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Opinion
Reece Terry, publisher
Mark Boehler, editor
4 • Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Corinth, Miss.
45 years after Alexander v. Holmes, schools reach milestone
Sid Salter Columnist
STARKVILLE — It’s been a long time – 45 years to be exact – since massive school desegregation changed Mississippi’s educational landscape and with it set the pace for sweeping social and political changes to follow. In that day in the fall of 1969, it was difficult to imagine the demographic shifts that would
come to pass. The U.S. Department of Education announced in August that 2014 would be the year in which minorities outnumber whites among the nation’s public school students for the first time – a fact that the Pew Research Center attributed to the rapid growth in the number of Asian and Hispanic school-age children born in the U.S. Governing Magazine reported on the same development: “In 1997, the U.S. had 46.1 million public school students, of which 63.4 percent were white. While whites will still outnumber any single racial or ethnic group this fall, their overall share of the nation’s 50 million public school students is projected to drop to 49.7 percent. Since 1997, the number of white students has declined by 15 percent, falling from 29.2 million to 24.9 million in 2014. “While the number of white students has declined, there have been large enrollment increases of Hispanics and Asians, two groups that have seen overall population growth. Since 1997, the number of Hispanic students nearly doubled to 12.9 million, and the number of Asians jumped 46 percent to 2.6 million. The number of black students expected in schools this fall, 7.7 million, has been relatively steady during this time.” Schools in the Southern region first became majority minority in 2009. In Mississippi in 2008, some 53.6 percent of all public school students were people of color. Those numbers were different back in 1969, when in a matter of weeks, the snail’s pace of school integration at “all deliberate speed” (under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling) decision was replaced by the dictate to integrate “at once” in its Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education decision in 1969. The decision was handed down by the Supreme Court on Oct. 29 of that year -- and some nine weeks later, the 30 school districts impacted by the Alexander case were integrated. Too many of the stories of Mississippi educators from that era have passed away. But through the efforts of Mississippi State University associate professor James “Jim” Adams, many of those first-person accounts of public school integration in Mississippi are being preserved. Adams and his wife, Natalie, both university professors, have completed an oral history study on the desegregation of the state’s public schools between 1963 and 1971. The project focuses on recording the first-person accounts of administrators, teachers, coaches, staff, students, parents, community activists and others who have a story from that era. The project sought the perspectives of both whites and African-Americans and, at its conclusion, promised a fascinating look at one of the most important events in the state’s history since the Civil War. Our state owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to those educators of that era who braved the threat of violence and mayhem to make school integration work and advance public education in this state. Their history, their stories, should not be lost. The documentary work of Jim and Natalie Adams will likely become a scholarly book of enormous value in documenting school integration in the South. How Mississippi and the rest of the nation interact with majority minority public schools now not just in the South but across the nation will be the stuff of future documentaries. But the Adams’ offer an important look at a fascinating part of our shared past. (Daily Corinthian columnist Sid Salter is syndicated across the state. Contact him at 601-507-8004 or sidsalter@sidsalter.com.)
Prayer for today My Father, help me to understand that I cannot have self-development unless the spirit of truth drills my character. Cleanse my heart from all impurity, and strengthen me for all usefulness: help me to daily live this prayer. Amen.
A verse to share For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20
The poll tax that wasn’t When the Supreme Court rejected a petition to stop a Texas voter-ID law from going into effect for the midterms, the left commenced its wailing and gnashing of teeth. In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the law “purposely discriminatory,” and everyone piled in behind her with denunciations of the Lone Star State’s blatant racism. For the left, voter ID is tantamount to a poll tax. If so, the nation is awash in neo-segregationist election rules. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report on voter-ID laws, 33 states now have them. A valid ID is a necessity of modern life, and requiring one to vote hardly seems an undue imposition. Especially if you are willing to give one out gratis. Of the 17 states that have strict requirements for a photo or government-issued ID, the GAO notes, 16 provide a free ID to eligible voters. The critics complain that people may not have the relevant underlying documents to get the free ID, and there is a cost to obtaining them. Well, yes. In Indiana, for
instance, it costs $10 to obtain a birth certificate. In Arkansas, it costs $12. In Rich North DaLowry kota, $7. The GAO National report foReview cuses on the voter-ID states of Kansas and Tennessee, where voters whose eligibility to vote is in doubt may vote provisionally. Then they have a period after the election to establish their eligibility. How many voters are showing up to vote, only to be foiled by the ID requirement? According to the GAO, in Kansas in 2012, 1,115,281 ballots were cast. There were 38,865 provisional ballots, and of these, 838 were cast for voter-ID reasons. In Tennessee, 2,480,182 ballots were cast. There were 7,089 provisional ballots, and of these, 673 were cast for voter-ID reasons. In both states, about 30 percent of these voter-IDrelated provisional ballots were ultimately accepted. That means in Kansas and Tennessee, altogether about
