The state’s chamber of commerce has released a new poll that shows a seismic shift among Mississippi voters in favor of changing the state flag to remove its Confederate battle emblem.
The poll released by the Mississippi Economic Council shows voters favorable to changing the flag 55% to 41%, a flip from a 2019 poll that showed 54% of voters favored keeping the current flag. MEC says polling data supports its call for the Legislature to act this week to “change the flag now.”
The poll was conducted last week by the Tarrance Group, a company with extensive political polling experience in Mississippi that has polled voters on the flag issue for years. It also showed that support for changing the flag jumped to 72% when people were asked about changing to a “state seal flag” that includes the motto “In God We Trust.” The survey showed the state seal version has support from a majority of Black and white Mississippians.
That the poll was backed by MEC will likely carry weight with lawmakers, who often look to the influential chamber of commerce for economic development counsel.
“In the nearly 20 years we have held the position of changing the state flag, we have never seen voters so much in favor of change,” said Scott Waller, president of MEC. “These recent polling numbers show what people believe, and that the time has come for us to have a new flag that serves as a unifying symbol for our entire state.”
Waller continued: “The Mississippi Legislature is poised to do the right thing this week, and we wholeheartedly support their efforts. As we seek to recover from crippling economic losses from COVID-19, we must show Mississippi is open for business to everyone – and no person should feel left out. Our state flag must be the flag for all of our people, and I cannot think of a better change for our state than to include the national motto ‘In God We Trust,’ which was also recently added to our state’s seal.”
MEC also launched an “It’s Time” campaign today to lend support with the efforts to change the flag, with a full-page ad placed in newspapers across the state. The campaign is supported by more than 100 business and industry leaders and includes full-page ads in newspapers across the state.
Separately, the Mississippi Association of Realtors on Wednesday issued a statement calling for lawmakers to change the state flag.
“The current Mississippi flag serves as an unnecessary hindrance to progress and growth,” the statement said, “and the Mississippi Realtors support swift legislative action to retire the current flag and replace it with a flag that reflects the enduring and remarkable qualities that make Mississippi a wonderful state to call home.”
Lawmakers in both the Senate and House have engaged in conversations about changing the state flag the past two weeks as protests about racial equality have continued across the state and nation. Tens of thousands of protesters in Mississippi have focused their demands around the state flag.
Late last week, as pressure to change the flag continued to grow, lawmakers discussed two options: adopting a second official state flag or letting Mississippi voters decide the fate of the current flag. In a 2001 referendum, 64% of voters voted to keep Mississippi’s current flag. Leaders who support changing the flag today fear a similar outcome would stall efforts to change the flag for years to come.
“I trust our leadership to pass this critical legislation at this important moment for our state,” said Mississippi Power President and CEO Anthony Wilson, who serves as Chairman of MEC. “They can take comfort in knowing that many Mississippians stand behind them. MEC not only represents the interests of Mississippi employers but also their employees. Our business members’ long-standing position to see the state flag changed not only reflects their desire to foster a more open business climate in our state but also reflects the overwhelming sentiment of thousands of their Mississippi employees as well.”
The Tarrance poll was conducted from June 16-18, with a sample size of 500 likely voters and a margin of error of 4.5%.
A poll conducted earlier this month by Mississippi-based Chism Strategies found 46% support for retaining the old flag compared to 44.9% who support changing it. In terms of polling, the outcome would essentially be considered a statistical tie. That poll indicated momentum for changing the flag was growing. In September 2017, when Chism polled on the same question, the result was 49% to 41% in favor of the old flag.
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann
Though legislative leaders have indicated they don’t yet have the votes necessary to change the state flag, a new comment from Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann suggests the Mississippi Legislature may take action after all.
“… the Legislature in 1894 selected the current flag and the Legislature should address it today. Failing to do so only harms us and postpones the inevitable,” Hosemann said in a statement Wednesday.
Hosemann, whose previous public statements have indicated that he believes the state flag should be changed via referendum, made clear Wednesday that he now believes it should be done solely by the Legislature. The statement comes as lawmakers face increasing pressure to change the state flag, which contains the Confederate battle emblem.
Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton have been meeting behind closed doors this week to garner votes. When asked several questions Wednesday about where the flag change movement stands in the House, Gunn repeatedly said “We continue to gauge where we are,” and would not comment further.
