Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday made good on his promise to sign House Bill 1796, which officially retires the 1894 state flag that featured the confederate battle emblem.
“Tonight, I am signing a law to turn a page in Mississippi—by retiring the flag that we have flown since 1894,” Reeves said during a signing ceremony on Monday. “This was a hard conversation for Mississippi, but family conversations can often be hard.”
The debate over the state flag gained national attention over the past few weeks, as many institutions, particularly the NCAA, the Southeastern Conference and Conference-USA stated that the state would experience stiff penalties if the banner was not changed.
This fight, however is not new to many within Sunflower County.
Individuals and groups here have long called for the flag, which was the last state one in America to feature confederate symbolism, to be changed.
“As a Mississippian and a citizen of Sunflower County, I stood with the Sunflower County NAACP in its fight for the removal of the Confederate flag at the Sunflower County Courthouse in January of 2016,” said Charles Modley as part of a letter to the editor that can be read on Page 4. “The next step for us was to request that Mississippi Delta Community College remove the Confederate flag from all of its campuses in 2018. The vote was successfully taken to remove the Confederate flag.”
District 31 Rep. Otis Anthony was one of the House members this past weekend who proudly voted yes for the change.
“It has been a passionate debate on both sides,” Anthony told The E-T. “I voted to suspend the rules to retire the current state flag. This flag does not mean the same to everyone. For some people, they are committed to it because they see it as a symbol of our history and where we’ve been as a state, but in order to move forward, those things that are hurtful to many of us, especially those in our community of color, we cannot ignore that hurt and pain any longer.”
Anthony, like many others, praised the bipartisanship of the bill.
Without Republican support, the change would not have been possible.
“I am excited to see the flag come down,” he said. “I was more excited to see this was a bipartisan effort on both sides of the aisle. Republicans and Democrats came together.”
District 13 Senator Sarita Simmons said the flag has long harmed Mississippi’s image and progress.
“The current flag is very divisive and not respected by many of the state’s citizens,” she said this week. “In addition, it is having a negative impact on our economy because some businesses are refusing to come to our great state because of the flag…I am honored to have been a part of this progressive change for the good of Mississippi and her citizens.”
Sunflower County Board of Supervisors President Riley Rice, who is a veteran of the civil rights movement, noted that this was a silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic.
If not for the pandemic, the Legislature would not be in session this summer.
“I’m proud that they changed it, because they have something now that all of us can celebrate,” Rice said. “All races can celebrate this now, because we now have something that all of us can honor…God is bringing us together now. Things are happening now that are bringing us together. The pandemic didn’t break anything. It revealed what was broken.”
Indianola Mayor Steve Rosenthal said Wednesday he was proud of the state Legislature for coming together to make the change.
“There are many things in Mississippi’s heritage to be proud of,” he said. “But what the flag represented was not one of them. We must continue to work with each other to raise Mississippi up to truly be the “Hospitality State” for all.”
