MS NAACP, One Voice and The Sentencing Project are fighting against felony disenfranchisement in Mississippi with a new report—Felony Disenfranchisement in Mississippi. Currently, more than 218,000 citizens in the state cannot vote due a felony conviction as defined by Mississippi law. An overwhelming 93 percent of these citizens are not incarcerated but are still deprived of the opportunity to participate in the electoral process.

This threefold collaboration imagines a Mississippi where a citizen can work to regain their civil rights and participate in the democratic process. The report outlines several examples of common sense policies that states across the U.S., including the border states of Alabama and Louisiana, have enacted to inform those convicted of crimes of their rights and to educate citizens on how to petition to regain suffrage.

Marquise Hunt, Youth and College Division President
Tougaloo College Sophomore

“I don’t want people to forget there is real work to be done.”

In August 2016, Marquise Hunt made a journey familiar to freedom fighters, traveling from Portsmouth, Virginia to Tougaloo, Mississippi. With an infectious fire that was ignited when he was a junior in high school, Hunt joined his collegiate NAACP chapter and was elected president in the second semester of his freshman year.

During his short time in campus leadership, Hunt inspired hundreds of students to pinpoint issues that were most pressing to them and led efforts to mobilize his peers to design and implement action plans to make meaningful and lasting change within their institution and in their communities.

“Many young people join organizations seeking only the social aspect,” says Hunt. “I seek to change that dynamic. I don’t want people to forget there is real work to be done.”

In November 2017, Hunt was elected Youth and College Division President of the Mississippi State Conference. In the first two months of his term, he has worked to improve his skills as servant leader and connect students in high schools, colleges and communities across the state.

Hunt says that it is because of the NAACP that he was able to recognize and tap into his full potential. “Not only am I and my peers able to see the many issues we face today in Mississippi and in America, but because of NAACP, we are able to know what we as a people can do to resolve them,” Hunt adds.

Through his position as Youth and College Division President, Hunt wants to encourage young people like himself to become active in NAACP and employ their unique talents to ensure justice and equality for all.

As the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, we will continue to advocate for equal protection of all citizens without discrimination or bias. In alignment with the NAACP Constitution, two of the principal objectives of our organization shall be:

• To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
• To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.

It was reported this month that the body of a Scott County man, Willie Andrew Jones, Jr., was found hanging from a tree. Officials of the MS NAACP are petitioning the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct an extensive and transparent investigation.

Click the button below to read a statement from the Office of the MS NAACP.

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