This is a specific focus of a weekly MBJ edition.

On the heels of the recent first, highly successful It’s About You Film Festival highlighting films made by or about Mississippi African Americans, Dr. Wilma E. Mosley Clopton has four film projects on deck this year, as well as serving as president of the Central Mississippi Steel Magnolias Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Race [...] [...]

On October 2011, Phyllis J. Anderson took over as the first woman in history to serve as chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians in Neshoba County. It was a turbulent time with controversy over some of the tribe’s gaming operations, and an FBI raid that was followed by the resignation of the Price [...] [...]

As a child exploring her home’s attic, roof and the space under the stairs, Anne Marie Decker did not know she would become an architect. She just knew she liked spaces and the ways they affect human beings. “As early as age 4, I can recall getting up before the sun and camping out in [...] [...]

For all of the progress made to close the wage gap between men and women, there’s still a big gap when paychecks are compared. Women who worked full time year-round earned 74 percent of what men earned in Mississippi in 2009. For black and Hispanic women in the state, the gap is even wider. That’s [...] [...]
The gap between what black and white Mississippi workers earn is still substantial, despite 25 years of advances for African American Mississippians. That’s the bottom line of a report on the economic status of African Americans in the state by Dr. Marianne Hill, senior economist at the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. Blacks make up [...] [...]

Midnite Pottery got its name because it was started by family members who had full-time jobs, and took up pottery making with a passion that left them often working until midnight or later. “My brother, Dean Webb, started the business,” said Midnite Pottery owner Jennifer Shelton. “He had just taken a pottery lesson. He didn’t [...] [...]

John D. Calhoun, Ph.d, CEO of IMS Engineers, isn’t content to just be an entrepreneur involved with doing engineering work on major projects such as the 18-mile Byram-Clinton Corridor and the $700-million Army Corps of Engineers Permanent Pump Station Project in New Orleans. Calhoun, who was recently named by President Barack Obama as one of [...] [...]

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of busy is “engaged in action, full of activity.” Perhaps the volume’s publisher should have added a photograph of Rubye Del Harden to accompany the text. There is busy, and then there is Rubye Del Harden. Consider that the Tupelo resident owns a printing shop, weekly newspaper, consulting [...] [...]

Junior League of Jackson has grown to one of largest in the world When the Junior League of Jackson (JLJ) was formed in 1941, it was a far different world than today. Most women didn’t work outside of the home, and it wasn’t until late in 1941 that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor drawing the [...] [...]

Franks passionate about show others how to make money work for them When he speaks, Paul Franks exudes the charismatic flair of fictional character Elmer Gantry, made famous in the novel of the same name by author Sinclair Lewis. And though he’s married to a Greenwood minister/evangelist, just like Gantry, that’s where the comparison begins [...] [...]