Ethan Brown '25
Staff Editor
On November 1, the Student Bar Association (“SBA”), the Black Law Students Association (“BLSA”), and Southeastern Wahoos welcomed three panelists to the Law School to discuss the ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. In addition to delving into the specifics of Jackson’s particular situation, panelists also discussed disrepair and infrastructural decay in cities across the country and emphasized the importance of local community activism.
The three panelists—Hope Cupit, Jordan Jefferson, and Professor Richard Schragger—were joined by moderator and BLSA President Keegan Hudson ’24. All the panelists had expertise either with Jackson itself or with resource accessibility. Cupit leads the Southeastern Rural Community Assistance Project, an organization based in Roanoke that provides access to safe drinking water and other essential services in rural southwestern Virginia. Jefferson is from Jackson and attended college at Jackson State University, where he served as student government president. He now attends the Harvard Kennedy School and is a staffer for U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, who represents Jackson. Finally, Professor Schragger specializes in urban policy and land use at the Law School.
Pictured: Jackson, Mississippi.
Credit: Brookings Institution.
Jackson’s water crisis began in late August, when heavy flooding contributed to the malfunctioning of the city’s O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant.[1] Water pressure plummeted and purifying treatments stopped, causing brown, unfiltered water to come out of toilets and faucets throughout the city. In response, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves issued an emergency order on August 30 that advised all Jackson residents to avoid consuming water from the city’s water system. This order, which Governor Reeves has renewed until November 22, has left more than 150,000 Jackson residents without access to clean, safe drinking water.[2]
While this crisis officially began in August, some activists say it was a long time coming. Jackson’s aging utilities infrastructure has been neglected by the state for decades; Mayor Chokwe Lumumba estimates that the city’s water system is suffering from almost thirty years of delayed maintenance.[3] Jefferson said that the water supply often becomes an issue twice a year, in response to severe weather: during the winter—when it gets cold and pipes freeze—and during the summer.
Exacerbating the issues of infrastructural decay, Mississippi politicians have failed to direct adequate funding to Jackson to combat these issues. While Mississippi has received federal grant money to improve its water systems for the past twenty-five years, Jackson received funding in only three of those years.
As the only panelist who has recently lived in Jackson, Jefferson provided a unique perspective on these issues. Unfortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly, his upbringing in Jackson was shaped by multiple resource scarcities. In grade school, he had to share books with several other students because his school could not afford copies for each student. In college at Jackson State, one of his football teammates had to be treated for lead poisoning. Even now, Jackson does not have a formal garbage disposal service, following disputes between its mayor and city council.[4]
Jefferson said that these calamities do not occur in the whiter and more affluent suburban areas outside Jackson.
“The more affluent areas in the state have been getting access to water. Their pipes aren’t bursting. When it gets cold, the pipes are not freezing there,” Jefferson said.
Copit followed up Jefferson’s point by stating explicitly that Jackson’s water crisis is not a problem specific to Jackson or to Mississippi. She noted that low-income communities—which tend to be Black and Brown communities or communities of other marginalized backgrounds—often bear the brunt of environmental injustice. Sure enough, 83 percent of Jackson’s residents are Black.[5] Cupit said that this pattern of intersectionality between racial and environmental justice is visible in her own work in Virginia.
“I’m very proud of the state of Virginia. We have an environmental justice council that’s been codified into law . . . when we look at environmental justice, we look at housing, water quality, poverty. And most of the time . . . people who are Black and Brown are highly impacted. We have to know what to do, what to say, and educate those communities to fight for themselves,” Cupit said.
Drawing on his background in urban law and land use, Professor Schragger pointed to several circumstances in Jackson that have proved especially problematic in tackling water and other resource crises there. First, Jackson’s high poverty rate of almost 25 percent prevents many residents from paying their water utility bills.[6] Second, 40 percent of the city’s property is under non-profit administration, which is non-taxable and thus cannot provide the city with any tax revenue. And third, Jackson has struggled to compete with its surrounding suburbs, which generally provide more favorable tax structures and better community services to retain their residents.
Facing these challenges, Jackson has tried to enforce what Schragger dubs “austerity urbanism”—a policy of weaponizing fines and fees against residents—to generate revenue instead. But Professor Schragger noted that these tactics are not new and have already been tried in other communities—like Ferguson, Missouri—and their effectiveness in resolving the issue of revenue generation is unclear.
During a question-and-answer period, one audience member asked Cupit for advice on how to remain hopeful in the face of despair, particularly when it comes to racial and environmental justice. Cupit said that she tries to remember the people who inspire her when she feels fatigued; she also encouraged using data and facts to win people over. But she acknowledged that the work is tiresome.
“I get hopeless too. . . . When I was reading about Jackson over the last two weeks, getting ready to speak to you all, I was sick. I see what my mother went through, I see what my grandparents went through, and I don’t see a lot of the needle moving,” Cupit said.
SBA President Juhi Desai ’23 asked panelists how dissimilar communities across the country that face similar issues—like water insecurity—can collectivize and work together without waiting around for protection from the courts. Cupit said that the only way to tackle these issues is for someone to be brave enough to stick their neck out and get local communities mobilized.
“A lot of people stay away if it’s too political or too polarizing. They’ll stay away until they see other people coming along, so if you’re going to be a leader, you sometimes have to step out there, sometimes by yourself . . . and get people to come along with you,” Cupit said.
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bwj2cw@virginia.edu
[1] https://www.bet.com/article/2edrvp/jackson-water-crisis-state-of-emergency-extended-mississippi-governor.
[2] https://naacp.org/campaigns/jackson-water-crisis.
[3] https://abcnews.go.com/US/jacksons-water-problems-deeper-pipes-experts/story?id=89973457.
[4] https://mississippitoday.org/2022/10/06/jackson-garbage-pickup-halted-contract-dispute/.
[5] https://naacp.org/sites/default/files/images/Jackson_Infographic-01.png.
[6] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/decades-of-systemic-racism-seen-as-root-of-jackson-mississippi-water-crisis.