Mississippi ratifies 13th Amendment

BREAKING: Mississippi officially abolishes slavery. Wait. What?

Oscar-nominated “Lincoln,” a movie about politicians going neck and neck to pass the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, is the one to thank for playing a role in the ratification of the 13th Amendment right here in Mississippi—well over 100 years after the Amendment came about.

According to The Clarion Ledger, Ranjan Batra, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, visited usconstitution.net to learn about what happened after state government officials voted on ratification Monday.

The 13th Amendment was voted on by Congress way back in 1864 right before making its way to the states for the ratification process.

Not surprisingly, the only state government officials that turned their noses up to the amendment included ones from Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey and—you guessed it—Mississippi.

On the website, the only state with an asterisk next to it was Mississippi. It read: “Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995, but because the state never officially notified the U.S. Archivist, the ratification is not official.”

First of all, I want to know who simply “forgot” to notify the U.S. Archivist.

Mississippi legislature royally screwed themselves in that arena.

Anyway, Batra, who became a United States citizen in 2008, felt compelled 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,” Batra 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.”

Batra teamed up with his colleague from UMMC and friend Ken Sullivan, who became interested in Batra’s concern.

Sullivan took it upon himself to contact the National Archives to ask if Mississippi had in fact officially abolished slavery. After learning that Mississippi had not abolished slavery, he contacted Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who agreed to file the required documentation to the National Archives and make the ratification official...149 years later.

So, now, here we are in 2013, asterisk free. Finally.