‘We have the momentum.’ Calls grow to change Coast Confederate monument, state flag
Community sentiment is growing for removal of a Confederate monument planted on the northwest side of the Harrison County courthouse in Gulfport.
Confederates monuments have been coming down across the South in recent years. The death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has quickened the pace of removals as more and more Americans call for an end to violence and discrimination against Black people.
In neighboring Alabama, both Mobile and Birmingham have removed Confederate monuments in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Like Alabama, the state of Mississippi in recent years established impediments to removing these vestiges of the Confederacy.
The Mississippi Legislature and former Gov. Haley Barbour approved a law in 2004 that prohibits altering or removing Confederate monuments. The state and its political subdivisions can move monuments to the “War Between the States,” the law says, only if a governing body determines another location is “more suitable.”
At least two attorney general’s opinions, in 2017, have indicated the law allows a city or county monument to be relocated only to other public property within its jurisdiction.
Harrison County supervisors have historically rejected efforts to move a Confederate symbol, even in the face of protests.
But protesters will call for removing the monument, and changing the state flag with its Confederate battle emblem, at a protest and voter registration drive planned for 4 p.m. Sunday at Jones Park by a new group, Protest for Peace.
This will be the second weekend of protests in Gulfport following Floyd’s death, which has prompted people to take to the streets nationwide.
Removing Confederate symbols
The Daughters of the Confederacy erected the Confederate monument more than half a century after the Civil War ended.
Jim Crow laws and violent campaigns to maintain white supremacy, including lynchings, were being carried out across the South as these monuments rose in record numbers.
The Mississippi Rising Coalition, founded by Lea Campbell of Ocean Springs, is helping organize Sunday’s rally. Campbell said she has received multiple phone calls in recent weeks from people who want it down.
“There is momentum behind this movement at large for removal of Confederate symbols,” said Campbell, who started Mississippi Rising in 2015 to fight for a new state flag. “Do I think we can be successful in having it removed? Yes, I do.
“Do I think we can have it removed without a fight? No, but momentum and multiracial support for this movement have been growing, and I think we a have reached the point where we have the momentum and power in numbers to get it done, so I’m excited.”
Mississippi is the only remaining state with a Confederate emblem on its flag. In the view of many Southerners, Confederate monuments glorify slavery and promote racism. Their presence has been justified by those who claim they represent Southern heritage.
“Our country, we feel, is finally coming to a reckoning with that part of our history, so these monuments have to be removed in order for the racial healing process to really begin and to be completed,” Campbell said. “Symbols have meaning and they symbolize slavery. They don’t belong in public places.”
“ . . . We are seeing a movement for racial equity. I do feel like this is a time when we can push for this successfully.”
The founder of Protest for Peace, D’Laun Ball of Gulfport, said organizers also will talk about other public relics of the Confederacy and Civil War, including the state flag. He said the protest is being coupled with a voter registration drive because voting is the only way to create change.
“A lot of people don’t realize that the most powerful thing they can do is vote,” Ball said, “especially when it comes to their personal interests. Having a public official with their personal interests at heart is important.”
Resisting Confederate flag removal
The Harrison County Board of Supervisors would have to actively work to move the monument. Two board members said this week that the issue has not come up at their meetings.
They would not only have to find a more suitable location for the monument, but also would need permission under the Mississippi Antiquities Law for moving it from the Board of Trustees at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The board has previously been unwilling to disturb Confederate symbols.
Supervisors ultimately opposed removal of the Confederate flag from a prominent landmark, the Eight Flags display, on the beach at the Gulfport-Biloxi line.
A years-long debate over the flag — including protests, counter-protests and even a 77-day sit-in by an Alcorn University student — failed to convince supervisors the flag needed to come down.
Supervisor Marlin Ladner, who is still a board member, said as debate raged in May 2000:
“I don’t intend to allow hate groups, or any other group for that matter, to define what symbols mean to me. I thought we lived in a diverse and tolerant society. But diversity and tolerance go both ways.”
This week, Ladner would not comment on removing the Confederate statue from the courthouse grounds.
Hurricane Katrina ended the debate over the Confederate flag on the beach. The storm obliterated the Eight Flags display.
Board president Connie Rockco did not want to talk about the Confederate monument this week. Tropical Storm Cristobal’s extensive damage had just forced the supervisors to close 26 miles of beach when the Sun Herald reached her by phone.
The county also is dealing with an economy shattered by COVID-19 and the pandemic itself.
“We had a marathon meeting today and we’ve got more important things to talk about,” Rocko said Tuesday.
“That’s the farthest thing from my mind right now. I haven’t thought about it. It’s been up there for I don’t how many years. It’s just not something that I am giving much thought to right now.”
