# Stupid UL, please debunk **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180 "2002-08-29T22:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/1 "2002-08-29T22:19:56Z")
Today I noticed a “factoid” on the bulletin board on my American history teacher’s wall which stated that Tennesse didn’t ratify the Amendment which allows blacks to vote until 1997. Please debunk this garbage. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/2 "2002-08-29T22:35:31Z")
Strange but evidently true: [From UTenn](http://pr.tennessee.edu/news/apr97/amendmen.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/3 "2002-08-29T22:38:15Z")
I’m more speechless than anything else now. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/4 "2002-08-29T23:52:50Z")
Well I don’t know how old you are but I seem to remember it making the news in '97. If you are speechless now, did you know that Kentucky didn’t ratify the 13th Amendment until 1976 and Mississippi in **1995**!! [usconstitution.net](http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am13) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/5 "2002-08-29T23:59:41Z")
So everyone “gets it”-\> 13th amendment = abolishment of slavery. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/6 "2002-08-30T00:56:08Z")
Tennessee’s “ratification” has no legal force, it’s only symbolic. Once an amendment is ratified by three-fourths of the states, it is part of the constitution, applicable to all the states. Whether the the other one-quarter of the states ratify it or not is immaterial. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/7 "2002-08-30T02:51:23Z")
Hell, the Vatican didn’t agree the earth revolved around the sun until [1992.](http://www.dslnorthwest.net/~danwilcox/galileo.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/8 "2002-08-30T03:00:15Z")
I don’t understand why you’re so shocked or upset by this. So Tennessee finally got around to engaging in a purely ceremonial vote that was of no real significance whatsoever. I doubt they passed a resolution confirming that water was wet, either. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ul-please-debunk/126180/9 "2002-08-30T03:06:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UncleBill \* > \*\*Hell, the Vatican didn’t agree the earth revolved around the sun until [1992.](http://www.dslnorthwest.net/~danwilcox/galileo.html) \*\* What, they’ve got the earth revolving around the sun now? Dang, that’s a pisser! Now I’m going to have to get all of the calendars reprinted!