492 A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI decades followed the historical trends. In the 1920s, the court issued opinions on disputes arising from Prohibition, industrialization, and highways. The 1930s saw litigation born of the Great Depression—disputes over interest rates, government revenue, and debt. For example, in 1934 the Legislature passed an emergency revenue measure that levied a two-percent sales tax. The act was challenged in court by the Notgrass Drug Company. Eventually, the Supreme Court upheld the tax. Although the World War II years appear to have had little impact on the Court, following the end of that great conflict the state and the Court found itself entering the embryonic stages of the Civil Rights era. In 1948, when the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of an African American man who charged that other African Americans had been excluded from serving on the grand jury that indicted him, the United States Supreme Court reversed his conviction. The case served as a harbinger of the tumultuous years ahead. During the Civil Rights Era and since, Mississippi’s STATE LAW LIBRARY The State Law Library was officially established by the Mississippi legislature in 1838. In February 1860, the State Library was put under the control and management of the governor, judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and the attorney general. When the Mississippi Supreme Court gained supervision and control of the State Law Library in 1989, they were allowed to adopt policies and procedures relating to its operation. The state librarian has been elected jointly by the legislature since 1842. The library was located at the new capitol’s second floor west wing until 1973; it was then relocated to the old Gartin Justice Building. In 2008, the library moved to its current location where it occupies the first and second floors of the west side of the new Carroll Gartin Justice Building. The State Law Library’s mission is to, “provide law library services to the Supreme Court and other state courts, to state officials, and to the general public.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE The State Law Library was located in the new capitol until 1973.