The skanner., February 24, 2016, Page 19, Image 19

February 24, 2016 - Black History Edition The Skanner Page 11
Black History
By Emily Wagster Pettus
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — The Confederate
battle emblem on the 122-year-old Mis-
sissippi flag is a “disgrace” and needs
to be removed, a black lawmaker said
Thursday at a rally outside the state
Capitol.
Longtime Democratic Sen. David Jor-
dan of Greenwood also said the banner
is an embarrassment to more than 1
million African Americans living in
the state.
“Let’s create a new image for all 3 mil-
lion of us,” Jordan said. “Because the
“
olina lawmakers and Gov. Nikki Haley
removed a Confederate battle flag that
had flown for years outside the State-
house in Columbia.
Days after the Charleston shootings,
Mississippi Republican House Speak-
er Philip Gunn said his state should
change its flag because the Confeder-
ate emblem had become “a point of of-
fense.” Since then, however, Gunn has
said little about the issue.
Mississippi is the last state with a
banner featuring the rebel emblem — a
red field topped by a blue X dotted by 13
white stars.
Next week is the deadline for legisla-
The bottom line, we ain’t going nowhere. We’ve
been down here 300 years together and we
must live together
bottom line, we ain’t going nowhere.
We’ve been down here 300 years to-
gether and we must live together.”
A diverse group of about 200 people
took part in the rally as lawmakers
worked inside. People chanted, “Take it
down! Take it down!”
The event attracted roughly the same
number of people as a mostly white
keep-the-flag rally that took place in the
same spot in January.
Confederate symbols have been
widely debated since nine black wor-
shippers were slain last summer in a
church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The white man charged in the killings
had previously posed for photos with
the rebel flag. Within weeks, South Car-
tive committees to consider bills that
would either remove the Confederate
symbol or strip state funding from
public entities that refuse to fly the flag.
Several Mississippi colleges, schools
and local governments have removed
the flag since Charleston.
A white Lutheran pastor from Jack-
son, Thomas Clark, told the crowd
Thursday that his ancestors fought for
the Confederacy but he doesn’t want a
state flag that offends people.
“It is important to honor the dead,”
Cook said. “But it’s more important to
respect the living.”
The Rev. Thomas Jenkins, bishop of
New Dimensions International Minis-
tries in Jackson, said Mississippi needs
We honor the many
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AP PHOTO/ROGELIO V. SOLIS
Lawmaker: Confederate sign on Mississippi flag a ‘disgrace’
Hundreds of people participate in a rally to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi
flag outside the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Feb. 18, a month after flag supporters gathered there
for their own event.
to redesign its flag to be on “the right
side of history.”
“We must remember the rules of
war,” said Jenkins, who is black. “The
side that loses, their flag goes down.
And I have an announcement to make
today — that the Confederacy lost.” The
crowd erupted into cheers.
Two white men holding large state
and rebel flags stood silently on the
edge of the Capitol lawn, and at one
point protesters went back and yelled
at them: “Take it down! Shut it down!
Take it down! Shut it down!” Capitol po-
lice officers watched to keep the peace.
After the rally, a black woman who
called for changing the flag went up
and hugged the men.
Craig Haden of Jackson, who held one
of the rebel flags, said those who want
to change the state flag are misguided.
“I think a lot of them have been lied
to about Southern history,” Haden said.
“The Confederate States of America
was a libertarian, agrarian society.”
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