Latest news with #Ferriday
South China Morning Post
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Jimmy Swaggart, US televangelist undone by prostitute scandal, dies at 90
Jimmy Swaggart, who was one of America's most influential televangelists in the 1980s before an affair with a prostitute brought his career crashing down, has died at the age of 90. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries confirmed his death on social media, and his family thanked medical staff at Baton Rouge General Medical Centre in Louisiana. It did not share details of the cause of death. In his heyday as a fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher, Swaggart had an estimated global audience of 200 million. Then came the prostitute scandal in 1988. With tears gushing down his cheeks, Swaggart admitted to his congregation that he had sinned – without providing details – and begged forgiveness. Swaggart, born March 15, 1935, grew up in the rough-and-tumble and racially segregated Louisiana backwater of Ferriday with two cousins who also would become famous – rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country singer Mickey Gilley. As a boy, Swaggart was surrounded by the fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal version of Christianity he would later take to the airwaves. His father, a grocer and a tough disciplinarian, preached himself from time to time and Swaggart was only nine when he claimed he was first 'called' to the ministry. 'You will preach my Gospel all over the world. You will even take it to Africa,' was the command that Swaggart said God gave him.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Yahoo
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dead at 90, family says
The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, America's longest-serving TV evangelist and founder of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, has died at 90, his family shared on Tuesday. During a Sunday service in mid-June, Swaggart's son, the Rev. Donnie Swaggart, asked his congregation to keep his father in their prayers, saying that only a "miracle" could extend his father's life. "Today, our hearts are heavy as we share that Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ. Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day," Swaggart's family wrote Tuesday. "He was not just a preacher—he was a worshiper, a warrior, and a witness to the grace and mercy of God. He was a man whose faith was steadfast and always entered whatever door the Lord opened. And the Lord honored that faith," the statement continued. Texas Megachurch Pastor Resigns After Woman Says He Sexually Abused Her In The 1980S Swaggart preached the gospel of Jesus Christ on television longer than any other American evangelist in history, according to his ministry website. Read On The Fox News App Swaggart, who was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, launched into full-time ministry in 1955. He served as the pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and founded Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. At his peak in the mid-1980s, Swaggart was the country's top-rated TV preacher. His services were broadcast to over 2 million households. Tennessee Pastor Kidnapped At Gunpoint In South Africa Recalls 'Miracle' That Saved His Life However, his image was bruised after he was linked to a 1987 scandal involving a prostitute that he met in a seedy New Orleans motel. Swaggart never confessed to anything more than an unspecified sin during a televised apology in which he tearfully delivered his "I have sinned speech." A few years later, he was stopped by police while driving in California with a suspected prostitute in his car. Swaggart also made headlines for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically. Swaggart said he made the comment jokingly and did not mean any harm. Fox News' Stepheny Price contributed to this article source: Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart dead at 90, family says
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Yahoo
Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart hospitalized in critical condition
Prominent evangelist Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, 90, was hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest on June 15, family members said during a Sunday service. Pastor Donnie Swaggart said during a prayer service June 15 that his father was found at his home around 8 a.m. and revived before being taken to a local hospital, saying that only a 'miracle' could extend his father's life. 'He never regained consciousness,' he said. 'I've never seen so many people arrive at one time, and I want to thank them. They were able to get a heartbeat back. Right now, he is in the ICU, and without a miracle, his time will be short. But we believe God − we're not giving up.' Jimmy Swaggart, a prominent evangelist for decades, is a native of Ferriday, Louisiana, and serves as the pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the peak of his exposure in the 1980s, Swaggart became involved in various prostitution scandals that led to his suspension and defrocking. The scandals peaked in 1988 when Swaggart delivered his infamous "I have sinned" speech on live television. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Monday, June 16. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Swaggart: Televangelist hospitalized after cardiac arrest
CTV News
08-06-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed
A school bus is seen behind a fence with barbed wire outside Ferriday High School in Ferriday, La., Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) FERRIDAY, La. — Even at a glance, the differences are obvious. The walls of Ferriday High School are old and worn, surrounded by barbed wire. Just a few miles away, Vidalia High School is clean and bright, with a new library and a crisp blue 'V' painted on orange brick. Ferriday High is 90 per cent Black. Vidalia High is 62 per cent white. For Black families, the contrast between the schools suggests 'we're not supposed to have the finer things,' said Brian Davis, a father in Ferriday. 'It's almost like our kids don't deserve it,' he said. The schools are part of Concordia Parish, which was ordered to desegregate 60 years ago and remains under a court-ordered plan to this day. Yet there's growing momentum to release the district — and dozens of others — from decades-old orders that some call obsolete. In a remarkable reversal, the U.S. Justice Department said it plans to start unwinding court-ordered desegregation plans dating to the Civil Rights Movement. Officials started in April, when they lifted a 1960s order in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department's civil rights division, has said others will 'bite the dust.' It comes amid pressure from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and his attorney general, who have called for all the state's remaining orders to be lifted. They describe the orders as burdens on districts and relics of a time when Black students were still forbidden from some schools. The orders were always meant to be temporary — school systems can be released if they demonstrate they fully eradicated segregation. Decades later, that goal remains elusive, with stark racial imbalances persisting in many districts. Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring. They point to cases like Concordia, where the decades-old order was used to stop a charter school from favoring white students in admissions. 'Concordia is one where it's old, but a lot is happening there,' said Deuel Ross, deputy director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'That's true for a lot of these cases. They're not just sitting silently.' Debates over integration are far from settled Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, Concordia Parish rejected a Justice Department plan that would have ended its case if the district combined several majority white and majority Blac k elementary and middle schools. At a town hall meeting, Vidalia residents vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would disrupt students' lives and expose their children to drugs and violence. An official from the Louisiana attorney general's office spoke against the proposal and said the Trump administration likely would change course on older orders. Accepting the plan would have been a 'death sentence' for the district, said Paul Nelson, a former Concordia superintendent. White families would have fled to private schools or other districts, said Nelson, who wants the court order removed. 'It's time to move on,' said Nelson, who left the district in 2016. 'Let's start looking to build for the future, not looking back to what our grandparents may have gone through.' At Ferriday High, athletic coach Derrick Davis supported combining schools in Ferriday and Vidalia. He said the district's disparities come into focus whenever his teams visit schools with newer sports facilities. 'It seems to me, if we'd all combine, we can all get what we need,' he said. Others oppose merging schools if it's done solely for the sake of achieving racial balance. 'Redistricting and going to different places they're not used to ... it would be a culture shock to some people,' said Ferriday's school resource officer, Marcus Martin, who, like Derrick Davis, is Black. The district's current superintendent and school board did not respond to requests for comment. Federal orders offer leverage for racial discrimination cases Concordia is among more than 120 districts across the South that remain under desegregation orders from the 1960s and '70s, including about a dozen in Louisiana. Calling the orders historical relics is 'unequivocally false,' said Shaheena Simons, who until April led the Justice Department section that oversees school desegregation cases. 'Segregation and inequality persist in our schools, and they persist in districts that are still under desegregation orders,' she said. With court orders in place, families facing discrimination can reach out directly to the Justice Department or seek relief from the court. Otherwise, the only recourse is a lawsuit, which many families can't afford, Simons said. In Concordia, the order played into a battle over a charter school that opened in 2013 on the former campus of an all-white private school. To protect the area's progress on racial integration, a judge ordered Delta Charter School to build a student body that reflected the district's racial demographics. But in its first year, the school was just 15 per cent Black. After a court challenge, Delta was ordered to give priority to Black students. Today, about 40 per cent of its students are Black. Desegregation orders have been invoked recently in other cases around the state. One led to an order to address disproportionately high rates of discipline for Black students, and in another a predominantly Black elementary school was relocated from a site close to a chemical plant. The U.S. Justice Department could easily end some desegregation orders The Trump administration was able to close the Plaquemines case with little resistance because the original plaintiffs were no longer involved — the Justice Department was litigating the case alone. Concordia and an unknown number of other districts are in the same situation, making them vulnerable to quick dismissals. Concordia's case dates to 1965, when the area was strictly segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. When Black families in Ferriday sued for access to all-white schools, the federal government intervened. As the district integrated its schools, white families fled Ferriday. The district's schools came to reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas. Ferriday is mostly Black and low-income, while Vidalia is mostly white and takes in tax revenue from a hydroelectric plant. A third town in the district, Monterey, has a high school that's 95 per cent white. At the December town hall, Vidalia resident Ronnie Blackwell said the area 'feels like a Mayberry, which is great,' referring to the fictional Southern town from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The federal government, he said, has 'probably destroyed more communities and school systems than it ever helped.' Under its court order, Concordia must allow students in majority Black schools to transfer to majority white schools. It also files reports on teacher demographics and student discipline. After failing to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department, Concordia is scheduled to make its case that the judge should dismiss the order, according to court documents. Meanwhile, amid a wave of resignations in the federal government, all but two of the Justice Department lawyers assigned to the case have left. Without court supervision, Brian Davis sees little hope for improvement. 'A lot of parents over here in Ferriday, they're stuck here because here they don't have the resources to move their kids from A to B,' he said. 'You'll find schools like Ferriday — the term is, to me, slipping into darkness." The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Collin Binkley And Sharon Lurye, The Associated Press
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed
