Teamsters Local 667
Memphis Strong — carrying the legacy of 1968
Powering · Labor Education
NAACP DeSoto County
Across the state line from Memphis, in the fastest-growing county in Mississippi, the DeSoto County Branch of the NAACP spent 2026 in federal court defending the only majority-Black judicial subdistrict in the county — and the challengers walked away. Same metro, same workers, same fight.
P.O. Box 236, Hernando, MS 38632
(901) 415-4936
Pastor Robert Tipton, Jr.
Who leads it
Pastor Robert Tipton, Jr.
President, NAACP DeSoto County Branch
Also Membership Committee Chair, NAACP Mississippi State Conference
The branch president who put the DeSoto County NAACP into federal court in 2026 to defend Mississippi's only majority-Black judicial subdistrict — and won. A Nesbit-based pastor who speaks for the branch publicly on voting rights and fair representation.
DeSoto County MS NAACP on Facebook
Dr. Robert James
President, NAACP Mississippi State Conference
Also President, Stone County Branch
He reorganized the Stone County Branch in 2013, was named Volunteer of the Year at the 69th Annual State Conference Convention, and took second place for the NAACP's Thalheimer Award at the 106th National Convention. He served as state Membership Committee Chairman before being elected state president.
naacpms.org
Derrick Johnson
19th President & Chief Executive Officer
Since October 2017
Leads the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization from the national office in Baltimore. Before the national post he was president of the NAACP Mississippi State Conference — the same state conference DeSoto County reports into.
naacp.orgThree doors, one association
NAACP DeSoto County Branch (MS)
- P.O. Box 236, Hernando, MS 38632
- (901) 415-4936
- Unit 5574 · President: Pastor Robert Tipton, Jr. · Instagram @dcmsnaacp
- Serving Southaven, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Hernando, Nesbit and the rest of DeSoto County
"The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons."
NAACP Mississippi State Conference
- 1072 J.R. Lynch Street, Suite 10, Jackson, MS 39203
- naacpms@bellsouth.net
- More than one hundred local units across Mississippi
- President Dr. Robert James · Executive Director Charles Taylor
"The state conference provides the leadership for every branch, youth council and college chapter in Mississippi."
NAACP
- Founded February 1909 — the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization
- More than 2,200 units: branches, youth councils and college chapters
- National office, Baltimore, Maryland
The DeSoto County Branch officers
The president and executive committee, as the branch lists them on its own leadership banner.
Pastor Robert Tipton, Jr.
Mr. Adrian Millsap
Mrs. Shantay Walton
Ms. Khadijah Sheard
Ms. Anicia James
Mrs. Cleona Yeboah
Mrs. Catherine Griggs-Watson
2026 Freedom Fund Banquet & Award Gala
"We the People"
Saturday, October 10, 2026 · Reception 5:30 p.m., Banquet 6:30 p.m. · Historic Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center, 7300 Hacks Cross Road, Olive Branch, MS 38654
The annual Freedom Fund Banquet is the fundraiser that carries the branch's local program — the membership drives, the voter work, and the legal fights like the one DeSoto County Branch Unit 5574 just won over the county's judicial lines. This year's theme came off the first three words of the Constitution, and the keynote came from Georgia State Representative Park Cannon, who was arrested in 2021 for knocking on the governor's door while he signed that state's voting law.
The souvenir program booklet
The branch's full 27-page program: the president's message, the order of the evening, the honorees, Representative Cannon's biography, the sponsor and advertiser pages, and the branch's own account of what the work in DeSoto County looks like in 2026.
- Khadijah SheardPresident's Award
- Mayor Keidron Henderson · Walls, MississippiSam Williams Citizenship Award
- Dr. Leslie Burl McLemoreSilas Louden Lifetime Achievement Award
- Dr. Jevon Marshall · Antioch Missionary Baptist ChurchWillie James Plunkett Leadership Award
- Mistress of Ceremonies — Sherry Mackey, radio personality, award-winning broadcaster and producer
- Welcome & greetings — Robert Tipton, Jr., President
- Invocation — Rev. Dr. E. Darlene Williams
- Recognition of special guests — Adrian Millsap, 1st Vice President
- Musical selections — Zoe Shalome Johnson, violinist — “Avid Violin”
- Blessing of the food — Gracelyn Alexander, Healing Heart Organization
- Introduction of the speaker — Catherine Griggs-Watson, Freedom Fund Banquet Chair
- Award presentations — Shantay Walton, 2nd Vice President
- Closing prayer — Dr. Carl R. Nelson, Christ the Rock Missionary Baptist Church, Olive Branch
- Huntington BankSilver sponsor
- DeSoto Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, IncorporatedBronze sponsor
- Odum Trucking & ConstructionBronze sponsor
- Career Development & Training Institute, LLCBronze sponsor
Sponsorships and souvenir-book ads are how affiliates show up for this one. Call the branch at (901) 415-4936 about next year's book.
DeSoto County is inside this council's jurisdiction. The Memphis & West Tennessee AFL-CIO Central Labor Council covers DeSoto County, Mississippi along with West Tennessee — so the DeSoto County Branch and the workers in Southaven, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Hernando and Nesbit are home turf for this labor movement, not a neighbor across a line.