House Democratic Leader Rep. Robert Johnson III on Wednesday said, “We’re within single digits of having the votes for a suspension resolution.”
“The more organizations that come out in support of changing the flag helps,” Johnson, of Natchez, said. “I’m confident we’ll take a vote on a bill before we leave … It’s churning every day. The leadership is working the votes.”
A growing list of businesses, cities, counties and other groups have either stopped flying the flag or asked leaders to change it. Religious leaders have spoken out, saying changing the flag is a “moral issue.” The NCAA, SEC, and Conference USA this month took action to ban post-season play in the state until the flag is changed.
As for what a replacement should look like, Hosemann said “In my mind, our flag should bear the Seal of the Great State of Mississippi and state “In God We Trust.” I am open to bringing all citizens together to determine a banner for our future.”
Other statewide elected officials have also spoken out in favor of changing the state flag.
Like Hosemann, Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch supports the idea of adding “In God We Trust” to the seal. On Wednesday she released a statement that did not address the Confederate battle emblem specifically, but said it was her personal belief that it’s time to change the state flag.
“The addition of the motto “In God We Trust,” from our State seal is the perfect way to demonstrate who we are to all,” Fitch said.
Also on Wednesday, State Auditor Shad White said:
“If there were a vote to remove the Confederate imagery from our flag, I would vote to remove it….I’m just telling you what I think — that we can have a flag that is more unifying than the one we have now.”
State Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson on Wednesday issued a statement:
“It is my position that any change in the state flag should be made by the people of Mississippi in a statewide vote. I support a change; but it is a decision Mississippians should make, and my sense is our people are ready, willing and able to decide the issue at the ballot box. If put to a referendum, I would support the ‘In God We Trust’ flag as the single best alternative to bring Mississippians of all races and backgrounds together, a goal I believe most Mississippians share.”
Late Wednesday Secretary of State Michael Watson released a statement not saying whether he supports changing the flag, but did advocate for an election on the issue.
“Once the Legislature handed the voters the authority to change our flag in 2001, any option other than allowing them the vote again would be usurping that authority,” Watson said. “The flag represents the place we all call home, so every one of us should have a voice in the decision to keep it or change it.”
Treasurer David McRae has not responded to requests for comments.
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said this week that he believes elected officials should take action to adopt a new flag that represents all Mississippians.
“Now is the time for the present Mississippi state flag to be retired and replaced,” Chaney said. “If citizens want a new flag or want to keep the old flag they should express their opinion to their elected legislators and at the ballot box.”
Gov. Tate Reeves continues to opposes the Legislature changing the flag without a vote of the people. He has refused to say whether he would vote for a new flag if the issue was on the ballot.
Many Confederate battle emblems, including inside the controversial Mississippi state flag, adorn the walls of the Broke Spoke biker and sports bar, made famous by NFL legend Brett Favre in his hometown of Kiln, Mississippi. The state Senator who represents Kiln, a heavily white and conservative unincorporated community about 10 miles from the Gulf Coast, has said the flag issue should be decided by a vote of the people.A majority of his district would likely choose to keep the flag, but some in the community believe the Legislature should bring down the hurtful symbol anyway.
‘When you draw a line and you tell people to pick sides’
Within debate over the current state flag, which contains the Confederate battle emblem, rural, white Mississippi asks: “Why do I have to change?”
The back of Navy vet Bill Harmon’s T-shirt displayed a Rebel flag beneath the name of a biker bar, the Broke Spoke, where underwear hangs from the ceiling and beers are $2.50.
Here from his corner of Mississippi — on a hazardously tall bar stool in a small, rural, mostly white community called Kiln — Harmon said he’s watched as political pressure from outside of the state has threatened the relics of his family’s past, such as the state flag containing the “Stars and Bars.”
A photo of the drinking hole, a dingy shack with a large Confederate battle emblem serving as the sign over the front entrance, is the first thing Google culls when you search “Kiln.”
Locals drop the “n” and pronounce their unofficial town “The Kill.”
“I’m not a racist — far from. My daddy was. My grandfather was. But I’m not,” Harmon said. “But where do you say there’s no more history? At what point do you say Hitler was never there?”
Once the other regulars caught wind of the conversation from the far side of the bar, they began hurling the n-word as they discussed the uprising in several American cities following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — which has spurred the state flag debate in Mississippi once again.
