Sandy Mitchell stood in front of his computer Tuesday afternoon and pointed indignantly at the section of the city’s Web page that boasts of the historic Rose Hill Cemetery and its primary attraction, the side-by-side graves of the king and queen of the gypsies.

    “They can use my family’s gravesite as a tourist attraction,” he said,” but they won’t let their descendants do business in the city.”

    Mitchell is a Roma gypsy, a self-proclaimed descendant of Meridian’s famed Gypsy Queen Kelly Mitchell and King Emil Mitchell. He and his family have been reading palms and tarot just outside of Meridian for decades, but his repeated attempts to move his business inside the city limits have been denied —  fortune telling as a business has long been outlawed within the city limits.

    Now, the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the constitutionality of the law, and the city council has declared a temporary moratorium on fortune telling.

    There’s a possibility the ordinance banning fortune telling will come before the council for a vote. If the council votes to uphold the ordinance, the issue could go to court. If they vote to repeal it, the next  step would be to work fortune telling into the city’s zoning ordinance.

    Mitchell said he tried numerous other avenues before turning to the ACLU for help.

    “Over the years,” said Mitchell, “we went back and forth to the licensing department … We would just check to see if they had maybe changed the code.”

    They hadn’t, and eventually Mitchell decided to try to convince the city to change it. Around May 2010, he went to the clerk of the city council, he said, and asked to address the council and mayor at a council meeting. Mitchell says the clerk told him to write a letter to Ward 5 Councilman Bobby Smith, who was president of the council at the time.

    “I explained (in the letter) that I’ve been here for 25 years conducting business in the county, that my children went to school here … I wanted a meeting with them to tell them who I am and what I am,” Mitchell said.

    But that meeting never happened. Instead, Mitchell received a letter telling him, “The Clerk of Council polled the City Council members to find out how many would support amending the code of ordinance to allow palm readers to operate inside city limits. Since the majority of the council members stated they would not vote to amend the code of ordinances for this purpose, an amendment will not be brought up for official action at a council meeting.”

    After being rejected by the council, Mitchell says he went to Mayor Cheri Barry’s office twice and talked to a secretary there. “What she told me was, ‘Mr. Mitchell, you can’t just walk in here and talk to the mayor,'” Mitchell said. When he asked to make an appointment, he says he was told he couldn’t just do that either, that he would first have to “jump through the proper hoops.”

Reaching out for help

 

    Mitchell says he then sent the mayor a message on Facebook, leaving his number and asking to speak with her. He says he did not hear back from her. “No reply, no courtesy to even say anything,” he said.

    Mitchell called the mayor’s office, and was told to visit Don Jemison in the city’s planning department. He says Jemison told him he didn’t know anything about it and didn’t know why he’d been instructed to call the planning department.

    At that point, Mitchell said, he gave up attempting to talk to the mayor or city council, and began calling attorneys in town. When none of the local attorneys he contacted were interested in the case, he then called the Mississippi ACLU, and eventually signed an agreement to be represented by ACLU attorney Bear Atwood.

    “She said (not being allowed to read fortunes) was definitely against my constitutional rights,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell also said he was surprised at the city’s response to calls from the ACLU, saying his attorney had a difficult time getting a return phone call.

    “When you can slap around the ACLU and ignore them, then wow, you’ve really got some guts … I guess this is just a joke to them,” Mitchell said.

    Atwood could not be reached for comment.

    In November, Mitchell said, Atwood was able to get in touch with City Attorney Ronnie Walton. In December, the city declared a temporary moratorium on  fortune telling, palmistry, and spiritual advisor facilities. The order did not define what constitutes a spiritual advisor facility, but city officials mentioned that it did not include “traditional churches”.

    According to Walton and Barry, the moratorium was called as a temporary precaution while the city looked further into the ordinance and how fortune-telling businesses would be zoned if the ordinance were lifted.

    Walton says there is a state law that allows municipalities in Mississippi to ban fortune-telling businesses along with numerous other “amusements”. The law, 21-19-33 of the Mississippi code, states that municipalities have the authority to “regulate, prohibit, or suppress” fortune telling businesses along with billiard tables, pool rooms, “cane or knife racks”, and gambling devices such as slot machines.

    The city ordinance, 16-18 of the municipal code, bans businesses from fortune telling, palmistry, “or other business of like kind or nature in which the future of any person is foretold or attempted to be foretold.”

    Walton said it’s under the authority of the state statute that the city created the ordinance.

    “The city has adopted an ordinance which prohibits, among other things, fortune telling, based on the authority that the city has been given by state statute. Mr. Mitchell has asked for authority to do something that is prohibited by local ordinance,” Walton said. “Before he can do that, either, A) the state has to amend its statute, or B) the city is going to have to consider whether it wants to amend 16-18. If the city is not willing to do what he’s asking, he’s going to have to decide whether or not to seek legal action against the city.”

What’s next?

