Karl Oliver (born March 24, 1963) is a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives for District 46, which encompasses Carroll, Grenada, Leflore, Montgomery, and Webster counties in the north central portion of his state. Oliver resides in his native Winona in Montgomery County. He is a 1981 graduate of Winona High School and

Northwest Mississippi Community College Northwest Mississippi Community College is a public community college in Senatobia, Mississippi. It was founded in 1928. As of August 2008, Northwest's enrollment exceeds 7,100 students. There are approximately 3,000 students on the Senatobia ca ...

Senatobia Senatobia is a city in, and the county seat of, Tate County, Mississippi, United States, and is the 16th largest municipality in the Memphis Metropolitan Area. The population was 8,165 at the 2010 census. Senatobia is the home of Northwest Miss ...

. A

funeral home A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the dead and their families. These services may include a prepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral. Services ...

director, he has formerly lived in Grenada, Amory, Starkville,

Tupelo Tupelo , genus ''Nyssa'' , is a small genus of deciduous trees with alternate, simple leaves. It is sometimes included in the subfamily Nyssoideae of the dogwood family, Cornaceae, but is placed by other authorities in the family Nyssaceae. In ...

, and

Brandon Brandon may refer to: Names and people *Brandon (given name), a male given name *Brandon (surname), a surname with several different origins Places Australia *Brandon, a farm and 19th century homestead in Seaham, New South Wales *Brandon, Q ...

, Mississippi.

Political career

On August 26, 2015, Oliver defeated Shed Hunger in the Republican primary runoff election for House District 46. Then in the general election, Oliver defeated the

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Ken Strachan with 57 percent of the ballots cast.

Taxpayer Pay Raise Act of 2016

Oliver supported the Taxpayer Pay Raise Act of 2016, and suggested to an

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

-born Mississippian who was critical of the bill that she might consider returning to her native state.

Statement in favor of lynching

On May 20, 2017, Oliver submitted a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

post stating that the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

lawmakers who supported the

removal of Confederate monuments and memorials More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn do ...

in their state "should be LYNCHED". He made the statement following the removal of the Robert E. Lee Monument, the last of a group of Confederate monuments removed from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, Louisiana. His statement compared the removal of monuments to

Nazi book burnings The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (, ''DSt'') to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representi ...

. House Speaker

Philip Gunn Philip Anthony Gunn (born January 27, 1963) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Mississippi. A member of the Republican Party, Gunn is the Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and represents the 56th district. He has ...

condemned Oliver's statement, and stripped him of his vice-chairmanship of the House Forestry Committee. On May 22, 2017, Oliver apologized, after his statement caused national outrage. Oliver's district includes the town of

Money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

, where

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

teenager Emmett Till was

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

. The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, Mississippi NAACP, Mississippi ''

Clarion-Ledger ''The Clarion Ledger'' is an American daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the second-oldest company in the state of Mississippi, and is one of the few newspapers in the nation that continues to circulate statewide. It is an operating d ...

'' newspaper, and the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...

have called for Oliver to resign for his statements. The ACLU of Mississippi has called for Oliver's statement to be investigated for violations of either the state Code of Ethics or the rules of the legislature.

War on Terror

Oliver has stated his perspective that the policies of the Obama Administration made the US less secure against

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, and accused the Administration of "aiding in transporting these same Muslim extremist into our nation".

School choice

Oliver has supported

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. The most common in the United States, by both the number of programs and by the number of participating students are scho ...

, and was given an "A" ranking on the issue by Enpower Mississippi in the group's 2016 Education Report Card.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Karl 1963 births Living people Republican Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives 21st-century American legislators People from Winona, Mississippi People from Grenada, Mississippi People from Starkville, Mississippi People from Tupelo, Mississippi People from Brandon, Mississippi