Mississippi Finally Ratified the 13th Amendment Abolishing Slavery

Well, it's about time! The state of Mississippi has finally ratified the 13th Amendment, some 150 years later.

The whole thing started when Dr. Ranjan Batra of University of Mississippi Medical Center saw Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln and told his colleague Ken Sullivan that the state actually never ratified the Amendment abolishing slavery:

[Sullivan] tracked down a copy of the 1995 Senate resolution, introduced by state Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, who had been upset to learn Mississippi was the only state that had never ratified the 13th Amendment.

The resolution passed both the Mississippi Senate and House.

“It was unanimous,” Frazier recalled. “Some didn’t vote, but we didn’t receive a ‘nay’ vote.”

The last paragraph of the resolution called on the secretary of state to send a copy to the Office of the Federal Register.

Why the copy was never sent in 1995 remains unknown.

“What an amendment to have an error in filing,” said Dick Molpus, who served then as secretary of state. “Thanks to Ken Sullivan for being a good citizen in bringing this oversight to light, so it can be corrected.” [...]

After seeing the film, Sullivan contacted the office of Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who agreed to file the paperwork and make it official.

Link - via TPM Livewire


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