DeSoto County elects its first Black judges

DeSoto County voters elected the first Black circuit and chancery court judges to newly created positions from last year’s redistricting efforts. 

John Hughes, a Southaven attorney and Walls Municipal Court judge, received 61% of the vote to become a circuit court judge and Gwen Baptist, a Southaven attorney, received 51% of votes, to become a chancery judge, according to unofficial results. 

On Wednesday morning, both recognized how their wins made history and thanked supporters. 

Hughes said it was humbling to be both the first Black municipal judge and circuit judge to be elected in DeSoto County. 

“All citizens deserve a court that balance(s) fairness with the temperance of justice and compassion, when within reason,” Hughes wrote on his campaign Facebook page. “I am proud to be your humble public servant and neighbor.”

The circuit court is responsible for felony criminal prosecutions, which includes trials and sentencing. It also handles civil claims over $200 and hears appeals from the county and justice courts. 

Throughout her campaign, Baptist shared her family’s generational roots in DeSoto County and her connection to land, including a few videos of her on family land. In a message to supporters after Election Day, she said her father and grandfather had to conduct legal business outside the courthouse during the state’s Jim Crow era, but the win gives her the privilege to walk through the doors and serve from the bench.

“This victory is both a profound professional honor and an opportunity to honor my father, recognize the sacrifice of those who came before me and carry forward their legacy through service,” she wrote on Facebook.

The chancery court is responsible for wills and estates; adoption, child custody and divorce; and guardianships and conservatorships. The court can also approve final domestic abuse protection orders. 

The only countywide Black official in DeSoto is Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle II, who was elected  in 2023. 

The milestone comes several months after a federal lawsuit challenged the creation of the majority Black subdistricts that eventually elected Baptist and Hughes.  

Last year, lawmakers redrew state court districts using the most recent 2020 U.S. Census data. In DeSoto County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, lawmakers created the two majority Black subdistricts in parts of Horn Lake and Southaven. Black residents make up over a third of the county’s population. 

U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock on Aug. 13 denied efforts by four DeSoto County residents, including county Supervisor Robert Foster, to prevent subdistrict of voters from electing the two countywide judges.

Foster argued that a small section of voters discriminated against white residents and that voting should be opened across the entire county. In her ruling, Aycock said the evidence presented at trial did not clearly point to race as the justification for the drawing of the judicial maps.

In the DeSoto case, Aycock ruled that just because race was referenced when the Legislature created the subdistrict and statistics show that it created a majority-Black subdistrict, it didn’t necessarily mean it was an unconstitutional gerrymander. 

She also noted that Rep. Dan Eubanks, a Republican from Walls, had testified that the Legislature added one circuit court judge and one chancery judge because the county needed help with the case backlog that stemmed from its growing population. 

Foster filed the lawsuit after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that enabled the drawing of majority-minority districts. In Callais, the high court rejected Louisiana’s second majority Black congressional district, finding it relied too heavily on race and calling it an “unconstitutional gerrymander.”

That ruling has led to worries that Republican-led states would try to eliminate majority Black and Latino electoral districts. Some state lawmakers have called for the state’s only majority-Black congressional district to be eliminated.

Republican states including Mississippi began redistricting efforts after the Callais decision. The state Senate formed a redistricting study committee that traveled across the state to hear from residents about redistricting. 

Redistricting is also expected to be taken up during the 2027 legislative session that starts in January. 

DeSoto County previously faced a lawsuit that alleged its 2022 electoral map diluted Black voting power in county office elections and called for creation of majority-Black districts. In June, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, finding the plaintiffs didn’t provide enough proof that maps were drawn to intentionally dilute Black voting power.