Nicholson wants people to have right to display Ten Commandments

By By William F. West / community editor
Jan. 7, 2003
An East Mississippi legislator wants people to have the right to place the Ten Commandments in public buildings and on public grounds.
State Rep. Billy Nicholson, D-Little Rock, is offering such a bill, but he acknowledges it probably won't be acted on until the outcome of a legal dispute involving Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Moore came under fire from civil libertarians for placing a monument to the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of Alabama's judicial building in Montgomery.
U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson ruled the monument was unconstitutional and ordered Moore to remove it. The removal was delayed pending a review by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Nicholson said his bill calls for placing the Ten Commandments in public buildings and on public grounds on a voluntary basis. The bill heads to the House Public Buildings, Grounds and Lands Committee.
Meanwhile, another East Mississippi legislator expressed confidence in a bill he's co-sponsoring.
State Rep. Charles Young, D-Meridian, said he is supporting a bill to help equalize funding at Mississippi's historically black and white universities.
Young said the bill, which heads to the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, is the result of the state's 2001 multimillion dollar settlement ending the Ayers desegregation case.
The late Jake Ayers, of the Delta town of Glen Allan, filed the suit in 1975 in an attempt to rid Mississippi of remnants of segregation in its higher education system.
His arguments went to the U.S. Supreme Court and also prompted national debate.
Young said the legislation he is cosponsoring is special to him because he knew Ayers and knew of Ayers' struggle.
But Young said, "I think it's time for us to concentrate on other things and go ahead and do the right thing and get the funds so they will be available for use."