By Raphael Maurice

For Anitra Jeter, service is more than a word. It’s a tradition to be handed down.

Anitra Jeter is carrying on a profound legacy, handed down to her from her father, handed down to her from her “sisters.” Although she graduated from Cairo, she serves today on the Meridian school board, just as her father served the Cairo school board for 19 years. Anitra also continues the legacy (and motto) of her own Delta sorority: service. When asked how she found herself in her current position of service at Meridian, Jeter is crystal clear. She notes in a kind and clear voice, “I'm a Delta. We deal in service. And so I saw the ad running in the paper. And I knew how short they were. And I needed to find something, some way to give, to serve. So I went ahead and applied for it. And  it didn't hurt that my dad did it for 19 years. He passed in 2020. So I guess I carry on his legacy. I won't be in Cairo. But I joined this board, and I stand by it. And I plan to stay here for a long time.” Whatever the odds, Anitra wants more than anything to remain on the board in Meridian into the far-reaching future, to love the kids, community, and to serve both.

Continuing with Jeter’s huge legacy of service, we’ll also need to revisit and unpack what Delta’s do. Anitra is again clear, and she knows the lay of the land when it comes to what she and her sorority sisters are up to: “So with my Delta sorority, our motto is service, and we give back. You see a lot of us are school board members, a lot of us are teachers, a lot of us are principals. So we're heavy in the community when it comes to voting and when it comes to health care matters. We're very present in the community.” While Hollywood and much of the media lampoon or denigrate sororities (and fraternities), much of that is hype, entertainment, false. Sisterhood (and brotherhood) are good things, and for folks like Anitra, they take their callings seriously and devotedly, and it’s more than just a root-word or a language game: like her sisters, she serves. And her admiration for Meridian is boundless. And that will not change. Places pull us in, and they simply won’t let go.

We asked Anitra about what draws her to Meridian and serving on the school board. While she herself notes that she’s only been on the school board for three years, she is also firm in her convictions about what she’s seen in that timeframe: “I love this school, and I really have an appreciation for what is going on down here. Now. I don't know what has gone on in the past. But all I know is the snapshot that I've been a part of for the last three years. And what I've seen are a lot of remarkable young people. I've seen a lot of hard working teachers who care about the kids. And I've seen a board that seems to want to work together for the betterment of the situation for the kids.” To work toward this bettering of everything around her, Anitra knows well that she can’t rest on her laurels, that Meridian – the school and the community it serves – can’t stop going forward. They will need to dream and to manifest those dreams, to dream bigger and make bigger.

While everything is in place here, the work is to keep building, to keep things in place, to dream again and to do the work that realizes each and every dream. Anitra, like many around her, isn’t resting or waiting for things to happen. “I just want us to keep striving for greatness, like we've been doing, I don't want to start slacking now that it seems like everything is just running smoothly. I just wanted to keep striving for better: bigger and better.” There’s no end to Jeter’s energy and ability to accomplish. She’ll always be a Delta, one that takes the motto of “service” more than to heart.

Like the movies that try to show sororities and fraternities as madhouses, there’s the national and local news as well, something Jeter is more than critical of. She knows that Meridian is a gem, and gems, although they need polishing and are made over time through often harsh conditions, are worth it. From Meridian’s legacy of sports (basketball in particular), the confidence it inspires in its athletes, to what the news chooses to report, Anitra fills us in, again in a clear and joyful voice: “Basketball shows the kids that anything’s possible. They’re from a small town that people could have forgotten about, and it just puts them on the map. We’re not just the bad stuff you might see on the news, because the news never reports anything good. We have good things going on here, and they should report on that and not try to show us in a negative light.” We couldn’t agree more, and for every tragedy shown, there are countless unreported things that are true and good. The lights are on. Everything, and Meridian in particular, looks better and better in this light.