayor,” he would say. “I’m the Mayor of Holly Springs.”

There are literally too many stories to put here. He was a school principal, a 27-year college administrator, and a Boy Scout leader. He ran for multiple offices in the post-Jim Crow days, as a way to spur African Americans to register and vote. Many credit his work in bringing the Pre-K education program ICS Headstart to Holly Springs. He served on multiple committees in the local and state United Methodist Church.

Like I said: Too many stories. It’s only a mild exaggeration to say that almost everyone in Holly Springs has an Eddie Lee Smith story. Most of them involve him helping them in some way – helping to launch a business (Annie’s Restaurant, for one); being Scoutmaster to Holly Springs’ first black Eagle Scout (Donald Street). There’s the one where he settled down a raucous crowd during a Board of Aldermen meeting by reciting Psalm 23.

For me, of course, he was Dad. It was him playing “old man” basketball against me and my 10-year-old friends – backing us down before unleashing that unstoppable hook shot. We had no chance, even two on one. It was the two of us, remodeling bathrooms and kitchens.

But one of my favorite Eddie Lee Smith stories happened about five years ago. I was in line at Subway when Reggie Burke walked in, still wearing his Holly Springs Parks & Recreation uniform. He’s always friendly with me whenever I see him. On this day, I learned why.

“Lee Eric,” he said as we waited in line, “When I finished high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do next. Your daddy said he could get me on at Parks and Rec, at least until I decided what I wanted to do next. That was in 1990. And I’m still here.

“He saw something in me,” Burke said. “I don’t know if I saw it in myself yet. And I’ve been with the city now for more than 20 years. A whole career . . . because of him.”
That’s when he nodded to the employee making my sandwich. “Put his order on mine,” Burke said.

It was a simple gesture with profound implications. After all, who among us wouldn’t want to live the kind of life where people want to repay your kindness by buying your CHILDREN dinner – YEARS after your death? I hope that someday, someone I’ve helped does the same for Victoria and E.J.

As I look at my own life, I can see he set me on the right trajectory. He was a scout leader; I earned Eagle Scout just shy of my 18th birthday. A year after his election, I made history as the first African American editor of The Daily Mississippian, the student newspaper at Ole Miss. As a child, I watched he and my mom care for both of their parents; years later, I was full-time caregiver for my mom.

It reminds me of a poem I wrote a few years after his death – about the weight of filling the shoes of a man who meant so much to so many people. I wrote about that time after he died, when I literally slipped on an old pair off his shoes, only to find out they’re uncomfortable and worn out. The closing lines:

“As I slipped off his shoes, I cried, as I looked down and realized: I do not have to fill my father’s shoes. For I have inherited his feet.”

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A Nation in Freefall While the Powerful Feast: Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything. It enters the grocery aisle, the overdue bill, the rent notice, and the long nights spent calculating how to get through the next week. The latest numbers show that this season has not passed. It has deepened.

Private employers cut 32,000 jobs in November, according to ADP. Because the nation has been hemorrhaging jobs since President Trump took office, the administration has halted publishing the traditional monthly report. The ADP report revealed that small businesses suffered the heaviest losses. Establishments with fewer than 50 workers shed 120,000 positions, including 74,000 from companies with 20 to 49 workers. Larger firms added 90,000 jobs, widening the split between those rising and those falling.

Meanwhile, wealth continues to climb for the few who already possess most of it. Federal Reserve data shows the top 1 percent now holds $52 trillion. The top 10 percent added $5 trillion in the second quarter alone. The bottom half gained only 6 percent over the past year, a number so small it fades beside the towering fortunes above it.

“Less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes,” John Campbell said to CBS News, while noting that the complexity of the system leaves many families lost before they even begin. Campbell, a Harvard University economist and coauthor of a book examining the country’s broken personal finance structure, pointed to a system built to confuse and punish those who lack time, training, or access.

“Creditors are just breathing down their necks,” Carol Fox told Bloomberg News, while noting that rising borrowing costs, shrinking consumer spending, and trade battles under the current administration have left owners desperate. Fox serves as a court-appointed Subchapter V trustee in Southern Florida and has watched the crisis unfold case by case.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump told those present that affordability “doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” He added that Democrats created a “con job” to mislead the public.

