Sun Herald editorial: It is beyond time to change the Mississippi state flag
It is beyond encouraging to see the growing number of people, everyone from business executives to football coaches, calling for a change to the state flag.
The Sun Herald wants to weigh in too, just like we did during the flag election of 2001.
Our stance: It’s time for Mississippi to retire its current state flag.
Actually, it’s beyond time.
It’s pretty simple. Our current flag doesn’t represent all Mississippians. When many of us look at the flag, we see the Confederate battle flag emblem, which reminds us of the state’s long ties to racism, slavery and oppression.
We’ve got to do better. We need a flag that is welcoming to all.
The 2001 vote to keep the flag was embarrassing for our state. But sentiment is changing.
The Mississippi Economic Council this week released a poll showing that 55% of Mississippians favor changing the flag, compared to 54% who were not in favor of a change just 18 months ago. That’s encouraging news.
Our country is trying to resolve the racial tension at the heart of thousands of protests over the last few months. And that means the nation will be watching to see if Mississippi can get this right and take a giant leap forward.
We can. We should.
The Sun Herald is doing its part as well. We applied, and were selected by the nonprofit Report for America, to host a reporter focused on minority communities. That reporter, Isabelle Taft, started earlier this month.
We call on our political leadership to come together, find common ground and make the change – now.
We don’t have a solution to what should replace the current flag. The most important thing is just to remove the current flag.
Find a way. Get it done. Make history ... the right kind.
Now is the time to do the right thing.
The above views are the opinion of the Sun Herald Editorial Board, made up of Executive Editor and General Manager Blake Kaplan and Sun Herald editors Lauren Walck and Justin Mitchell.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 3:30 PM.