Mississippi Finally Gets Around to Abolishing Slavery Thanks to Some Guy Who Watched Lincoln

13 years into the 21st century, President Lincoln is still abolishing slavery.

Back in November, Dr. Ranjan Batra, an India-born resident of Mississippi, went to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, and it piqued his interest.

What became of the 13th Amendment after December 6th, 1864, when it received the two-thirds' vote necessary to pass?

Researching online, Batra made an startling discovery: His home state, which initially rejected the measure, never officially ratified it.

It was true enough that Mississippi became the last state to vote in favor of ratification back in 1995, but according to Batra, "because the state never officially notified the US Archivist, the ratification is not official."

After passing along this information to his University of Mississippi Medical Center colleague Ken Sullivan, Batra went on about his day.

But Sullivan delved deeper into this seemingly egregious oversight, and decided something had to be done. He contacted the office of Delbert Hosemann, Mississippi's Secretary of State, and notified them of the filing error.

The proper forms were promptly forwarded to the Office of the Federal Register, and, on February 7th, Mississippi officially became the last of the Civil War states to ratify the amendment abolishing slavery in the United States.

It remains unclear why the resolution wasn't forwarded to the Federal Register in the first place.

"What an amendment to have an error in filing," former Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus said. "Thanks to Ken Sullivan for being a good citizen in bringing this oversight to light, so it can be corrected."

[still via Lincoln]