The COVID-19 pandemic defined the year 2020, when everything from major events to everyday businesses and activities were impacted by mask-wearing, social distancing and fear of spreading the virus.
However, in Lowndes County, the year also saw the end of controversial officer-involved shooting case from 2015 when the state’s newly-elected attorney general dismissed charges against the officer, protests over a century-old Confederate monument on public property and racist remarks by Lowndes County supervisors’ president, the embezzlement arrest of Columbus’ former chief financial officer and the confirmation of a planned solar farm.
Here are some of the top stories in Lowndes County from 2020:
Coping with COVID
COVID-19 arrived in Lowndes County on March 19, when a doctor at Baptist Memorial Hospital confirmed three hospital patients had tested positive. On April 16, Lowndes Coroner Greg Merchant confirmed the county’s first COVID-19 death, a hospital patient identified only as elderly man. Cases and deaths were relatively few until a spike in August (514 new cases, 20 new deaths) and September (486 cases, 23 deaths).
The worst was yet to come. Since Nov. 1 until Dec. 29, the cases have exploded –1,783 new cases and 30 deaths, including 25 in December alone, the highest monthly death total in the county since the pandemic arrived.
The effects of COVID-19 went beyond those numbers. In April, Gov. Tate Reeves ordered the early closure of schools while city and county officials implemented curfews (March through May) and mask requirements that had remained in place since late March. Non-essential businesses were closed by the order of the Governor for three weeks in April while many restrictions, including occupancy, remain in effect. Schools delayed opening in the fall, offering a combination of in-person and online learning as administrators tried to prevent outbreaks among its students. Churches ended in-person services just before Easter. Many have not resumed in-person services as the year comes to a close.
While health officials fear Christmas travel will lead to another spike in cases and deaths, there was some good news on the horizon. Residents at hard-hit long-term care facilities and hospital staff began receiving vaccinations just before Christmas while a drive-through vaccination program for health care workers is scheduled for the first week of January.
Racial injustice debate leads to Confederate monument removal, new state flag
In the late spring, the subject of racial injustice sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May came home to Lowndes County with four men whose names would become identified with the struggle. Two — Floyd and Ricky Ball — were anticipated to be part of the discussion. Two others — Kylin Hill and Harry Sanders — thrust themselves into the middle of the debate unexpectedly.
Floyd’s killing on May 25 sparked national outrage, but the subject really caught fire in Columbus three days later, when the state’s new Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, abruptly and without explanation, dropped manslaughter charges against former Columbus Police Officer Canyon Boykin in 2015 shooting death of Ball, a Black citizen.
Two weeks later, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors voted along racial lines not to remove the Confederate Monument from the courthouse grounds. After the vote, Harry Sanders, then the board president, dismissed the proposal as political theater, saying that Blacks had been and remain “dependent” since the days of slavery when slave owners provided for all their needs. Sanders’ remarks created a firestorm of criticism, with crowds of 100 or more protesting outside the courthouse during subsequent supervisors meetings calling for Sanders to be removed from the board. Sanders stepped down as board president on July 29, but refused to resign from the board. The supervisors voted to relocate the monument on July 6. The monument will be moved to a site in Friendship Cemetery donated by the city of Columbus.
As protests over Floyd’s killing continued to roil, on June 22 Hill, a Columbus native and Mississippi State football team running back, announced on Twitter that he would not play for MSU if the state did not remove its state flag, which featured a Confederate image in its canton. His tweet joined a groundswell of opposition to the flag.
In late June, following years of debate, the Legislature voted overwhelmingly to retire the flag. On Nov. 4, Mississippians voted by a 3-to-1 margin to adopt a new stage flag, which features the state’s official flower, the magnolia.
Attorney general dismisses Ricky Ball case
In May, newly-elected Attorney General Lynn Fitch dismissed a manslaughter charge against former Columbus police officer Canyon Boykin, who was indicted in 2016 for the shooting death of Ricky Ball. At the time of the indictment, District Attorney Scott Colom turned the case over to the office of then-Attorney General Jim Hood in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Boykin, a white officer, shot Ball, a Black man, after Ball ran from a traffic stop in North Columbus on Oct. 16, 2015. A weapon was found near Ball at the scene, and Boykin continually claimed he shot Ball in self-defense. The shooting resulted in several protests in Columbus and Boykin’s subsequent firing for not turning on his body camera during the incident and having an unauthorized passenger in his police vehicle when he made the traffic stop.
