Mississippi Officially Abolishes Slavery: 148 Years Later, Southern State Ratifies 13th Amendment

Mississippi has officially ratified the Constitution's 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the country -- a step that previously fell through the cracks in the southern state, United Press International reported.

The amendment passed -- with three quarters of the states ratifying it -- in 1865. But Missisippi didn't get around to voting on it until 1995. But then someone failed to notify the U.S. archivist, so Mississippi was never officially marked down as having abolished slavery.

When Ranjan Batra, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center saw the movie "Lincoln," he noticed the oversight, and wanted to do something to fix it. He contacted Ken Sullivan, an anatomical material specialist for the medical center's body donation program, who called the National Archives' Office of the Federal Register and confirmed Mississippi had never submitted the required paperwork.

Sullivan located a copy of the 1995 resolution, which stated the secretary of state was required to send a copy to the Office of the Federal Register. It's still unclear why that didn't happen, United Press International reported.

Sullivan contacted the office of Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who submitted a copy of the resolution on Jan. 30. Charles A. Barth, director of the Federal Register, confirmed he had received it on Feb. 7.

"With this action, the state of Mississippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States," Barth said, according to United Press International.

Horsemann called this action "long overdue."

State Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, who had introduced the 1995 resolution, also was happy to see this long-awaited step.

"We're very deliberate in our state," Frazier said. We finally got it right.

Sullivan agreed, adding, "There's no asterisk by Mississippi any more."