Mississippi faces reckoning on Confederate emblem in flag

Mississippi protest
Protesters want the state flag redesigned.

The young activists who launched a protest movement after George Floyd’s death are bringing fresh energy to a long-simmering debate about the Confederate battle emblem that white supremacists embedded within the Mississippi state flag more than 125 years ago.

Anti-racism protests have toppled Confederate statues and monuments across the United States in recent days, and even NASCAR banned the display of the rebel flag. But Mississippi has been a holdout for years in displaying the emblem in the upper-left corner of its banner.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves rejects the idea of a legislative vote on erasing the symbol. If the flag is to be redesigned, “it should be the people who make that decision, not some backroom deal by a bunch of politicians in Jackson,” Reeves said this week.

The mere mention of removing the Confederate emblem from the Mississippi flag stirs anger in its defenders, who tell people to leave the state if they don’t like it.

The issue has gained new momentum since Floyd was killed last month by Minneapolis police. Thousands of people turned out June 6 in downtown Jackson for a protest organized by Black Lives Matter. One of the organizers, 18-year-old Maisie Brown, read a list of demands that started with “the removal of all Confederate symbols and memorabilia.”

A loud cheer rose from the racially diverse crowd on a street outside the Governor’s Mansion. Reeves was not home to hear it. He was out of town with his family.

Mississippi, with a 38% black population, still has dozens of rebel soldier statues outside courthouses. It’s also the only state with a flag that includes the Confederate battle emblem — a red field with a blue X dotted by 13 white stars.

Reeves has repeatedly refused to answer reporters’ questions about whether he thinks the flag properly represents the state. The first-year Governor declared April to be Confederate Heritage Month.

Mississippi has used the Confederate emblem in its flag since 1894, when white supremacists in state government adopted it after Reconstruction. Georgia put a large Confederate battle symbol on its state flag in 1956, during a backlash to the civil rights movement. That state purged the symbol from its banner in 2001 — the same year Mississippi voters chose to keep it on their flag.

During two news conferences this week, Reeves would only repeat what he said during the 2019 Governor’s race — if the flag is going to be changed, it should be done by a statewide election. He said any Mississippi resident can start a new ballot initiative, which requires signatures from more than 100,000 voters.

“When the people believe it’s time to change the flag is when the flag will be changed,” Reeves said Monday.

Brown, who was born several months after the 2001 Mississippi flag election, said she has little patience for the Governor’s position.

“I feel like it’s a cop-out to say ‘I’m going to let Mississippi decide’ instead of righting a wrong,” Brown said Tuesday. “For Mississippi to show that it cares about its citizens who are not white, they have to take down the flag.”

Enacting a law to change the flag would take a veto-proof two-thirds majority in a Republican-led Legislature. Some legislators said this week that they were trying to build a bipartisan coalition to reach that margin, but they acknowledge it’s tough. Several lawmakers embrace the flag, and many think their political careers would be ruined by a vote for change.

George C. Bond, leader of the Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, said legislators should not engage in political deals to change the flag. He said hate groups have “misused” the Confederate symbol and that Mississippi National Guard soldiers have carried the state flag into battle beginning with the Spanish-American War and continuing to the current war on terrorism.

“That flag, to them, represented home, represented Mississippi,” Bond said.

The 2001 flag referendum included a proposal to replace the Confederate emblem with a blue rectangle topped by circles of white stars to represent Mississippi as the 20th state. Critics derided it as a “pizza flag.”

A different design has been gaining traction the past few years, with people flying it at their homes and businesses. The “Stennis flag” has red bars on either end and a white center topped with blue stars — 19 small ones encircling a large 20th one. The flag was designed by Jackson artist Laurin Stennis, granddaughter of U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, who served 41 years before retiring in 1989.

The elder Stennis was a segregationist much of his career. His granddaughter rejects that mindset, saying she wants her design to unify the state. Critics say Mississippi should not adopt a flag with any connection to the former senator.

