Buttigieg tours Mississippi civil rights site and says transportation is key to equity in the US

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Friday toured the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Mississippi's capital city, saying afterward that transportation is important to securing equity and justice in the United States.

“Disparities in access to transportation affect everything else — education, economic opportunity, quality of life, safety,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, his first trip to the state, to promote projects that are receiving money from a 2021 federal infrastructure act. One is a planned $20 million improvement to Medgar Evers Boulevard in Jackson, which is a stretch of U.S. Highway 49.

Evers' daughter, Reena Evers-Everette, talked to Buttigieg about growing up in the modest one-story home that her family moved into in 1956 — about how she and her older brother would put on clean white socks and slide on the hardwood floors after their mother, Myrlie, waxed them.

It's the same home where Myrlie Evers talked to her husband, the Mississippi NAACP leader, about the work he was doing to register Black voters and to challenge the state's strictly segregated society.

Medgar Evers had just arrived home in the early hours of June 12, 1963, when a white supremacist fatally shot him, hours after President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised speech about civil rights.

After touring the Evers home, Buttigieg talked about the recent anniversary of the assassination. He also noted that Friday marked 60 years since Ku Klux Klansmen ambushed and killed three civil rights workers — Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman — in Neshoba County, Mississippi, as they were investigating the burning of a Black church.

“As we bear the moral weight of our inheritance, it feels a little bit strange to be talking about street lights and ports and highway funding and some of the other day-to-day transportation needs that we are here to do something about," Buttigieg said.

Yet, he said equitable transportation has always been “one of the most important battlegrounds of the struggle for racial and economic justice and civil rights in this country.”

Buttigieg said Evers called for a boycott of gas stations that wouldn't allow Black customers to use their restrooms, and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who toured sites in his Mississippi district with Buttigieg, said the majority-Black city of Jackson has been “left out of so many funding opportunities” for years, while money to expand roads has gone to more affluent suburbs. He called the $20 million a “down payment” toward future funding.

“This down payment will fix some of the problems associated with years of neglect — potholes, businesses that have closed because there's no traffic," Thompson said.

Thompson is the only Democrat representing Mississippi in Congress and is the only member of the state's U.S. House delegation who voted for the infrastructure bill. Buttigieg also said Mississippi Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker voted for it.

Reena Evers-Everette, left, daughter of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, left, welcomes U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, second from right, Mississippi Transportation Commissioner for the Central District Willie Simmons, second from left, and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., right, to the home of her father, assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., right, confer outside the house that is the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, listen as Reena Evers-Everette, points out photographs of her five-year-old self and her older brother Darrell Kenyatta Evers, then six, on top of her mother's piano, as a group of dignitaries toured the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, listens as Reena Evers-Everette, recalls her mother Myrlie Evers playing the piano when she was a small child, as a group of dignitaries toured the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that are receiving money or will be helped from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool)

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, second from left, Reena Evers-Everette, center, listen as Keena Graham of the National Park Service, right, speaks about the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, second from right, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., second from left, and Mississippi Transportation Commissioner for the Central District Willie Simmons, left, listen as Reena Evers-Everette, speaks about her life as a young child in the home of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, left, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., center, listen as Reena Evers-Everette, speaks about her life as the daughter of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, during a tour of their home, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, Pool)

Reena Evers-Everette, front left, daughter of assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, left, welcomes U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, front right, and Mississippi Transportation Commissioner for the Central District Willie Simmons, center, to the home of her father, assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. The house, now the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument, was one of the stops Buttigieg made as he spent Thursday and Friday in Mississippi, promoting projects that will be helped or will be receiving money from a federal infrastructure act. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

CAIRO (AP) — This week saw a dizzying escalation in the nearly yearlong conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. First came two days of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah — deadly attacks pinned on Israel that also maimed civilians around Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s leader vowed to retaliate, and on Friday the militant group launched a wave of rockets into northern Israel. Later in the day, the commander of Hezbollah’s most elite unit was killed in a strike in Beirut that killed dozens more people.

Early Sunday, the cross-border attacks ramped up. Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets deeper into northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, and Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon.

Many fear the events are the prelude to an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group that is Lebanon’s most powerful armed force. A war threatens to bring devastation in Lebanon, heavy missile fire into Israeli cities, and further destabilize a region already shaken by the war in Gaza.

During more than 11 months of exchanging fire over the Lebanese-Israeli border, both sides have repeatedly pulled back when the spiral of reprisals appeared on the verge of getting out of control, under heavy pressure from the U.S. and its allies. But in recent weeks, Israeli leaders have warned of a possible bigger military operation with the goal of stopping attacks from Lebanon to allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting to return to homes near the border.

Here are some things to know about the situation:

An Israeli airstrike Friday brought down a high-rise building in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Shiite-majority area known as Dahiyeh where Hezbollah has a strong presence. At least 45 people were killed and more than 60 wounded, the deadliest Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military said the strike killed Ibrahim Akil, the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, as well as other top leaders of the unit. Hezbollah later confirmed that Akil was killed, a heavy blow to Hezbollah’s most effective fighters. Israel said Akil led the group’s campaign of rocket, drone and other fire into northern Israel.

