OurTupelo

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Delbert Hosemann during the opening day of the legislative session in January 2020.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann broke precedent and assigned legislation that would change the state flag, which contains the Confederate battle emblem, to a little-used committee where it stands little chance of passing.

Hosemann, who wields sole discretion to decide which committees to send legislation, assigned a resolution that would suspend rules for lawmakers to consider changing the state flag to the Senate Constitution committee, which is traditionally reserved for bills that would alter the state Constitution.

The resolution, filed last week by 12 Senate Democrats, bears no relevance to the state Constitution because the state flag is written into state law, not the Constitution. Hosemann’s decision to send the resolution to that committee signals almost certain death as just two of the committee’s nine members have publicly supported changing the flag.

Sen. Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg and chairman of the Senate Constitution committee, told Mississippi Today on Wednesday that he has no intent to call up the resolution for consideration. He says he favors the issue being decided by a vote of the people.

Hosemann’s assignment bypasses the committee that such a resolution would typically be assigned: the five-member Senate Rules committee.

Had Hosemann assigned the resolution to the Rules committee, its chances of passing would be significantly greater. Two of the five members of the Rules committee — Sen. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland, and Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson — publicly support changing the state flag.

That would mean that just one of the three other committee members — Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, Sen. Dennis DeBar, R-Leakesville, or Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch — would need to vote yea on the resolution for the bill to advance and reach the Senate floor for a vote. Kirby and Parker have told Mississippi Today in recent days they believe voters, not the Legislature, should decide the fate of the flag. DeBar offered no comment when asked.

Hosemann instead sent the resolution to the Senate Constitution committee, breaking long-standing precedent that he carried out himself earlier this legislative session. Resolutions or bills that would require a suspension of legislative rules are traditionally always sent to the Rules committee. Earlier this legislative session, six such pieces of legislation were filed in the Senate. Hosemann assigned all of them, with the exception of the flag resolution, to the Rules committee.

Meanwhile, Hosemann and his staff have gone out of their way to avoid taking a public position on the state flag. For six days, his staff failed to respond to Mississippi Today requests for comment.

Lawmakers in both the Senate and House have engaged in conversations about changing the state flag since last week as protests about racial equality have continued across the state and nation. Protesters in Mississippi have focused their demands around the state flag, which is the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

The only public comments Hosemann has made about the state flag since legislative debate sparked on June 8 was a Tuesday morning appearance on Supertalk Mississippi, a statewide conservative talk show.

After about a 20 minute interview about the state budget and other pieces of legislation, radio show host Gerard Gibert asked Hosemann about the state flag. As soon as the question was asked, producers began playing outro music to signal the coming commercial break and end of the interview.

Hosemann’s 90-second answer did not address his personal thoughts on whether the state flag should change, and he said he had not talked with senators about the issue.

Below is his word-for-word answer to questions about the state flag. This remains his only public comment about the issue since June 8.

Hosemann: “I’ll assign the bill to committee… The resolution will go to committee, and if it comes out, the Senate’s going to vote on it. I’ve taken that position for a long time: We’re not going to hide something on the calendar. Whatever comes out of the committee, we’re fixing to vote.”

“Looking at this, I think time has come for Mississippians to be looking at how we want our flag for the future. Not denigrating any flag of the past or anything else that’s gone on in the past. As you know, Mississippi had — you have to go all the way back to 1830 when we kicked all the Choctaws off their land. When we became a state in 1817, we didn’t own but two-thirds of the state. Under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, we took the other third from the Choctaws and sent them on a Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.”

“We have a history in Mississippi, and again probably there and has continued on in a number of different events. So I expect Mississippians to start looking for a flag of the future. I don’t know whether it will be the one we have now, or a newer one. There are several different alternatives, but I think it’s time for that discussion to occur.”

“I expect it will end up being both (decided by Legislature and the people of Mississippi). I expect it will come out of the Legislature and being put on a ballot. It’s my estimation; I haven’t asked any of my senators how they want to do that.”

After this story published, Hosemann’s office released a statement.

“I have been, and I am today, in favor of placing a decision on Mississippi’s flag on a statewide ballot,” Hosemann said. “Our citizens are facing many challenges in the economy, healthcare, and education, and the continuing controversy regarding our current banner detracts from addressing these issues. It is time for this controversy to be resolved. I believe the flag which represents me and my grandchildren should reflect all of our citizens’ collective future, as determined by those who will live under that banner.”

Hosemann continued: “The Senate resolution to change the flag was assigned to a committee with a Republican chairman and Democratic vice chairman, and I am hopeful it will receive fair consideration. If the resolution comes out of committee, the Senate will vote.”

