USA Africa Dialogue Series - mississippi and confederate symbol

flags are symbols. they need to go beyond symbols to make any changes meaningful
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Mississippi to propose removal of Confederate emblem from state flag

Flag under fresh scrutiny following Charleston church massacre, whose alleged perpetrator, Dylann Roof, was photographed holding Confederate emblem

The Confederate battle flag, as part of Mississippi's state flag, hangs in the US Capitol along the Senate subway. Photograph: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc

Tom Dart in Houston

Lawmakers in Mississippi plan to propose legislation to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag, as momentum grows across the south for symbols that evoke the era of slavery to be removed from public view.

Agreeing to remove the Confederate flag isn't courageous. It's just politics

Jeb Lund

The flag is under fresh scrutiny in the wake of the mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on 17 June. Nine churchgoers were killed.

Photographs of the suspect, Dylann Roof, show him holding a Confederate flag. Many African Americans consider it to be a symbol of racial hatred. The South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, on Monday called for the flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds.

Kenny Jones, a Mississippi state senator, said he and others would consider pre-filing a bill to change the flag in order to gauge support ahead of the next legislative session, which starts in January.

Analysis Is the Confederate flag a racist symbol? After Charleston, the debate rages on

For most Americans, the answer is simple: yes. But the flag has its defenders who insist it expresses a rich southern heritage, not hatred associated with slavery

Read more

Mississippi is the only state that has the Confederate battle saltire in its flag, though six others have designs that allude to the group of secessionist states that fought unsuccessfully to leave the United States in the civil war of 1861-65 .

Mississippi has used the design since 1894 and

--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu