Sid Salter: A vital record: Journal article chronicles path to changing Mississippi’s state flag – The Dispatch

STARKVILLE — In any given publication since 1939, The Journal of Mississippi Historical past has been a useful file of the institutional reminiscence of the state of Mississippi. However few editions of the scholarly journal have been extra worthwhile to Mississippians than is the present Vol. 84, No. 1 and No. 2 for the Spring and Summer time of 2022.

The present version chronicles the unusual, usually torturous path of the Mississippi Legislature to altering Mississippi’s state flag in 2020 and the sturdy roles performed by the Mississippi Division of Archives and Historical past — the Journal’s writer — and the broader Mississippi Historic Society (organized in 1858) performed in bringing that monumental change to fruition.

Mississippi’s former state flag was adopted in 1894, some 30 years after slavery was abolished. In 2000, the Mississippi Supreme Court docket, ruling in a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, discovered that the state technically had no official flag.

But the state’s white majority exhibited a cussed insistence on clinging to the state’s 1894 Reconstruction Period state flag — which options within the canton nook the Beauregard Battle Flag (also referred to as the Accomplice Battle Flag, the Flag of the Military of Northern Virginia, and the Insurgent Flag; utilized by some Mississippi troops in battle) — in response to a 2018 Mississippi Historic Society article on the Mississippi flag by Millsaps School historian Stephanie Rolph.

From 1894 ahead, state authorities both ignored protests concerning the state flag altogether or procedurally kicked the rusty can down the political street.

Former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove led the controversial 2001 statewide referendum that gave Mississippi voters a chance to vary the state flag’s 1894 design to a brand new one which deleted the Accomplice battle flag from the canton nook. Mississippi voters rejected the proposition of fixing the state flag on the poll field on April 17, 2001, by a 2-1 margin — 494,323 votes (64.31 %) to 273,359 votes (35.61 %).

One other former Democratic Mississippi governor, the late William Winter, needs to be remembered for his braveness and tenacity on the difficulty of flag change on this state. He was fearless and doggedly decided.

However the flag change effort that succeeded got here below Republican majorities in each homes of the Mississippi Legislature and with the GOP answerable for the state’s govt department places of work. The change fomented in an odd mixture of disparate however undeniably related occasions. Home Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann did yeoman’s work on the difficulty.

The mixture of the “Black Lives Matter” motion, the aftermath of the 2015 Dylann Roof bloodbath in South Carolina, the assist of enterprise and industrial teams, and growing impatience by the NCAA and the Southeastern Convention with enjoying video games in states with flags reflecting Accomplice symbolisms — together with the specific assist of the state’s most influential non secular teams — paved the best way for political success on the difficulty that had been unlikely solely months previous to the legislative votes being taken.

Writer Jere Nash aptly and pretty tells the story of that political course of. Nash labored as marketing campaign supervisor for former Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus in the course of the Eighties. He served as deputy state auditor and as Mabus’ director of coverage and chief of employees. Nash went on to work for quite a few Democratic candidates and progressive political causes.

Nash co-authored the luxurious bipartisan historical past Mississippi Politics: The Wrestle for Energy, 1976-2006 alongside Republican political advisor Andy Taggart in 2006. The pair additionally co-wrote Mississippi Fried Politics: Tall Tales from the Again Rooms in 2008.

In 2020, the Mississippi Home voted 92 to 23 and the state Senate voted 37 to 14 for Home Invoice 1796 to retire the previous state flag and design a brand new one. Katie Blount, the manager director of the MDAH, wrote about that portion of the flag transition that required that company’s appreciable finesse within the journal.

Whereas all are worthy, the present version of The Journal of Mississippi Historical past needs to be part of the libraries of all severe college students of historical past, politics, and social sciences on this state. It’s a fascinating and vital learn. For extra data, contact www.mississippihistory.org or www.mdah.ms.gov.

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at [email protected]