Brown said Mississippi leaders of Black Lives Matter want public discussion about a possible new flag design, drawing ideas from diverse groups of people.

All eight of Mississippi’s public universities stopped flying the state flag years ago because of the Confederate symbol. Many removed it after a white supremacist shot and killed worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

Black and white religious leaders in Mississippi issued a statement Thursday calling the flag “a major source of disagreement and discontent.” Two dozen took part in a news conference, urging legislators to remove the Confederate symbol. They said a statewide vote would be divisive.

Ronnie Crudup Sr., administrative bishop for the Fellowship of International Churches, said that when his father and other black soldiers were together in their dress uniforms after returning to Mississippi from the Korean War, a white man used a racial slur against them and told them nothing had changed.

“By not changing the flag,” Crudup said, “we’re saying to the world: ‘Nothing has changed.’”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


4 comments

  • John Kociuba

    June 13, 2020 at 6:34 pm

    NOTICE TO ALL AMERICANS!

    American history is our heritage! Fight these welfare lowlife race baiting NEGRO COMMUNIST with every fiber of your being!

    The Black Communists murdered Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Chinese, Indian, burned your businesses to the ground.

    Not because of American history but because of their hate for our Constitution. America is the land of milk & honey. This is what Communists despise.

    Satanism formed Communism. Read writings of Karl Marx memoirs.

    The Negro Communist has been in the United States since late 1800s. Read about Harry Haywood, Cyril Briggs, Bella Moskowitz, Felix Frankfurter.

    Victor L. Berger was the 1st Communist elected to Congress. Now, if you didn’t know the name and Google searched “first Communist elected to Congress?” You get nothing!

    Lucille Ball, Woodie Guthrie, J. Oppenheimer, all Communists. Research American famous Communists. Jay Lovestone, Earl Browder, Frank Marshall Davis, Saul Alinsky, Richard Cloward, Frances Fox Piven, Gus Hall, etc

    Read “Constitution For The New Socialist Republic In North Amerixa” by Bob Avakian States

    Read “The Naked Communist” by Cleon Skousen

    Read “The Black Book Of Communism: Crimes, Terror And Oppression.

    Read Battleground Berlin.

    “THE COMMUNIST JEW IS USING THE NEGRO AS MUSCLE!” was shouted in the early 1900s and denounced by Communist Jews in media as racist.

    Research Mapai/Progressive/Labor Communist Party in Israel which has dual citizenship with 100 Democrats.

    Tom Steyer, George Soros, OECD, U.N. all promoting International Socialism.

    “The goal of socialism is communism.” ~Vladimir Lenin.

    Democratic Socialism by definition is Menshevik Communism.

    THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE, BUT FIRST IT’S GOING TO PISS YOU OFF!

    • Ocean Joe

      June 16, 2020 at 1:17 pm

      Now you’ve finally gone too far! Attacking Lucille Ball? She would have made a comedy sketch out of your blatherings.

  • John Kociuba

    June 13, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    Dear Floridians ~

    Re: Communism

    Moreover any police Chiefs marching with known Marxist revolutionaries such as Black Lives Matter, Antifa, should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY!

    These Communist Organizations are working with Hamas and jihadist groups along with receiving financial backing by International Socialist Organizations.

    Research HON. JOHN GUANDOLO (FBI).

  • No More

    June 14, 2020 at 9:25 am

    Well said John Kociuba! You do. not see any so called White Supremacist marching and looting and burning down buildings, its the black lives matter and Antifa doing that. They are using violence to make people scared and to back down and do what they want. Once you give them an inch they want a mile as the old saying goes. So, I advise all of you politicians, like in Jacksonville, once you try to appease these CRIMINALS, they own you and they will never be happy. Once you drop all charges against them, they will think, oh wow, I can do whatever I want and nothing will happen, wake up you fools.

Comments are closed.


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