Jackson Jambalaya

For many years, Greenville native Jere Nash was best known as a tough, smart Democratic political consultant who entered Mississippi government service as former Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus’s chief of staff.

Previously, Nash served as deputy state auditor and as Mabus's director of policy and chief of staff. Nash went on to work for a number of Democratic candidates and progressive political causes – enjoying both success and failure. That part of his career ended in a Teamsters Union election money laundering scandal that The Washington Post called “liberal activism gone awry.” After facing those adversities, Nash reinvented himself after a fashion. His political skills remained razor-sharp, and he had an enviable list of political contacts on both sides of the political aisle. While his zeal and passion for his political beliefs almost took him down, Nash’s native intellect, work ethic and ability to write extremely well redeemed him. The rest is a Mississippi literary and political story that is worth retelling about a man who willed himself to become a respected writer and historian.

Nash teamed with a former GOP gubernatorial chief of staff, a former Mississippi governor, and of late, perhaps the most confusing and misunderstood period of Mississippi’s bewildering history to write the ensuing chapters of his life.

Nash is co-author with Andy Taggart of two books: Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2008 (2nd ed.) and Mississippi Fried Politics: Tall Tales from the Back Room.

The book featured a foreword from Mississippi writer John Grisham, himself a former Mississippi state legislator. Mississippi Politics was recognized by the Mississippi Historical Society as the best book of Mississippi history published in 2006 and by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters as the best non-fiction book published in Mississippi that year. The book featured a foreword from Mississippi writer John Grisham, himself a former Mississippi state legislator.

The book represents a fair, even-handed, and factual account of Mississippi's transition from a state dominated from the county courthouses to the statehouse by a monolithic Democratic Party to a vibrant two-party system in which the GOP is an equal partner in power – then to the current period of GOP dominance.

The co-authors are an unlikely pair. Democrat and Mabus staffer Nash partnered with Taggart, a lawyer and former Madison County supervisor, who is a former chief of staff to the late Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice. Nash remains a "yellow dog" Democrat, while Taggart is still a Republican.

Nash is also co-author with former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of America's Great Storm: Leading Through Hurricane Katrina, Barbour’s memoir of the natural disaster and a book that reflects on leadership in times of crisis. His new narrative history of Reconstruction in Mississippi, 1862-1877, is part of the University Press of Mississippi’s Heritage of Mississippi series. Respected Mississippi historian Charles C. Bolton praised Nash’s latest work as placing “the Mississippi story in a national context” and identifying “crucial elections” in the Reconstruction period that continue to influence election outcomes in the state today.

After the Republican Reconstruction government established in Mississippi in 1865 and led almost exclusively by black public officials was deposed by Mississippi Democrats in the 1875 elections, the Republican Party in Mississippi faded into irrelevance for a time.

But in 1924, enter an ambitious young Black attorney from Ebenezer, Mississippi, named Perry W. Howard, who would dominate the Mississippi “Black-and-Tan” Republican Party for the next 35 years. Essentially, the state’s GOP operated out of a Black lawyer’s mailbox during that time.

Nash masterfully explains Mississippi’s Reconstruction in a way that nods to practical politics and future impacts. Like his earlier works, the new Nash book would be a welcome addition to any thinking Mississippian’s personal library.

If you enjoy the Mississippi Book Festival and the cultural contributions it makes to life in this state, Jere Nash has been one of the movers and shakers in organizing, growing and nurturing this event. It’s been fun watching Nash achieve notoriety as a man of letters in this state.

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.