Mississippi’s original list of disenfranchising crimes springs from the Jim Crow era
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Kenneth Almons says he began a sentence in a Mississippi prison just two weeks after graduating from high school, and one of his felony convictions — for armed robbery — stripped away voting rights that he still has not regained decades later.
Now 51, Almons told lawmakers Wednesday that he has worked hard and remained law-abiding since his release at age 23, and he wants to be able to vote.
“It would mean I am no longer considered a nobody,” Almons said. “Because when you don’t have a voice, you’re nobody.”
Mississippi is among the 26 states that remove voting rights from people for criminal convictions, according to the .
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