Mississippi passes bill that will replace state flag depicting Confederate battle emblem

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Lawmakers in Mississippi passed legislation that aims to revise the state’s flag, which shows Confederate symbols.
• Mississippi governor Reeves signed the bill, saying he hopes the initiative will reunite the state.
• The flag’s new design will be presented to voters during the November elections.

On Tuesday, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves approved the legislation that aims to replace the current state flag in the U.S. that shows the Confederate battle symbol. Reeves said that he considers the resolution as a path towards Mississippi unity, moving on, and reconciliation.

Legislators of the state had crafted the measure by the weekend and submitted the bill to the Republican governor’s office for his approval.

While the matter has been a cause of disagreements in the state for many years, Mississippi’s flag was recently criticized amidst protests across the nation against racial discrimination that has put the Confederate symbols in the spotlight.

A coalition of lawmakers on Sunday submitted the vital legislation to revise the flag after a weekend of passionate debate and decades of the initiative by black American lawmakers, and other stakeholders who thought of the rebel emblem promotes hatred.

It was said that white supremacist congresspersons had put the Confederate battle emblem on the top-left portion of Mississippi’s flag in 1894. The move was a response to the success gained by African-Americans following the Civil War.

Mississippi electorates decided to let the flag be during a 2001 election in the state, with many citizens saying a Southern heritage symbol was seen on the old design. After the exercise, many cities and every public university have ceased using the flag in the state.

A number of black legislators and some white representatives have attempted to change it for years. Following an incident in South Carolina church in 2015 where a flag taunting white gunman killed black parishioners, 

Mississippi’s Republican House speaker, Philip Gunn, said his faith obliged him to state that Mississippi must remove the emblem from its flag.

The concern was still generally thought of as too sensitive for lawmakers to tackle until the killing of African-American George Floyd while under arrest ignited weeks of protests, and immediately followed by demands to bring down Confederate sculptures and other symbols.

A commission is now to come up with a new flag design that doesn’t have any Confederate symbol and must include the “In God We Trust.”

The voting public will have to choose by the November 3 election whether to approve the new design or not. Should it doesn’t get enough numbers, the group will redesign it in accordance with the same guidelines to be presented to the voters at another time.

Source: Fox News