1,000 ballots weren’t counted (and perhaps many of them for good reason) out of roughly 3.5 million cast. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, voter suppression! It is of such stuff that Jim Crow was made. Indeed, voter ID is a scheme to suppress minority votes so nefarious that its effect can’t reliably be detected by the tools of social science. As a study last December in Political Research Quarterly notes, the idea that voter ID suppresses minority turnout “is strongly suggested in political discourse but lacks a strong empirical basis.” The analysis by the study’s authors concluded that “more stringent ID requirements for voting have no deterring effect on individual turnout across different racial and ethnic groups.” For its part, the GAO used “a quasi-experimental analysis” to find that voter ID suppressed turnout in Kansas and Tennessee, and that the effect was larger among African-American voters, but not AsianAmericans or Hispanics. The states dispute the methodology. Where you come down
on this issue depends on whether you think it’s reasonable to require the minimal effort to establish your identity when voting. The critics say that inperson voter fraud is extremely rare, although that is not an argument for leaving the system completely open to it. Is voting so important that it shouldn’t be tethered to an ID requirement? It takes an ID to buy a gun, a constitutional right. It takes an ID to get a marriage license or check into a hotel. Voting is inevitably going to entail, even in the most latitudinarian system, some effort. You have to, at least most of the time, go to the polling place. You have to fill out the ballot correctly. You might have to deposit it in a box. Not all people will go to the trouble to do this, or to do it properly, which doesn’t mean they are disenfranchised. The irony is that unhinged complaints about voter ID are, in this supposedly troubling new era of the poll tax, a turnout tool. (Daily Corinthian columnist Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com.)
Hunting and fishing to become fundamental right OXFORD — Robin Hood would be proud. The nonconformist of Nottingham — who 800 years ago attracted the attention of the shire reeve (or sheriff) for harvesting royal deer (among other trespasses) — would smile upon Mississippians who stand ready, all these years later, to vote on making hunting and fishing a fundamental right of the people. There will be other matters on the Mississippi’s Nov. 4 ballot. Topping them will be the contest for one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats. Having survived one of the more bizarre primaries in state history, Thad Cochran, the Republican nominee, will face former U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, the Democrats’ nominee. The general election Senate campaign has been exponentially quieter than the primaries, mostly because the national Democratic Party allocated its cash elsewhere. It’s simply impossible to be a viable candidate these days without major infusions of cash, so Cochran, barring the unforeseen, will be returned to Washington to start another six-year term. Mississippi’s four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are also on the
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ballot, just as they are every 24 months. But as much as folks may Charlie c o m p l a i n Mitchell about Congress as a Columnist whole, the systemic fix is in. Three Republicans — Alan Nunnelee, Gregg Harper and Steven Palazzo in districts 1, 3 and 4 respectively — and one Democrat — Bennie G. Thompson of District 2 — will win new terms without much heavy lifting. Money is, again, a big part of the reason. Incumbents have it and challengers rarely do. Also, today’s extremely early qualifying deadlines are off-putting to people who can’t stop their lives and campaign for a year. But a third factor — perhaps the most constricting — is that district lines are drawn to mirror ideological groups. There’s not even a Republican candidate in District 2. It “belongs” to the Democratic Party just as the other three, at least for the time being, “belong” to the Republican Party. Back to hunting and fishing. Thanks to state Rep. Les-
ter “Bubba” Carpenter, RBurnsville, the resolution for which he was lead legislative sponsor will be put to the people for a thumbs up. It reads: “This proposed constitutional amendment establishes hunting, fishing, and the harvesting of wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, as a constitutional right subject only to such regulations and restrictions that promote wildlife conservation and management as the Legislature may prescribe by general law.” Given the South’s affinity for woods and wildlife, one might think this proposal is strictly regional. It is not. Mississippi is actually a bit late getting in on the, er, game. The Associated Press reports Vermont has had a right to hunt and fish in its constitution since 1777 and that 16 other states, mostly in mid-America, have added provisions since 1996. While the proposal isn’t sudden or regional, it is reactionary — at least in part. There has been scuttlebutt that forces fighting animal cruelty, generally, were starting to add trapping and other methods of capturing and killing wild animals to their ongoing campaigns against beating, starving or simply neglecting domestic
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animals. This was enough to get hunting groups, er, up in arms. And it’s certainly true that just as legions of farmers are the planet’s best conservationists, legions of hunters respect wildlife tremendously and work to preserve habitat and promote animal health. Non-hunters don’t believe it, but other than meeting a somewhat violent end, deer lucky enough to live on a hunting camp’s land are healthier and better fed than deer who have to rough it. Anyway, the proposed amendment to the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, has no organized or vocal opposition. Its point is simply to stake a claim on higher legal ground. If the amendment passes in Mississippi (and it will), the Legislature will still have the power to set seasons, control limits and enact all the game laws it wants to enact. It could even outlaw trapping. But no total bans. Not now, not ever. Too bad Robin Hood is not around. He’d be happy to see a bit more power guaranteed to the people. (Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist. Write to him at cmitchell43@yahoo. com.)
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