Ocean Springs removes state flag from City Hall ahead of Legislature vote
Ocean Springs Mayor Shea Dobson has removed the 1894 state flag with the Confederate battle emblem from City Hall, citing the state legislature’s impending vote on the flag, expected later Sunday.
The removal puts an end to the issue that has defined Dobson’s term since he took office in 2017 and hoisted the flag above City Hall. Ocean Springs residents packed meetings of the Board of Aldermen to express their anger that the flag, which former Mayor Connie Moran had never replaced after Hurricane Katrina, was back up.
Now, the legislature’s planned vote will resolve the emotional dispute. Dobson decided not to wait a few more hours for the Legislature to act, and removed the flags from City Hall and other municipal buildings in the early afternoon.
“Today the Mississippi Legislature votes to officially retire the 1894 state flag and put a new design on the ballot in November,” Dobson wrote on Facebook. “By ordinance, the official state flag must fly at municipal buildings in Ocean Springs. Governor Reeves has indicated he will sign this bill, therefore I have ordered the retired 1894 flag removed from all municipal buildings.”
Ocean Springs residents who had opposed the flag thanked Dobson on Facebook. For Greg Gipson, a 52-year-old Ocean Springs native who estimated he attended at least 10 board meetings to ask for the flag’s removal, it was a moment for celebration.
“I am just overjoyed, filled with emotions, glad it’s removed, and hopefully this city can move forward and make some progress and start having a dialogue about race relations here,” Gipson told the Sun Herald.
Gipson and members of his historic Black church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist, were a frequent presence at City Hall as they urged the mayor and Board to remove the flag.
The Board of Alderman voted 6-1 in November 2017 to require the flag to be flown at all municipal buildings with a flag pole. But in recent days, as the push to change the flag gained momentum at the state level, some of the aldermen were reconsidering their position.
They had planned to rescind their 2017 ordinance at their next meeting on July 7, Alderman Ken Papania said in an interview on Sunday. He said he was glad that the state legislature and Dobson himself pre-empted that plan.
“I’m glad it’s down, I’m glad it’s over with and we’ll go forward from here,” Papania said.
This story was originally published June 28, 2020 at 4:09 PM.