FERRIDAY, La. (AP) — Even at a glance, the differences are obvious. The walls of Ferriday High School are old and worn, surrounded by barbed wire. Just a few miles away, Vidalia High School is clean and bright, with a new library and a crisp blue 'V' painted on orange brick. Ferriday High is 90% Black. Vidalia High is 62% white. For Black families, the contrast between the schools suggests 'we're not supposed to have the finer things,' said Brian Davis, a father in Ferriday. 'It's almost like our kids don't deserve it,' he said. The schools are part of Concordia Parish, which was ordered to desegregate 60 years ago and remains under a court-ordered plan to this day. Yet there's growing momentum to release the district — and dozens of others — from decades-old orders that some call obsolete. In a remarkable reversal, the Justice Department said it plans to start unwinding court-ordered desegregation plans dating to the Civil Rights Movement. Officials started in April, when they lifted a 1960s order in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department's civil rights division, has said others will 'bite the dust.' It comes amid pressure from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and his attorney general, who have called for all the state's remaining orders to be lifted. They describe the orders as burdens on districts and relics of a time when Black students were still forbidden from some schools. The orders were always meant to be temporary — school systems can be released if they demonstrate they fully eradicated segregation. Decades later, that goal remains elusive, with stark racial imbalances persisting in many districts. Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring. They point to cases like Concordia, where the decades-old order was used to stop a charter school from favoring white students in admissions. 'Concordia is one where it's old, but a lot is happening there,' said Deuel Ross, deputy director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'That's true for a lot of these cases. They're not just sitting silently.' Debates over integration are far from settled Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, Concordia Parish rejected a Justice Department plan that would have ended its case if the district combined several majority white and majority Black elementary and middle schools. At a town hall meeting, Vidalia residents vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would disrupt students' lives and expose their children to drugs and violence. An official from the Louisiana attorney general's office spoke against the proposal and said the Trump administration likely would change course on older orders. Accepting the plan would have been a 'death sentence' for the district, said Paul Nelson, a former Concordia superintendent. White families would have fled to private schools or other districts, said Nelson, who wants the court order removed. 'It's time to move on,' said Nelson, who left the district in 2016. 'Let's start looking to build for the future, not looking back to what our grandparents may have gone through.' At Ferriday High, athletic coach Derrick Davis supported combining schools in Ferriday and Vidalia. He said the district's disparities come into focus whenever his teams visit schools with newer sports facilities. 'It seems to me, if we'd all combine, we can all get what we need,' he said. Others oppose merging schools if it's done solely for the sake of achieving racial balance. 'Redistricting and going to different places they're not used to ... it would be a culture shock to some people," said Ferriday's school resource officer, Marcus Martin, who like Derrick Davis is Black. The district's current superintendent and school board did not respond to requests for comment. Federal orders offer leverage for racial discrimination cases Concordia is among more than 120 districts across the South that remain under desegregation orders from the 1960s and '70s, including about a dozen in Louisiana. Calling the orders historical relics is 'unequivocally false,' said Shaheena Simons, who until April led the Justice Department section that oversees school desegregation cases. 'Segregation and inequality persist in our schools, and they persist in districts that are still under desegregation orders,' she said. With court orders in place, families facing discrimination can reach out directly to the Justice Department or seek relief from the court. Otherwise, the only recourse is a lawsuit, which many families can't afford, Simons said. In Concordia, the order played into a battle over a charter school that opened in 2013 on the former campus of an all-white private school. To protect the area's progress on racial integration, a judge ordered Delta Charter School to build a student body that reflected the district's racial demographics. But in its first year, the school was just 15% Black. After a court challenge, Delta was ordered to give priority to Black students. Today, about 40% of its students are Black. Desegregation orders have been invoked recently in other cases around the state. One led to an order to address disproportionately high rates of discipline for Black students, and in another a predominantly Black elementary school was relocated from a site close to a chemical plant. The Justice Department could easily end some desegregation orders The Trump administration was able to close the Plaquemines case with little resistance because the original plaintiffs are no longer involved — the Justice Department was litigating the case alone. Concordia and an unknown number of other districts are in the same situation, making them vulnerable to quick dismissals. Concordia's case dates to 1965, when the area was strictly segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. When Black families in Ferriday sued for access to all-white schools, the federal government intervened. As the district integrated its schools, white families fled Ferriday. The district's schools came to reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas. Ferriday is mostly Black and low-income, while Vidalia is mostly white and takes in tax revenue from a hydroelectric plant. A third town in the district, Monterey, has a high school that's 95% white. At the December town hall, Vidalia resident Ronnie Blackwell said the area 'feels like a Mayberry, which is great,' referring to the fictional Southern town from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The federal government, he said, has 'probably destroyed more communities and school systems than it ever helped.' Under its court order, Concordia must allow students in majority Black schools to transfer to majority white schools. It also files reports on teacher demographics and student discipline. After failing to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department, Concordia is scheduled to make its case that the judge should dismiss the order, according to court documents. Meanwhile, amid a wave of resignations in the federal government, all but two of the Justice Department lawyers assigned to the case have left. Without court supervision, Brian Davis sees little hope for improvement. 'A lot of parents over here in Ferriday, they're stuck here because here they don't have the resources to move their kids from A to B," he said. 'You'll find schools like Ferriday — the term is, to me, slipping into darkness." ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
