Articles from the Daily Mississippian on the state flag

[struggle4progress]

The history we never recognize is important
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:07am
by Jake Thrasher
... The current flag represents the Mississippi of the past— the Mississippi filled with hate and racism. The Mississippi flag does not represent all the progress we have made as a state. It doesn’t even represent the modern day Mississippian. Most importantly, the flag does not represent Mississippi as a whole; the flag represents the white population of Mississippi. The flag needs to be changed to a flag that actually represents Mississippi for all its great accomplishments and not its dark past ...

Respect black Mississippi
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:03am
by Zoe McDonald
... The Confederate symbol represents years of oppression through slavery and the lengths slave owners would go to preserve institution and keep their slaves devoid of basic human rights ... Members of white supremacist groups carry it to publicly display their angst with any sort of progression ... The Confederate flag is, at its core, a symbol for hate ... Take the flag down, respect those who had a hand in creating the southern traditions we all honor and revisit today.

Not one more generation of hate
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:06am
by Ariel Cobbert
As I stood in the middle of those men drenched in Confederacy, my hands twitched and my stomach turned ... It wasn’t my life I feared for, I feared for the future ... One member of The Knights shouted at the students “This is why Mississippi should’ve kept segregation” ...

I know heritage and the Mississippi flag isn’t it
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:02am
by Clara Turnage
... David Turnage moved to Mississippi from South Carolina in 1840. His four sons— Albert, Preston, William and Fletcher— fought in the Civil War ... Only three of them came home. Albert, my three-times great-grandfather, bought a hundred acres of land after the war and built a house there. Where his house was is fewer than a 50 meters from where my home is. Six generations later, my family raises cattle where Albert raised cotton ... My family didn’t keep Albert’s Confederate flag. They didn’t hand it down from generation to generation ... I came to the rally to remove the Confederate flag Friday expecting to see resistance. But when I heard them speaking with loud, harsh voices and saw the swastika and the Ku Klux Klan symbols on their arms, I wondered how it honored their families ...
If this malignancy is what the Confederate emblem represents, it cannot represent my family. I cannot bring anything but shame to Albert Turnage and his family by hating anyone. This is not my heritage. This is not my legacy ...

... yesterday’s Confederacy is not our future
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:06am
by Collin Brister
... I am in no position to tell African Americans how to feel regarding that flag ... Quit pretending that we can classify the Confederacy as our heritage and .. that African Americans have to be okay with it ... I don’t want to have to explain to my children what the Confederacy was and then explain why it’s represented in the state flag ... Take it down immediately ...

... your flag doesn’t fit you anymore
Posted on Oct 20 2015 - 11:05am
by McKenna Wierman
... I wasn’t too comfortable with it, but it didn’t feel like my place to have an opinion ... But I’ve changed my mind. During my time at Ole Miss, I admit I’ve grown to know and love this place ... At the rally last week, I watched someone holding up the Mississippi state flag not to show his state pride but to display his hate. He held up the flag with the sole purpose of expressing his opinion, and his opinion was racist. He held up that flag as an act of terror, of defiance and of oppression ... Respect Mississippi, respect her people, and take down the flag.