JACKSON, Miss.—White Mississippi lawmakers moved closer Tuesday evening to creating a new system of unelected judges and prosecutors chosen by white officials to oversee a part of the majority-Black capital city.
Lawmakers debated House Bill 1020, which would create a new court system in an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District, for five hours before representatives passed it in a 76-37 vote.
In remarks to the press at the Capitol after the vote Tuesday night, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba described the bill as “oppressive” because it would take jurisdiction away from judges and the prosecutor elected by majority-Black Hinds County voters.
Under the bill, the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice would appoint two judges to oversee cases in the district; the Mississippi attorney general would appoint four prosecutors; the state public defender would appoint public defenders; and the Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner would continue to have authority over a Capitol Police force over the expanded CCID.
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White officials currently hold all four positions, and despite the fact that Mississippi has the nation’s largest proportion of Black residents at 38%, no Black official has held any of those positions. No Black Mississippian has held any statewide elected office since the brief period of Reconstruction after the Civil War, which ended due to white terrorism to block Black voting power, which was called the First Mississippi Plan.
“What we just saw was some of the most oppressive legislation that we have seen in our city’s history,” Lumumba said. “It’s oppressive because it strips the rights of Black people to vote; it’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something that they don’t endorse or believe in.”
An earlier draft of H.B. 1020 exceeded 1,000 pages. Its sponsor, Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said on the House floor that he removed sections that would have required the special courts and unelected judges to hear appeals for cases in which the State of Mississippi is a named party. He cut it down to just 35 pages. Lamar estimated that the expanded CCID will have about a 53% Black population.
The House voted