Colom criticized both the timing and the method of Fitch’s decision to dismiss the case, saying attorneys should have presented the case at a court hearing so the public could see the evidence and hear the reason for the dismissal for themselves. Fitch’s attorneys also alerted Colom’s office to the dismissal the week that George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer in Minnesota, resulting in protests for racial justice all over the country.
Colom requested the case files from Fitch’s office and made them public on his website for two weeks, as well as by request.
Fitch’s decision also resulted in several peaceful protests in Columbus in the weeks after the dismissal.
Wright rolls to victory in House of Representatives election
When Gary Chism resigned his position as state representative from District 37 (which includes parts of Lowndes, Clay and Oktibbeha counties) a year into his sixth term in June, a familiar name in Lowndes County was quick to throw his name into the hat for the Sept. 22 special election to fill the seat.
Lynn Wright, twice elected as Lowndes County School District Superintendent, lost his job when a new state law required school superintendents to be selected by the school board rather than by election.
Pitted against West Point LIbertarian Vicky Rose and Columbus Republican David Chism, a cousin of Gary Chism, in the Sept. 22 election, Wright came within 14 votes of winning the election outright, then easily defeated Chism in the Oct. 13 runoff, collecting 64 percent of the vote.
TVA approves 200-megawatt solar facility
With several solar farms dotting the landscape, Lowndes County was no stranger to solar-power facilities. But in February, The Tennessee Valley Authority awarded a contract to Florida-based Origis Energy to build a 200-megawatt solar facility, easily the largest such facility in the county and one of the largest in the state.
The 200-megawatt site will use the energy produced by 650,000 solar panels, enough power to serve 45,920 homes, and it will employ five people when operational. Construction is set to begin next year and the contract calls for the company to begin producing energy in October of 2022. The 4,000-acre site is located just west of the Infinity Megasite in the west part of the county.
Former city financial officer arrested for embezzlement
In August, the State Auditor’s Office arrested former Columbus Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle after a Lowndes County grand jury indicted him for embezzling $288,000 between 2016 and 2018.
According to investigators from the State Auditor’s Office, Rawle made unauthorized transfers from the city’s bank account and then altered city records to cover up the embezzlement, labeling the transfers “payroll” or “reimbursement.” An accountant at Watkins, Ward and Stafford, which handled the city’s Fiscal Year 2018 audit, discovered discrepancies in the audit and notified the State Auditor’s Office.
Rawle resigned from his position in 2019 after serving a 16-day suspension for failing to alert the city council of the city’s $800,000 deficit two years in a row. He is currently awaiting trial in Lowndes County Circuit Court on the embezzlement charge.
Tombigbee sees historic flooding in February
In February, following three straight days of rain, the Tombigbee River rose more than 20 feet in some places, flooding the Columbus Riverwalk, the Lowndes County Soccer Complex and nearby residential areas. It marked the second year in a row flood waters had covered the area, and one resident who had lived on riverfront property for decades said he hadn’t seen flooding like that in the area for 28 years.
No injuries were reported from the floods, and while some residents temporarily vacated their homes, others chose to stick it out and wait for the floodwaters to recede. Local officials said the water caused minor damage to roads and electrical panels at the Columbus Amphitheater and some other facilities at the riverwalk and soccer fields.
New faces in Lowndes County administration
Jay Fisher became the new Lowndes County administrator after Ralph Billingsley retired in September amid rumors that he was ousted by members of the board of supervisors.
District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders and District 2 Supervisor Trip Hairston asked for Billingsley’s resignation in February, and multiple sources told The Dispatch that in an executive session of one supervisors’ meeting in May, Sanders moved to fire Billingsley and Hairston seconded the motion. However, Hairston rescinded his second after a shouting match erupted between the supervisors, the sources said.
The supervisors hired Fisher in April as a trainee under Billingsley. Billingsley held onto his job until his retirement Sept. 30.
In October, Hairston also became president of the board of supervisors in a 3-2 vote among racial lines. Hairston, who had only served on the board 10 months, replaced Sanders, who resigned after receiving criticism for racist remarks he made about African Americans in June.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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