Mississippi should change its flag.
For more than a decade now our state has been the only former member of the Confederate States of America to incorporate that short-lived nation’s battle flag into its state flag. Everywhere our flag flies, there in its upper left hand portion, is a reminder of a culture of inequality. We should be ashamed.
Its supporters maintain it pays homage to the history, tradition and courage of those who fought for the Southern cause. To remove it, they say, is to “deny our history and heritage.”
That “Southern cause” was to hold blacks in slavery. We said as much when we seceded from the United States: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery.”
For many black Mississippians the Confederate flag is a reminder of the dehumanizing reality of slavery, the terror of radical white supremacy that followed and the long, bitter Jim Crow oppression that endured into the 1960s.
For many white Mississippians, it is an embarrassment.
The symbol of the Confederate flag represents a disgusting period of our history. Agree or not, for some in our state it is a symbol of hate, a reference to a time when Mississippians felt so strongly in their state’s right to own blacks that they took up arms to defend that right.
History, heritage and pride of place are important. The symbol of the Confederate flag should not be banned. It is not exclusively a symbol of racism. Individuals should be able to display that symbol any way they want.
But our state must stop using it in every form.
It is not a matter of political correctness, nor is it a knee-jerk reaction to the horrific recent events in Charleston. It is a matter of our state no longer honoring a tattered image that represents a history of oppression and terror against a segment of our fellow citizens.
Until the emblem is removed from our state flag, Mississippi has given official sanction to one group over another and has legitimized one narrative of the flag’s symbolism at the expense of the other.
When it convenes in January, the Mississippi legislature should do what it has lacked the moral strength and wisdom to have done before: Remove the Confederate battle flag from our state’s flag.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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