Time for Mississippi to take action against racism and hate

[struggle4progress]

La'Verne Edney
Published 11:00 a.m. CT Aug. 18, 2017 | Updated 12:08 p.m. CT Aug. 18, 2017

Mississippi has a unique opportunity at this moment in the history of our nation. Ours is the last state flag in the United States of America to include the Stars and Bars, the iconic symbol of the Confederacy.

White supremacists, unmasked and unafraid, have rallied around this symbol and even mimicked our state flag to support their ugly aims.

We should take it down now ...

We also are in a unique moment in the history of our state. As Mississippi celebrates its bicentennial and prepares to open its civil rights museum, is there any clearer signal we could send to the nation and the rest of the world that Mississippi has put to rest its secessionist past? ...

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/08/18/its-time-mississippi-take-action-against-racism-and-hate/576521001/

[struggle4progress]

1. Former Mississippi Gov: Every Confederate Statue Must Be Removed

Secretary Ray Mabus
Aug 17, 2017

Mabus, who has served as Governor of Mississippi, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Secretary of the U.S. Navy, is CEO of The Mabus Group.

Monuments to treason. That is exactly what blights nearly every courthouse square in the South, Confederate statutes and memorials celebrating those who took up arms against the United States in defense of slavery.

As a former Mississippi governor and a fourth-generation native, who grew up in the segregated South, I believe those monuments and statues and memorials never should have been erected in the first place, a view shared by Robert E. Lee, who wrote a few years after the Civil War that he thought it "wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to … commit to oblivion the feelings engendered."

These symbols of unrepentant oppression — every single one — must be removed now and forever ...

http://time.com/4905956/ray-mabus-confederate-statues-trump/

[struggle4progress]

2. Legislative proposal for two state banners

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) - A top Mississippi lawmaker is renewing his efforts to address the state flag controversy. This comes as members of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus are requesting for the governor to call a special session to address the flag. The second in command in the state house says he's already sought to prefile legislation to address these concerns.

"I have already asked for that bill to be prefiled," says Mississippi House Speaker Pro Tem Greg Snowden from Meridian. He's talking about legislation for lawmakers to adopt an alternate flag for the state.

"That way you would not be changing the flag per say, and you would still allow people to have a voice," says Snowden.

His proposal is for the Magnolia Flag to serve as an alternate to the current state flag. From 1861 to 1865 it served as the first state flag for Mississippi. If approved, Snowden's proposal would essentially allow the state to have two state flags ...

http://www.wtok.com/content/news/Mississippi-state-flag-legislative-proposal-440930483.html

[struggle4progress]

3. GOV. SAYS NO TO SPECIAL SESSION TO CHANGE FLAG

Last Updated by Desare Frazier on Aug 17, 2017 at 4:38 pm

The fifty-one member Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus sent a letter to Republican Governor Phil Bryant. They say violence in Charlottesville, Virginia shows the state's flag with the confederate battle emblem resonates with racists. They write it's time to reject white nationalism and hold a special session to change the flag. A Caucus member, Democratic Representative Earle Banks of Hinds County, says any special session requires preparation.

"But before I see a special session. I want to see a dialogue, I'd like to see a committee formed to again study the flag design, concepts and so forth before we just go for a special session to deal with the flag and that special session goes nowhere," said Banks.

The request for the session is going nowhere. Byrant has said in the past, Mississippians by a wide margin voted to keep the flag in 2001. After this latest request, the governor said in a statement his position hasn't changed. Views are entrenched on the issue. For many, confederate symbol represents racism and the state's slavery and Jim Crow past. Others like Walter Kennedy with The Dixie Alliance, embrace confederate monuments and symbols because of heritage ...

http://www.mpbonline.org/blogs/news/2017/08/17/gov-says-no-to-special-session-to-change-flag/

[struggle4progress]

4. State flag likely to stay down in Biloxi for now

MARY PEREZ
AUGUST 17, 2017 5:00 AM

The Biloxi City Council now has an attorney general’s opinion supporting its right to vote on whether to fly the state flag with its Confederate battle symbol, but things have changed since the flag flap began this spring.

There’s been a city election, an attorney general’s opinion and deaths in Charlottesville, Virginia, which has heightened tensions over Confederate symbols across the nation.

Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich ordered the flag down in April. He said Tuesday he hasn’t changed his position, so he likely would veto any attempt by council members to require the state flag fly at all city facilities ...

http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article167619282.html