The post Lt. Gov. Hosemann, mum on state flag issue, assures near certain death of bill that would change flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

It’s not good but it could be worse. Read more about the Legislature’s attempt to craft aa budget during the pandemic.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Breathing Easier appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Martins Motorsports

Tommy Joe Martins, from Como, carries the Mississippi banner he prefers on the NASCAR circuit.

Race car driver Tommy Joe Martins, who answers to his double first name, is as down-home Mississippi as they come. He grew up in the tiny Panola County town of Como. He went to high school at Magnolia Heights Academy in nearby Senatobia where he played football and basketball and where he says, chuckling, “I wasn’t any good at either one of them.”

He graduated from Ole Miss where he studied broadcast journalism. He says he is proud to be from Mississippi and loves his home state. And that’s why when he realized his dream of becoming a NASCAR race driver, he put the state flag on his car.

“I want people to know where I am from,” Martins says. “I am proud to represent Mississippi.”

Rick Cleveland

He says other drivers later told him their first impression of him was that he was a big racist redneck because he was running the Confederate flag on his car.

“They didn’t see it as the state flag,” Martins said. “All they saw was the Confederate flag.”

Then, two years ago, when preparing for a race, he noticed someone had peeled the state flag decal off his car.

Martins asked what had had happened and was told a race official had done it. When he asked why, he was told that NASCAR was trying to distance itself from the Confederate battle emblem, which is part of the Mississippi state flag.

“But that’s my state flag,” Martins said.

“Then why does it have a Confederate flag in it?” the official responded.

And, says Martins, he didn’t have a good answer for that.

That’s likely because there is no good answer – not when 38 percent of Mississippians are African American and the Confederate flag was flown in a war fought to preserve slavery. Lucius Q.C. Lamar wrote in Mississippi’s declaration of secession: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest in the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but  the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun…”

Martins Motorsports

Tommy Joe Martins’ racing helmet is familiar to Ole Miss Rebel fans.

“It was my aha moment,” Martins says of the brief confrontation with a NASCAR official over his flag decal. “I was embarrassed, to tell you the truth. It hit me that people didn’t see that flag and say, ‘Well, he’s from Mississippi.’ What they saw was the Confederate flag and all it has come to represent. I thought that whatever people assume that means about me, it definitely does not mean that. It’s time for me to distance myself away from that. I don’t want that perception of myself out there. It’s time for us to fly a flag that better represents all of us.”

Martins has shared his thoughts on the Mississippi flag on social media, including this recorded message. On his Chevrolet Camaro race car, No. 44, he has added what has become known as the Stennis flag, a proposed Mississippi flag design done by Jackson artist Laurin Stennis.

Martins says he realizes many supporters of the current state flag, adopted in 1894, believe the flag represents the state’s Southern heritage. “I certainly don’t want to vilify the people who fly the flag because they believe it represents their heritage,” he says. “On the other hand, the negatives of the flag are just so overwhelmingly obvious to anyone who pays attention.”

Yes, they are. The Confederate battle flag has been adopted by various hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. One by one, other Southern states have distanced themselves from the Confederate flag. Mississippi’s eight state-supported universities – and many Mississippi cities and counties – refuse to fly it. And last week, NASCAR announced it will prohibit the display of Confederate flags from all NASCAR events and properties. That policy will get its first test when NASCAR goes to Talladega, Alabama, for races this weekend. Martins will race in the Xfinity Series Unhinged 300 on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Attendance will be limited to 5,000 fans for the Geico 500 race on Sunday.

Traditionally, Confederate flags have proliferated in the stands and in the infield at Talladega – big ones and little ones and also flags on T-shirts and caps.

“Honestly, I am not sure how the new policy is going to work,” Martins said. “My understanding is that they will treat it like a trespassing charge. First, they’ll ask you to take it down. And then, if you don’t, they will ask you to leave.”

Martins Motorsports

Tommy Joe Martins will climb into his car Saturday at Talladega.

Martins will be coming off a Top 20 finish last week at Homestead, Florida, in his tenth start of the season at Talladega. This has been a season of bad luck, including engine failure, electrical problems, cut tires, brake failure and one horrific crash (unavoidable for Martins) at Charlotte where Martins had seemed assured of a Top 10 finish. Most of those problems have been beyond Martins’ control. He has spent the majority of his career racing in relatively underfunded cars against much richer teams. A general rule of thumb in NASCAR: It takes a whole lot of money to make any money.

But Martins still dreams the dream of winning and someday owning his own racing team. Meanwhile, he will try to control the things he can control, including what goes on his car. That includes the Mississippi flag he supports.

The post Como’s Tommy Joe Martins is proudly part of a new Confederate flag-less day at NASCAR appeared first on Mississippi Today.

While the arguments to keep the flag are similar to 2001, the opposition to it is louder and from a wider base. The winds of change are definitely blowing.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Winds of Change appeared first on Mississippi Today.