Scenes from the night
October 10, 2026 at Whispering Woods in Olive Branch — the reception, the step-and-repeat, the head table and a full ballroom for the DeSoto County Branch.
Photographs from the branch's 2026 Freedom Fund Banquet, shared by the Central Labor Council. Where names aren't listed it's because we don't have them yet — send them over and every face gets credited.
"Labor has always worked and stood along the NAACP, and we will continue to support and stand with those who support the fight for working families."
The branch defended Mississippi's only majority-Black judicial subdistrict — and kept it
The branch moved to intervene
DeSoto County Supervisor Robert Foster and others sued the State of Mississippi to dismantle the county's sole majority-Black judicial subdistrict — nine precincts in Horn Lake and Southaven that elect one circuit judge and one chancery judge. The DeSoto County NAACP and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. filed to intervene as defendants, represented by the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Legal Defense Fund and the Law Offices of Carroll Rhodes.
Four days of hearing, and the injunction failed
A four-day preliminary injunction hearing closed with the federal court refusing to throw out the subdistrict. Most judgeships in DeSoto County are elected countywide; without that one subdistrict, Black voters — roughly a third of the county — would have no meaningful opportunity to elect their preferred candidates to the circuit and chancery courts in a county with a long, documented pattern of racially polarized voting.
The challengers dismissed their own lawsuit
The plaintiffs filed a joint stipulation of dismissal, ending the case and leaving the majority-Black judicial subdistrict standing for the November 2026 elections. Civil rights counsel noted the court had made clear that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act still protects Black voters from vote dilution — and that redrawing judicial lines months after candidate qualifying would have sown confusion at the polls.
"The NAACP DeSoto County Branch is delighted to hear that the lawsuit has been dismissed. However, we will remain in the fight for equality, equity, political, and social justice. We will also continue the fight against racism."
Pastor Robert Tipton, Jr. · President, DeSoto County NAACP · September 2, 2026
The state line is on the map, not in the labor market
This is a warehouse county
Southaven, Horn Lake and Olive Branch are the floor of the Memphis-area logistics economy — FedEx Ground, Amazon, McKesson, Williams-Sonoma, Milwaukee Electric Tool, Associated Wholesale Grocers. Thousands of those workers live on one side of the state line and clock in on the other. A civil rights branch that fights for fair courts in DeSoto County is fighting for the same workers our locals represent in Shelby County.
Fair courts are a workplace issue
Circuit and chancery courts in DeSoto County hear the cases that decide a working family's year — wage disputes, injuries, evictions, guardianships, contracts. Who sits on that bench, and who gets a real vote in choosing them, is not an abstraction for people who work for a living.
One region, two states, one program
Our Central Labor Council covers the Memphis metro, and the metro does not stop at the Mississippi line. The joint DeSoto County program we run with the Mississippi AFL-CIO under President Mickey Carr — shared canvass turf in Southaven and Horn Lake, ride boards, data handoffs — lands in exactly the precincts the DeSoto County NAACP went to court to protect.
Mississippi voter resources
The judicial subdistrict the branch defended only matters if people in Horn Lake and Southaven are registered and show up. Register through the state, confirm your polling place every cycle, and use the county Circuit Clerk — the county registrar — for anything the state portal cannot answer.
Mississippi Voter Hub
Our own state page: the Mississippi AFL-CIO's endorsed slate, deadlines, and how the November ballot lines up.
Open the MS voter hubY'all Vote — register & check your status
The Mississippi Secretary of State's voter portal. Register, confirm your registration, and review absentee rules.
yallvote.msFind your polling place
Official Mississippi polling place lookup by address — check it every cycle, precinct lines move.
sos.ms.gov/pollingplaceDeSoto County Circuit Clerk — Elections
The county registrar: registration forms, voter ID cards, election dates. 2535 Highway 51 S, Hernando · 662-469-8350.
desotocountyms.govDeSoto County Circuit Clerk — the county registrar
2535 Highway 51 South, 2nd Floor, Hernando, MS 38632 · Office 662-469-8007 · Voter registration 662-469-8350. Mississippi registration closes 30 days before an election.
Sources: the branch's own 2026 Freedom Fund Banquet & Award Gala souvenir program booklet (theme, program, honorees, officers, sponsors and the president's message), the DeSoto County MS NAACP Facebook page and the branch's leadership banner (officers, mailing address, phone and mission statement); naacp.org and naacpms.org for the national association and the Mississippi State Conference; the NAACP, ACLU, ACLU of Mississippi and Legal Defense Fund statements of September 2, 2026 and the ACLU docket for Foster v. State of Mississippi; the branch's own 2026 Freedom Fund Banquet event listing; and the DeSoto County Circuit Clerk and Mississippi Secretary of State for election information; banquet photographs provided by the Central Labor Council. Portraits: Pastor Tipton from the branch's souvenir program, Dr. Robert James from naacpms.org, and Derrick Johnson by the NAACP via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Officers, contacts and event dates change — confirm with the branch before printing or publishing. Listed here as a community partner of Labor Education; nothing on this page is an NAACP endorsement of the Council or of this site.
