[Desk] Melton Taps Leland Speed for Jackson Eco-Devo
At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton announced that former Mississippi Development Authority Director Leland Speed will be the next director of the Jackson Revelopment Agency, which coordinates large developments in the city. This announcement is politically ironic because Melton’s staunchest supporters in Jackson’s black community do not like Speed at all, and see him as the symbol of white racism in the city. Last September, Melton supporter Charles Tisdale wrote in his Jackson Advocate editorial that Leland Speed is a primary reason that Harvey Johnson would want back into office. Tisdale writes:
?Undoubtedly the unfinished business is to finish selling out to the likes of Leland Speed and John Elkington (Beale Street developer), so they can more efficiently destroy black neighborhoods and culture.?
Sure enough, on Tuesday night, typical Melton follower Kenneth Stokes was outraged by the Speed announcement, saying: “I’m not going to curse. But I’m going to have to see what he’s going to be able to do. As of today, I’m not that kind of believer.”
Read more about the bizarre politics of Melton-Speed-Tisdale & Co. here.
Posted by ladd at 11:26 AM in JFP, MS Newspapers, Analysis | Email this entry
Comments:
If Tisdale follows past patterns, he’ll abruptly writean op-ed declaring Leland Speed a brave champion of the civil rights movement.
I don’t believe Stokes or Tisdale are stupid enough to believe that the insular white suburban agenda hasn’t been the Melton agenda all along. Surely they know who they sold their souls to, so why does this surprise them?
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/17 at 02:02 PM | #
I think they probably know. How could they not? I think the problem is when it all starts crumbling publicly?and his readers are going to start to see their hypocrisy unfolding. They already have had to make up with Ben Allen, of a fashion, because he is the only way Melton can get any of his/their agenda passed (even though they keep trashing him on the radio, treating their readers like idiots who don’t know they’re talking out both sides of their mouths). But they have had major clashes already: Tisdale & Co. do NOT want the King Edward renovated, for instance, and Melton did everything he could to stop it. And the campaign staff nearly fell apart because the “rainbow coalition” couldn’t stand to be in the room with each other.
As I point out in that editor’s note, Tisdale’s blasting of the Speed-Johnson connection was just dumb (and/or dishonest) because Speed’s family supported his man Melton.
Now, I do believe there are plenty on-the-ground voters who had no idea that Melton had such friends on the other “side” because no media outlet (other than the JFP) was telling them the whole story. We tried to explain that this house was built on a very rock foundation by a coalition of people put together for questionble reasons (money and busting young black men’s heads lead the list) and who could not and would not hold together over the long haul.
I mean, it’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen to see the likes of Kenneth Stokes and Stephanie Parker-Weaver defending to the bitter end the right of Melton to attack that Ridgeway house and Evans Welch. There’s a special pl… oh, never mind.
Posted by on 01/17 at 02:15 PM | #
Also, a big problem with Speed is his glowing endorsement of the “Two Lake” project. And good Lord, did everyone see all those articles in the Ledger on Sunday in favor of Two Lake. Todd and I were laughing at the Pro-Pro columns by John McGowan and Con Maloney. Here we go again with The Clarion-Ledger not doing ample homework before leading this city into a potential mess.
Posted by on 01/17 at 02:18 PM | #
Hrm. Why didn’t Tisdale want to see the King Edward renovated? Why wouldn’t anybody? That just doesn’t make any sense. Does he prefer it the way it is? Do the rotting, crumbling sheetrock and rows of broken windows just have that subtle je ne sais quoi?
Re the MSM: We already know that the C-L had a huge conflict of interest that they chose not to disclose, namely that libel suit, so I think it’s safe to say that they wanted Melton in the mayor’s office from day one, and they had a pretty good idea of what he’d do when he got there.
The fact that Tisdale now seems to tacitly support the view that low-income blacks have no civil rights, and should be at the mercy of law enforcement, is really a very creepy change considering his history. Just goes to show how power corrupts, I guess.
I do agree that west Jacksonians are growing tired of Melton, though. An approve/disapprove poll, sorted by district, would be very interesting to see right now, I think.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/17 at 03:09 PM | #
Well, the Advocate’s history is segregationist, Tom.
I think that’s also why they don’t want the King Edward renovated. My read is they don’t want blacks and whites and others working together to renovate the King Edward. They tend to be against development that benefits the city as a whole. I mean, these folks are at the heart of Melton’s base.
It almost feels like a bunch of white folks and black folks who don’t want to live together any closer than they have to got together to elect a man who pandered to both of them—even when the promises contradicted.
I mean, at that MAP Coalition meeting during his campaign, Melton would NOT answer questions by folks like skipp about development beyond a recording studio on Farish. It’s as if he couldn’t imagine that all those young black people would care about anything in the city beyond something built just for them.
It was so incredibly condescending, and many of them were offended.
Posted by on 01/17 at 03:41 PM | #
Separate but Equal isn’t.
Posted by on 01/17 at 05:15 PM | #
