JACKSON Miss. – “I am a Mississippi segregationist and proud of it.”
That is something former Governor Ross Barnett was not afraid to say publicly. In fact, he gained national attention after he personally sought to stop black student, James Meredith from enrolling at Ole Miss in 1962. Barnett also has a rather large man-made body of water named after him, smack-dab in the middle of Mississippi, and TaJuana Byrd of Jackson wants to change that.
Byrd has started a petition to change the name of the reservoir, and she thinks it would be positive for the state.
“The past of Mississippi is riddled with hate and racism. And I’m trying to show everyone else that Mississippi isn’t like that anymore,” Byrd told television station WJTV.
She suggested different names such as “the Rankin County Reservoir” or “the Mississippi State Reservoir.”
According to the Executive Director of the Pearl River Water Valley Supply District, which oversees the reservoir, a name change would be up to the Board of Directors or the Mississippi Legislature.
