Mississippi

1st vote for GOP for president

Goldwater, 1964

1st vote for GOP for governor

Kirk Fordice, 1991

1st vote for GOP for senator

Thad Cochran, 1978

1st vote for GOP for member of congress

Prentice Walker, 1964

When was the legislature flipped?

2011

Current partisan leadership

last democratic statewide official unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2019

current congress

3 GOP — 1 D

current senate

36 GOP — 16 D

current house

78 GOP — 40 D

third party experience

1948, 1960, 1968

Race and politics

last state with a majority black population

When did black majority end

1940

racial threat hypothesis

dominant white populations increase social control, political conservativism, and punitive policies as the size/visibility of a minority population grows

racial threat hypothesis implications

conservative voting shifts, legislative resistance from republican dominance, anti-CRT bans, boycotts and walkouts, local law enforcement scrutiny, punitive disparities

Theodore Bilbo

senate refused to seat him because of his racist campaign

James Eastlan as Senate Judiciary Chair

gets conservatives on the federal bench in MS, some of which ignored supreme court decisions

reaction to desegregation

• violence at ole miss

• lynching of emmett till

• MFDP and Fannie Lou Hamer

Mississippi Freedom Summer

• June 21 1964

• civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner abducted and murdered near Philly by KKK with help of law enforcement

Fannie Lou Hamer

co-founded Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) at 1964 DNC

assassination of medgar evers

June 12, 1963; NAACP field secretary shot in the back by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith (not convicted until 1994)

Challenge to the official state delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention

MFDP challenged the seating of the state’s all-white official delegation, led to reform at 1968 convention

White Citizens Councils

• 1st one established 1954 in Indianola in response to Brown v. BOE decision

• white resistance

• used economic retaliation to crush black activism

• backed by the state

last state to desegregate what?

public schools

Violence at Ole Miss in response to desegregation

• 1962 ole miss riot (battle of oxford) left 2 dead and 300+ injuries

• segregationists rioted to stop Black Air Force veteran James Meredith from enrolling

• state backed (Ross Barnett)

1st african american legislator

1967: Robert Clark

Mike Espy

1986, sent to congress from the delta

african-american office holding

more black elected officials than any other state

Cochran’s 2016 renomination

with black votes, decisive

percent african american (1890)

57%

% black 1940

49.2%

% black 2020

38%

covered by section 5 of the VRA?

yes

3/5 vote needed to pass what in the legislature?

revenue bills

Legislative parties did not caucus until…

2011

tradition of members of legislature doing what?

members of both parties chairing committees

Gubernatorial Powers

governor described as chief observer

how many executives elected statewide?

7

Governor term limits

2 4-year terms

1984: legislation enforcing separation of powers enacted

ended tradition of legislators also holding positions in the executive branch

economic interests

poorest state, had to innovate to raise revenue

Pioneered what to attract industry?

bonds

First state to have what tax?

statewide sales tax

What is now a major revenue source

gambling

Led efforts in what regarding smokers?

led efforts to get tobacco companies to pay for healthcare costs of smokers

Parchman prison

state’s oldest penal institution, maximum security

Unique Features

separate courts of law and equity

Population

stagnant with a loss since 2020; now the least populous state in the south