Mississippi Finally Ratifies the Amendment to Ban Slavery — 148 Years Later Read mor

[FriendlyFire]

Mississippi Finally Ratifies the Amendment to Ban Slavery — 148 Years Later

Here’s an outcome the producers of the movie Lincoln probably never expected: it indirectly led to the official ratification of the 13th amendment to ban slavery in Mississippi, nearly 150 years after its adoption.

Mississippi was the last of these states to do so — they finally got around to it in 1995 — but Batra spotted a curious detail next to the state’s name on thewebsite usconstitution.net: the ratification was unofficial, as Mississippi never formally notified the U.S. archivist.

Batra mentioned the oversight to a friend, Ken Sullivan, who recalled the 1995 debate over the law and tracked down a copy of the resolution. It had been passedby the Mississippi Senate and House — unanimously, recalled the bill’s introcuder, Sen. Hillman Frazier to the Clarion-Ledger — but inexplicably had never beensent to the Office of the Federal Register.

(MORE: Should States Apologize for Slavery?)

Once the paperwork was eventually filed, the state received notification on Feb. 7 from the director of the Federal Register that it had officially ratified the 13th Amendment — 148 years late. “We finally got it right,” Frazier said to the newspaper.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/19...to-ban-slavery-148-years-later/#ixzz2LWHsmClI

Mississippi 148 year behind the other states in the USA in everything.

 

[Antilogic]

Saw this on the news the other night. I wonder it is common practice to continue the ratification process for the other amendments after it is formally passed. Has every state ratified the amendment for women's suffrage? For the direct election of senators? For the income tax?

 

[dutchfire]

Wiki has the info. Most amendments have some missing states, from a quick look at it.

Mississippi rejected the 24th, by the way.