Recently, a Mississippi Appeals Court purposefully decided to keep a racist, Jim Crow-era voting restriction in the state’s constitution. The restriction keeps people that are convicted of felonies from being allowed to exercise their right to vote along with the rest of the state.

Source: MSNBC/YouTube

This law has racist and white supremacist origins. The law was first introduced in 1890 and was placed to make sure that Black people in the South did not get all of the gains of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The ruling explicitly noted that they created the restriction to punish those who were convicted of “black crimes” while white criminals were allowed to keep their voting power.

Research has proven over decades that people of color, especially Black people, are incarcerated at higher rates because of racist policing and criminalization of Blackness. This voting restriction disproportionately affects Black people, and there is no reason that this should be a law. Mississippi is one of the only three remaining states that have a lifelong ban on voting for people convicted of certain felonies.

Sign this petition to demand Mississippi lawmakers pass a new law to allow people to have the right to vote!

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To continue speaking up, sign these other petitions as well:

• Tell Florida Hotels to Allow Hurricane Victims to Bring Their Pets to Stay
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• Tell Austalia that Kangaroos are Not Pets
• Demand Investigation into Gainsville PD After K9 Ripped Out Black Man’s Eye During Traffic Stop
• Fire Officers Who Arrested a Black Man For Watering His Neighbor’s Flowers
• Demand Justice For Woman Who Was Handcuffed in a Parked Car on Train Tracks and Was Hit by a Train
• Demand Universal Meals Programs for Children Across the United States
• Demand Iran Drop the Death Penalty and Free LGBTQ+ Activists
• Suspend Environment Harming Cattle Ranching on U.S. Public Lands and National Parks
• Investigate Dr. Oz for Medical Scams

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