The Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate voted Sunday, June 29, to remove a Confederate symbol from the flag of this American state, which is the last to retain this reminder of the period of slavery.
→ ANALYSIS. Mississippi on the verge of relinquishing flag of slave states
The move comes as a wave of anti-racism protests across the United States has rekindled controversy over the persistence of symbols evoking slavery. Parliamentarians from Mississippi, a southern state in the United States, decided on Sunday that a new flag no longer bearing the Confederation standard should be adopted.
Clamors of approval
The removal of the emblem was approved Sunday by the Mississippi House of Representatives by a majority of 91 to 23 votes. The vote sparked clamors of approval from the public gallery. Then the Senate in turn approved the provision by 37 votes to 14, and senators celebrated the vote with cheers and hugs.
Mississippi is the only state to have the Southern emblem on its flag since neighboring Georgia abandoned it in 2003. The law passed Sunday called for a nine-member commission to design a new flag that will include the phrase « In God We Trust », the American currency.
Consultation on a new flag in November
Mississippi citizens will have to vote on the new flag in November. If they reject it, the state will not have a flag until a new design is approved.
The issue of racial discrimination has been the subject of particularly heated debate in the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, an African-American who died after being asphyxiated during his arrest by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
→ DOSSIER. Death of George Floyd: a new case of racism in the United States
The movement also resulted in the degradation or destruction of statues of Confederation leaders and other historical figures accused of links to racism or slavery.
–