Bill’s wife, Tina Harmon, also a veteran and quartermaster for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6285, said she’s not allowed to wear clothing displaying the Rebel symbol, including her own state’s flag, to work.
“It’s my state flag and I’m proud of this state,” Tina Harmon said. “And I should be able to wear it.”
Anna Wolfe
Kiln residents and Navy veterans Tina Harmon, quartermaster for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6285, and husband Bill, regulars of the Broke Spoke, perceive the Mississippi state flag debate as akin to a sports rivalry.
Anna Wolfe
Countless bras and underwear signed and stapled to the plywood ceiling of an old shack in Kiln, Mississippi, is an unmistakable characteristic of the Broke Spoke bar inhabiting the building. People visit from all over the country to leave their mark.
Just days before Mississippi Today spoke with Bill Harmon, officials in two coastal towns, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis, agreed to take down the state flag from outside their city halls, as state lawmakers considered what it would take to replace the flag altogether.
A state lawmaker from Kiln, Republican Sen. Phillip Moran, told Mississippi Today the issue flag issue should be decided by a vote of the people.
Kiln is unincorporated. It has no city hall. But if it did, the mayor would be Stevie Haas, founder of the Broke Spoke, his customers say. “I don’t see what the big deal is,” Haas said, referencing the use of the Confederate battle emblem.
But when his 35-year-old dive was voted Hancock County’s Business of the Year in 2019, the local chamber produced a video promoting the award and used footage angled at the side and back of the bar, managing to avoid any shots of the Rebel flag, including the actual business sign or entrance.
Glowing newspaper profiles of the bar barely mention the iconography and the propensity for racist hate speech among some of its regulars.
Anna Wolfe
The Broke Spoke, a 35-year-old bar in Kiln, Mississippi uses the Rebel flag as its logo, all but ensuring, deliberately or not, the establishment will not attract Black customers. The bar has, however, attracted many sports fans from out-of-state, who travel to Kiln because it is the hometown of NFL legend Brett Favre.
For Bill Harmon, people who speak out against Mississippi’s flag for glorifying the Confederacy — a never recognized republic founded on the principle that Black people are inferior to white — might as well be talking about the rival of their favorite sports team.
“I take offense to the Atlanta Falcons flag. I take offense to the Carolina flag. And LSU,” he yelled over the supportive shouts of his drinking buddies. “Should we get rid of them? Because I don’t like them.”
A few minutes after he said that, the Southeastern Conference announced it would consider preventing any championship events to be located in Mississippi because of the divisive flag, last voted on by citizens in 2001. The next day, the NCAA banned all postseason college games from taking place in the state.
Business leaders across the state have also voiced their support for lawmakers to change the flag. John Hairston, CEO of Hancock Whitney Bank and one of the most prominent business leaders in the state, recently advocated for the Legislature to change the flag without a people vote.
Legislative debate over the flag had simmered in days prior. These announcements have led lawmakers to reconsider the issue more closely as the end of the Legislative session nears Friday.
If Mississippi changes its flag, Bill Harmon said, it will be because its leaders have “bowed down” to this kind of outside political pressure. If it goes back to a vote by the people, the option preferred by many lawmakers in these very conservative districts, “then the Mississippi state flag will stay the same,” he said.
Larry, an elderly white man who has lived in Kiln for two decades and opposes the current flag, agrees. “A vote of the people? No, a vote would never happen. It would have to be a mandate,” he said.
“They are hardcore racists. They want that flag just like it is. As a matter of fact, they probably would prefer to have the confederate part of it a little bigger,” Larry said of his neighbors and the state at large, too fearful of retaliation to agree for his last name to be printed. “They’re confused. They’ve been fed a diet (of information) that is bad for them.”
A recent poll showed support the current flag statewide still outweighs support for changing it, primarily driven by the population over 65, though the gap is closing.
“A state flag shouldn’t be controversial, right? Isn’t that interesting? We should be able to hold a flag, raise a flag without being hesitant. It’s like, that should tell you right there that maybe it’s not the best option.“
Mattlan Ladner, 24, Kiln
“I don’t want my students, 20 years down the road, to be having pain because of something that we as white privileged Americans could have had a say so in.”
Hannah Winchester, 22, Diamondhead
The remaining flag supporters’ grip on the Stars and Bars has tightened, and “at the core of that is that each white generation is taught by the generation in front of them that they’re better than Black people,” Larry said.
