JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi's House of Representatives will convene on May 20 at the Old Capitol, a building synonymous with the state's history of racial oppression, to redraw state supreme court districts, a move that advocates fear will further disenfranchise Black voters.

Speaker Jason White, a Republican, cited renovations at the current capitol as the reason for holding the special session at the Old Capitol, a building where lawmakers voted to secede from the Union to preserve slavery. This decision has ignited outrage among civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers.

The Old Capitol, which served as the state's capitol from 1839 to 1903, is a potent symbol of the Jim Crow era. It was within these walls that white supremacist legislators crafted the 1890 constitution, a document explicitly designed to strip Black Mississippians of their voting rights and cement white minority rule. Over 40,000 Black Mississippians remain disenfranchised due to the legacy of these laws.

"I was a little taken aback with the location of the Old State Capitol," said Kabir Karriem, a Democratic state representative and leader of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus. "Even though they said that they were doing some remodeling, the optics of it are horrific for 1.2 million Black folks here in the state of Mississippi."

The timing of the session is particularly troubling. It follows the Supreme Court's recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial tool for combating racial discrimination in voting. Governor Tate Reeves called lawmakers back to Jackson to redraw the state’s three supreme court districts in the wake of the ruling.

Many observers believe that the redistricting process will be used to further dilute Black voting strength. This concern is amplified by Donald Trump's call for the Mississippi legislature to redraw congressional districts in an attempt to unseat Bennie Thompson, the state's only Democratic congressman, who chaired the January 6 committee hearings. This intervention, despite primaries already having been held, underscores the partisan nature of the redistricting effort.

Safia Malin, policy director for One Voice Mississippi, a civic engagement organization, condemned the choice of the Old Capitol as a "deliberately or intentionally cruel attempt" to remind Black Mississippians of their struggle for full citizenship. She emphasized the building's symbolic connection to the era when white lawmakers worked to suppress Black political power.