The historic bill, that originated in the Mississippi House, made it to Gov. Tate Reeve’s desk on Tuesday afternoon. The confederate emblem located on the Mississippi state flag has officially been set to be removed.
What We Know:
- Reeves hosted a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion and addressed the state before signing the bill.
- “Tonight, I am signing a law to turn a page in Mississippi by retiring the flag that we have flown since 1894,” Reeves said. “This was a hard conversation for Mississippi, but family conversations can often be hard.”
- Mississippi was the only state whose flag still contained a Confederate emblem. Lawmakers adopted it nearly three decades after the Civil War.
- The Associated Press reports the Confederate emblem was added to Mississippi’s flag by white supremacists within the state legislature in the late 1800s as backlash to the African-Americans who gained political power after the civil war.
- This made it the state’s second attempt to remove the Confederate emblem from the flag. The last time this issue was voted on was in 2001, but it failed with 61% of voters voting no.
- Mississippians will be able to vote on the new design in the Nov. 3 election. If the design is rejected, the commission will set a different design using the same guidelines, and then send to voters later.
- At this time, it is unclear who will make up the commission in charge of designing the new flag.
While Reeves was a student at Millsaps College, he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity, which organized Confederate-themed parties, and costume formals. Earlier this year, he recognized April as Confederate Heritage Month.
