Former US Attorney Brad Pigott, who was leading the Mississippi Department of Human Services’ attempt to investigate parties that had misappropriated funds earmarked for Mississippi’s most vulnerable citizens, was fired by Governor Tater Tot Reeves because Attorney Pigott had set his sights on bringing to justice some of the most powerful figures in the state, including former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre. What’s most interesting, and hypocritical, about Pigott’s termination is that Ole Tater Tot didn’t have a problem with this investigation as long as local black folks across the state were being arrested and indicted for misappropriating funds. Yet, once Attorney Pigott issued a subpoena to the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation to investigate the dealings between the Foundation, Favre, and Bryant, Tater decided that Attorney Pigott had gone too far. What seems way far over the line, though, is what’s alleged about USM AF, Bryant, and Favre who seem to have used five million dollars of welfare money to construct a new volleyball arena. To be clear, I’m not shocked by corporate welfare. And, as much as it might surprise y’all, I’m not even against all corporate welfare. But, in a state like Mississippi, where the vast majority of white people vote with a racist agenda, doing everything they can to maintain and perpetuate the second-class citizenship of Afro-Mississippians even as they blame Afro-Mississippians for the consequences of systematic racism, the use of welfare funds to build a volleyball arena might be the epitome of white privilege, if not white supremacy. Still, there is the one thing that confuses me.
If you’ve lived in Mississippi for the past fifty or so years, it is impossible not to know who Attorney Pigott is. In the 80s and 90s, he was the face of fighting government and corporate fraud. He formed and chaired the Mississippi Health Care Fraud Task Force, the Mississippi Environmental Crimes Task Force, and the Mississippi Civil Rights Working Group. His national service includes active membership on the U.S. Attorney General’s Health Care Fraud Advisory Subcommittee. His work fighting health care fraud earned him the Integrity Award from the Inspector General of HHS, while he received the Environmental Public Servant Award from the Mississippi 2020 Network for his prosecutions of corporate polluters. Additionally, he started and funded an afterschool art program at Pecan Park Elementary, which sits in the middle of an African-American community, and he volunteered to coach the Murrah High School Mock Trial team. As such, there is no one in the state of Mississippi more qualified, intellectually or morally, for this job. Moreover, Attorney Pigott has been on the frontlines working with folks like my Pops to use the legal system to rectify or eliminate much of Mississippi’s Jim Crow system. Attorney Pigott has long been an advocate of Mississippi’s underserved and underrepresented. (Even my wife, Monica, likes Attorney Pigott, and y’all know how she feels about white folks. She’s still mad that I tricked her into seeing Batman though Morgan Freeman was the only black person in it.) Knowing this history, why would an unvarnished racist, such as Ole Tater, allow MDHS to hire Pigott? I don’t have an answer. I can only speculate that Good Ole Boy Tater thought that Attorney Pigott would only seek to prosecute low-level offenders in much the way America’s war on drugs has focused on street-level drug dealers not the big businessman behind the drug cartels. So, when Attorney Pigott set his sights on Bryant, Favre, and the USM AF, the Top Tot just couldn’t abide that. And, of course, with this latest move, many wonder if justice will be served and if real change will occur. Only time will tell, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I don’t have much more to say because I’m not shocked at these events. I just wonder how much more must happen before the vast majority of Afro-Mississippians realize it’s time for us to do what is necessary to become as sovereign as we can be. Other than that, I simply want to thank Attorney Pigott for being the man that I thought that he is. His work on this case highlights his history of working for justice for all even in the face of the white wall of terror. Y’all can read more about this case here.