However, more than $30 million in taxpayer funds reportedly have supported his golf travel. Reports show Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel have also made extensive use of private jets through government and political networks. The administration approved a $40 billion bailout of Argentina. The president’s wealthy donors recently gathered for a dinner celebrating his planned $300 million White House ballroom.

During an appearance on CNBC, Mark Zandi, an economist, warned that the country could face serious economic threats. “We have learned that people make many mistakes,” Campbell added. “And particularly, sadly, less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes.”

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

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The Numbers Behind the Myth of the Hundred Million Dollar Contract

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut. He looked into the camera and tried to offer a truth most fans never hear. “You give somebody a five-year $100 million contract, right? What is it really? It is five years for sixty. You are getting taxed. Do the math. That is twelve million a year that you have to spend, use, save, invest, flaunt,” said Beckham. He added that buying a car, buying his mother a house, and covering the costs of life all chip away at what people assume lasts forever.

The reaction was instant. Many heard entitlement. Many heard a millionaire complaining. What they missed was a glimpse into a professional world built on big numbers up front and a quiet erasing of those numbers behind the scenes.

The tax data in Beckham’s world is not speculation. SmartAsset’s research shows that top NFL players often lose close to half their income to federal taxes, state taxes, and local taxes. The analysis explains that athletes in California face a state rate of 13.3 percent and that players are also taxed in every state where they play road games, a structure widely known as the jock tax. For many players, that means filing up to ten separate returns and facing a combined tax burden that reaches or exceeds 50 percent.

A look across the league paints the same picture. The research lists star players in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, all giving up between 43 and 47 percent of their football income before they ever touch a dollar. Star quarterback Phillip Rivers, at one point, was projected to lose half of his playing income to taxes alone.

A second financial breakdown from MGO CPA shows that the problem does not only affect the highest earners. A $1 million salary falls to about $529,000 after federal taxes, state and city taxes, an agent fee, and a contract deduction. According to that analysis, professional athletes typically take home around half of their contract value, and that is before rent, meals, training, travel, and support obligations are counted.

The structure of professional sports contracts adds another layer. A study of major deals across MLB, the NBA, and the NFL notes that long-term agreements lose value over time because the dollar today has more power than the dollar paid in the future. Even the largest deals shrink once adjusted for time. The study explains that contract size alone does not guarantee financial success and that structure and timing play a crucial role in a player’s long-term outcomes.

Beckham has also faced headlines claiming he is “on the brink of bankruptcy despite earning over one hundred million” in his career. Those reports repeated his statement that “after taxes, it is only sixty million” and captured the disbelief from fans who could not understand how money at that level could ever tighten.

Other reactions lacked nuance. One article wrote that no one could relate to any struggle on eight million dollars a year. Another described his approach as “the definition of a new-money move” and argued that it signaled poor financial choices and inflated spending.

But the underlying truth reaches far beyond Beckham. Professional athletes enter sudden wealth without preparation. They carry the weight of family support. They navigate teams, agents, advisors, and expectations from every direction. Their earning window is brief. Their career can end in a moment. Their income is fragmented, taxed, and carved up before the public ever sees the real number.

The math is unflinching. Twenty million dollars becomes something closer to $8 million after federal taxes, state taxes, jock taxes, agent fees, training costs, and family responsibilities. Over five years, that is about $40 million of real, spendable income. It is transformative money, but not infinite. Not guaranteed. Not protected.

Beckham offered a question at the heart of this entire debate. “Can you make that last forever?”

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

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FBI Report Warns of Fear, Paralysis, And Political Turmoil Under Director Kash Patel

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 2, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership. The 115-page document, submitted to Congress this month, is built entirely on verified reporting from inside field offices across the country and paints a picture of an agency gripped by fear, divided by ideology, and drifting without direction.

The report’s authors write that they launched their inquiry after receiving troubling accounts from inside the Bureau only four months into Patel’s tenure. They describe their goal as a pulse check on whether the ninth FBI director was reforming the Bureau or destabilizing it. Their conclusion: the preliminary findings were discouraging.

