Predominantly white Mississipi Senate OKs bill affecting majority-Black city

JACKSON, Miss. — The majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Senate voted Tuesday to pass its version of a bill that would allow an expanded role for state police and appointed judges inside the majorityBlack capital city of Jackson, which is led by Democrats.

“It is vastly improved from where it started, but it is still a snake,” Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson said of the bill during Tuesday’s debate.

Critics say that in a state where older African Americans still remember the struggle to gain access to the ballot decades ago, the bill is a paternalistic attempt to intrude on local decision-making and voting rights in the capital, which has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

The Mississippi House — which is also majoritywhite and Republican-led — passed the first version of the bill last month. The House version would have created two permanent new courts inside Jackson with judges appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice. The current justice is a conservative white man.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who is Black, said the proposal reminds him of apartheid.

The Senate voted 34-15 to pass its revised version of the bill Tuesday, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

Supporters of the bill say they are trying to improve public safety in Jackson, which has had more than 100 homicides during each of the past three years.

“We all know the nation is watching. They have been,” Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula said before Tuesday’s Senate vote. “And with this bill, we are standing up for the citizens of Jackson and for our state capital.”

The bill returns to the House, which could accept the Senate changes or seek final negotiations in the next few weeks.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has decried crime in Jackson but has not said whether he would sign the bill if it lands on his desk.