© AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis A participant of a “Save the Mississippi State Flag Rally” holds a Mississippi flag on July 6 as she listens to speakers in Jackson, Miss.
As part of a growing chorus to remove the Confederate battle emblem from Mississippi’s state flag, a group of more than 60 prominent former and current residents took out a full-page advertisement in Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger Sunday calling for the state to strike the symbol.
The letter was signed by notables like actor Morgan Freeman, musician Jimmy Buffett, and author John Grisham. Mississippi is the only state where the symbol still flies over the statehouse.
“It is simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their ancestors enslaved,” the letter says. “It’s time for Mississippi to fly a flag for all its people.”
Like many former Confederate states, Mississippi has grappled with the issue before. In 2001, a referendum to change the flag’s design was put in front of voters, who opted in a landslide to keep the current styling.
But even though it’s a decade and a half later, and even though the Confederate battle emblem has been removed elsewhere recently, it appears unlikely that Mississippi will remove the symbol from its flag soon.
Greg Stewart, executive director of Beauvoir, the home and library of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, said he was unimpressed by the ad’s call to action.
“Fifteen years forward, there’s no new evidence that it’s hurting businesses, and in the interim, hip-hop artists have appropriated the symbol. So obviously it’s not offensive,” Mr. Stewart said.
He also pointed to the fact that a majority of the letter’s cosigners no longer live in the state. That may work against the letter’s aim, with public opinion swayed toward keeping the flag as a form of rebellion, says John Bruce, a University of Mississippi political science professor.
“I was here during the prior referendum, and in the beginning, public opinion polls were mixed,” he says. “But when there were these threats from the outside, then opposition to changing the flag exploded.”
Source: Christian Science Monitor | Kevin Truong
Comments