The NAACP strongly advise black people and minorities to be safe when traveling to Missouri.
A travel advisory was issued last week after the controversial bill Senate Bill 43 was passed making it more difficult for fired employees to file discrimination lawsuits in the state.
"The bill would allow discrimination to run rampant in the workplace. We've actually rolled back protections for our most vulnerable citizens," State Rep. Brandon Ellington (D-Kansas City) told KSHB during a community event in the metro on Saturday. "People should be concerned that we have a national organization that is painting Missouri as a racist state … People should be cautious about coming to a state that values civil rights so little that we're willing to change the law to allow discrimination."
This advisory was also issued after a new report coming from the Missouri Attorney General's Office claiming that black drivers in the state were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers. In recent years, the state has been a hotbed for protests resulting from various unaddressed civil rights issues such as police brutality, racism on public university campuses and racial profiling by police.
“SB43 was a really important bill. What SB43 did was it brought Missouri standards in line with the Federal Government and 38 other states, so now Missouri is using the same standards that are used to analyze claims under the civil rights act of 1964,” Governor Eric Greitens said despite the backlash.