Historical documents show that the Southern states formed the Confederate States of America not just for the immediate preservation of slavery, the region’s primary economic driver, but on the foundation of white supremacy. The Rebel battle flag is the most recognizable relic of this racism, historians and educators across the state agree.
“That’s not what it means to me,” Tina Harmon said. “It’s history.”
“I remember learning we seceded. I remember learning there were issues about states rights. I was explicitly not taught that the issue was about slavery. Certainly I was never shown the secession document of Mississippi,” said Elizabeth Hegwood, a teacher and resident of a similarly conservative, though slightly more racially diverse town 20 miles southeast of Kiln called Pass Christian.
She attended Long Beach High School in the 1990s but didn’t learn that the Confederacy fought the Civil War over slavery until arriving at University of Southern Mississippi.
“Ever since I read that document, I’ve cared about (changing) the flag. And I can’t imagine that as many people as claim that it represents our heritage have read our secession document,” Hegwood said.
“Mississippi seeming like they’re completely unaware with the tenor of the rest of the country is a bad look and I think we’ve had that reputation a long time and I’m really tried of it. I think it makes us look stupid.”
Elizabeth Hegwood, 41, Pass Christian
Perhaps even more unequivocal than Mississippi’s secession declaration was the “Cornerstone Speech” Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens gave in 1861 outlining the primary divergence of the South’s new government: “Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.”
In the modern era, Americans have used the Rebel battle emblem as a symbol of support for segregation and to intimidate African Americans. Mass murderer Dylann Roof often posed with the flag for photos before killing nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, eventually compelling the state to remove the flag from its statehouse grounds in 2015.
One younger, curly-haired man drinking at the Broke Spoke Thursday pointed to a specific Confederate battle flag, which was less worn and a much brighter red than the others, bolted to the ceiling to the right of the bar. He stuck his chest out a bit and said it was the last to fly over South Carolina, brought down to Kiln by a friend of the bar. (The Associated Press reported officials placed the flag in a Columbia museum in 2018.)
“It’s no longer a symbol of the Confederate army even,” said longtime retired columnist and Pass Christian resident Rheta Grimsley Johnson. “It’s all about what’s happened since and who’s co-opted that flag.”
Anna Wolfe
Stevie Haas, founder of the 35-year-old Broke Spoke bar in Kiln, MS, which uses the Confederate flag as it’s logo, chats with customers on June 17, 2020. He said he doesn’t view the symbol as racist. “Ever since I was a kid I had a Confederate flag T-shirt somewhere along the line. I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“I had eight grandfathers who all fought in the Civil War in Tennessee and Mississippi. They were all slave owners. So when these rednecks come up and say, ‘It’s our heritage.’ Well, I’ve got more heritage in this fight than 95 percent of the people raising the flag. But it was a flag and it was a history and a heritage of oppression and tyranny and privilege.”
Betty Sparkman, 65, Pass Christian
“By then (2001), I was quite convinced this whole rebel flag thing is an outrage against anyone in Mississippi who happens to be black. It’s rude. It’s a slap in the face. It’s an indictment of my grandparents. And it shows where white people were 100 years ago, when they put the flag up, which was basically saying, ‘Okay, black people, we’re in charge. Don’t forget it. If you do try to forget it, just look at this flag.’”
Shannon Williford, 63, Pass Christian
Johnson was in high school in Montgomery, Alabama, when integration occurred. She recalled when her school quit flying the Rebel flag and playing “Dixie” at football games.
“We were 15 and 16-year-olds and we had no problem with that. We got it. And that was in 1968, ’69,” she said. “So it’s always shocked me that there’s such reluctance among adults to move forward and to get rid of something that’s so obviously offensive.”
That’s the rub for flag supporters: “You take anything that offends someone … what do you got left?” Bill Harmon said.
They don’t cite concrete reasons they cling to the symbols of the Confederacy or their place in the Mississippi emblem, but their arguments for maintaining them suggest, to steal Bill Harmon’s sports analogy, they see the state flag as a point for their team.
“If you’re going to get rid of something, how about let’s get rid of Martin Luther King Boulevard?” Bill Harmon said. “How do you differentiate?”
Anna Wolfe
The Harrison County Courthouse, located on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, flies a Mississippi state flag containing the Confederate battle emblem. Some Mississippians who support the current flag believe the design’s nod to the Confederacy is comparable to street signs honoring the slain civil rights leader — if one comes down, they both should.
