The Mississippi state Senate passed legislation on Friday that would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in the state’s public schools. The final score was 32-2. The bill’s author, Republican state Sen. Michael McLendon, declared on the Senate floor that he was unaware of CRT being taught in public schools. According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the state Department of Education claimed in August that no schools were teaching CRT. McLendon noted in the magazine, “This measure has no purpose of changing history in any manner.” “All it means is that we’re not telling any child that they’re better or worse than another.”
The state’s only two White Democratic senators cast the two “no” votes. Before the vote, all of the state’s Black Democratic senators walked out. Senate Democratic Leader Derrick Simmons stated why the demonstration was held. “We cannot afford to waste our time in Mississippi on issues that do not exist,” Simmons told the Clarion-Ledger. CRT, which was created in the 1970s and 1980s, is mostly taught in law schools. It contends that systemic racism exists in the United States through government policies and institutional practices such as “redlining,” which steers Black prospective house purchasers away from certain communities.
The hypothesis has sparked debate in other places, including Virginia, where CRT was a contentious subject in this year’s governor race, which was won by Republican Glenn Youngkin, who was sworn in earlier this month. On his first day as governor, Youngkin signed 11 executive acts, including a prohibition on teaching CRT in public schools. According to the Clarion-Ledger, the Mississippi Senate bill will be sent to the state House, which is now discussing its own anti-CRT legislation.
