First executive director of Mississippi food bank dies
April 1, 2021
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Jesse Turner Morris Jr., the first executive director of the Mississippi Food Network, has died at the age of 84, the Clarion Ledger reported Wednesday. He died on March 18, surrounded by family.
A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Morris came to Jackson in the early 1960s to help empower Black people living in the South, the newspaper reported. He was field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
In 1966, he co-founded the Poor People’s Cooperation, which provided loans and assistance to people who wanted to start cooperative businesses. He also served for 15 years as director of the Emergency Land Fund, helping Black residents keep their own land. And in 1984, he was named as the first executive director of the Mississippi Food Bank, now the Mississippi Food Network.
By Cherranda Smith
Apr 1, 2021
A group of notable Black business leaders have come together to urge corporations to join the fight against restrictive voting bills being passed around the country.
Former chief executive of American Express Kenneth Chenault and
Kenneth Frazier, chief executive of Merck, are leading efforts of the group which includes dozens of business leaders across industries and the nation. The group of 72 Black business executives signed a letter calling on American corporations to publicly denounce voting rights suppression.
The group formed after many major corporations didn’t take a stand following the passage of the contentious voting restriction bill in Georgia last week.