Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is heated over a new law that he says would create a “colonized” court system in the predominantly Black district.

Black or African American residents make up 82.8 percent and whites are just 5 percent.

On Feb. 7, after four hours of heated debate, a white supermajority of the Mississippi legislature passed a bill that would create a legal framework in Jackson that the city’s mayor says is similar to apartheid, Law and Crime reported.

A modified version of the bill stripped of some of its most controversial provisions passed a state Senate committee on Feb. 23. But these provisions could be added back in as the two legislative houses come to an agreement, CNN reported.

The legislation is called House Bill 1020 and is sponsored by State Rep. Trey Lamar (R-District 8). Under the legislation, a separate court system would be created for the Capitol Complex Improvement District (CCID). The CCID encompasses most of the downtown area of Jackson, including the state government office.

“The bill is totally racially neutral,” its sponsor, Rep. Trey Lamar, told CNN this month. “I hate that the other side used race as much as they did.”

The state legislature voted 76-38 to pass the bill. Only two of the Black members, Rep. Cedric Burnett (D- Tunica) and Angela Cockerham (I- Magnolia), voted in its favor. Every Jackson representative opposed the bill except Rep. Shanda Yates, a white Democrat-turned-Independent.

Lumumba bashed HB 1020, saying, “It reminds me of apartheid.” Lumumba went on, “They are looking to colonize Jackson, not only in terms of them putting their military force over Jackson but also dictating who has the province over decision-making.”

Lumumba, who went to Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Tuskegee University (a Historically Black University), and Texas Southern University, has been mayor of Jackson since 2017.

If the legislation becomes law, court officials in Jackson county would no longer be elected. They would instead be appointed by the white chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court. The district would also have four prosecutors, a court clerk, and four public defenders, all of whom would be appointed by the white state attorney general, Law and Crime reported.

The legislation also still calls for an expanded Capitol Police force.

Mississippi Democrats spoke out against the bill, calling HB1020 an “unconstitutional power grab” that “starve[s] a community of much-needed resources” while “disenfranchising voters.”

“It is taking us back in time, and it puts us on the wrong side of history,” Lumumba said. “It’s colonization, it’s apartheid; it’s the worst of what Mississippi can be.”

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba watches on Feb. 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., as lawmakers debate a bill that would expand the patrol territory for the state-run Capitol Police and create a court system with appointed rather than elected judges. People in Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city say the mostly white state Legislature is trying to encroach on their rights of self-government. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)