** FILE ** Mississippi state Reps. Jeffrey C. Smith (left) and Greg ... more >Life really does move slower in the South. One hundred forty-eight years after Congress sent the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery to the states for ratification, Mississippi officially has joined the ranks.
The state’s Legislature did vote to ratify it in 1995 — but the vote was never made official because lawmakers failed to inform the U.S. archivist, according to a report in the Clarion-Ledger. They’ve finally finished the job, Newser reports, and it’s official: Slavery is unconstitutional in Mississippi.
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Oddly enough, the movie “Lincoln” brought on the course correction. A doctor who recently came to the United States from India who saw the movie started researching the ratification process and discovered Mississippi’s oversight.
“We’re very deliberate in our state,” said state Sen. Hillma Frazier, the Democrat who introduced the ratification resolution in 1995, according to a report in Newser. “We finally got it right.”
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Cheryl Chumley is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She’s also a 2008-2009 Robert Novak journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation. She can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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