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Ole Miss basketball coach Kermit Davis, center, joins other athletic staff from the state’s public universities calling for a change in the Mississippi state flag. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

One was a middle-aged white man, born and raised in Mississippi. One was a much younger African-American woman, who has lived in Mississippi for only weeks. One, a Mississippi State graduate, represented Ole Miss, the other, a Tennessee alum, represented Mississippi State.

But both Kermit Davis, Jr, the man, and Nikki McCray-Penson, the woman, spoke eloquently and delivered the same message Thursday morning in the Capitol rotunda: Change the Mississippi flag. Now. Let’s move ahead.

Behind the chosen speakers, McCray-Penson and Davis, stood at least 25 coaches and sports administrators representing all the state-supported universities, unanimous in their belief Mississippi needs a new flag to represent all Mississippians.

Rick Cleveland

Football coaches Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss and Mike Leach of Mississippi State, both brand new to the state, stood in the front row behind the podium. At least one observer, this one, imagined Kiffin and Leach must have felt as if they just landed here from another planet, this being 2020 and all this hubbub being about changing a flag that contains the losing battle flag from a war fought more than a century and a half ago. But I digress…

“I know firsthand what it feels like to see a Confederate flag and pretend that it doesn’t have a racist, violent and oppressive overtone. It screams of hate. It hurts me to my core,” McCray-Penson said.

Said Davis, “We’re here to create change. We need a flag that represents all Mississippians. We can all agree on a few things, that we all have great pride in our state, that we all want great business and economic growth in our state, and that we want Ole Miss and our other great universities to attract the very best players from our state as well the best players from all across the country. We can do this by changing the flag now.”

Sports has been front and center in this ongoing Mississippi flag debate, and apparently the pleas of Mississippi’s college coaches and administrators in the past several days have made a difference. On Thursday afternoon, lawmakers told Mississippi Today that they felt they were “one or two votes” short of legislative change in both chambers — an incredible reality given the lack of legislative support the effort had even a week ago.

House Speaker Philip Gunn took the podium after the coaches and spoke loudly and with emotion about the need for changing the flag.

“This entire state is screaming for change,” Gunn said. “This is an issue that needs to be resolved and resolved quickly. The longer it goes, the more it festers and the harder it’s going to be later on. The image of our state is at stake here, ladies and gentleman. The nation is watching.”

Last week, the NCAA, the Southeastern Conference and Conference USA all announced that championship events will be banned from Mississippi as long as the Confederate emblem is part of the flag.

“The rulings by the SEC and NCAA affect us greatly, and we can’t be an elite program without hosting postseason events,” McCray-Penson said. “Our entire student body could potentially be adversely affected by this symbol of hatred. …This symbol of hatred is so much bigger than athletics.”.

Nevertheless, nobody seemed to know whether the legislative votes were there to make the change. Two-thirds majority is needed in both the House and Senate for the change to occur.

“We’re so close,” one legislator said.

“Almost there,” said another.

“I really believe it is going to happen Friday or Saturday,” said still another.

McCray-Penson sounded hopeful.

“As a Black woman coaching at one of the most diverse universities in the country, I look forward to seeing change that unites us and accurately represents our great community,” she said. “Changing the flag is an important step toward inclusivity and an end to racial injustice. This is a moment in our society to reassess values and do the right thing by removing this symbol of hatred.”

Davis closed by talking about a family discussion recently at the dinner table at his house.

“I have a daughter, Ally, she’s 32 years and she has Down’s Syndome,” Davis said. “Ally keeps us simplified and grounded at all times at our house. We were having this discussion, my wife and Ally and I, and we were talking about social injustice and the flag change, and Ally’s sitting there and she looks up and says, ‘Dad, do unto others as you would like them do unto you.’

“I said, boy isn’t that simple and isn’t that perfect – that’s it, a flag change that’s good for everybody in our state.”

The post Many coaches, but just one message: It’s time for Mississippi to change its state flag. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Tate Reeves prepares to debate against Bill Waller Jr. during the GOP gubernatorial debate at WJTV studios Wednesday, August 21, 2019.

Gov. Tate Reeves, in the midst of the battle over whether the Legislature will change the Mississippi state flag during the coming days against his wishes, called a meeting Wednesday afternoon attended by five fellow statewide elected officials to discuss the issue.

People familiar with the meeting said Reeves did not attempt to change anyone’s mind, but instead led a general discussion on the flag, the nation’s only state flag to feature the Confederate battle emblem.

One person familiar with the meeting said it appears to have been a meeting “to take the temperature” of the statewide officials and perhaps develop some type of unified front. But by the time of the meeting, held at the Governor’s Mansion, most of the statewide officials had issued a statement on the flag.

At the meeting, Reeves continued to maintain that a vote of the people should be held on whether to change the flag, but he opposed the referendum being this November.

Soon after that meeting, Reeves posted a statement to social media that if the Legislature garnered the two-thirds vote needed in each chamber to change the flag, he would not veto the bill because it would also take a two-thirds vote to override his veto.

