In the following years after the period known as “reconstruction,” many laws came into affect against African Americans in this country. Those laws would go on to be named the Jim Crow laws.

Jim Crow and marijuana have been linked together for many decades in America.

Starting in 1910, the New Orleans public safety commissioner and New Orleans newspapers stated marijuana made “darkies” think they were as good as white men.

To add insult to injury, Harry J. Anslinger, who was a former prohibition agent, was quoted as saying “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.

Famous jazz musician Louis Armstrong was arrested in 1930 for a marijuana cigarette in Los Angeles. Armstrong was sentenced 10 days in jail and agreed to leave California and not return for two years.

It was also during this time in the 1930s, Anslinger and fellow politicians began to write city and state laws banning marijuana. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Act. This banned marijuana in the United States.

Between 1982 and 1996 in the United States, drug law violation sentences and the African American prison population doubled.

In 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported one in three African American men will have contact with the criminal justice system and approximately 1.4 million African American men — 13 percent of all adult African American males — are disfranchised because of felony drug convictions, and one in 14 black children has a parent in prison.

In addition to this report, the ACLU also found that African Americans and Caucasian Americans use marijuana at nearly identical rates. African Americans in Mississippi are 3.9 times more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to be arrested for marijuana possession.

This leaves many to sit and ponder: How and will legalization of marijuana affect minorities in Mississippi? That’s an idea to be determined by Mississippi voters and politicians.

Jeremy Houston is a Natchez resident.