Jackson
Mississippi lawmakers have voted to remove a symbol of the pro-slavery Confederacy from the Deep South state’s flag, the latest symbol of racism to come down amid outrage at the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minnesota.
Both houses of the legislature voted this weekend to remove the symbol and appoint a panel to design a new flag, according to media reports. The state’s Republican Governor, Tate Reeves, said Saturday that he would sign the bill if the legislature passed it. “We are better today than we were yesterday,” Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, who authored the bill that passed on Sunday, told the non-profit news organization Mississippi Today. “Today, the future has taken root in the present. Today, we and the rest of the nation can look on our state with new eyes, with pride and hope.”
In the 19th century, Southern states, faced with the prospect of having to give up slavery, formed the Confederacy and broke away from the United States, leading to the 1861-1865 Civil War.—Reuters
