In July 2022, Jackson experienced increased rain and subsequent flooding of the Pearl River, impacting the city. This flooding exacerbated the city’s water issues, causing failures at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant. The City of Jackson and State of Mississippi, through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and Mississippi Department of Health, are working together under several states of emergency to address issues. On September 15, the boil water notice was lifted for the City of Jackson.

Below are ways to stay up-to-date on the water crisis and where to help support Jacksonians as we address ongoing issues with the City of Jackson water system. This page may be updated as information becomes available. (Last updated March 1, 2023)

Visit the One JXN site here for updated resident information.

Click here to visit JXN Water, the Mississippi corporation formed to conduct the business necessary for the Interim Third-Party Manager to achieve the objectives of the Stipulated Order.

The Helping Friends and Neighbors Fund (Disaster Relief Fund) at the Community Foundation for Mississippi was created to respond to disasters in Mississippi, primarily in CFM’s coverage area of central and southwest Mississippi. It will not take the place of local relief efforts, but rather enhance disaster responses because of our community knowledge and connections, relief donations can easily adapt to current needs at hand, whether it’s food, medical supplies, shelter or something completely unforeseen. A donation to this fund will help wrap around needs related to Jackson’s water issues.

The JPS Response Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi has been established to offer financial assistance to the district and its schools for challenges caused by declared disasters, emergencies and Acts of God. This fund will help support the district address needs during this time of need.

Powered by the Good Samaritan Center and ExtraTable, the Hub for the Hungry program unites Mississippi nonprofit agencies with food distribution companies and local farmers. Current partners are KLLM Transport, Sysco Jackson, Two Dog Farms, Salad Days, and Central Mississippi Planning and Development. The Hub for the Hungry is assisting with water distribution beyond the water crisis for charitable organizations. Click below to learn more about the Hub for the Hungry.

Green icons represent water distribution sites. This map is not meant to catalog each individual site at churches and businesses.

The Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition is continuing to distribute water to Jackson residents. The current schedule is:

Tuesdays at 5 p.m.

South Jackson

Sykes Community Center

Strong Arms, 520 Sykes Road, Jackson, MS

Oak Forest Community Center

Operation Good, 2827 Oak Forest Dr., Jackson, MS

West Jackson

Westland Plaza Parking Lot

MS Poor People’s Campaign

 

Wednesdays at 5 p.m.

South Jackson

Oak Forest Community Center

Operation Good, 2827 Oak Forest Dr., Jackson, MS

West Jackson

Westland Plaza Parking Lot

MS Poor People’s Campaign

 

Thursdays at 5 p.m.

South Jackson

Oak Forest Community Center

Operation Good, 2827 Oak Forest Dr., Jackson, MS

West Jackson

Westland Plaza Parking Lot

MS Poor People’s Campaign

IAJE Community Center

IAJE, 406 W. Fortification St., Jackson, MS

 

Fridays at 5 p.m.

South Jackson

Oak Forest Community Center

Operation Good, 2827 Oak Forest Dr., Jackson, MS

West Jackson

Westland Plaza Parking Lot

MS Poor People’s Campaign

North Jackson

Northtown Pharmacy

JXN People’s Assembly, 6220 Old Canton Rd., Jackson, MS

 

Saturdays at 11 a.m.

Northwest Jackson

People’s Advocacy Institute

Northside Drive and Hanging Moss Road

West Jackson

IAJE Community Center

IAJE, 406 W. Fortification St., Jackson, MS

 

Sundays at 3 p.m.

North Jackson

MS Move Across from Tougaloo College

Operation Good

(Please note, these times and locations are subject to change. Before heading out, check the MRRC website for an up-to-date schedule.)

Information is subject to change. Know of other ways to support the City of Jackson? Send us an email at communications@formississippi.org.

Stories are a universal way to relate and understand each other better. And, all of us have school stories. Ellen Ann Fentress knows this firsthand as a storyteller, author and documentarian. Sharing her own story, in fact, about her experience attending a segregation academy in the 1970s has brought others to remember and tell their own story, too.

These academies were private schools that began to appear as a way for white parents to avoid the ramifications of integration – sending their children to school with black children. There are an estimated 750,000 attendees of these schools across 11 southern states. The project cataloging the subsequent memories of so many in the South during that time has evolved to become The Admissions Project – a collection of interviews, a website with written stories and oral histories of others in school under the shadow of integration.

“Along with the rest of the country, Mississippi has come to recognize that we can’t thrive in the future while suppressing the past,” said Fentress. “For Mississippi, that means understanding our racial history most of all. The Admissions Project is about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to grow. It matters to me that this is a project in which we tell our own stories in our own voices. This is no outside helicopter project, but our own home-led story sharing.”

