Thread by @ashtonpittman

Mississippi House Rep. Price Wallace: “We need to succeed [sic] from the union and form our own country."

That tweet came in response to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' victory in the presidential race.

STORY: mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…

Rep. Price Wallace's declaration that Mississippi needs to "succeed from the union" comes less than a week after Mississippians' voted to replace a flag that symbolized the last time we tried to *secede from the union with a new one. mississippifreepress.org/6731/mississip…

Top Mississippi Republican officials, on the other hand, have mostly remained silent about President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' victory. mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…

In case you were wondering: Rep. Price Wallace ran unopposed for his seat in 2019.

https://twitter.com/pricewallace/status/1325233771638091776

Rep. Price Wallace was born in 1961 & graduated from Simpson Academy, an all-white segregation academy that opened in spring 1970 following a fall 1969 Supreme Court order for all public schools in Mississippi to desegregate immediately. jacksonfreepress.com/segacademies/

It's no coincidence that these kinds of remarks so often come from Mississippians who attended segregation academies in the years during and right after integration.

See also Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who made the infamous "public hanging" comment. jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/nov/…

Last week, the vast majority of Mississippians voted to END our state's electoral college-like 1890 Jim Crow election law, which required candidates for governor to win in a majority of House districts. Its intent was to diminish Black voting strength. mississippifreepress.org/6733/mississip…

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All that said, two young Mississippi House Republicans celebrated that America elected a woman to the vice presidency.

Republican House Rep. Jansen Owen: "Regardless of one’s political ideology, this moment stands as a testament to our great nation." mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…

Republican Mississippi House Rep. Kent McCarty: “I would hope that ALL of us, regardless of party, can acknowledge the historical significance of the daughter of immigrants becoming the VP of the United States. ... I’m not sure why that’s controversial." mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…

In the same genre: In Hattiesburg, a Confederate statue looms by a monument to voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer, murdered by the KKK in 1966.

Most Hattiesburg voted to remove; nearby white flight towns voted for it to stand in the majority Black city. mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c…

Here's another recent story about how a group of teenagers in a historic white flight suburb outside of Hattiesburg have banded together to fight back against systemic racism in their high school:
mississippifreepress.org/5625/good-trou…

I don't think Rep. Price Wallace liked this Twitter thread as much as some of y'all did.

Anyway, here's his tweet for posterity in case he deleted it.

He has officially succeeded from my timeline.

Feeling like I just lost the Battle of Pettysburg.

Important: Rep. Price Wallace sits on the House election committee, meaning he has a vote on whether or not legislation to make voting more accessible makes it to the House floor.

Mississippi House Speaker @PhilipGunnMS has not yet responded to my requests for comment.

To those of you putting down on Mississippi as usual and using Rep. Price Wallace to paint this whole state with broad, racist strokes, keep in mind that Jeramey Anderson is also a Mississippi House Rep, and Mississippi voters elected him, too. 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1326344476399374337

UPDATE: Mississippi House Rep. Price Wallace, the Republican called on the state to "succeed [sic] from the Union" after Biden's victory, has apologized.

The apology came after a talk last night with Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn. mississippifreepress.org/6847/mississip…

Rep. Price Wallace unlocked his account, unblocked me, and DMed the apology for "my poor lack of judgment" for his "succeed from the Union" tweet directly my inbox. 👇🏻