MISSISSIPPI DICTATES: "JAIL OR STERILISATION" FOR NATURAL PARENTS by B. Gregory
"HB 180" is the name by which a new piece of legislation passed in the Mississippi House of Representatives has become known, Passed on March llth 1964, this Act is clearly destined to drive negroes out of the State of Mississippi, in view of the social composition of most of the State's natural parents, It can now be said that parenthood for those who for historical and cultural reasons do not conform to the doubtful mores of the Mississippi racialists is now an offence. We quote the following from House Bill 180:
"Section 1. If any person who shall have previously become the natural parent of an illegitimate child within or without this State by coition within or without this State, shall again become the natural parent of an illegitimate child born within this State, he or she shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by the State penitentary for not less than one year nor more than three yearse A subsequent conviction hereunder shall be punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than three years nor more than five years,"
Perhaps however the real nature of the legislation is best brought out in the sentence which reads: "...eAny parent convicted hereunder may submit to sterilisation in lieu of imprisonment,"
Thus the Mississippi House of Representatives has made it clear that HB180 is directed against the Mississippi negroes; that it is an attempt to reduce the number of negroes in Mississippi, either by destroying their capacity to reproduce or by driving them from the State to avoid prosecution. Furthermore, only the type of bastardy which is socially unfortunate, i.e., where the parents desert the child, is bound to increase (as is infanticide), Clearly this legislation is a step along the path of genocide. In Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 9thl? 1948, we read in para (d) that one definition of genocide is "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group."
Whether or not HB180 reaches its final passage in the Senate during the current session, the fact that a substantial majority of the elected representatives in the Mississippi House favours such a measure is an ominous portent for the future of the State, and of the negroes who make up 40% of its populatione,.