In early February, the white conservative chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court handpicked the district’s two new supervising judges. Prosecutors and public defenders would be chosen by the state’s white Republican attorney general. This means that the state’s control will be in the hands of white leaders in a predominantly Black community. 

The representatives that proposed this bill have said that it is a good solution for rising crime rates, while the opposing party are saying that this is just a new updated version of the Jim Crow Laws.  The aforementioned laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation (in other words, the legalization of racism). 

“This is probably the most oppressive legislation that I have seen in my history here in the state of Mississippi,” said Jackson’s mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. His opposition, the city council and its representatives in the House were not taken into account when the bill was passed. Many people have stated that the new law reminds them of the darkest days of Mississippi’s racist past.  

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, I’ll say that, but this bill is designed to help make our capital city of Mississippi a safer city. This bill is designed to assist the court system of Hinds County, not to hinder it. It is designed to add to our judicial resources in Hinds County, not to take away. To help, not to hurt,” said the bill’s sponsor, Trey Lamar.

Lemar has been defending the bill’s intentions by clarifying that it is not racially motivated in any way. He said that this bill is designed to assist the system and not jeopardize it, defending it against the questions and criticism that the bill received during the 5 hour debate on the floor of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

It’s been 59 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed. Recently, Mississippi resurrected a bill that reinforces Jim Crow laws by excluding people of color in the state, therefore sustaining the Republican party majority power.