Columbus City leader responds to group’s claims
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A Columbus City councilman claims politics and race are playing a role in a recent post about his wife’s charitable event.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones held a press conference on the steps of city hall this morning to address the issue.
Columbus Matters, a publication run by a community organization known as “A Better Columbus” or ABC, produced an article about charities published on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website and its related issues with city leaders.
Later in the article, it said there were “two curious nonprofit entities” on the secretary’s website and listed Zumba in Pink. It would go on to say ZIP is not a registered charity and there’s no IRS non-profit tax return for the organization in 2023.
Jones said ZIP is similar to a basketball tournament and giving the proceeds to a charity.
“If you are going to attack this group, then attack everybody just to be fair across the board. If you want to do a public request on whatever the city has going on then do the same thing with the county, or if you want to do it against this board just because it is majority black, then do it against this board. Just be fair about it across the board. You can write whatever you want to write and you can attack me all day long but, again, you will not attack my family. You will not attack my wife,” said Jones.
Money from ZIP goes to the Imaging Center in Columbus where mammograms are done.
We have reached out to Columbus Matters and are awaiting a response.
