Governor signs historic bill to remove Confederate symbol from Mississippi flag
Source: The Guardian
Mississippi has officially retired the last state flag in the US with the Confederate battle emblem, a racist symbol that has served as a source of division for generations.
Republican governor Tate Reeves signed a historic bill withdrawing the state's 126-year-old flag on Tuesday.
"This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled, and to move on," Reeves said in a statement. "We are a resilient people defined by our hospitality. We are a people of great faith. Now, more than ever, we must lean on that faith, put our divisions behind us, and unite for a greater good."
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On Sunday a coalition of legislators passed a bill removing the state's flag, and calling for a commission to design a new one, which voters will be asked to approve in the 3 November election.
The move capped days of emotional debate and decades of effort by Black lawmakers and others to remove the rebel emblem, arguing it cannot represent a state where 38% of the population is Black. White supremacist lawmakers placed the symbol on the Mississippi flag in 1894, - thirty years after the civil war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?vLHGP8tOdDME
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/mississippi-flag-confederate-symbol-remove
Amazing, this was a bipartisan vote, and signed by a republican governor, in the era of trump.
Congratulations Mississippi!
