George Floyd protests renew calls to scrap Confederate emblem from Mississippi flag
Mississippi is the sole remaining state with the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag — and critics say it’s time that changes.
Protests prompted by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last week, have renewed calls to rid the flag of the controversial emblem. In just a few days, a MoveOn.org petition launched for the cause has gained thousands of signatures.
As of Wednesday, June 3, more than 80,000 supporters had signed the petition.
“The Confederate battle emblem represents: hatred, death, slavery, Jim Crow and the Confederacy,” it reads. “The time for the flag to come down is now.”
The cause has gained considerable traction on social media, with local and state leaders also voicing support. Addressing a crowd of protesters at Tupelo’s City Hall on Tuesday, Mayor Jason Shelton said, “It’s not lost on me ... that I’m speaking to you under a symbol of racism,” the Daily Journal reported.
The Confederate battle flag emblem has been a source of controversy in the Magnolia State for several years, with the issue landing on the ballot in 2001. Residents ultimately voted to keep the design, and attitudes were seemingly unchanged even after a shooting massacre at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The gunman, Dylann Roof, proudly posed with Confederate flag on social media.
Then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves resisted changing the existing flag, despite calls to adopt a new one.
Supporters have proposed the “Stennis” flag, created by the granddaughter of late Sen. John C. Stennis, as an alternative to the stars and bars emblem that has appeared on the state flag since 1894.
“Hatred resides in a person’s heart, and I doubt the presence of an altered flag makes someone more hateful than they would have been,” Reeves said of the issue in 2017, according to the Jackson Free Press.
“Mississippians voted to keep the state flag in 2001,” he added, according to the newspaper. “If voters want to revisit the issue, they can, but a Legislature or governor should not unilaterally override the vote of the people.”
These days, critics say it’s high time to raise the issue again.
“The time for change is NOW!!!” a supporter of the MoveOn.org petition wrote.
“I come from a family that proudly proclaims our confederate heritage,” wrote another. “I am ready to put that heritage in a museum where it belongs and move forward.”
Another supporter called the flag “hurtful” and “divisive,” adding, “What a horrible symbol for our state. Surely we can do better.”
Confederate symbols have come under renewed scrutiny amid protests demanding justice in Floyd’s death. A Confederate memorial at Ole Miss was the target of demonstrators who defaced the statue with the phrase “spiritual genocide” alongside blood red hand prints, The Oxford Eagle reported.
In Alabama, protesters toppled a statue honoring Confederate Navy captain Charles Linn, shouting “take this s---t down,” according to McClatchy News.
A Confederate monument in Charleston, South Carolina, was also sprayed with graffiti and The United Daughters of the Confederacy’s building set ablaze during protests in Richmond, Virginia, news outlets reported.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 4:37 PM with the headline "George Floyd protests renew calls to scrap Confederate emblem from Mississippi flag."