Mississippi Freelance was a liberal monthly newspaper, with the stated mission of "reporting the otherwise unreported." The paper was edited by Lew Powell and Ed Williams, who were working at the time as reporters for the Greenville, Mississippi Delta Democrat Times (under editor Hodding Carter III) and articles were written by volunteer reporters.
The name of the newspaper was chosen to parody an old newspaper, the Mississippi Free Lance, which had been published by former Mississippi governor and U.S. Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, an ardent white supremacist. The Freelance criticized racism and ineptitude in Mississippi politicians, universities, and particularly the state's Sovereignty Commission.
Mississippi Freelance was published from April 1969 to March 1970, with a twelve-issue run, and about 700 subscribers, in Mississippi and elsewhere.
On October 11, 2016, Mississippi Freelance editors Lew Powell and Ed Williams spoke about the publication at the University of Mississippi in the Meek School of Journalism and New Media.