“Some legislative leaders have changed their position multiple times in recent days. Right now, they are considering suspending the rules to change the flag. It would take a two-thirds vote. That’s how many it takes to override a veto,” he wrote.

“Make no mistake, a vote to change the rules is a vote to change the flag. If they get those votes, a veto would be pointless. That debate would be over, and the flag would change.”

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who as the Senate’s presiding officer is leading the effort in that chamber to garner the two-thirds majority to change the flag, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch were not at the meeting with Reeves.

On Thursday morning, lawmakers in both the House and the Senate told Mississippi Today they were “within one or two votes” of being able to suspend the legislative rules and change the state flag.

Fitch and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney were the only two statewide officials at a meeting Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn had earlier this week with religious leaders where the flag was discussed. After that meeting, the influential Mississippi Baptist Convention endorsed changing the flag.

Thus far, Reeves and Secretary of State Michael Watson have not taken a position on whether the flag should be changed. Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, Auditor Shad White and Fitch have endorsed changing the banner.

Hosemann and Chaney have endorsed the Legislature changing the banner. Treasurer David McRae said he would support a change by the Legislature or by the people.

In 2001, 64 percent of Mississippians voted to maintain the current flag, though, momentum appears to be growing in recent weeks from the business community, sports figures and others to change the controversial banner.

All of Mississippi’s statewide elected officials are Republican.

The post As lawmakers near votes to change state flag, Reeves meets with statewide officials and voices his opposition appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Coaches and athletic directors from every public college and university in the state travelled to the Capitol on Thursday morning to deliver a clear message to legislators: It’s time to change the state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem.

Mississippi State University women’s head basketball coach Nikki McCray-Penson

“I know firsthand what it feels like to see the Confederate flag and pretend it doesn’t have a racist, violent or oppressive overtone. It screams hate,” Nikki McCray-Penson, head women’s basketball coach at Mississippi State University. “There is no place in our society for a symbol of discrimination, hatred and oppression.”

McCray was part of a group of roughly 30 coaches and athletic directors, including University of Mississippi head football coach Lane Kiffin and Mississippi State head football coach Mike Leach, who participated in a press conference to share their beliefs about how the flag is harming the state.

All coaches are now directly affected by state flag, as the NCAA, SEC and Conference USA have all respectively banned all postseason college athletics events from being hosted in Mississippi until the flag changes.

University of Mississippi men’s basketball coach Kermit Davis

“We all agree that we’d love to have a state that has great pride,” said Kermit Davis, men’s basketball coach at the University of Mississippi. “We’d love to have a state that is flourishing economically, business-wise and education(-wise). And for that to happen we all know that the flag needs to change.”

House Speaker Philip Gunn attended the press conference and spoke strongly on behalf of changing the flag, telling the crowd no one can argue the flag isn’t damaging the state as the post-season bans have “now brought a quantifiable hurt” upon Mississippi.

“This entire state is screaming for change. This is an issue that needs to be resolved, and resolved quickly,” Gunn said. “The longer it goes, the more it festers and the harder it’s going to be later on. The image of our state is at stake here, ladies and gentleman. The nation is watching.”

Leaders in athletics are not the only ones to speak out against the flag — this week the Mississippi Baptist Convention, Mississippi Economic Council and the chair of the Mississippi Republican Party have all come out against it, arguing its harming the state’s reputation and serves as a painful symbol of oppression to many residents.

The Legislature needs a two-thirds vote in each chamber to change the flag. It’s likely they will try in the coming days.

The post ‘It screams hate’ — colleges coaches urge lawmakers to change state flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The post Marshall Ramsey: The Second Battle of the State Flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.

On Tuesday afternoon, leaders in both the House and Senate did not feel they had the votes to change the flag or put the issue on the ballot. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, however, released a statement on Wednesday expressing his support for changing the flag in the Legislature without a ballot referendum. Lawmakers plan to end the 2020 legislative session on Friday.

“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.

The post Poll: For first time ever, most Mississippians support changing state flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.

The post As leaders continue to count votes to change state flag, Hosemann throws support behind legislative action appeared first on Mississippi Today.

‘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?”

By Anna Wolfe | June 24, 2020

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.”

Black Lives Matter activists in Mississippi — who organized a historically large protest in Jackson on June 6, which ended with line dancing — centered adopting a new state flag among its demands for advancing racial equity.

Slavery and Jim Crow — institutions closely linked to the Confederate battle emblem — have a legacy that lives on through racial disparities that exist today: Black Mississippians are nearly three times more likely to live in poverty and to be jobless and looking for work than white. For every dollar of wealth held by white families in America, Black families have about 10 cents. In the nation’s racially segregated cities and towns, Black neighborhoods are further from grocery stores and medical facilities and more likely to be affected by pollutants, leading to poorer health outcomes.

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.

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.”

But a whitewashing of history in America’s schools and textbooks means that many Mississippi voters today still remain ill-informed of the context surrounding the Confederacy and the Civil War.

“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.”

“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?”

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 Mississippians also 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.”

The post ‘Picking sides’: How a conservative Gulf Coast community grapples with the Mississippi state flag debate appeared first on Mississippi Today.