Southern Echo (Norman grantee 1992–2001, 2007) was co-founded in 1989 by Leroy Johnson, Mike Sayer, and Hollis Watkins — a civil rights leader who organized some of the first Woolworth sit-ins in Mississippi in 1961 and registered Black voters during Freedom Summer. The organization is based on the principle that the organizing torch must pass from generation to generation.

Southern Echo built the Mississippi Redistricting Coalition, whose efforts led to the Black Legislative Caucus doubling from 21 seats in the state legislature to 42 between 1991 and 1993. That expanded power produced a landmark victory in 1997 when the Caucus successfully overrode the governor’s veto of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) — a funding formula designed to ensure every child had access to quality public education regardless of where they lived — bringing total new investment in Mississippi public education to $1.2 billion. Unfortunately, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that legislature is not legally required to fund MAEP; therefore, the program has been fully funded only twice since enactment. Southern Echo’s enduring lesson is that passing a law is not the finish line — organized communities must remain vigilant and hold elected officials to account.