The American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) Empowerment Project Mississippi Chapter is an economic, racial, and social justice organization that serves communities in Central and Southeast Mississippi. Sitting with the national ADOS Advocacy Foundation, the chapter works to address the impacts of race violence stemming from Jim Crow laws. A permanent felony voting ban, the state capital’s 2022 water crisis, and long-standing racial health disparities are some of the many issues that disproportionately impact Black citizens in the state. After informal organizing for many years and rapid response efforts from recurring tornadoes in Rolling Fork and Silver City, ADOS Mississippi became an official chapter in 2021. The group is now deepening its advocacy in partnership with organizations like Save Our Youth to address extreme heat and high rates of respiratory illnesses caused by air pollution. “A lot of people don’t understand that extreme heat kills more people than natural disasters here,” says Leo Carney, co-founding member of the ADOS Mississippi.
ADOS members at the 2024 ADOS Reparations Summit in New Orleans. Photo: Leo Carney
ADOS Mississippi is volunteer-led with eight organizers across Jackson and the Gulf Coast. It is one of many ADOS statewide chapters across the nation. In coalition with Mississippi’s People’s Movement, the chapter is seeking to install microgrids and provide workforce training with the help of a Mississippi Coastal Plains Land Trust grant. “I want us to educate the community about solar-powered microgrids because, in the event of natural disasters, you can’t depend on the grid,” says Carney. The group recently convened frontline organizations from across the country at Duke University’s 2024 Heat Wise Policy Partnership Summit to collaborate on just transition policies. Mississippi is one of five states with the highest low-income energy burden. One massive success of the chapter was in 2023 when it launched a campaign focused on police violence in conjunction with an annual Emmett Till remembrance celebration. Working with the Mississippi Freedom Party and the ADOS Advocacy Foundation, the campaign was a catalyst for getting the “goon squad” officers indicted through a Department of Justice investigation in Rankin County.