In a bipartisan vote, Mississippi has approved a change to the state flag. The flag has drawn considerable attention in recent weeks due to its inclusion of the old Confederate battle flag in its design.
Mississippi’s flag has long been controversial. Racial unrest triggered by the death of George Floyd has magnified the issue over the past couple of months. Confederate monuments across the south have been coming down, and the Mississippi flag is just the latest of the old relics to fall.
Several organizations were threatening to withhold events from the state. The Mississippi Baptist Convention was one such group. Perhaps the biggest blow came from the NCAA, which threatened to not hold postseason events in the state.
The Flag’s History
This whole situation begs the question: why was the Confederate flag on a state flag in the first place? To answer that question, we will need to go over a bit of history.
After the Civil War, the north occupied the southern states for roughly 12 years in a period known as Reconstruction. When the north ceded control of the states back to the locals, they looked to roll back many of the rights that had been given to African Americans.
It was in the years after Reconstruction that the infamous Jim Crow laws were passed. Monuments to the Confederacy went up across the south. A new narrative, the so-called “Lost Cause of the Confederacy” came into being. This ideology endorsed the idea that the south fought a just war against northern aggression in defense of their way of life and states’ rights.
Mississippi put the Confederate battle flag on their state flag in 1894. They were the last state to have the symbol on their state flag.
Heritage Or Oppression?
Supporters of the flag say that it is a part of the south’s history. Opponents argue that it is a symbol of oppression. This same battle has been raging over Confederate monuments across the country.
You can’t erase history. Slavery and the Civil War are a part of this nation’s past that we should never forget. However, there is a difference between recognizing history and glorifying it. We should glorify the positive aspects of our history, but the negative aspects should be relegated to museums and history books.
The rebellion of the southern states is not something to be proud of. Despite the revisionist history of the Confederacy being a battle of states’ rights, the fact remains that the war was fought over slavery. The states’ rights in question were the rights to own slaves. Slavery was literally written into the Confederate constitution.
People are generally averse to change. It’s tough to see statues and symbols you grew up with torn down. But we have to recognize that these monuments never should have gone up in the first place. The Confederacy was a rebellion against our very nation, and it was a rebellion against the idea of all men being free.
There are many things for southerners to be proud of. The Confederacy is not one of them. The decision by Mississippi to change the state flag is the right move.