Mississippi House Republican lawmakers advanced a bill that would shutter DEI programs in all of the state’s public schools, ban certain concepts from being taught in classrooms and dictate how schools define gender. 

The sweeping legislation would impact all public schools from the K-12 to community colleges and universities. It threatens to withhold state funds based on “complaints” that anyone could lodge. It would empower people to sue schools accused of violating the law.

And it drew impassioned opposition from House Democrats, almost all of whom are Black, in the state with the nation’s highest percentage of Black residents.

“House Bill 1193 is not just another piece of legislation,” said Rep. Jeffery Harness, D-Fayette. “It is a direct attack on the hard-fought battles that African Americans, other minorities, women and marginalized communities have waged for centuries. It is a cowardly attempt to sanitize history, to pretend that racism no longer exists, and to maintain the status quo of privilege of those who have always held power in this country.

The state house approved House Bill 1193, sponsored by Rep. Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, in a 74-41 vote. The bill would eliminate diversity training programs that “increase awareness or understanding of issues related to “race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.” It also bans school officials from asking job applicants to submit diversity statements on such issues in the hiring process.

Hood said his proposal is necessary for ensuring employment decisions and student activities are based solely on individual merit without consideration of one’s views on DEI. He also said the bill targets programs and academic concepts that many people find objectionable and that no one group would be singled out.

“I haven’t heard anybody stand up and tell me that one of these divisive concepts are wrong,” Hood said. “I don’t think it’s unfair. I think these statements apply equally to all individuals.”

The legislation goes further than regulating hiring and training procedures in educational settings. It also meddles with classroom instruction, barring universities from offering courses that promote “divisive concepts,” including “transgender ideology, gender-neutral pronouns, heteronormativity, gender theory, sexual privilege or any related formulation of these concepts.” 

Schools would not be able to “promote” the ideas above, but the law does direct them to promote a definition of gender.

The bill was updated in committee to add a provision that forces all public schools to teach and promote there are two genders, male and female. The move mirrors an executive order signed by President Donald Trump calls for the federal government to define sex as only male or female. Another order Trump signed also eliminated DEI in the federal government.

If the legislation were to become law, any public school or state-accredited nonpublic school that receives more than two complaints alleging a violation could lose state money.

DEI programs have come under fire mostly from conservatives, who say the programs divide people into categories of victims and oppressors, exacerbate antisemitism and infuse left-wing ideology into campus life. DEI also has progressive critics, who say the programs can be used to feign support for reducing inequality without actually doing so.

But proponents say the programs have been critical to ensuring women and minorities aren’t discriminated against in schools and workplace settings. They say the programs are necessary to ensure that institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations.

Hood said there are already federal laws in place that protect minorities from discrimination.

Democrats said the bill could dissuade student-athletes from attending universities in Mississippi and chill freedom of speech. They also said the bill wouldn’t eliminate favoritism in college admissions and hiring.

Democratic Rep. Omeria Scott introduced an amendment banning “legacy admissions” — the practice of favoring applicants with family ties or connections to alumni. That amendment was defeated.

Rep. Willie Bailey, D-Greenville, argued against the bill, saying, “The Bible could not be taught under this bill — it talks about diversity, it talks about equity, it talks about inclusion.”

“This is a stupid bill,” Bailey said.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration, which is expected to take up a proposal of its own restricting DEI.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Two measures allowing some people convicted of disenfranchising felony offenses to regain their voting rights passed a House committee on Tuesday, allowing the House to consider reforming one of the most strict felony disenfranchisement systems in the nation. 

The House Constitution Committee passed a measure to amend the state Constitution to revise the list of crimes that would result in someone losing their right to vote for life. 

Rep. Price Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall who leads the committee, told reporters that his focus is establishing a pathway for people previously convicted of nonviolent offenses, especially those who have not committed any other offense, to regain their voting rights. 

The constitutional amendment removes bribery, theft, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery and bigamy from the list of disenfranchising crimes. It adds human trafficking, sexual battery, child exploitation or commercial sexual activity. The list of crimes already includes murder, arson, rape and embezzlement. 

It can now go before the full House for consideration, where two-thirds of its members must approve it before it can go to the Senate for further debate. 

The House committee also passed a bill clarifying that if someone has a non-violent felony conviction that is also a disenfranchising crime, that offense could be expunged from their record, meaning it would be erased. 

If a disenfranchising felony can be expunged from a criminal record, the person would theoretically be allowed to register to vote again. 

Mississippi has one of the harshest disenfranchisement systems in the nation and a convoluted way for restoring voting rights to people. 

Other than receiving a pardon from the governor, the only way for someone to regain their voting rights is if two-thirds of legislators from both chambers at the Capitol, the highest threshold in the Legislature, agree to restore their suffrage. 

Lawmakers only consider about a dozen or so suffrage restoration measures during the session, and it’s typically one of the last items lawmakers take up before they adjourn for the year. 

Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of a list of 10 felonies lose their voting rights for life. Opinions from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office have since expanded the list of disenfranchising felonies to 24. 

The practice of stripping voting rights away from people for life is a holdover from the Jim Crow-era. The framers of the 1890 Constitution believed Black people were most likely to commit those crimes. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

More than two years after Jimmie “Jay” Lee went missing, the remains of the University of Mississippi student and well-known member of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community has been found.

On Wednesday, the Oxford Police Department released a statement to social media that the state Crime Lab confirmed the human skeletal remains found in Carroll County over the weekend belong to Lee.

“The Oxford Police Department made a commitment to finding Jay, no matter how long it took,” Chief Jeff McCutchen said in the release.

The confirmation comes after days of rumors flying around Grenada County, where Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., the University of Mississippi graduate charged with Lee’s murder, is from.

An object found with Lee’s remains fueled the speculation: A gold necklace with his name on it, Mississippi Today reported on Monday. The nameplate matched jewelry that Lee wore in videos on his Instagram that were posted two days before his disappearance on July 8, 2022.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release that deer hunters stumbled on Lee’s remains in a wooded gully on Saturday, Feb. 1. The Oxford police statement did not include additional information about who found the remains or how.

“While this part of the investigation is complete, additional work remains,” police stated. “However, we are unable to provide further details at this time.”

It remains to be seen how this discovery will impact the case against Herrington, who was charged with capital murder and taken to trial by the Lafayette County district attorney in December. One juror refused to convict due to the lack of a body, resulting in a mistrial.

Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore has said he intends to retry Herrington. He could not be reached by press time.

In Oxford, Lee’s disappearance sparked a movement organized by Lee’s college friends called Justice for Jay Lee. On Wednesday, an Instagram account for the group posted a video of Lee dancing, his arm in the air, his long, blonde weave and sparkly silver skirt shimmering to club music.

The discovery brings members of Lee’s family one step closer to closure, said Tayla Carey, Lee’s sister.

“Speaking for myself, I can say it does bring me some type of happiness knowing he’s not out there alone anymore,” she said.

The next step is to celebrate Lee’s life by giving him the memorial he deserves, but Carey said she won’t feel closure until justice occurs with a new trial.

“It’s been a long two and a half years,” Carey said. “A very long, long, long two and a half years.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.