Protesters: Remove Confederate emblem from Mississippi flag
Neshia Webster peers around a sign in support of an effort to eliminate the current Mississippi state flag, which contains Confederate imagery, during an afternoon rally at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., on Monday.
Associated Press
Protesters are calling on Mississippi to erase the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, saying it’s a divisive symbol that fails to represent a state where more than one-third of residents are AfricanAmerican.
Jackson attorney Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the flag embodies hatred and represents “a noose South instead of the pride of the so-called new South.”
“A flag represents the unity of the people who fall under it and the collective interest of all. There are a lot of things we can hold pride in in Mississippi, but the flag is not one of them,” Lumumba said during a news conference in the state Capitol.
Actress Aunjanue Ellis has family ties to Mississippi and starred in “The Help,” which was filmed in the state. She said she won’t work in Mississippi until the flag is changed. She said her production company, Miss Myrtis Films, is canceling plans to make a movie in the state because of the flag.
Debate over Confederate symbols reignited after the June 17 massacre of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“It’s sickening to me that people had to die in order for us to have this discussion,” Ellis said.
She tried to prompt public discussion about changing the Mississippi banner in 2014 by renting a billboard along Interstate 55 in Jackson, with “We Shall Overcome” written in Confederate flags.
Some Mississippi leaders, including Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, say the state flag should change to a design that would unify the state. Others, including Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, say the issue was settled by a 2001 election, when voters chose to keep the Confederate X that has been on the banner since 1894. Bryant said last week that he won’t call a special session on the flag, which means legislative debate won’t happen until at least January, when new lawmakers take office.
About 100 people participated in a protest outside the Capitol after Monday’s news conference, calling for a new flag design.
One white woman carried a sign with the slogan: “Take down the emblem of slavery.” Another carried a sign that said: “This is not a state flag. It is a plantation flag.”
Burt Jackson, who lives in Gulfport and works as a school counselor in Jackson, said it makes no sense for the state flag to include a symbol that represents the losing side of a war.
“That flag — if that’s your heritage, so be it,” said Jackson, who is African-American. “But your rights stop when they are infringing on mine. Keep it on your premises. Keep it at your house, if you want. It shouldn’t be on the state flag.”
The rescue of a hiker stranded overnight on an East Tennessee trail ended with a helicopter and began when two Knoxville hikers heard her cries for help.
David Roy, 32, and Mat Merten, 36, were hiking Saturday evening on the Alum Cave Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when they stopped at the bluffs to eat. At 7 p.m. they heard a voice calling. The cry came from somewhere overhead at the top of the cliff, but because the massive rock formation reflected the sound, they couldn’t pinpoint the source.
Eighteen-year-old Angel Chaffin of Gatlinburg had been hiking the Alum Cave Trail when she went off trail and ended up stuck on the cliff face atop the Alum Cave overhang, 2½ miles from the trailhead. As darkness fell Chaffin turned on her flashlight to give Roy and Merten a reference point.
“We asked if she was OK,” Roy said. “She said she was safe, but felt unsafe climbing up or down. We were talking with her, but never actually saw her.”