You’d think that in this day and age the slavery laws were behind us, but it seems Mississippi actually only outlawed it this year.
By Genna Patterson
You’ve got to hand it to Steven Spielberg, not only is he the genius behind movies like E.T. and Jaws, but now he has a hand in political history by making the movie Lincoln about the voting of the 13th amendment to abolish slavery in the Unites States.
According to the clarionledger website, slavery in Mississippi has only just been outlawed thanks to the movie. How, you ask? Well a University professor, Dr. Ranjan Batra went on a trip to movies, where he watched Lincoln. He started thinking about the states that didn’t immediately vote for the 13th amendment – Delaware, Kentucky, New Jersey and Mississippi.
Pictured: Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln
Dr. Batra went on the usconstitution.net website where he saw that New Jersey ratified the amendment in 1866, Delaware in 1901 and Kentucky in 1976. However there was an asterisk beside Mississippi and a note that read, “Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995, but because the state never officially notified the US Archivist, the ratification is not official.” Oops…
Dr. Batra told his friend Ken Sullivan, an anatomical material specialist for UMC’s body donation program, who furthered went on to research the issue. The National Archive’s Office confirmed to Sullivan that although the state voted unanimously in favour of abolishing slavery in 1995, it was never officially ratified.
Pictured: Abraham Lincoln
Sullivan contacted the office of Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who agreed to file the paperwork and make it official. Hoseman sent a copy of the 1995 Senate resolution to the Registrars on January 30 and confirmation was received on February 7. Mississippi finally outlawed slavery 149 years after the rest of the country. Abraham Lincoln must be turning in his grave.
The secretary of state in 1995, Dick Molpus attributes the slip-up to an “error in filing” and gave his thanks to Sullivan for “being a good citizen.” We think maybe there was a secret white-hooded racist working in the State’s office who ‘lost’ the paperwork.
Pictured: Unnamed Mississippi redneck
Considering Mississippi is known as state full of rednecks, we’re not surprised they dragged their feet on this one. Even if they did vote to change the law, it only happened in 1995, 19 years after the other backwards state, Kentucky. That’s just plain ridiculous. Welcome to the 21st century Mississippi.
Now Spielberg can add ‘slavery abolisher’ to his list of accomplishments, beside his list of Oscars.
