Constitution of Mississippi
The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constitutional convention held at Washington, Mississippi in advance of the western portion of the territory's admission to the Union in 1817. The current state constitution was adopted in 1890 following the reconstruction period. It has been amended and updated 100 times in since its adoption in 1890, with some sections being changed or repealed altogether. The most recent modification to the constitution occurred in November 2020, when Section 140 was amended, and Sections 141-143 were repealed.
With the Confederacy defeated by the Union at the end of the American Civil War, slavery was ended and outlawed throughout the United States. The former Confederate states adopted new state constitutions, which granted newly freed slaves and African Americans the right to vote for the first time. An 1867 drawing in Harper's Weekly lauds the Union victory by showing freed slaves and U.S. Colored Troops veterans exercising their newly bestowed right to vote by casting ballots for the first time.
During much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Democrats, calling themselves "The White Man's Party", sought to violently disenfranchise African Americans in the name of white supremacy, by using party-sponsored paramilitaries and terrorist organizations such as the "Red Shirts". Using as their party slogan, "This is a White Man's Country!", the Democrats opposed the Republican-sponsored "Reconstruction Acts", which required that the former Confederate states adopt the Fourteenth Amendment and respect the right of African Americans to vote if they were to fully rejoin the United States.
Adelbert Ames was Mississippi's last Republican governor in the 19th century, leaving office in 1876 after a fraud-wrought election the previous year in which many black and Republican voters were violently kept from the polls by terrorists. Ames resigned several months later, amid threats of impeachment by a hostile Democrat-controlled state legislature. He was the last Republican governor of Mississippi in the 19th century and for much of the 20th century as well. A Republican would not become governor of Mississippi again until 1992; more than 115 years after Ames's tenure had ended.
A poster showing the members of the 1890 Mississippi constitution convention.
Government of Mississippi
The Government of Mississippi is the government of the U.S. state of Mississippi. Power in Mississippi's government is distributed by the state's Constitution between the executive and legislative branches. The state's current governor is Tate Reeves. The Mississippi Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years. Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years.
Carroll Gartin Justice Building – Mississippi Supreme Court