History

The Mississippi Center for Justice came on the scene in 2002 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to filling that gap and renewing the commitment to social and economic justice to all Mississippians. With an initial investment of only $300,000, a small staff of lawyers with a big vision for change embarked on a new era of legal advocacy in Mississippi.

The possibilities for making a difference remain as numerous today as they were during the years of the civil rights movement. The state’s population has reached almost 3,000,000 people, yet more than 500,000 of them live in poverty, keeping Mississippi the poorest state in the nation. The state ranks at the bottom of key indicators, including funding for quality education, high school graduation rates, pay scales for teachers, access to healthcare, infant mortality and more. School discipline policies send children who skipped class regularly or who got into fights to youth court, where they often ended up in inhumane training schools instead of receiving the counseling or special education assistance they really needed. Low-income people are at the mercy of pay day loan companies that trap families in a never-ending cycle of high-interest debt. Qualified recipients of federally-funding healthcare services are often blocked from receiving them because of burdensome state administrative requirements. Affordable housing continues to elude tens of thousands of citizens, including those who lost their homes to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The Mississippi Center for Justice opened its doors for service in 2003 and has continued to build capacity for legal advocacy throughout the state. Even when faced with unimaginable destruction caused when Hurricane Katrina surged through the Mississippi Gulf Coast in August 2005, the Mississippi Center for Justice responds with a sense of urgency and a steadfast commitment to advancing social and economic justice throughout Mississippi.

 

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Annual Reports