Water crisis hits daily life in Mississippi capital Jackson, Mayor faces leadership test

The mayor of Democratic Mississippi's capital Jackson is facing a leadership challenge as the city struggles to generate safe drinking water continuously. When his parents moved their family from New York to Jackson in 1988, he was five years old, and his father, who had been active in a Black Nationalist organization in the 1970s, could return to the unfinished job of exposing inequities and combating racial injustice.

The Mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, stated that instead of hiding the most valuable resource, their children, from the movement work, they decided to expose us to it.

Lumumba defines himself as a radical who feels uneasy in repressive situations. In his second term as mayor, Jackson, a Democrat, faces a high-pressure leadership test as the city battles to reliably provide a basic human need — safe, clean drinking water.


For decades, the city has struggled with water issues. After heavy rains aggravated difficulties at a water treatment plant, much of Jackson was without flowing water for several days. Before that, the city had been under a boil-water order for a month because state health inspectors discovered murky water that could cause disease. During a cold spell in 2021, thousands of people lost access to flowing water.



Jackson's population and tax base dwindled after a decade of primarily white middle-class people relocating to the suburbs following the integration of public schools in 1970. More than 80% of Jackson's 150,000 people are African American. The city's poverty rate of 25% is over twice the national average.

FAQ

1. Where is Jackson situated?
   Jackson, formally the City of Jackson, is the capital and most populous city in the United States state of Mississippi.
2. When was Jackson's mayor elected?
   Lumumba was elected mayor in June 2017.