The Mississippi flag has been taken down at Mississippi University for Women, but the timing of its removal may have had more to do with construction than Reconstruction.
The flag was removed from its location at the main entrance of the university in July as part of a construction project, MUW President Jim Borsig confirmed Tuesday.
“Anyone who is familiar with our campus knows that there has been quite a bit of congestion at our main entrance,” Borsig said. “In the spring, we started a master plan for the north part of the campus and we identified the need for a pull-out lane there, which required taking out the flag pole.”
Borsig said the removal of the flag for the construction seemed an opportune time to remove the flag permanently.
“Knowing that the flag was going to have to be removed for the construction, and knowing where our campus was on this issue, along with kicking off the 50th anniversary of integration at The W, we just felt like this was the proper time to make that move on a permanent basis.”
Borsig said bid requests for the construction where the flag pole once stood are going out this week.
The current Mississippi flag, with the Confederate Battle Flag display in its canton, was approved by the Mississippi legislature in 1894 as an act of defiance following the bitter years of Reconstruction following the Civil War.
Since June 17, 2015, when the murder of nine black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina, raised the issue of the propriety of state-sanctioned Confederate symbols, southern states moved quickly to remove the Confederate imagery.
The lone exception has been Mississippi. A host of bills designed to address the issue died in committee during the 2016 legislative session, with legislative leadership saying the decision should be left to the people. A 2001 state referendum on replacing the flag failed by almost a 2-to-1 margin. If the question goes before voters again, it will not be on the ballot until 2018.
Most of the state’s universities have decided not to wait.
With Mississippi State’s decision to quietly remove all flags from its campus prior to the start of the fall semester and MUW’s decision to take down the flag, Delta State University is now the only one of the state’s eight public universities to continue to fly the flag.
Some of the universities, most notably the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi, made the decision in 2015 to remove the flag in a very public fashion.
Background
The debate over whether The W should continue flying the flag goes back to last spring, when the university held campus events to engage its students in the debate. In November, The W’s student government association hosted a forum to discuss the topic, bringing in local historian Rufus Ward to address the history of the flag and opening the floor to students to share their opinions.
Borsig said during that forum the university had no plans to remove the flag at that time.
Since then, Borsig said the campus has continued to vigorously campaign for a change in the state flag.
“The faculty, city council and student government association all passed resolutions calling on elected officials to change the flag to something that unites Mississippians,” he said. “Letters to legislators were written and our students did a great job last spring going and seeing legislators in Jackson. They lobbied legislators and did all the right things. By the end of the spring semester, it was pretty clear that our campus was unified behind the idea that the flag needed to be changed.”
Student reaction
Brooke Mardis, an MUW junior from Oxford, said Tuesday she was unaware the flag had been removed from campus.
“I didn’t like how they took it down,” she said. “This was the first I’ve heard of it.”
Her friend, senior Julia Becker of Arkabutla, said while she was aware of the SGA forum last fall, she didn’t participate and was surprised to learn a decision to remove the flag had been made.
“I think they should have kept the flag because it’s still our state flag,” Becker said. “It makes me wonder why they didn’t tell us about it.”
A person who answered the phone Tuesday at The W’s Student Government Association office said SGA officers would not comment on the subject.
Borsig said he did not regret announcing the decision to remove the flag permanently.
“I really don’t think I’d do it any differently,” he said.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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