Better last than never for Mississippi

When people say things like “Our state ranks right there with Mississippi...” it usually infers something negative, as in near or at the bottom of whatever is being indexed. For example, The United Health Foundation ranks the state 49^th in the quality of health of its citizens, including last in obesity, diabetes and outcomes; this indicates poor diet, which usually has to do with poverty rates—which the state naturally ranks first in the nation. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, Mississippi children tested dead last overall. It ranks last in at least one ‘livability” ranking; it ranks at the bottom in median income—which makes being  “first” in income inequality even more disturbing, suggesting a society little changed from antebellum days. Of course, people in Mississippi defend their state against attacks by “ignorant” outsiders, although they admit that their problems are based on poor education and a largely rural society. 

I think it is also constructive to note that Mississippi has the highest percentage of self-reporting “conservatives”—53 percent. Perhaps this explains something that the state is also last in: Ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. It was only last month, after a brief campaign by Ranjan Batra—a professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center—that a legislative resolution passing the amendment in 1995 was officially registered in the National Archives. Batra says that he was motivated to find out if the state had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment after attending a showing of the film Lincoln, and was surprised to discover that Mississippi was still officially ranked as the sole holdout to ratification.

Its ratification almost didn’t happen; black legislators pushed for an official ratification, but some Republicans derided the effort. Ratification’s biggest opponent was State senator Mike Gunn—known at the time for making comments like “If guns are outlawed, how can we shoot liberals?” and was generally regarded as right of the Ku Klux Klan; he was one of those racists who wants things to be just as they were 150 years ago, as evidenced by such patronizing mendacity as “We need to work on those things that bring racial harmony and reconciliation. Not those things that drive a wedge between the races, and this is one of those issues.” However, further embarrassment for the state was avoided when the resolution eventually passed, but strangely the state never officially notified the U.S. Archives; one wonders if this was done deliberately to pacify those unhappy about the development. 

Better last than never? Perhaps, but it is still yet another stain on an already dirty shirt.