That mentality extends beyond the Rebel flag-emblazoned dive bar. Mississippi Today heard the same refrain about street signs named after the slain civil rights leader from a local politician’s wife in the Kiln diner, Cruise-In Café, earlier in the day.
“If you’re going to be discriminative against one, then it all should be taken care of,” she said without giving her name. “Then there shouldn’t be any, period.”
Many Mississippiansalso conflate a push to remove the Stars and Bars from the state flag with a mandate that everyone stops displaying the symbol on their private property — a notion that no lawmaker or state official has ever posed.
“If I wear something like that, it’s not because I think of it like some kind of racism or anything like that,” Tina Harmon said. “It means different things to different people. It may not mean that to me. I’m free to be who I am. Why do I have to change?”
Pass Christian High School teacher Rickey Lewis told Mississippi Today that regardless of his personal feelings about the flag, there’s something missing in that argument: Empathy for others.
“I’m not going to impose on you something that I feel hurts you,” Lewis said.
“The flag offends such a large population of people here in this state that from an empathetic standpoint, everyone should want it to come down.”
Rickey Lewis, 43, Pass Christian
“I do think it (the Confederate emblem) is used as a symbol of hate. When you remove a lot of these racist symbols, things get better — not overnight, but things will improve.”
Willie James, 43, Pass Christian
But as an educator, he’s witnessed the way young people come into their beliefs, often with misinformation passed down to them, in this especially polarizing moment. He said he can even empathize with their passion over the state flag.
“Because many of those people are not,” Lewis said before pausing and letting out a winced breath, “are not racist.”
“But sometimes when you draw a line and you tell people to pick sides, they’re going to pick a side. And when they pick a side, they’re going to fight. And no matter what information you give them — truth or not — they’re going to fight.”
Temperatures will be in the low 70s in the morning across North Mississippi. We have rain in the forecast again with a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the afternoon . Otherwise, it will be cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph this afternoon. Thursday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. Rain chances will taper off some the weekend with hotter temperatures in the mid to upper 80s!
Mississippi House speaker Philip Gunn, center, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, right, talk after Gov. Tate Reeves press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, May 7, 2020.
After lawmakers failed on Monday to whip enough votes to change the state flag, the Legislature’s two presiding officers — Speaker Philip Gunn in the House and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in the Senate — opted to take a different approach Tuesday morning: organize a meeting on the issue with many of the state’s religious leaders.
Leaders of organizations representing Baptists, Roman Catholics, United Methodists and Pentecostals attended a meeting Tuesday morning at Mississippi College with Gunn and Hosemann to discuss changing the state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem.
Soon after the meeting, the influential Mississippi Baptist Convention came out in support of changing the flag, as did Ligon Duncan III, chancellor of the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson.
Two other statewide elected officials — Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and Attorney General Lynn Fitch — also attended the meeting. Chaney said it was productive to have a discussion on such a divisive issue as the flag.
“It was basically a discussion that the lieutenant governor and speaker put together with the religious community,” Chaney said. “It was good.”
No other statewide officials attended the meeting, though they were invited.
Many mainline religious organizations, such as the United Methodists, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, already had endorsed changing the flag. The Pentecostals, though they were represented at the Tuesday morning meeting, still have not publicly endorsed changing the flag.
As pressure intensifies from the state’s top business leaders, collegiate athletic associations and others to change the flag, lawmakers continue working behind closed doors to garner the votes in the Legislature to change the banner.
As those efforts have fallen short thus far this week, and with time running out to take up the issue during the current session, Hosemann and Gunn opted to try to include input from the religious community. Neither Hosemann nor Gunn commented on the meeting of religious leaders on Tuesday.
Rep. Scott Bounds, R-Philadelphia, said traditionally the Baptists “have had influence on legislation. It is hard to say if they will on this.”
The 500,000-member strong Baptist Convention has had influence on various social issues, such as restricting abortions, but has had less influence in recent years in other areas. Over the objections of Baptist leaders, the Legislature has enacted a lottery, expanded casino gambling and relaxed liquor laws in the state.
Sen. Daniel Sparks, R-Belmont, said, he did not know if the Baptist support for changing the flag would have an impact.
“Until we see what the proposal is, it is hard to say what will move the needle,” Sparks said. “But I cannot vote for anything other than an election.”
