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Hattiesburg News Staff

'Mr. Hattiesburg' is running and likely to win Forrest County Supervisor District 4


Hattiesburg's Hometown Hero Derrian Moye, mostly known as Mr. Hattiesburg, is not only running for Forrest County District 4 Supervisor but is the favorite to win the primary vote on August 6, 2019 against incumbent Rod Woullard who's been the supervisor for almost 20 years, according to recent data.

Moye is the oldest child of Tanesha Moye, who died when she was only 39 years old a few years ago, after loosing her fight to diabetes, congestive heart failure, sarcoidosis, and kidney failure.

Moye stepped up, fought and won custody of his siblings, and then put them through school, his younger brother graduating from Forrest County Agriculture High School.

He is the oldest grandchild of his late grandfather, Marshall Cox, his mom's father, who also died due to health related illnesses and the oldest grandchild on his mom's mother, Marian and Jas Howard, both lifelong citizens of Hattiesburg.

Moye's very first public campaign appearance was accepting an invitation to attend a NAACP event on Thursday, June 27, 2019 where his presence sent shock waves of excitement through the community and energized the crowd although he didn't answer any questions, only giving an opening and closing statement. After the event, lots of participants including candidates and supporters surrounded him, waiting in line to take pictures with him.

On Sunday, June 30, Moye made only his second public appearance when he accepted an invitation to be the commencement speaker for a local college. Concluding Moye's introduction by introducing him as a candidate for Forrest County Supervisor District 4, the crowd started cheering as he walked humbly to the podium to an overcrowded auditorium filled with 100's of people with standing room only.

Talking to 1000's of voters from around District 4 it's clear that Moye has 1,000's of strong supporters including most African American business owners who also have major influence in the community.

80% of District 4 residents we talked to said they're most likely voting for him and was excited to see him finally start campaigning. Many voters talked about the excitement, awe and inspiration he brings.

Business owner James Fenton, a local bail bondsman, is inspired by Moye and compares him to a Bible character. "Derrian is a young man of strong faith who reminds me of Nehemiah, my favorite character in the Bible who no matter what he experienced didn't let anything stop him from building the wall, but in this case, building his community," said Fenton.

Others such as Brenda Williams, owner of Homestyle Restaurant, says at least 2 or 3 times a week, you always hear people talking about either the positive stuff Moye's done in the community, how he's trying to help them now, or about how they hate certain people are trying to keep him from running. "Derrian has lots of support. He's always trying to do something to help somebody. I know his family very well. He's a good person and people should let the voters decide who they want," said Williams.

But for most supporters such as community patron Joycelyn McCoy, owner of Dabbs Street Store, they simply say they want to be apart of making history as Moye promises the biggest change in Forrest County history.

"Derrian is a great a community leader always thinking about positive things to help build our community! He always supports people and programs in our community. He's our leader!" McCoy said.

According to a press release from Moye's "Together We Will" campaign, Here's Mr. Hattiesburg's platform:

2 Lifetime Achievement Honors

-Honored by the University of Southern Mississippi as Hometown Hero

-Honored by the Boy Scouts of America as an Eagle Scout, its highest rank

Top 5 Goals:

-Work with local law enforcement to reduce the record high number of black people going to jail and still decrease crime in community.

- Invest every available resource into the schools and teacher pay raises so that schools can be among the top 5 in the state, such as Oak Grove and Petal.

-Create jobs, bring jobs, and keep jobs in communities instead of jobs moving to Lamar County and Hwy 98.

-Clean up neighborhoods by building new side walks, paving new roads, cleaning out ditches and properties, new neighborhood signage, and renovating every outdoor basketball court including Vernon Dahmer with new outdoor lights and new rubber flooring.

-Build a state of the art gym that includes an indoor swimming pool, indoor basketball court, a recording studio, activity classrooms, a computer room, and a full work out gym.

The campaign's press release also says Moye has plently of experience fighting and delivering for his community and list several examples:

Accomplishments

- created, organized, and coordinated the biggest community relief effort in Hattiesburg's history with over 5,000 volunteers from around the world, over 750,000 volunteer hours, serving over 3,500 meals a day, giving out 1,000's of cases of water, cleaning supplies, and clothes, and temporary repairing and removing debris from 100's of homes, after the deadly EF3 tornado destroyed the poorest communities in Hattiesburg, killing multiple people.

-created, organized, and coordinated the biggest job fair in Hattiesburg's history, the Summer Job Fair, in which 1,000's of people attended.

-brought back the famous Black History Parade after a 5 year absence, which for decades was the pride and biggest celebration of the African American community.

-created, organized, and coordinated the only job fair in the Palmer's Crossing Community, the Fall Job Fair.

-hosted the most Stop the Violence Rallies & Memorials in Hattiesburg's history, calming the community down while bringing the community together at the same time, which prevented more violence and saved countless of lives.

With only weeks away from the primary vote on August 6, the District 4 race will definitely be the race to tell if Forrest County wants change or not if it elects its young community leader Derrian Moye, better known as 'Mr. Hattiesburg'.

One of the most interesting races to watch has just got more interesting. The 'Together We Will' campaign also announced that any legal issues that may arise will be overseen by the Lawrence Law Firm, likely meaning it will be represented by one of Hattiesburg's most powerful and respected private attorneys,Charles Lawrence, the former City of Hattieburg Judge, City Attorney, and first African American City Councilman.


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