Change of flag in Mississippi and its connection to #BLM

  • On November 3, voters in Mississippi approved a new flag.
  • The flag was named, “The New Magnolia”, featuring a magnolia flower. 
  • The flag will replace the old one that has been in use for 126 years. 
  • The old flag carried the Confederate battle emblem on it.
  • The Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag received nearly 3,000 submissions, from which the magnolia was chosen on September 2.
CONFEDERATE SYMBOLS
  • The Confederate States of America or the Confederacy refers to the government of 11 Southern slaveholding states that seceded from the Union in 1860-61 in the American Civil War.
  • The secession was after they felt threatened by the election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln as the US President in 1860.
  • These pro-slavery states operated under the presidentship of Jefferson Davis and vice president Alexander Stephens. 
  • Soon, the Confederacy acquired symbols such as the Confederate flag and their own stamps. 
  • These states carried out all their affairs separately until they were defeated in 1865. 
  • States that were a part of the Confederacy included South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Texas, among others.
MISSISSIPPI AND THE REASON OF CHANGING THE FLAG
  • Mississippi is nicknamed the “Magnolia State”, a reference to the magnolia trees that grow there.
  • Mississippi was the last state in the US to have a flag that featured the Confederate battle emblem.
  • In the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter protests that followed the death of African American George Floyd this May, the state was under pressure to change its flag.
  • Some protesters demanded the removal of statues or monuments that could be perceived as symbols of racism, including some Confederate monuments.
  • In June, protestors tore down a statue of Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia. 
  • Davis was the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
  • Late in June, Mississippi’s Republican governor signed a bill that removed the status of the 126-year-old flag. 
THE OLD FLAG 
  • Mississippi became a part of the Confederacy in March 1961.
  • This authorised the governor to have a Confederate flag. 
  • The old flag banner was first adopted in 1894.
  • It featured blue and white stripes and a Confederate emblem in the corner.
  • The old flag was adopted nearly three decades after the Civil War and in a 2001 referendum, nearly two-thirds of the voters reaffirmed this flag.
  • On July 1, 2020, Mississippi retired the state’s flag which had been in use since 1894. 
THE NEW FLAG
  • The new flag was designed by Rocky Vaughan.
  • It features a white magnolia on a blue banner with red and gold bars on each end. 
  • The flower is encircled in 20 five-point stars and the words “In God We Trust”. 
  • An additional star on the flag represents the indigenous Native Americans. 

SOURCE: IE

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