Opponents of Mississippi’s anti- critical race theory law fear whitewashing of history

Jeremy Marquell-Bridges, a 34 year-old, process engineering student at Mississippi Gulf Coast community college protests outside the state capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi after the passage of a new anti-critical race theory bill. Photograph: Justin Hardiman/The Guardian

On the southern steps of the Mississippi state capitol last week, a group of protesters gathered in front of a bronzed casket.

It was empty, but for piles of paper, strewn across the inside. They were printouts of dozens of bills that have died in the state legislature in recent months; a bill to expand healthcare coverage for new mothers; a bill to help provide healthy food options in rural and underserved communities, a bill to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people.