Organizers rented two screens and were able to give out more than 170 tickets. They said the screening was important not only because Halle Bailey was starring in the movie, but the film helps provide representation for Black girls.
“Representation is the most important thing, and to know that a Black girl is going to be our representation, to know that little girls can live up to a princess like that is a very great thing,” said Hollye Weekes, found of Digital Weekes, LLC.
Source: WJTV News 12
Throughout our 50th anniversary year, we’re telling the stories of leaders who have worked with the Ms. Foundation during different periods of the organization’s history. This Q&A was written by Cassandra Welchlin, Executive Director and co-convener of Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, which is a former Ms. Foundation grantee partner.
Source: Ms. Foundation for Women
Women’s Foundation of the South exists to improve futures for women and girls of color in the South by supporting both women-of-color-led nonprofits who do the same and women-of-color entrepreneurs. The organization is pleased to announce that it ended 2022 by expanding its proprietary program, WŌC @ Rest, to Mississippi. WFS hosted 24 women-of-color-leaders at a two-day WŌC @ Rest retreat along the Gulf Coast of MS in December.
PR Newswire
Jackson, MISS – “Strong babies come from strong moms.” MS Black Women’s Roundtable and our partners said it over and over. We are, therefore, proud that our voices were heard, Mississippi legislators listened, and that our state has demonstrated a commitment to strong babies by supporting healthy moms, a proven factor in protecting the strength of babies. MSBWR is pleased that as a result of our advocacy efforts, alongside the efforts of our partners, on March 16th, Governor Tate Reeves signed into law the extension of postpartum Medicaid.
“The bond between a baby and a mom is worth protecting,” Cassandra Welchlin, Executive Director of MSBWR, stated. “This law will improve the healthcare, longevity, and quality of life for the women, children, and residents. For women, especially Black women with the highest maternal and infant mortality rates, care for pregnant people and postpartum is crucial for their overall health.” In Mississippi, 86% of maternal deaths occur after the baby is born. This law allows Mississippi to catch up with our neighboring states to cover health visits for moms during the first year of their baby’s life. “By offering a bipartisan solution to Mississippi’s infant and maternal morbidity crisis, a diverse collective of Mississippi health advocates successfully bridged the disconnect in Mississippi between overwhelming public opinion and a Medicaid policy driven by ideology,” said Roy Mitchell, Executive Director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.
Providing one year of postpartum care allows a thorough assessment of the childbearing parent and infant. It gives the mom more time to heal under medical care and the baby more professional monitoring during some of the most substantial early learning periods. This healthcare prioritizes the overall health of women, parents, and their children, thus benefiting entire families. It means more support for all, especially those moms recovering from complicated pregnancies and infants born with expected and unexpected deficiencies and parents working to provide basic needs for their families. Moms will not be prematurely forced to return to work because her employer-provided insurance does not cover the family after the traditional 6-8 weeks of leave. Because of this new law, women will still have access to healthcare.
“The Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable (MSBWR) would like to thank all our partners that made this victory possible. To everyone who called state officials, advocated at the Capitol, and signed petitions, the MSBWR will never forget your countless hours and effort. You helped bring attention to women, parents, children, and Mississippians. Thankfully, all our efforts have paid off, and our state will be a healthier and happier place for it,” said Cassandra Welchlin, MSBWR Executive Director. And our work is not done. We know there is still much to do to improve women’s economic security in our state. MSBWR and its partners will continue to fight for fair policies that help strengthen the economic state of Mississipi women.
Contact: Ayana Kinnel, akinnel@ddbsms.com
It was a night to remember. It was a time for reflection. It was a moment of appreciation. It was an occasion of encouragement. Those gathered at Connecting the Dots Foundation’s 6th Annual National Women’s History Month Celebration paused to spend time with family, friends, acquaintances, honorees, scholars and artists at the downtown Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula Street, Jackson, Miss.) Saturday, March 11, 2023, at 6 p.m. The theme was Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories. WLBT’s Maggie Wade Dixon and Walt Grayson hosted the affair.
Women make around 82% of what men make in the same job according to a recent national study by Pew Research. The Equal Pay for Equal Work act of 2022 was passed by the Mississippi legislature to address the state’s lack of an equal pay bill. But the Mississippi Black Women’s Round Table says lawmakers need to remove language that carves out several exceptions for wage discrimination. Executive Director Cassandra Welchlin says it allows employers to use pay history and employment gaps as justification for unequal wages.
JACKSON, Miss. — 16 WAPT anchors Megan West and Erin Pickens were honored at two separate Women History Month events in the capital city this week. Both women were recognized for their contributions both as local journalists and as community figures.
JACKSON, Miss.—Paheadra Robinson shed tears in the Mississippi Capitol rotunda Tuesday afternoon when she learned that the Mississippi House had finally sent a bill to the governor’s desk that will give new mothers Medicaid for up to 12 months after giving birth—well beyond the state’s current 60-day limit on postpartum coverage.
Exerpt from Oprah Daily – A longtime grassroots organizer and activist in her home state of Mississippi, Cassandra Welchlin—executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, a nonprofit advancing the economic security of women by training them to be civically engaged and empowering them to become transformational leaders, and cofounder of the Mississippi Women’s Economic Security Initiative, which seeks to improve the economic well-being of Mississippi’s women and their families—is used to getting knocked down professionally. But she never gets knocked out.
In fact, for Welchlin, getting back up to fight for the Black and brown faces she represents is her only option, particularly since those faces remind her of the two women who raised her. “I often say my mother’s life taught me what justice was, and my grandmother’s life taught me what service was,” she says.
Excerpt from NBC News – The Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report shows that the maternal mortality rate increased by 8.8% between 2013‐2016 and 2017‐2019, with the latter period being the most recent one analyzed by researchers.
Black, non-Hispanic women had a rate four times higher than white, non-Hispanic women, according to a report released Thursday by the state’s Department of Health.
The grim figures arrive as the state is expecting more births each year as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had established a nationwide constitutional protection for abortion. The court used a Mississippi case to overturn the case, a legal effort the state’s leaders have lauded.
