The long-brewing battle over who gets to play Southaven’s biggest stage is finally headed to a federal courtroom. Trials are now set in two lawsuits claiming DeSoto County officials tried to keep Black performers off the Landers Center calendar, then pushed out the leaders who refused to go along.
The suits, filed by former Landers Center executive Todd Mastry and former finance director Jason Morgan, accuse county power brokers of meddling with booking decisions and leaning on the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s board. The cases have turned the arena’s programming and the CVB’s oversight into a test case for how entertainment and politics collide in DeSoto County.
According to the Daily Memphian, both cases have now landed on the federal court calendar after months of filings, motions and legal sparring, shifting the fight from local buzz into a full-blown trial phase.
What the lawsuits say happened
Court filings and a federal opinion, available on Justia, recount allegations that a CVB-connected official told staff the bureau needed to “get a handle” on the number of Black acts and added, “we don't need those people coming down here coming to these shows.”
Mastry and Morgan say that remark was not an outburst but a signal. They claim county supervisors and newly appointed CVB board members then ramped up pressure to scale back bookings of Black performers, and that their own departures from the Landers Center were fallout from refusing to play along.
How county tourism officials are responding
The DeSoto County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which owns the Landers Center, has flatly denied the accusations. In legal filings, the bureau describes its employment moves as standard business calls, not retaliation or discrimination, local reporting shows.
The controversy has not stayed confined to court papers. The litigation has already prompted resignations, fueled political chatter and raised fresh questions among promoters and artists about who really calls the shots on what, and who, gets booked at the Southaven arena, according to DeSoto County News.
Where the cases stand now
A March 30, 2026 opinion in Morgan’s case dismissed some of his claims but allowed a retaliation count to go forward, according to Justia.
Mastry’s separate lawsuit was reassigned after a judge stepped away from the case, and both suits are now moving toward trial as the Landers Center pursues an expansion project that aims to broaden the venue’s event mix, reporting in the Memphis Business Journal notes.
What jurors decide could redefine who has the final say over which acts land on the Landers Center marquee and how much sway county supervisors have over the CVB on programming calls. The plaintiffs are seeking damages, and Mastry has asked to get his old job back, the Daily Memphian reports. Juries will be asked to decide whether the conduct described in the suits crossed the line into violations of federal civil-rights protections.
What is at stake legally
The complaints lean on federal anti-discrimination law, including claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, which protects the right to make and enforce contracts without racial discrimination. The statute’s text is available via Cornell Law.
If juries find DeSoto County or the CVB liable, the cases could result in monetary awards and could force changes in how the Landers Center is governed or how touring acts are booked for the arena.