Reports Describe Widespread Internal Distrust and Open Hostility Toward President Trump

Sources across the country told investigators that a large number of FBI employees openly express hostility toward President Donald Trump. One source reported seeing an “increasing number of FBI Special Agents who dislike the President,” adding that these employees were exhibiting what they called “TDS” and had lost “their ability to think critically about an issue and distinguish fact from fiction.” Another source described employees making off-color comments about the administration during office conversations.

The sentiment reportedly extends beyond domestic lines. Law enforcement and intelligence partners in allied countries have privately expressed fear that the Trump administration could damage long-term international cooperation according to a sub-source who reported those concerns directly to investigators.

Pardon Backlash and Fear of Retaliation

The President’s January 20 pardons of individuals convicted for their roles in the January 6 attack ignited what the report calls demoralization inside the Bureau. One FBI employee said they were “demoralized” that individuals “rightfully convicted” were pardoned and feared that some of those individuals or their supporters might target them or their family for carrying out their duties. Another source described widespread anger that lists of personnel who worked on January 6 investigations had been provided to the Justice Department for review, noting that agents “were just following orders” and now worry those lists could leak publicly.

Morale In Decline

Morale among FBI employees appears to be sinking fast. There were a few scattered positive notes, but the weight of the reporting describes morale as low, bad, or terrible. Agents with more than a decade of service told investigators they feel marginalized or ignored. Some are counting the days until they can retire. One even uses a countdown app on their phone.

Culture Of Fear

Layered over that unhappiness is something far more corrosive. A culture of fear. Sources say Patel, though personable, created mistrust from the start because of harsh remarks he made about the FBI before taking office. Agents took those comments personally. They now work in an atmosphere where employees keep their heads down and speak carefully. Managers wait for directions because they are afraid a wrong move could cost them their jobs. One source said agents dread coming to work because nobody knows who will be reassigned or fired next.

Leadership Concerns

The report also paints a picture of leaders unprepared for the jobs they hold. Multiple sources said Patel is in over his head and lacks the breadth of experience required to understand the Bureau’s complex programs. Some said Deputy Director Dan Bongino should never have been appointed because the role requires deep institutional knowledge of FBI operations. A sub-source recounted Bongino telling employees during a field office visit that “the truth is for chumps.” Employees who heard it were stunned and offended.

Social Media and Communication Breakdowns

Communication inside the Bureau has become another source of frustration. Sources said Patel and Bongino spend too much time posting on social media and not enough time communicating with employees in clear and official ways. Several told investigators they learn more about FBI operations from tweets than from internal channels.

ICE Assignments Raise Alarm

Nothing has sparked more frustration inside the FBI than the orders requiring agents to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The reporting shows widespread resentment and fear over these assignments. Agents say they have little training in immigration law and were ordered into operations without proper planning. Some said they were put in tactically unsafe positions. They also warned that being pulled away from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations threatens national security. One sub-source asked, “If we’re not working CT and CI, then who is?”

DEI Program Removal

Even the future of diversity programs became a point of division. Some agents praised Patel’s removal of DEI initiatives. Others said the old system left them afraid to speak honestly because they worried about being labeled racist. The reporting shows a deep and unresolved conflict over whether DEI strengthened the organization or weakened it.

Notable Incidents

The document also details several incidents that have become part of FBI lore. Patel ordered all employees to remove pronouns and personal messages from their email signatures yet used the number nine in his own. Agents laughed at what they saw as hypocrisy. In another episode, FBI employees who discussed Patel’s request for an FBI-issued firearm were ordered to take polygraph examinations, which one respected source described as punitive. And in Utah, Patel refused to exit a plane without a medium-sized FBI raid jacket. A team scrambled to find one and finally secured a female agent’s jacket. Patel still refused to step out until patches were added. SWAT members removed patches from their own uniforms to satisfy the demand.

A Bureau at a Crossroad

The Alliance warns that the Bureau stands at a difficult crossroads. They write that the FBI faces some of the most daunting challenges in its history. But even in despair, a few voices say something different. One veteran source said “It is early, but most can see the mission is now the priority. Case work and threats are the focus again. Reform is headed in the right direction.”