The Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center on Wednesday praised two decisions by the Mississippi voters letting go of a law designed to prevent Blacks from being elected to statewide office and a state flag displaying the confederate battle emblem.

“Mississippians made a powerful statement at the ballot box on Tuesday, overwhelmingly voting to overturn two Jim Crow-era decisions that have cast a shadow over the state for more than a hundred years,” said the center’s Mississippi Policy Director Brandon Jones. “By voting ‘yes’ on Ballot Measure 2, Mississippi voters reformed a racist law – rooted in the state’s 1890 Constitution – that created a two-tiered process requiring statewide candidates to win both the popular vote and a majority of the state’s gerrymandered House districts,” Jones said.