Feb. 7, 1866

Ten months after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, a delegation of Black men, led by Frederick Douglass, met with President Andrew Johnson at the White House. 

Southern states had already begun to impose “Black Codes” on Black Americans now freed from slavery. 

In their meeting with Johnson, Douglass and others shared why it was important that the right to vote be given to Black Americans and enforced. Johnson rejected their proposal and responded with what sounded like a prepared speech, arguing that “a war of races” would take place between newly freed Black Americans and their poor, white counterparts. 

After the meeting, Douglass and the others penned a letter to the president, saying while it was true the hostility existed, the roots of such hatred were found in the system of slavery. The end of such slavery can help to bring the end to such hate, they wrote. 

They questioned how Johnson could allow these Black Codes to continue “for a people whom you have repeatedly declared your purpose to maintain in freedom.” 

They told the president that “peace between races can not be secured by degrading one race and exalting another, by giving power to one race and withholding it from another, but by maintaining a state of equal justice between all classes.” 

In the years that followed, Douglass continued to rise as a leader, championing the rights of both African Americans and women. 

Johnson became the first president impeached, dodging removal from office by one vote in the Senate. He eventually returned to Tennessee and the U.S. Senate, dying just a few months later.

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

The Mississippi Senate passed a bill Thursday that would eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the state’s universities, a priority elevated by Republican President Donald Trump. 

Senate Republicans passed the bill with a party line 34-14 vote. The move comes a day after the House advanced a sweeping anti-DEI bill of its own. The move lays the groundwork for negotiations between the House and Senate. The measures passed by each chamber differ in who they would impact, what activities they would regulate and how they aim to reshape the inner workings of the state’s education system.

The Senate bill defines DEI as any effort to influence the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to “race, sex, color, or ethnicity, apart from ensuring colorblind and sex-neutral admissions and hiring in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”

It would ban all campus training and programs deemed to violate that definition.

The bill’s prime sponsors, Tyler McCaughn, R-Newton and Nicole Boyd, R-Oxford, have argued the proposed law will clean up inefficiencies in Mississisppi’s higher education system and return the admissions and hiring process to a merit-based system.

“Abolishing DEI policies does not mean we are abandoning diversity,” McCaughn said. “It means that we are refocusing …We’re refocusing on excellence.”

In addition to banning DEI initiatives, Senate Bill 2515, titled the “Requiring Efficiency For Our Colleges And Universities System,” or REFOCUS Act, would create a task force to look for inefficiencies in the state’s higher education system. 

The task force would seek to shed light on Mississippi’s lower rate of postsecondary degrees than other states, what can be done to prepare for a declining number of high school graduates attending college and other questions. 

Senate Democrats, as their colleagues in the lower chamber argued Wednesday, said DEI programs were created to correct for centuries of discrimination against minorities and women.

“I want you to understand that when we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, it is not a matter of having unqualified people or you missing an opportunity,” said Democratic Sen. Rod Hickman. “What diversity, equity and inclusion does is it is a mechanism that opens the door for me that your fathers or your grandfathers or somebody down the road opened for you.”

The legislation would impact all of the state’s community colleges and public universities. The House version extends to K-12 schools. The House bill would also bar universities from offering certain courses. The Senate bill has an exemption for scholarly research or creative works.

The House bill contains a provision absent from the Senate version that would force all public schools to teach and promote that there are two genders.

The proposals also differ in how they would be enforced. The Senate bill would direct universities to develop an internal complaint and investigative process for looking into those accused of violating the law. Only students, faculty and contractors would be able to file complaints. The House bill threatens to withhold state funds based on complaints that anyone could lodge. It would empower people to sue schools accused of violating the law.

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 argue the programs are necessary to ensure that institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations.

Trump promised in his 2024 campaign to eliminate DEI in the federal government. One of the first executive orders he signed did that. Some Mississippi lawmakers introduced bills in the 2024 session to restrict DEI, but the proposals never made it out of committee.

The House and Senate now have the ability to take up the other chamber’s proposal as they potentially work toward a final bill.

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

The House on Thursday passed a bill to make it easier for K-12 students to transfer to other public schools outside their home districts, advancing a policy priority for House Speaker Jason White.  

House Bill 1435 passed the GOP-majority chamber 67-46, with partisan crossover supporting and opposing the legislation. Four Democrats joined the Republican majority to support the proposal, while 10 Republicans joined with the Democratic minority to oppose the bill. 

Most Republicans who opposed the measure either represent north Mississippi, a region that has historically invested in and protected public schools, or represent the suburban area of Rankin County. 

“I know what’s best for my child,” Rep. Jansen Owen, a Republican from Poplarville who authored the bill, told his colleagues. “Every parent in this room knows what’s best for their child, and the people of Mississippi know what’s best for their children. Not school personnel, not principals not superintendents.”

Mississippi currently has a very limited form of “open enrollment” that allows students to transfer from their home district to a nearby school district. However, the transfer requires the approval of both the home and receiving school districts. 

Under the House-approved legislation, a student could request to transfer to another school district outside their home district, and the receiving school district would have 60 days to either accept or reject the student’s application. The home school district could no longer prevent the student from transferring to another district. 

Rep. John Faulkner, a Democrat from Holly Springs who is Black, said he worried the proposal could bring re-segregation of schools because families with means would flock to well-performing school districts while poorer families would be locked in low-performing school districts.  

“This pushes families toward an illusion of choice rather than pushing equality for all,” Faulkner said. 

Owen, who is white, disagreed with Faulkner because he said the bill would allow open enrollment for all students, and the legislation prohibits school districts from discriminating against applicants over their race, sex and income level. 

READ MORE: Senate education chairman says Senate doesn’t currently support easing public school transfers

School districts receive funding through local property taxes and the state government. The state funds under the bill would follow the student from district to district, while the funds from local property taxes would stay in their original district. 

Under the proposal, the state would pay the difference to the receiving school district if a student transferred. Lawmakers said they plan to allocate $5 million for transfers for the first year if the proposal becomes law.

READ MORE: Sending taxpayer money to private schools advances in Mississippi House

Rep. Omeria Scott, a Democrat from Laurel, attempted to amend the bill by removing the $5 million fund. She said it is unfair for the state to “subsidize” students who want to live in one area but attend school districts in another location. The House defeated her amendment. 

The bill now heads to the Senate, where the lieutenant governor will likely refer it to the Senate Education Committee for consideration. 

Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, on Monday, killed a similar proposal to the one the House passed and said he doesn’t think such a proposal can currently pass the upper chamber.

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