Many people perceive Mississippi as a rural state where distant kinfolk live or a place riddled with racism. However, history paints Mississippi as a stronghold of Black power, and it’s time to revive that energy.
Nearly 40% of Mississippi is Black – Black America should have a powerful impact there. So why isn’t that the case?
When enslavement ended, newly freed Black Mississippians elected the first Black people ever to office. Terrified whites, outnumbered by free Black men, moved to thwart Black power by redrawing voting maps, stealing Black land, murdering Black activists, and writing open racism into the state constitution, even including the n-word in it at one point.
Mississippi has the highest incarceration rate in the United States and the most restrictive voting laws, meaning most of the population doesn’t vote. And now that the Supreme Court is about to hear Watson v. Republican National Committee, we need to be doing more than watching.
Encourage local organizations, universities, and mail-in voters—even outside Mississippi—to submit amicus(friend-of-the-court) briefs explaining how limiting ballot counting harms Black political power. Voting isn’t our only tool, but it’s strongest when we build power locally.