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A federal court has allowed Jackson, the Blackest major city in the US, to pursue claims that the state of Mississippi is trying to strip away control of its airport for racially discriminatory reasons.
Last week, US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves denied the state’s latest attempt to dismiss Jackson’s lawsuit, clearing the way for a case that could expose how some state governments undermine Black political power through seemingly race-neutral laws.
Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport generates millions in revenue and creates thousands of jobs in the Jackson area. It is one of the city’s largest economic assets and a point of community pride. Local taxpayers and their elected leaders, the majority of whom are Black, have built and operated the airport for decades. The state government and its majority-white legislature appear poised to seize control.
In 2016, Mississippi’s majority-white legislature passed a law that would abolish Jackson’s majority-Black elected airport authority and replace it with an appointed board, selected by state officials who are all white. Jackson sued the state legislature, arguing the state takeover of the airport would violate the equal protection clause of the US Constitution, which prohibits racial discrimination. A federal judge ruled in May that Jackson has legal standing, meaning the city gets to make its case in court.
Mississippi has not elected a Black person to statewide office in more than 130 years, despite Black people making up nearly 38 percent of the state population. Jackson, the state capital, is where Black Mississippians find the greatest opportunities to win election to office.
Mississippi has previously proposed “reforms” that strip political power from Black voters and elected officials. In 2023, the state legislature passed a pair of laws targeting Jackson. The state created appointed courts answerable only to state officials and expanded a state police force with a record of violence. It removed both systems from local accountability, diluting the voices of Black voters. The airport takeover attempt predates the recent laws but is part of the same trend.
In its May 23 ruling, the federal court found Jackson alleges justiciable injuries from what it called the state’s “allegedly racist conduct.” It noted the city has been singled out for treatment to which no other cities in Mississippi are subject. The court wrote, the injuries alleged are “concrete,” not hypothetical.
Jackson is now preparing to argue the 2016 airport takeover law is a form of racial discrimination, even though it is seemingly race-neutral. The city will rely on the US Constitution’s equal protection clause, which the court noted was created in the aftermath of the Civil War to protect newly emancipated Black Americans from discrimination.
