Source - Due to a procedural glitch the last time around, the Mississippi government this month formally ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. It comes a bit late. The amendment was adopted by the U.S. in 1865. But, like several other states whose delegations opposed the measure at the time — New Jersey and Kentucky included — Mississippi subsequently voted to ratify the amendment. The newspaper reported how Dr. Ranjan Batra, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, looked into the issue after watching the Steven Spielberg movie “Lincoln.” He, along with another UMC colleague, discovered that the state did not officially notify the U.S. archivist in 1995 as required. Batra’s colleague, according to the newspaper, then called the Mississippi secretary of state, who at last sent the needed paperwork to the National Archives. According to The Clarion-Ledger, the Federal Register wrote back on Feb. 7 to confirm that “with this action, the State of Mississippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” 

 

Hey running a state is insanely tough business. Can’t even imagine how much pressure that is day in, day out. You got Democrats and Republicans fighting each other over legislation every step of the way. Big business vs small business. Assholes that want to milk the planet of all it’s resources vs asshole environmentalists. People who believe in basic equal rights vs people who want to own slaves. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and sweep other issues under the rug for a while. Like here in Illinois the gay marriage fight and gun violence is dominating the news so other things will have to wait until the politicians sort that shit out. And in Mississippi they’ve been bogged down by discussing how great the incoming Ole Miss recruiting class is and coming in close to last every year in education rankings. Naturally you have to wait for those things to cycle out of the news before you can get around to outlawing things like owning black people as slaves. I mean if anything it was kind of a sweet gesture to pass the law during Black History month. That’s Southern hospitality at it’s finest.