Mississippi already has a reputation of a state stuck in the past, and this certainly doesn’t help with that stereotype.
After 148 years, the state of Mississippi has finally ratified the 13th Amendment, which ended and officially bans slavery.
Dr. Ranjan Batra, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saw Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film Lincoln last November and was moved to search into Mississippi’s past, according to the Clarion Ledger.
The 13th Amendment received the three-fourth’s vote it needed to pass from Congress in January 1864. However, in the following years, the states who voted against ratifying the amendment took measures to eventually pass it.
While conducting research, Batra noted an asterisk next to Mississippi’s name that represented the state having ratified the amendment in 1995, but it was never made official by a U.S. archivist, leading Batra to contact the office of Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
Hosemann agreed to file the paperwork, and the ratification became official on February 7, 2013.