A group of black citizens has filed a lawsuit to stop prosecutors in Mississippi's Fifth Judicial district from discriminating against them during jury selection. This fight for fair juries is part of a larger struggle for full citizenship, a struggle that is not limited to seven counties in Mississippi until the mid sixties laws across the southern US block black citizens from participation in government and public institutions in Winona, Mississippi Fanny Lou Hamer was beaten by law enforcement for organ. Black Americans to vote Is this America the land of the free and the home of the brain. Our lies be treated daily because we want to live a decent human beings in America. It was through her struggle and the struggle of others like her that the right to vote was won today. The fight for full citizenship for black Americans continues in courtrooms across the country like the right to vote. serving on a jury is the most substantial opportunity that most citizens have to participate in the Democratic process and in these seven. Counties, including the place where Fanny Lou Hamer was beaten back in 1960. - three the obstacle between black jurors and the jury box has been the office of District Attorney Doug Evans for nearly 30 years. Evans and his office have used perimeters challenges. Oregon jury strikes that do not require an explanation to keep black jurors off criminal juries since 1990. - two Evans' office has struck black jurors four point four times more than White jurors the highest rate of any According to numerous published studies, the people of Mississippi will not accept the door to the jury room being closed in their face. I was called for the Curtis Flowers and attorney Furniture Store case, and then it came by they just told us they need us. I think they might assume that because I was black, but I was gonna agree with that. He was innocent just by the color of his skin, but I actually would have listen to the evidence they had an open air. I actually was looking forward to serving Nicole is not a. Just this year, the United States Supreme Court called the jury selection practices of the DA in the fifth district, extraordinary and blatant and ruled that it had discriminated when picking the jury in the death penalty. trial of Curtis Flowers, striking black jurors because of their race is not just unfair as the Supreme Court said three decades ago, it is unconstitutional and undermines public confidence in our judicial system, But apparently a Supreme Court ruling is not enough to stop this practice. The district attorney responded to Justice Kavanaugh's opinion by saying I think it was a ridiculous. We feel in order to get a fair trial, you need a jury of your peers. We are not chosen the way that we should be chosen in a lot of instincts. Black Mississippians deserve full participation in their government. That is why L D F and the McArthur Justice Center are representing black jurors in their lawsuit against district Attorney Doug Evans and his office. It's time to hold prosecutors accountable when they break the law.