Fentress says her work, which is supported through the Eyes of Mississippi Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, would not have been possible without the underlying infrastructure at CFM. “We see to our projects, and as a qualified 501c3 non-profit, CFM supervises our finances,” she said. “To launch this project, working under CFM’s nonprofit structure was essential. Supporters expect and deserve a tax-deductible donor framework, particularly in Mississippi where giving resources are always stretched.”

From the Beginning

In 2019, after publishing a Bitter Southerner essay on coming to terms with her white schooling, Fentress received a flood of emails – both positive and negative – about their own reckoning with their past academy experiences. “I realized many in my generation wanted a public space to talk about the imprint of our defiant all-white educations, a key chapter of American history,” she said.

With the help of the Mississippi Humanities Council, a grant helped her launch the online platform – the Academy Stories. Well-known authors who were also segregation academy alumni wrote accounts for the launch, including Steve Yarborough, Alan Huffman and Kristen Green. Dozens more followed along with coverage from the Washington Post, Slate, Mother Jones, Forbes and the Hechinger Report. As more stories unfolded, a ripple effect happened. The more stories were told, the more others also remembered and wanted to share, too.

“At a moment when we are more aware than ever of our past failures to pursue social justice, it seems essential to me that we tell the stories of the segregation academies alongside the more positive stories of integration,” said Steve Yarbrough, discussing the project. “These narratives are timely and necessary.”

In 2020, an additional MHC grant helped Fentress expand her work to those who remained in public schools post-integration. Though unacknowledged initially, the burden of court-ordered integration frequently fell on Black students and teachers to assimilate into little-changed white spaces. Essays came in from nationally regarded writers like Ralph Eubanks, Margaret McMullan, Paulette Boudreaux and Teresa Nicholas. With the collection of memories growing, the work became known as The Admissions Project.

“Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about the early days of integration is how many of us were coached—by our parents and the mores of Southern culture–to move on and repress the memories of what happened to us. What this project does is bring those tightly imprinted yet closed recollections out into the open so that those who experienced this past can make sense of it,” said Ralph Eubanks. “Even more important, these stories can be used by students today so they can get of sense of how much the past had an impact on education today yet also led to a positive transformation of the structure of Southern society.”

What’s Next

The project shows no signs of stopping now. Soon, a podcast will be added to the lineup with a three-episode season, “This American Life”-style. As a documentarian, Fentress dreams of adding video accounts to the site, producing a full-length documentary film and staging a The Moth-style storytelling production for people to tell their school stories.

“All those avenues invest in the power of learning from each other’s personal stories,” said Fentress. “Besides these stories mattering to us today, I have to believe that the site’s first-person accounts are going to hold their importance for future generations as primary documents of history. Can you imagine the power of reading a parallel cross-section of stories from Mississippi a century ago or two centuries ago? Our essays stand to be that priceless.”

To support the Eyes of Mississippi Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, which supports The Admissions Project, click here.

Book lovers unite! It’s National Book Lovers’ Day and we have plenty of ways to celebrate. From libraries to the Mississippi Book Festival, the Community Foundation for Mississippi has ways to support organizations that are creating more book lovers every year.

Mississippi Book Festival

The Community Foundation for Mississippi is proud to the be fiscal home and presenting funder for the Mississippi Book Festival. Known as Mississippi’s Literary Lawn Party, the festival has become a nationally recognized premier event that attracts book lovers, writers, and publishers from Mississippi, the region, and the nation. Free and open to the public, the festival hosts author panel discussions and interviews, book signings, live music, local food, young adult and children’s activities, and exhibitors from across the state. The mission of the festival is to recognize authors and the books they produce, to celebrate writing, reading, and our literary heritage, and to connect readers with contemporary authors.

Jackson Friends of the Library

The Jackson Friends of the Library Fund supports the seven City of Jackson libraries in the Jackson Hinds Library System. Your support helps make programming and other initiatives possible!

Clinton Library Foundation Endowment Fund

The Clinton Library Foundation Endowment Fund supports programs and operation of the Quisenberry Library in Clinton. The library, located on East Northside Drive, features a nature trail, Genealogy Room, Children’s Library and group study rooms that are available for quiet study throughout the day. The library offers a wide variety of public programming including an upcoming series on the history of the City of Clinton, a Halloween fall carnival and an Easter egg hunt in the spring.

Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Endowment Fund

The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters honors Mississippi’s greatest riches – our artists, writers, and musicians. Each year the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters honors creative individuals with an award in their specific field. The prestigious awards, first made in 1980, are presented in eight categories: Fiction, Non-fiction, Youth Literature, Visual Art, Music Composition (Classical), Music Composition (Contemporary), Photography, and Poetry. The Institute’s juried competition is one of a kind in the state.

University Press of Mississippi Endowment Fund

University Press of Mississippi tells stories of scholarly and social importance that impact our state, region, nation, and world. They are committed to equality, inclusivity, and diversity. Working at the forefront of publishing and cultural trends, UPM publishes books that enhance and extend the reputation of our state and its universities.

Founded in 1970, UPM is the largest and only non-profit publisher in the state. Affiliated with and supported by Mississippi’s eight state universities, UPM has more than 2,200 active titles and has distributed more than 3,200,000 books worldwide in print and digital editions, each with the Mississippi imprint. The press acquires, edits, designs, and promotes more than 95 new books every year.

Curious about other causes and organizations you can support? View our donate page for more!

Keath Killebrew, co-owner and farmer with the Killebrew Cotton Company in Tchula, Mississippi, dreamed about farming and ranching as a young boy. His family says he accomplished everything he ever dreamed of because he was dedicated to waking up every day and hitting his knees to pray. He then used the hands, big heart and brilliant mind God gave him. Killebrew’s greatest passion was agriculture, living his motto to “never give up.”

“He was a hard-working farmer that was happy to get his hands dirty in the soil. His passion was to educate those who wanted to learn to be able to plant and take care of their families,” said his wife, Dr. Alyssa Ellis Killebrew. Tragically, his life was cut short when he passed away in December of 2021. “He died living his passion to the fullest and educating others how to live off their land in another country.”

The Killebrew family has set up an award fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi in his name called the Keath Killebrew Charisma Award, created for the purpose of supporting education for young men and women interested in agriculture. This scholarship will be given to young people who are passionate about agriculture and helping others in this field, using principles important to Keath such as integrity, grace, timeliness, honesty and respect.

This award fund invites Mississippians who have a proven work history, who are passionate about agriculture and helping others, and who will be majoring in agriculture or a related field to apply. The deadline is June 15, 2022. Award recipients will be notified and honored during a special ceremony during the 2022 Mississippi State Fair. The minimum award will be $1,000 per recipient. Multiple awards will be given.

His legacy also lives on in the lives of his family who have made it their mission to continue his life’s work. Keath and his twin brother, Heath, have 17,000 acres of row crop farms spread throughout 6 counties in Mississippi. Additionally, they farm cattle and bees.

Reflecting on her late husband, Alyssa said Keath used his spiritual grace, knowledge of agriculture, love of people, sense of adventure and passion to make the world a better place by being a vessel to share God’s love and grace. The fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi seeks to continue his life’s work by helping a young person who is passionate about agriculture and serving people through their future career.

Any frequenter of Hal and Mal’s knows that Mondays are for the Blues – the Central Mississippi Blues Society (CMBS) – to be exact. Formed in 2006 by Blues enthusiasts and musicians, CMBS is a driving force for the promotion of the music genre in Central Mississippi.

“It is our mission to keep the Blues alive and promote the culture of the Blues,” said Malcolm Shepherd, current CMBS president.

To continue the mission of the organization and ensure stability for the future, CMBS recently created an endowment fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi. Shepherd said he surveyed options for sustainability and CFM’s unique experience and ability to create and manage endowment funds with an eye toward sustainable growth, controlled risk and professional oversight, was incredibly reassuring.

“What is unique about the Community Foundation for Mississippi is that CFM works with organizations so that they can build up financial resources to be used within that organization,” said Shepherd.

As a past grant recipient through CFM funds, Shepherd was touched that CFM not only supports nonprofits with specific needs but holistically supports organizations to continue good work.

“Out of all the grants sources that we had been talking to and submitting grants, nobody had an option like CFM’s to set up an endowment,” he said.

While CMBS has brought the Blues to the community for over 15 years through live music, the organization also has a keen eye for supporting current musicians and up-and-coming artists.

Programs such as Blues in the Schools are important community builders for CMBS, not only now, but for future generations. Past projects include partnering with Hardy Middle School to instruct students on how to play the harmonica. At the end of the school year, students were gifted the harmonicas to continue their musical journeys. Other efforts have included restoring and restringing guitars for children to learn basic guitar skills.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CMBS also supported struggling Blues musicians supplement income lost due to canceled performances. Shepherd says he hopes the fund at CFM will help them continue community education projects and support the development of Blues musicians in Central Mississippi.

To support the Central Mississippi Blues Society Endowment Fund, click here.