Friend,

Waikinya Clanton was born decades after the civil rights movement swept across her home state of Mississippi. But that didn’t mean much in the town of Canton, where she grew up. She was a high school kid heading home early from school when she came across a scene straight out of her grandparents’ nightmares – the Ku Klux Klan marching on the town square.

“This was not 1950-anything. This was not the 1960s. This was in the 2000s when the Klan, with white sheets and hoods, walked down the streets of Canton,” she said. “It was almost like a fear tactic, like it was just to remind us that they were there. Even in this new millennium, history was still repeating itself.”

Clanton has been motivated by the memory of that day ever since.

“It was something that I never wanted to witness again in my life,” Clanton said. “And I think unbeknownst to me, it kind of helped push me to this fight that I’m in now.”

Clanton left Mississippi years ago to push for equal access on a larger stage. She rose to become an experienced Washington political operative, holding leadership roles with the Democratic National Committee and the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women. But all that, she says, was a prelude to the most important stage of all – her return this year to her home state, as the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mississippi state office director.

The collaborative approach Clanton has brought to Mississippi since her arrival in July is providing a roadmap for the SPLC throughout the Deep South as, under new leadership, the organization has reimagined its mission and vision 50 years after its founding.

A new model

“The Mississippi office is the pilot in what we hope will be a model for state offices going forward,” said SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks. “We want to work more explicitly and intentionally in partnership with the people within our Southern states in the service of our mission to dismantle white supremacy. To work in true partnership, we need to be deeply and fervently connected with the power of the people to create change.”

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In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center