ASSOCIATED PRESS
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UNITED STATES – The Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate voted Sunday, June 28, to remove the flag of this southern United States from a Confederate symbol reminiscent of the period of slavery.
Mississippi is the last American state to display the Confederation emblem on its flag.
The decision on Sunday comes as a wave of anti-racist protests across the United States has rekindled controversy over the persistence of symbols evoking slavery.
Mississippi parliamentarians have decided that a new state flag should be adopted.
The current flag has the standard – red background, blue cross diagonally with small white stars – which represented the Southern States, opposed to the abolition of slavery, during the Civil War (1861-1865).
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.
“In God We Trust” on the next flag
Mississippi is the only state to have the Southern emblem on its flag since neighboring Georgia abandoned it in 2003.
The law passed on Sunday calls for a nine-member commission to design a new flag that will include the phrase “In God We Trust,” the US motto.
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.
A Democratic Senator from Mississippi, John Horhn, stressed that the flag change alone would not dissipate the effects of the southern United States’ racist past. “But it is a big step on the road to the recognition of humanity and the value given by God to everyone,” he said.
Gov. Tate Reeves, who was not in favor of the flag debate, said on Saturday he would not use his veto and would enact the law if passed.
See also on The HuffPost: In Washington, protesters shoot down the only statue of a Confederate general
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