Mississippi's Flag: The Issue May Be Coming to a Head Again

NewsMS.com ^ | 02\20\2014 | Chris Davis

[WKB]

JACKSON, Miss.–Thirteen years ago Mississippians voted to keep the state flag with the Confederate “Stars and Bars”. Lately there has been a new wave of calls for the legislature to take it off the pole.

Sunday’s incident at Ole Miss, where a Georgia flag, pre-2003, with the “Stars and Bars”, was draped over the statue of James Meredith, has sparked some discussion from the state’s NAACP president, Derrick Johnson, who says he was part of a lawsuit in the 1990s to get the flag removed.

He said Tuesday that he is still resolute about taking the flag down.

“It’s a symbol that has prevented the NCAA from playing games in the State of Mississippi,” he said. “We must move beyond our past and not continue to remember a legacy based in racial hatred in a way in which it doesn’t empower all Mississippians.”

He’s not the only one. State Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones (D-Canton) recently called for a change to the flag. The California Bar Assoc. said it would not display Mississippi’s flag because they believe it represents racial hatred.

Mississippi’s flag was adopted in 1894.

On Tuesday’s “Head to Head” on SuperTalk Mississippi, hosts Matt Wyatt and Richard Cross opened the phone lines to see not only what Mississippians thought about the Ole Miss incident, but also about the state flag, and whether it should be changed.

“I’d love to hear from somebody elected to public office in the State of Mississippi to explain to me one reason not to change our current flag that is offensive to many,” said Cross.

“It’s a shame that I see every other SEC school getting to put their state flag on their helmets and we can’t because of the history. So it may be time to let the change happen,” said one caller. “It’s gonna have to be a legislative thing because I don’t believe the voters will change it.”

“It’s a part of history and I’m tired of hearing racism this and racism that, the state flag is the state flag. Get over it,” said another caller.

“It’s just a stupid flag and it’s time to make a change,” said another.

“Slavery was under the American flag. Under the American flag we slaughtered the Indians,” said a caller. “You’re saying most of the people in Mississippi are uneducated and can’t make a choice. You said it had to be done legislatively.”

If the show is any indication, most of the callers seemed to favor changing the flag if it is a hindrance to Mississippi’s progress.

[LibLieSlayer]

Our Flag will fly for as long as the Flag of the USA flies. We will NEVER change it.

[Viennacon]

“It’s gonna have to be a legislative thing because I don’t believe the voters will change it.”

THE LEGISLATURE IS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT THE DAMN VOTERS! What is this?!

[vetvetdoug]

When black crime, black unwed mothers, and black politicians become irrelevant, they unravel the attack upon the State Flag of Mississippi as a rallying point. They have nothing else to defend because their culture is so corrupt the only thing they can do is attack others. It is such with this coordinated attack. They have nothing else with which to do that is positive so they have chosen to criticize a state that honors its heroes that fought for the State of Mississippi, not the Federal Government, and stood by them.

[Rummyfan]

Sunday’s incident at Ole Miss, where a Georgia flag, pre-2003, with the “Stars and Bars”, was draped over the statue of James Meredith...

Reserving any judgement in this until more information is available> I'll bet that a black student or someone in the NAACP did this.

[vetvetdoug]

Holmes, an NAACP member from Mississippi, attacked the flag when he was under investigation for statutory rape and was later convicted. Hooks, the National President of the NAACP, attacked the flag when he was embezzling money from that organization. I could go on but when these charlatans are doing evil on the side they have to have a distraction.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Warning to the good people of Mississippi they took our flag in a midnight vote ginned up by the POS Dem governor Roy Barnes. We got rid of Roy shortly afterward but once they get the flag you never get it back.

[WKB]

OXFROD, Miss. – Ole Miss Campus police have identified three white 19-year-old freshmen males from Georgia as suspects in the desecration of the James Meredith statue.

University of Mississippi Chief of Police Calvin Sellers said in a written statement that campus police had gathered enough evidence by late Wednesday to bring charges through the student judicial process against two of the students, and both state and federal authorities were working to determine whether criminal charges are necessary. A third suspect was identified and questioned Thursday.

All three, represented by Oxford attorneys, declined late Thursday to be questioned by campus police. The student’s names were not released because of privacy laws.
- See more at: http://www.newsms.fm/statue-suspects-silent/#sthash.FVNP1uuQ.dpuf

[WKB]

See above

[LibLieSlayer]

They will NEVER get a flag change through our Legislature... oh the racists will try but they will fail.

[cincinnati65]

Oh, just GREAT! Now that they’ve identified 3 white boys, there will be no end to the changes affected in the name of diversity and tolerance.....

[WKB]

See #27

[Malichi]

Kenny Wayne is a crook.

[tet68]

Face it, they will never stop. Resistance to their
agenda must be crushed. It cannot be allowed to
exist. People might start thinking they had a choice.
They might start harboring a pride in their heritage.
They might feel that their rights and freedoms were
being taken away. It’s so much better if they feel
they are losing something by keeping those remnants
of their past.

Here is’s plain.

[Malichi]

And a racist a-hole that has his lips velcro’d to the Blackmons’ butts.
My fellow Mississippians will know exactly to whom I refer.

[rjsimmon]

Is that a USMC button I see on his lapel? If so, then I believe I have finally found an EX-Marine.

[who knows what evil?]

My point was that the black community should start addressing the real problems; out of wedlock births, drugs, high unemployment instead of dragging out this flag issue every time they want some attention.

A statue of James Meredith got vandalized? Whoop-de-doo...a statue of Ronald Reagan was vandalized in California last year.

[wardaddy]

Stars and Bars...what an idiot writer

[vetvetdoug]

Both Cross and Wyatt were jocks, never served in the military for state or country, that have been educated in the liberal indoctrination classes at Ole’ Miss and Mississippi State. The history textbooks at both schools are full of secondary and tertiary references that show no resemblance to the original event and reflect the extreme bias of the liberal professors with little attention to factual history. The two of them should stick to athletics and not venture into history of which neither of them are informed very well. Mississippi honors the 58K men that gave their lives to the state and the 50K+ men that came home mangled from the Civil War (the largest expenditure for the State in 1866-67 was for prosthetic limbs for the veterans). Nowhere else will honor the men that served the State, not slavery. There is a monument to black Confederates at Canton, 5% of the slaveholders in Mississippi were black, and several Confederate units from Mississippi had black men fighting alongside the whites as equals which PC history ignores. Tishomingo County, Mississippi, voted against succession but sent several regiments to fight for the state, not slavery. That flag, the CBF, was never adopted by the Confederate Government but by the troops in the field. It was never dishonored by the men that fought under it.

I had the honor of sitting with former Governor Kirk Fordyce explaining the origin and reasons for the flag and after the session he stated to me that he would stand behind it as long as he was Governor. He kept his word.

[wardaddy]

It was 40% of blacks actually voted to keep old flag

Pissed off the left

But make no mistake....as boomers and Gen X die off in time and Gen Y and Z and younger and younger fill the void

They will vote the glad out...they won’t have the balls

It’ll be like Colonel Reb....

Course may not matter by then anyways if shooting war has begun

[wardaddy]

Desecration?

Lol

Is Meredith a saint now?

He’s actually not a liberal but that is another story..