Sparks said he made a commitment when campaigning last year that he would only support a vote of the people if there were efforts to change the flag.
Sen. Joel Carter, R-Gulfport, said thus far he does not believe the position taken by the powerful Baptist group has changed many minds in the Senate.
“But it is still early,” he said.
But Carter said many members are saying there should be no vote in the current national environment of protests spurred by recent protests leading to the removal of many Confederate emblems and statutes.
He said the state should have an honest discussion of the issue and “not a knee jerk reaction.”
Lawmakers plan to wrap up the 2020 legislative session on Friday.
Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speaks to media about coronavirus updates on March 16, 2020.
After four days without full data updates, the first full single-day data report since June 17 showed the most-ever new cases reported in a single day — 611 new cases with 11 new deaths — which brings the rolling average to a new peak as well, at nearly 400 new daily cases.
The Mississippi Department of Health said last week that the data delays were due to “legacy software issues impacting its ability to create detailed reports.”
The software causing the state health department’s data delays is called “Epi-Tracks”, a public health epidemiology tracking tool from Phoenix-based Scientific Technologies Corporation. According to state government contract records, MSDH spent $33,675 in 2017 enhancing the software.
Until Monday, hospitalization data was the only new data released since June 19, when the Mississippi Department of Health issued new case numbers for June 17. Though technical problems have lately delayed daily reports, only once before now – June 11 – has the agency completely forgone daily numbers. During the delay, hospitalizations peaked in Mississippi to the most-ever reported levels, ranking second in the U.S. for per capita and per case current hospitalizations.
Monday, WLBT reported that MSDH is in the process of replacing the system, after the data delays were restored. In total, MSDH has spent $3,344,423 on six contracts with Scientific Technologies Corporation since 2011, including a $1 million renewal early this year, by request for proposal.
Over the past decade, MSDH has gone through rounds of budget cuts from the state legislature that have netted the agency flat funding since 2010. After increasing to more than $64 million in fiscal year 2016, MSDH’s share of the budget was cut by almost 10 percent two years later down to just over $57 million. It has edged back up to almost $62 million for 2020, just under where it was in 2010.
On Monday, the state health department released combined data for the past five days after last week’s “legacy software issues” that kept the agency from producing daily case counts and other data.
Monday, MSDH reported 1,646 new cases and 40 new deaths for June 17 through June 21. The agency is missing daily case counts for June 18 through June 21. Until then, June 16 was the last day for which the agency had updated cases by county.
Mississippi now has its highest seven-day rolling average* for new cases yet at 392. Before Sunday, that number last peaked at 331 on June 12.
Mississippi’s hospitalization rate has climbed to one of the highest in the country, reaching second among all states on Sunday. Monday’s new data brought the state to third highest.
The seven-day rolling average for illness onset — the day people report they got sick — hit a new peak, reaching 324 a day on May 29.
The rolling average for daily tests is at 3,228, roughly the same as a week ago. However that number has dropped about 40 percent from two weeks ago.
As of Monday, MSDH has reported 17,242 recoveries, 77 percent of all cases.
*Note: For the purpose of daily case counts and averages, Mississippi Today evenly split the new cases between four days — not including June 17, for which MSDH already provided a daily count.
All my professional life I have wondered what it would take for all the universities in Mississippi to agree on any matter under the sun. Just once.
And now I know: It’s the state flag of Mississippi — specifically, the need to get rid of the current flag.
The archaic and now widely reviled 1894 flag has brought Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs, the ultimate Hatfields and McCoys, together. The Golden Eagles from Southern Miss, for once, agree with the two older universities. Historically black universities Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State take the same side. Mississippi College and Delta State, bitter rivals for the most part, agree. So do MUW students and grads.
Rick Cleveland
Just do it, they say. Get rid of the flag that embarrasses us and holds us all back. Get rid of the flag that sends so many thousands of our smartest young people out of state to make their way in life. Get rid of the flag that limits our economic opportunities. Get rid of the flag that draws scorn from the rest of the country and the world.
Just do it. It is past time.
It most certainly is. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that sports have provided the one of the most compelling and visible reasons for change. Recent actions by the NCAA, Southeastern Conference and Conference USA, which would ban championship sporting events from the state because of the flag, have increased pressure on state leaders to change the flag. Not that the universities necessarily needed more impetus. They quit flying the flag years ago.