    Walton said if the council chooses to overturn or amend the ordinance, the city would then have to figure out how to zone fortune telling businesses, either making a new zoning subset for fortune telling businesses, or lumping them in with another type of business, such as bars or pool halls, that is already included in the zoning ordinance.

    If the ordinance is not changed and winds up in court, there’s a possibility it could be overturned as unconstitutional by a judge. There are several recent cases in other states, including one in nearby Tennessee, where similar laws were ruled unconstitutional, but Walton said he is not aware of any such cases in Mississippi. If such a ruling were made against Meridian’s ordinance, Walton said it is unclear whether it would affect the state statute.

    Ward 1 City Councilman Dr. George Thomas said he anticipates the ordinance coming before the council for a vote. He said he would vote in favor of allowing fortune-telling businesses as long as they are restricted to certain zones.

    “I think we’ll vote and we’ll specifically say where they can go, at least as far as I’m concerned – I can’t speak for the other council members,” Thomas said, adding, “(Fortune telling) is just hard to define … There are a lot of people who believe really strongly in that, and check their horoscopes everyday … and if (fortune telling businesses) are legal, they’re legal.”

    Smith said he would vote against allowing fortune telling within the city limits, saying, “There’s a place for everything, but I don’t think downtown Meridian is a place for that.”

    Fortune telling is currently banned anywhere inside the city limits, downtown or otherwise.

    Ward 4 Councilman Jesse E. Palmer said he would reserve judgment until hearing from Walton, the administration, and the other council members.

    “To tell you the truth, I don’t believe in them,” Palmer said, “but that’s just a personal view.”

    Ward 2 Councilwoman Mary A.B. Perry said she, too, had not yet made up her mind on the issue. Ward 3 Councilwoman Barbara Henson could not be reached for comment.

    The council clerk said the issue is not currently scheduled for a vote.

    To Mitchell, telling fortunes is not a trivial thing; it’s a religious right, an important  part of his heritage, and a business all rolled up into one.

    “Fortune telling has been handed down through our family from generation to generation. It’s part of our heritage. We believe that God gave us this right and ability to read palms and so forth. We do not believe that doing so is part of the occult or any evil, black magic,” Mitchell said in an e-mail. “We believe that our business is who we are as a people. It reflects our history, heritage, and without it we are not Roma (gypsies). It’s like telling an American they are not allowed to hang the American flag outside their house because someone might get offended.”

    Along with believing fortune telling is his right as a Roma, Mitchell believes it’s his right as a Meridianite to practice his business inside the city limits. 

    Mitchell says the gypsy queen and king buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Kelly and Emil Mitchell, are his direct ancestors. Kelly Mitchell has been cited as the source of Meridian’s nickname, the Queen City, and her 1915 funeral, conducted from downtown’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, attracted as many at 20,000 attendants.

    Kelly Mitchell’s grave is famous for the many attempts by grave-robbers to get to the gold and other valuables said to have been buried with her. The grave is usually covered with trinkets left by well-wishers, both gypsies and non-gypsies. Rose Hill Cemetery has served as the burial place for a number of other Roma people from the Mitchell family, as well as a large number of other notable figures from Meridian history.

    Along with being part of a family that has played a role in Meridian’s history and character, Mitchell points out that he has been living in the Meridian area since the 1980’s. He is the son of “Ms. Mary,” who has a palm and tarot reading business outside the city limits near Collinsville.

    “Gypsies have been around since the 14th Century. We have done this since then. It is our belief that it’s a God-given right to see and tell the future. We believe it religiously,” Mitchell said. “It’s my heritage, and it’s a business at the same time. It doesn’t get me rich, but I feel that everyone in my family has a right to do this if we choose.”

    Mitchell said he doesn’t understand why fortune telling is being singled out as an outlawed business when other businesses that might be viewed as immoral are allowed inside the city limits.

    “We have a strip joint. We have liquor stores … Don’t sit there and act like we (fortune tellers) aren’t morally correct, when you ignore businesses that aren’t morally correct,” Mitchell said. “The Meridian Star has to pay for horoscopes in the newspaper. The people who want to see it have to pay to buy a paper … If they’re going to outlaw fortune telling, I want them to outlaw horoscopes. I’d like to outlaw fortune cookies. I’d like to outlaw the weatherman and stockbrokers, because we’re all forecasting the future.”

    Mitchell also said he hopes people will understand that, for some, fortune telling is a valuable service that means a lot to the people who seek it.

    “I know a lot of people won’t believe this, but it helps a lot of people,” he said. “People come for advice; they come to talk; they come to get their fortunes told.”

The Ordinance

Meridian’s ordinance banning fortune telling reads: “It shall be unlawful for any person within the corporate limits of the city to carry on the business of telling fortunes or to carry on the trade, business or profession of phrenology, clairvoyance, palmistry or other business of like kind or nature in which the future of any person is foretold or attempted to be foretold.”