The state of Mississippi has given us the greatest Black History Month gift of all: it has finally ratified the 13th Amendment, officially outlawing slavery. 
If you’re thinking, “Didn’t we do this horribly embarrassing late-to-the-party thing already?” You’re right. Back in 1995, when most of us students were excited about the theatrical releases of “Toy Story” and “Jumanji,” the Mississippi State Legislature was excited about finally ratifying Lincoln’s crowning joy.
Apparently something went wrong with the paperwork back then, because the National Archives never got wind of the feat.
(Seeing as how National Archivist David Ferrario was just here at Mississippi State last year, one would think someone might have taken him aside and gotten that sorted out in true Southern fashion, but, alas, that was not the case.) And with that oversight, nearly two more decades went by before anyone noticed our great state still had yet to officially ratify the 13th Amendment.
As a Mississippian, my immediate reaction is to be angry at all the press this story is getting in newspapers from Los Angeles to London.
After all, the state ratified the amendment 18 years ago, and only a paperwork error brought this headline.
But considering that even back in 1995, Mississippi was well in last place at this whole outlawing slavery and treating all people like people thing, I can’t help but feel maybe we deserve a bit of ridicule for the prejudice of our past and the slow action of our present.
If nothing else good comes out of this whole debacle, it’s cool that so many newspapers around the world are quoting our very own Clarion-Ledger.
The story of how the oversight came to be known to state lawmakers is especially heartwarming to the average Spielberg-enthused academic.
This time around, Mississippi’s official ratification of the 13th Amendment all began with a Jackson movie theater and a bored professor.
Last November, Ranjan Batra, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, went to see Steven Spielberg’s film “Lincoln,” which follows said president through the creation of the 13th Amendment.
The film shows the amendment being ratified by three-fourths of the states at the time.
Batra became curious about what happened next, and, like the rest of us, went to the Internet to find out.
His research rewarded him with the information of which we are now all aware, that Mississippi had never notified the U.S. Archivist that it had ratified the amendment.
Struck by the information, Batra mentioned it to coworker Ken Sullivan the next day.
Sullivan informed Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman, and the rest is history. It’s amazing what can (finally) get done from the simple act of watching a movie.
At the end of the day, the story of Mississippi’s belated ratification is not an embarrassment.
It is a symbol of how democracy should work. Big-budget Oscar-nominated films sparking the interest of a nation, hard-working citizens educating themselves on issues outside their fields of study, lawmakers paying attention to their constituents:
What is more American than that?