February is the month that the United States has chosen to recognize African-American history.
This year is the 150-year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the order that declared free those enslaved African-Americans living in states not under Union control.
February 2013 also marks the time the state of Mississippi officially became the final state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, officially banning slavery in the state.
As of 2013, the state of Mississippi had never submitted the document required to officially ratify the amendment, meaning slavery was technically legal in the state.
It wasn't until after some digging by Dr. Ranjan Batra, a University of Mississippi Medical Center professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences, that the clerical oversight was given attention and corrected.
"The countries I come from-both India and Canada-have their own tension between different groups," Batra said. "I think that whatever I could do here in the US to make it clear there is no official policy of maintaining that type of tension is a good thing."
The website unconstitution.net holds information about the ratifying of amendments. Batra, who became a US citizen in 2008, noticed that the state of Mississippi was the only state with an asterisk beside its name.
Though the state did ratify the amendment in 1995, because US Archivists were never notified then, the ratification was not official.
"With Mississippi being the last state, finally in 1995, to ratify the fundamental freedom guaranteed in the 13th Amendment, and then the state doesn't bother to register its vote," said David Arant, journalism professor and department chair. "That failure only serves to remind us of Mississippi's terrible record in respecting the rights of all its citizens."
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
The amendment was passed by the Congress on Jan. 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on Dec. 6, 1865.
"I think it's always easy to make Mississippi the butt of jokes, and to some extent, that's what's going on," Batra said.
Batra worked with Ole Miss Medical Center colleague Ken Sullivan to resolve the issue.
Sullivan contacted the Secretary of State of Mississippi Delbert Hoseman to have Hoseman perform the official proceedings needed to make ratification official as outlined by the final paragraph of the bill.
Hoseman submitted the required document to the National Archives, and with that, on Feb. 7, 2013, the state of Mississippi officially became the final state to ratify the thirteenth amendment to the US Constitution.
"There's lingering fear that it was not ratified because of some ulterior motive," Batra said. "I think that wasn't the case from everything I have gathered."
After the ratification, the Director of the Federal Register wrote, ""With this action, the State of Mississippi has ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States."
"If you look at the history, it's important that this matter is put to rest," Batra said. "I think it's important to put this behind us."
