http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/mississippi-officially-abolishes-slavery-ratifies-13th-amendment/

Quote :

"Two medical school colleagues, one an immigrant from India, the other a life-long Mississippian, joined forces to resolve a historical oversight that until this month had never officially been corrected. The oversight was no small one either. Until February 7, 2013, the state of Mississippi had never submitted the required documentation to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, meaning it never officially had abolished slavery. The amendment was adopted in December 1865 after the necessary three-fourths of the then 36 states voted in favor of ratification. Mississippi, however, was a holdout; at the time state lawmakers were upset that they had not been compensated for the value of freed slaves. Dr. Ranjan Batra, professor of Neurobiology and Anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told ABC News he was inspired to investigate the history of the Thirteenth Amendment in his state after a viewing of the film “Lincoln.” “At the end of the story there was an open question about how the ratification process proceeded,” he said. “Living in the South as I do, I found that a pretty big open question.” So Batra proceeded to do some investigating of his own, noticing on the website usconstitution.net, that there was an asterisk next to the state of Mississippi in connection with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. “Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995, but because the state never officially notified the US Archivist, the ratification is not official,” reads the statement on the website. Batra felt compelled to act to rectify the clerical oversight. “Mississippi gets a lot of bad press about this type of stuff and I just felt that it is something that should be fixed, and I saw every reason that could be done,” he said. “Everyone here would like to put this part of Mississippi’s past behind us and move on into the 21st century rather than the 19th.” So Batra enlisted the help of University of Mississippi Medical Center colleague Ken Sullivan, who took an immediate interest in the story, calling the national archives to confirm that they had in fact never received the proper paperwork. Sullivan then took a trip to the state archives to acquire a copy of the bill. “The last paragraph [of the bill] directs the Secretary of State of Mississippi to inform the national archives of the law of the ratification which is exactly the way ratification is supposed to proceed, but that hadn’t been done for whatever reason,” said Batra. Sullivan took his family to see “Lincoln,” and told ABC News the film inspired him further to correct this historical oversight. “I had that information when I went to see ‘Lincoln’ that weekend, I knew really what I was fixing to be a part of and it was overwhelming,” he said. “It was humbling to know that such a big part of the nation’s history and a huge part of my state’s history was involved in this, people stood up and applauded at the end of the movie, the first time I have ever seen that for any movie,” said Sullivan. Sullivan then contacted the office of the Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who quickly agreed to file the required documentation to the National Archives and make the ratification official. On February 7, Director of the Federal Register Charles A. Barth wrote that he had received the notification, “With this action, the State of Mississippi has ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” he wrote. “For me it was just important that this part of history was done from our state,” said Sullivan. “I know we have some dark spots in our history through the south, it still affects people’s opinions about Mississippi today.” Sullivan also remarked on the unlikely pairing of an immigrant from India and a life-long southerner working together to resolve the oversight. “You have Dr. Batra, who is the immigrant and me who is the native-born, life-long resident of Mississippi, it was a unique pair,” he said. Sullivan and Batra are thankful the ratification question has finally been resolved; now that asterisk next to Mississippi can finally be removed."

Oversight my ass, i'd guarantee that 'oversight' was intentional. If that state had it's way, they'd still be owning black people.

2/19/2013 8:46:54 AM

if i could own someone and make them do all the shit i didn't want to do, i damn well would

2/19/2013 8:50:12 AM

no, slavery was officially abolished in mississippi when the 13th amendment was ratified by 3/4 of the states in 1865.

this is dumb.

2/19/2013 10:42:30 AM

Im black and I know better than to ever go to Mississippi for anything

2/19/2013 12:01:57 PM

^^

while this is ultimately a clerical act, there is enough cultural and historical evidence that the failure to do so all this time was out of protest of the Federal amendment. Mississippi hasn't exactly been a state that's been friendly to darker skinned people...

2/19/2013 12:46:28 PM

you mean these people didn't want to abolish slavery? really?

2/19/2013 12:51:43 PM

There was a story about the stereotypical racist Mississippi on NPR today. But I don't think it mentioned this, it was about Django Unchained being nominated for five academy awards.

2/19/2013 12:51:52 PM

I am sure lots of Mississippians are annoyed by this.
Seriously.

2/19/2013 12:55:24 PM

they're probably annoyed that they didn't know that slavery was still technically legal by state law, and could have possibly got away with some shit.

2/19/2013 12:57:27 PM

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thank-God-for-Mississippi-or-Alabama-would-be-last-in-everything/121750981172306

2/19/2013 12:58:28 PM

I'm sure there are also lots of racist rednecks who did know about it, and took pride in being the last vestige of slavery in the USA

and also lots of would-be slaveowners who just lost the privilege of owning slaves, which they never knew they possessed, as you say

2/19/2013 1:01:40 PM

You people seriously judging Mississippi?

2/19/2013 1:25:40 PM

lol NC has NOTHING on Mississippi

also hey cat

2/19/2013 1:56:11 PM

Who is going to abolish the enslavement of black people to the liberal sect of the population?

2/19/2013 2:35:07 PM

That isnt a NC tag

2/19/2013 3:08:27 PM

there's quite a bit of photoshoppery going on in that picture.

note the Obama '08 sticker as well.

2/19/2013 3:10:25 PM

Quote :

"they're probably annoyed that they didn't know that slavery was still technically legal by state law"

EXCEPT IT WAS IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM LEGAL.

of course this has to do with mississippi being full of racist fucks. that's why they didn't ratify the damn thing in the first place. it doesn't matter though, because 3/4 of the states did which made this federal law.

this story is stupid. i'm so glad these people wasted their time and the time of elected officials to correct this "oversight" that changes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

2/19/2013 3:37:18 PM

jeez, relax bro

2/19/2013 3:50:09 PM

^^
meh, principles are important
if I fuck your girlfriend/wife but don't get her pregnant/give her AIDS, that also changes nothing...but I don't think you'd be cool with that

2/19/2013 4:14:23 PM