At a Friday morning hearing, he spoke out about the history and effects of Mississippi’s lifetime voter ban for felonies. Hopkins was convicted in 1998 of grand theft and sentenced to a year in prison in 2001. He is still unable to vote because of that conviction. Hopkins was accompanied by his wife, six of his nine children and said, “I am concerned about my children growing up without any sense of civic duty because they father must sit out every election.” Two lawsuits are currently pending in federal courts, filed by the Mississippi Center for Justice (SPLC) and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The two suits are about how the state can disqualify people from voting after a felony conviction. Hopkins is the lead plaintiff in the SPLC Class Action suit. The hearing was held by the Senate Judiciary B Committee. It opened up a discussion about whether Mississippi could restore voting rights for thousands of its citizens via a legislative solution rather than responding to litigation. A pardon from the governor or an act of the legislature are required to restore a person’s rights to vote. Mississippi is one of only four states that ban permanent voting for people convicted of felony offenses. The state of Florida is the focus of national attention. A referendum in November could allow people with felony convictions to vote again. This would re-enfranchise 1.5 million Floridians. Roy Harness and Wayne Kuhn were the other witnesses. They spoke of having served their probation and prison sentences, and then living productive lives. However, they were relegated into second-class citizenship. Jody Owens, SPLC managing attorney, noted that their voices portrayed the impact of the ban on the lives of both black and white Mississippians. Robert Luckett is a historian and director at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. He said that the ban was connected to the 1890 constitution convention which “undermined black control through disenfranchisement”. Luckett said that the list of crimes that disqualify people from voting — perjury and forgery — was established in conjunction with measures such as residency requirements, poll taxes, and literacy exams. This was because these crimes were considered “specifically black crime.” Witnesses pointed out that the constitution also grants state legislators the power of re-enfranchising people with a two-thirds vote. Hob Bryan, chairman of Judiciary B, wondered if such a move could be reversed in a later legislative session and if the constitution itself could possibly be modified. Opponents of state voting restrictions often point out how even minor offenses, such as writing a $100 bad check, can result in losing the right vote. An earlier Mississippi Today analysis found that 56,000 Mississippians lost their right to vote between 1994 and 2017. Sixty-one per cent of those barred from voting are African-Americans, even though only 36% of the state’s population is African-American. Racial inequalities are a prominent feature among Mississippians who have been banned from voting Bryan stated that the committee considered the issue “clearly worthwhile pursuing.” They asked witnesses for further information about the legal feasibility of the state legislature returning voting rights to Mississippians and statistics on the way other states deal with the voting rights of those with criminal convictions. Last session, a bill to create a study commission on voter disenfranchisement passed in the state House. However, it died in the Senate.