A Jackson, Mississippi city council meeting held on Election Day ended with the police chief standing between a councilman and the crowd, members walking out of the room, and chants of “Kick him out” bouncing around the chamber. The councilman in the middle of all of it is Ward 3’s Kenneth Stokes, and by his own account the whole thing started because a woman in the audience talked about his mama.
Stokes had just introduced an ordinance to repeal the city’s moratorium on data centers when public comment turned personal. One woman told him he would “sell his mama for a dime,” according to the Clarion Ledger. Stokes, who had been out of the room during public comment and came back to defend his proposal, answered that his mama taught school and was a good lady. “Now I don’t fight women, and I never fight them, but I’ll cut that bitch out,” he said. He also told Muslim protesters in the room to “take the rags off your heads,” adding, “Y’all are not Muslim.”
Black people know you don’t talk about nobody’s mama. If you’re so immature that you’re going to bring up my mama, then I’m going to handle it the way I did.
Police Chief RaShall Brackney stepped between Stokes and the crowd while people stood and pointed, chanting for his removal. The council voted 4 to 3 to recess for an hour, and when the members came back they pushed the rest of the meeting to Thursday morning. No vote was taken on the data center repeal. Stokes was not sorry afterward, either. During the recess he told the Mississippi Free Press he had not cursed at all, because in his telling, “bitch” and “sissy” are not curse words.
The fight sitting underneath the meltdown is about data centers, the giant server warehouses that pull heavy power and water. Jackson put a 183 day moratorium on new ones in July while the city writes its rules, and Stokes voted for that ban. Now he wants it gone, arguing that Jackson is watching the money leave for its suburbs. “You think we’re going to keep turning down the money and let Brandon get it, let Ridgeland get it, let Rankin County, Madison County get it, and the only thing we get in Jackson is excuses,” he said. Opponents say the facilities would sit in their neighborhoods running around the clock, and one of them played a recording of data center noise during public comment so the council could hear what that sounds like at 3 in the morning.
Tuesday was not a one off. In September, Stokes got into a shouting match with Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell and called him “a damn liar” and “a sissy,” and 90 residents signed a petition asking the council to discipline him, with a censure, a fine and removal all named in it. Asked about that petition in October, Stokes asked whether its author was gay. Asked again on Tuesday, he asked whether she had been a prostitute. A similar confrontation shut down part of the Oct. 6 meeting, too.
Council President Vernon Hartley called Stokes’ language “unacceptable” and said disciplinary action could be considered. Councilwoman Tina Clay, who chairs the rules committee, is looking into what the council can actually do about his behavior, and Mayor John Horhn put out a statement calling for an end to personal attacks at City Hall without naming Stokes. Mississippi for a Just World, the group whose president Candace Abdul-Tawwab was arguing against the repeal, condemned the remarks and wants Stokes censured. The repeal itself is still sitting there waiting on a vote.
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Featured photo: WLBT via YouTube