The strike came after the shock of the electronic device bombings, in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated on Tuesday and Wednesday. At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and around 3,000 were wounded. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

The casualties included some fighters from the group, but many of the wounded were civilians connected to Hezbollah’s social branches. Analysts say the attack has little effect on Hezbollah’s manpower, but could disrupt its communications and force it to take tighter security measures.

Overnight into Sunday, one Hezbollah rocket struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said four people were also wounded by shrapnel. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three people were killed and another four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.

Hezbollah fired 140 rockets into northern Israel on Friday, saying it was targeting military sites in retaliation for overnight Israeli strikes into southern Lebanon. No casualties were reported.

It was a continuation of the near daily drumbeat of exchanges over the border since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. The exchanges have killed around 600 people in Lebanon – mostly fighters but including around 100 civilians — and about 50 soldiers and civilians in Israel. It has also forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate homes near the border in both Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised to retaliate for the electronic device bombings, raising fears of an escalation from the group. But Hezbollah also has proved wary of further stoking the crisis. The group faces a difficult balance of stretching the rules of engagement by hitting deeper into Israel in response to its brazen attacks, while at the same time trying to avoid the kind of large-scale attacks on civilian areas that can trigger a full-scale war that it would rather not start and take the blame for.

Hezbollah says its attacks against Israel are in support of Hamas. This week, Nasrallah said the barrages won’t end — and Israelis won’t be able to return to homes in the north — until Israel’s campaign in Gaza ends.

As fighting in Gaza has slowed, Israel has fortified forces along the border with Lebanon, including the arrival this week of a powerful army division that took part in some of the heaviest fighting in Gaza. It’s believed to include thousands of troops, including paratrooper infantry units and artillery and elite commando forces specially trained for operations behind enemy lines.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week declared the start of a “new phase” of the war as Israel turns its focus toward Hezbollah.

“The center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces,” he said.

Israeli officials say they haven’t yet made an official decision to expand military operations against Hezbollah – and haven’t said publicly what those operations might be. This week, the head of Israel’s Northern Command was quoted in local media as advocating for a ground invasion of Lebanon.

A U.N.-brokered truce to their 2006 war called on Hezbollah to pull back 29 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, but it has refused to, accusing Israel of also failing to carry out some provisions. Israel is now demanding Hezbollah withdraw eight to 10 kilometers (five to six miles) from the border – the range of Hezbollah’s anti-tank guided missiles.

Israel and Hezbollah’s 2006 war was a devastating monthlong fight triggered when Hezbollah fighters kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

In that war, Israel heavily bombarded southern Lebanon and Beirut and sent a ground invasion into the south. The strategy, later explained by Israeli commanders, was to inflict the maximum damage possible in towns and neighborhoods where Hezbollah operated to deter them from launching attacks.

But Israel could have a more ambitious and contentious goal this time: to seize a buffer zone in south Lebanon to push back Hezbollah fighters from the border. A fight to hold territory threatens a longer, even more destructive and destabilizing war – recalling Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of southern Lebanon.

The fear is that it could turn out even worse than the 2006 war, which was traumatic enough for both sides to serve as a deterrent ever since.

The fighting then killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and an estimated 1,100 Lebanese civilians and left large swaths of the south and even parts of Beirut in ruins. More than 120 Israeli soldiers were killed and hundreds wounded. Hezbollah missile fire on Israeli cities brought the war to the public, killing dozens of civilians.

Now, Israel estimates that Hezbollah possesses about 150,000 rockets and missiles, some of which are precision-guided, putting the entire country within range of Hezbollah fire. Israel has beefed up air defenses, but it’s unclear whether it can defend against the intense barrages expected in a new war.

Israel has vowed it could turn all of southern Lebanon into a battle zone, saying Hezbollah has embedded rockets, weapons and forces along the border. And in the heightened rhetoric of the past months, Israeli politicians have spoken of inflicting the same damage in Lebanon that the military has wreaked in Gaza.

Lebanese soldiers stand guard near the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

An emergency worker speaks on the phone during rescue efforts at the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Emergency workers clear the rubble at the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Hezbollah supporters march behind the hearse carrying the coffins of Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil and militant Mahmoud Hamad during their funeral procession in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese soldiers and firefighters gather outside a mobile shop after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

This video grab, shows a walkie-talkie that was exploded inside a house, in Baalbek, east Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo)

Israelis take cover next to a shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Nahariya, northern Israel, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Women sit in a cemetery as they visit the graves of killed Hezbollah members in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man comforts a boy crying during the funeral procession of Hezbollah members in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Rescuers carry a body at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Residents look on as rescuers arrive at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People stand on top of a damaged car at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Rescuers carry a body at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People gather at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man who was injured in the explosion of one of the handheld devices, sits outside the Eye Specialist hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Hezbollah members carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)