Voter suppression can take many forms as has been evidenced in Georgia and other states around the country in the lead up to the 2018 Mid-Terms. ID laws, mismatched signatures, mismatching addresses or no addresses all were used to toss out legitimate votes of registered voters.. All of these actions are an indictment on how far the GOP will go to keep their side in power.
However, in Mississippi, with its long, ugly history of of hangings and torture of African Americans. voter suppression is particularly insidious because it is not always particularly overt. It relies also on the dark cloud of the states’ history of slavery, the Civil War, and the terrible aftermath which still hangs over the state as a way to keep African Americans on edge and fearful.
This article from New York Magazine does not mince words when it comes to that history. It is horrific and terrifying. And despite the fact the Civil Rights Movement had its start in 1955, the state still has a candidate running for the U.S. Senate who dabbles in racist commentary.
Through her ineptitude and public gaffes we see her as she is, if not a white supremacist herself, certainly a candidate who courts their votes. And how devastating for black Mississippians to see the specter of hangings being raised by this candidate – even if it was, as she says, only an innocent remark..
Mississippi will always hold the record for the highest number of public hanging of black people in the country. The power of that legacy to intimidate and hold people down increases when a candidate like Hyde-Smith comes to the fore and wins.
We can only hope that there are enough white voters in the state who have ditched the racist remnants of the Old South and thus are able to look at the two candidates and vote for the one most qualified. If there are enough of those enlightened whites, Mike Espy will be the new Senator from Mississippi.
(This is my second article on Hyde-Smith because the results of the election will have implications for the country in 2020 and because the article below is so informative)i
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/mississippi-senator-cindy-hyde-smiths-racism.html