JAN Board Member Feature: Seymore Bell

There are some people who talk about loving their neighborhood. Then there are people like Seymore Bell, who live it.

Born and raised in a West Side community in Jackson’s Ward 4, Seymour is Jackson through and through. He serves as a board member of the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods, but this title only tells part of his story. 

“I love everything about Jackson,” he says without hesitation. “I love the people. I love the greatness of it. I love the positive vibe…”

What excites him most, though, is something many overlook. Space. While some cities feel finished, fully developed and sealed off from change, Seymore sees Jackson as fertile ground. “We have room to grow,” he explains. “We have space to make it even better than what it already is.”

That belief fuels his work.

For Seymore, joining the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods board wasn’t about prestige. It was about service for the residents in Belair, Brookhollow Place, Cedar Hills, Oak Creek and Willowood. He had long admired community leaders who served before him and mentors who inspired him by example. Becoming a board member felt like a natural extension of who he already was: someone who helps.

“I just love doing things for the community,” he says simply. “It’s who I am.”

By trade, Seymore is a sales and service technician and owner of Westside Automotive. He’s also a livestock farmer and owner of Belmar Farms. 

YHis love for farming traces back to his grandfather and mother, and to summers spent working the land with his grandparents. He laughs, recalling how he and his siblings would work long hours without pay, compensated instead with sandwiches and cold sodas that tasted better than anything money could buy. But what he really gained was perspective. Farming has taught him patience, stewardship and the simple truth that what you plant is what you grow.

That philosophy now shapes how he approaches community work.

“If you plant okra, okra will grow,” he says. “If you plant negativity in your community, that’s what you’ll have.”

He believes Jackson is a great city. He is not in denial of its challenges, but recognizes and focuses on its potential. He urges residents to adopt an ownership mentality. Don’t settle. Don’t let others define your neighborhood. Plant something better.

When asked to name the piece of the Westside that stand out to him most, he doesn’t hesitate.

“It’s the people,” he says. “Especially the seniors.”

If you listen closely, he repeats that word often. Seniors. It’s not accidental. From his teenage years, Seymore gravitated toward elders. While most 16-year-olds sought peers their own age, he counted 80-year-olds among his closest friends. He absorbed their stories, their resilience, their humor and their wisdom.

Today, they remain his compass.

Community work is often unseen. There are moments when progress feels invisible. “They’ll tell me how much I mean to them,” he says. “And that just energizes me. I’m up and ready to go again.”

Perhaps most refreshing is his embrace of difference. Seymore doesn’t want a boardroom full of people who think exactly like he does. He values diversity of thought, respectful disagreement and conversations that stretch perspective.

“How boring would it be,” he asks, “if I only met people who thought just like me?”.

Seymore Bell is a mechanic, a farmer, a JAN board member, a mentor and a son who proudly honors his mother, Doris. Above all, he is a steward of Mississippi land, of Jackson’s legacy and of the people living in his neighborhood.

Seeds are being planted. If Seymore Bell has anything to do with it, what grows on the Westside of Jackson will be strong, self-sustaining and deeply rooted in efforts that united the city.