It’s a surprising story, really. A doctor who calls Mississippi home was inspired after seeing the movie Lincoln to research when each US state officially abolished slavery. He found that his home state still hadn’t done it.
Abolition became the 13th Amendment in 1864. Mississippi initially rejected it and finally took a vote to ratify it in 1995. (1995!) But the vote results were never made official so on the books, Mississippi hadn’t yet gotten on board. The doctor told a colleague but didn’t take his discovery any further. But the colleague did. He notified the Secretary of State who made the necessary arrangements to correct the oversight and as of February 7th, Mississippi has finally joined the rest of the country in denouncing slavery.
Although this is really just another story of politicians and their staff dropping the ball, what a ball to drop. And one can only hope it was procrastination that led to the vote being taken a mere 18 years ago. I find that fact the most surprising of all.