14 DAY TRIAL // Dr. Ranjan Batra is now a part of history, after he was instrumental in getting Mississippi to finally ban slavery after seeing Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, the critically acclaimed “Lincoln.”
This might sound like a made-up story but, as it turns out, it’s true: because of clerical error, Mississippi never officially ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, the Atlantic Wire reports.
“The state did vote to ratify the amendment back in 1995, nearly 20 years after Kentucky, the second-to-last state to ratify the amendment, held its vote,” says the publication.
“However, through an apparent clerical error, Mississippi never officially notified the United States Archivist of the ratification, meaning that they've officially been on the side of slavery for a century-and-a-half,” adds the same media outlet.
Batra saw the film in theaters in November, and went online to check some of the facts presented there.
He was startled to find out that Mississippi never made the banning of slavery official and, with help from a friend, made sure authorities found out about the mishap – and made it right.