The white majority Mississippi House passed a bill that creates a court system in Jackson that will disenfranchise black voters.
Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, is 82 percent Black and home to a higher percentage of Black residents than any major American city, according to Mississippi Today.
At the same time, Mississippi’s legislature, both the House and the Senate, are controlled by white Republican lawmakers who have redrawn districts over the past 30 years to ensure they can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Most Democrats in the legislature are Black.
Last week, the Mississippi House passed HB1020, after many hours of debate, that would expand the Capital Complex Improvement District, a defined area within Jackson, and create a separate court system within the city.
Judges and prosecutors within this complex would be appointed by officials in the two state offices in the district, who just happen to be white.
On a national level, it is not uncommon for judges and prosecutors to be appointed. “But what makes this Mississippi situation abnormal is that the Legislature is proposing a different way of selecting prosecutors and judges, but only for one area of the state,” Chris Bonneau, professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, told Yahoo News. “And all the local representatives from that area object to it.”
“It feels like somebody picked up the pen and drew a district to encompass the Capitol and white Jackson,” Matthew Steffey, a law professor at Mississippi College School of Law, said.
Steffey said he could not recall such a proposal being made in the state before. “There’s very little that’s truly unprecedented,” he said. “But I can’t remember anything like this being done in the state of Mississippi.”
According to CNN News, the bill passed the state House 76-38, primarily along party lines. It now heads to the state Senate, where the Republicans hold a 36-16 majority.
Some GOP lawmakers are saying the new measure is needed to address Jackson’s growing crime problem, but state Democratic leaders say efforts like this are about control, not about helping the people of Jackson.
If the bill becomes law, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph could appoint judges and state Attorney General Lynn Fitch would appoint prosecutors, unlike in other areas of the state where judges and prosecutors are elected. Both Randolph and Fitch are White.
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Derrick Simmons and House Democratic Minority Leader Robert Johnson released a joint statement denouncing the bill, calling it an “insult and distraction” and likening it to modern-day Jim Crow.
