Legal fight over Jim Crow-era law upends Mississippi governor race

[DonViejo]

BY REID WILSON - 06/09/19 07:30 AM EDT

Jim Crow-era provisions in Mississippi’s state constitution meant to exclude African Americans from winning political office could decide this year’s race for governor, and Democrats are suing to block it.

The provisions, added to the state constitution in 1890, require a candidate running for governor to win both a majority of the popular vote and a majority of the vote in more than half the state’s 122 legislative districts.

If a candidate who wins the popular vote does not win a majority of state House districts, the state House itself chooses a governor.

The district provision was meant to dilute the power of black voters, who tended to live — and still do — in geographically compact areas.

The legacy of a gerrymandered political map drawn by white Southern Democrats who packed black voters into a small number of legislative districts still exists today: African Americans make up a majority of the population in 42 of 122 legislative districts, and in 37 of those districts they account for more than 60 percent of the population.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/447505-legal-fight-over-jim-crow-era-law-upends-mississippi-governor-race

[marble falls]

1. I never thought there'd still be a regressive law still like this anywhere, including Mississippi.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I thought Hood might be able to win it this year, but I didn't know about

this provision in the state constitution. Unfortunately, it looks like the deck is stacked against him. I'll be pleasantly shocked if he carries a majority of the districts.

[Buckeyeblue]

3. Democrats should point out that this is a tactic commonly used by communists

In order to hold onto power. Not that it would matter. Republicans hate democracy.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. They want to take their country back

to the 19th century.