By This is history. It’s not reporting on set about Megan Fox’s tits or new photos from Channing Tatum’s butthole salon, but this is important. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln apparently caused Mississippi to finally ratify the 13th amendment, as displayed in the film, after over 147 years. Apparently a University of Mississippi professor was spurred on, by the film, to research his own state’s history with slavery. Mississippi was in fact the only state to have never ratified the bill, although federal law meant that slavery has always been illegal since Lincoln’s time.
Mississippi eventually voted on the bill in 1995, largely more out of symbolism, but never notified the U.S Archivist to make it official until now. Yes, it isn’t ‘passing the amendment’ with all the flim-flaim but technically some of Lincoln’s own actions have extended to the present day, history made by history. More talk after the jump.
Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann agreed to file the necessary paperwork and finally sent a copy of the 1995 resolution on January 30, and on February 7 received a confirmation from Charles A. Barth, director of the Federal Register. “With this action, the State of Mississippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,”
As ‘Slashfilm’ notes, even if Spielberg and company don’t swing an Oscar or two they can officially write themselves in to the history textbooks as doing something incredibly right. This is all largely symbolic given the ratification is somewhat of a bureaucratic necessary, but for once bureaucracy seems not a villain of this piece. I’m a History student myself so to see all of this play out, even if it is just a piece of wider meaning, i.e the continual liberalization of the American south, it’s still just downright nice.
[via Slashfilm]