Maisie Brown, 21, Is Becoming the Face and Voice of the Jackson Water Crisis

glamour.com:

By Activism often means going big—organizing a march for justice or starting a social media campaign—but for Maisie Brown, activism starts locally.

In response to the ongoing Mississippi water crisis, the 21-year-old sophomore and political science major at Jackson State University—one of the largest HBCUs—is leading the effort to deliver drinking water to residents who can’t make it to the city’s distribution centers.The grassroots activist is dedicated to community-driven social change focusing on local issues requiring a local solution.

Earlier this month, Brown distributed 250 LifeStraw Home water-filtering pitchers to households across west and south Jackson. “These 10-cup water filters can filter out lead, bacteria, parasites, silt, etc.,” read the comment on a recent Instagram post that showed her standing next to a stack of shipment boxes. “We could NOT stop at water cases and knew folks needed a more sustainable solution because these boil-water notices aren’t going anywhere.”Confident and humble at the same time, Brown may seem to present a bit of a contradiction, but her confident humility is a way that leads everyone to win. “I don’t know how else to put it.

It just feels racist—I don’t know how else to sugarcoat it. If Jackson was a majority white city or had a largely white population, we wouldn’t be facing this water crisis, Brown said in an interview with Morning Joe.Her upbringing not only shaped her thoughts about racial inequities but became the breeding ground for the activist she is today.