I have spent a lifetime covering sports in Mississippi, a state remarkably passionate about its athletic teams and its athletes. Sports are something we do quite well in Mississippi, especially for a relatively small, poor and mostly rural state. We often lead the nation in putting players into pro football and into its Pro Football Hall of Fame. Our college baseball teams are often among the nation’s best. Our citizenry attends those games in phenomenal numbers. Players and coaches come here from other states and are amazed at the passion our people have for the games.
Sports bring us together in Mississippi. Those of us who lived through the integration of our schools know this better than most. In many, many cases — and in most Mississippi towns — sports showed the way. Sports showed us, right there on the courts and fields in front of us, that black kids and white kids could play together and become better together than they had been apart. Sports showed us that the color of one’s skin is not the ultimate decider. That hard work and team work matter most.
In small towns such as Mize and Weir and Pelahatchie and Mount Olive, black and white kids came together and won big. We have watched real-life “Remember the Titans” stories across the state, and we are better for it.
We live in a state that is approximately 38 percent African American. And yet we live in a state where the state flag serves as a sad reminder of a war fought to retain the evil institution of slavery, of people owning people.
And please, don’t tell me the flag, with its Confederate battle flag emblem, represents our heritage. That’s so much bull waste. When Mississippi seceded from the United States, it did so because, as our leaders wrote: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest in the world.” It’s right there in black and white in Mississippi’s declaration of secession. Look it up.
The flag that now flies over our Capitol was designed nearly three decades after the war. It was pushed through the legislature — no referendum — after the period known as Reconstruction. It was meant to show black people who was still in charge. It was a rallying point for Jim Crow — and if you don’t know what that was, then look it up. And now that battle flag emblem has been adopted by hate groups — from the Ku Klux Klan, to Skinheads to Nazis. Nevertheless, the flag still flies over our state capitol.
Mississippi, we can do better.
We must do better. The Legislature can make this happen now. Have a backbone. Make a stand. Leave a legacy.
In this April 25, 2020 photograph, a small Mississippi state flag is held by a participant during a drive-by “re-open Mississippi” protest past the Governor’s Mansion, in the background, in Jackson, Miss. This current flag has in the canton portion of the banner the design of the Civil War-era Confederate battle flag, that has been the center of a long-simmering debate about its removal or replacement.
The powerful Mississippi Baptist Convention on Tuesday called for state leaders to change the Mississippi flag, with its Confederate battle emblem in one corner.
“It has become apparent that the discussion about changing the flag of Mississippi is not merely a political issue,” Baptist leaders said in a statement. “… The racial overtones of the flag’s appearance make this discussion a moral issue. Since the principal teachings of Scripture are opposed to racism, a stand against such is a matter of biblical morality.”
The convention includes about 2,100 churches in Mississippi, and Baptists are the largest denomination in the state, with over 500,000 members. Leaders said their stance on the flag doesn’t represent every member church, but they believe it represents a majority and asked for “Mississippi Baptists to make this a matter of prayer and to seek the Lord’s guidance in standing for love instead of oppression, unity instead of division, and the gospel of Christ instead of the power of this world.”
The convention’s statement said: “Given the moral and spiritual nature of this issue, Mississippi Baptist leaders offer prayers for our state officials to have wisdom, courage and compassion to move forward. We encourage our governor and state Legislature to take the necessary steps to adopt a new flag for the state of Mississippi that represents the dignity of every Mississippian and promotes unity rather than division.”
Under growing pressure to change the flag after decades of bitter debate, Mississippi legislative leaders say they are discussing the issue, but lack votes to change it as their regular session draws to a close.
Mississippi business, church and community leaders have called for a change, and the state faces intensified national scrutiny amid calls for removal of relics of slavery and the Confederacy.
On Monday, Mississippi State’s star running back Kylin Hill tweeted that he would not play football until the flag changed.
The Mississippi Economic Council, the state’s chamber of commerce, has long called for new state flag. In a statement last week, MEC said the current flag “Is offensive to many, not representative of all Mississippians and perpetuates negative stereotypes of our state.”
“MEC feels strongly that adoption of a new flag is a timely and high profile action that would improve Mississippi’s image, advance a new narrative about our state, and set the stage to enhance economic opportunities and improve quality of life in a fair and inclusive manner for every Mississippian.”
Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups parade on the grounds of the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, in support of keeping the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag. The public display of Confederate symbols has come under increased scrutiny since June, when nine black worshippers were massacred at a church in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Legislative leaders believe they still do not have the necessary votes to change the state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem, after multiple closed-door meetings held Monday in efforts to develop a politically palatable and feasible way to address the issue.
The biggest hurdle leaders face is that any change to the flag or putting it on a ballot this late in the legislative session would require a two-thirds vote of the both the 122-member House and 52-member Senate to suspend its rules.
Late Monday afternoon, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann met for almost an hour in the lieutenant governor’s office where various issues, including the flag, were addressed related to trying to end the session by Friday as planned.
“I have been for changing it. I am still trying to find a path to make that happen,” Gunn said at the conclusion of his meeting with Hosemann.
Lawmakers in both chambers and in both parties on Monday backed away from the notion of adopting a second official state flag.
“I don’t think the two-flag solution is a viable option,” Gunn said on Monday.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in a statement Monday also panned the two-flag proposal as the “Separate but Equal flag option” and said: “I don’t think it’s a viable alternative.” Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Monday said: “We’re discussing a lot of options and getting a feel for the members of the Senate.”
Before and after Monday’s meeting with Gunn, Hosemann met with multiple Senate Democrats – most of whom have publicly opposed both a referendum to change the flag and the two-flag solution. They believe the banner should be changed by a vote of the Legislature.
“Are we going to pass a bond bill or a teacher pay raise by a referendum?” asked Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville. “We didn’t ask the people to vote on those issues.”
Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said the Legislature has changed the state seal without asking for a vote of the people. She said the issue of the flag should not be any different.
The Legislative Black Caucus and the 45-member House Democratic Caucus said they oppose any plan to have two separate state flags. They also oppose putting the issue on a ballot, saying it’s the Legislature’s job to change the flag, and want a straight legislative vote on changing it.
But Reeves, who has not clearly said whether he supports changing the flag, on Monday reiterated his stance that the only way it should be changed is by popular vote. Overriding a gubernatorial veto of any legislative change also would require a two-thirds vote that appears nonexistent.
Still, as Mississippi again suffers under the glare of the national spotlight for having a symbol tied to white supremacy in the canon of its official banner, more in the state’s white, Republican leadership are supporting change.
“Our state is at a point in its history that there is no choice but to retire its current state flag,” Republican Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth, a House Judiciary chairman, said Monday. As late as last week, Bain had been “a no comment” on the combustible issue.
“The impending economic, social and cultural pressures are going to create a storm that this state cannot weather,” Bain said. “Therefore, it is imperative that our legislature begins to consider options on how we replace the flag. This is an emotional issue and the politically easy vote for me is to keep the flag. However, there comes a time when every generation must make a change for the better.”
Bain continued: “It is now time, and I am convicted that changing the flag makes Alcorn County and Mississippi better. Whenever my time in public service is complete, I want my children to look back and be proud of what I’ve done. A vote to keep the flag does not accomplish this goal.”
On Monday, Mississippi State’s star running back Kylin Hill tweeted that he would not play football until the flag changed.
Late last week, Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, said: “A flag’s sole purpose is to unite a people around a common cause. Reality has proven clear that the Mississippi flag no longer unites, but divides us unnecessarily. I will not sit by idly while our college athletes lose their hard-earned right to compete in post season play before our home state fans over a banner that no longer accomplishes its sole mission to unify our people. I will stand up for our student athletes. It is time to change the flag. It is the right thing to do.”
But, of course, not all legislators agree with Lamar and Bain.
Rep. Ken Morgan, R-Morgantown, recently said, he believes the flag “should stay like it is.”
“I had two great, great granddaddies who fought under that flag,” Morgan said.
The House Democratic Caucus on Monday issued a statement against having two flags or a referendum vote. It said House Democrats are “prepared to vote against any measure short of taking an up or down vote for change.”
“Mississippi House Democrats for years have consistently urged the Mississippi Legislature to do its job and make tough decisions in the best interest of the people of this state,” the statement said. “The decision to remove the Confederate battle emblem from our state flag is one of those decisions. It is our decision to make, and the time to make it is now.”
But Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said he believes most state senators “clearly” do not believe the flag should be changed without a referendum.
“A lot of people think there should be a vote like we had in 2001,” Fillingane said. “That seems to be what most senators believe.”
