Free Republic

By law, the new flag cannot include the Confederate battle flag, and it must have the phrase, “In God We Trust.” The public submitted nearly 3,000 designs. The flower is encircled by stars representing Mississippi as the 20th state. It also has a single star made of diamond shapes representing the Native American people who lived on the land before others arrived.

As part of the wave of tearing down symbols of historic racism., Mississippi State Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, signed legislation last month ordering the “prompt, dignified, and respectful” removal of the state flag bearing the rebel symbol from all state property. Mississippi was the only state whose flag contained the Confederate battle flag, adopting it in 1894, nearly three decades after the Civil War. 64% of voters reaffirmed the flag in a 2001 referendum. In the wake of the race riots sweeping across the country, Reeves decided to introduce the new legislation calling to redesign the flag. “I know...

Mississippi legislators this year won't attempt to redesign the last state flag that features the Confederate battle emblem because leaders say they can't find a majority to remove the symbol from the 122-year-old banner. Tuesday was the deadline for legislative committees to act on general bills, and flag proposals are among hundreds of measures that died without being brought up for debate. Some bills proposed redesigning the flag to remove the rebel cross, while others would have stripped state money from colleges and local governments that refuse to fly the current banner. One bill offered separate-but-equal flags, keeping the current...

It’s time to play a game of “Let’s denounce stuff.” What are we denouncing? Stuff! Why are we denouncing it? Because we’re progressives!Do we understand what the stuff is? Silence. You sound like a reactionary! We’re denouncing stuff in order to denounce stuff. We’re getting rid of all the flags. Especially the ones that confuse us. Like the Massachusetts flag. [1]We don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s an Indian in it so it’s probably racist [2]. Here’s the Boston Globe. What exactly is going on here? There’s the blue shield on the white field. And a white...

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican, said Wednesday he believes the state flag of Mississippi, which features the Confederate emblem, should be replaced. “After reflection and prayer, I now believe our state flag should be put in a museum and replaced by one that is more unifying to all Mississippians,” Mr. Wicker said in a statement. “As the descendant of several brave Americans who fought for the Confederacy, I have not viewed Mississippi’s current state flag as offensive. However, it is clearer and clearer to me that many of my fellow citizens feel differently and that our state flag increasingly...

A Janurary, 2005 poll of 625 registered voters in the State of Georgia, conducted for the Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans reveals that, among other things 79% of registered voters believe that the state of Georgia should have a new vote on their state flag that includes the 1956-2001 state flag, which incorporates the confederate battle flag. The flag was not included in the latest flag referendum. While a majority of voters may feel that a new vote is indeed needed between the current state flag and the former flag which was changed without consent of the voters, and...

Support Georgia's right to have a REAL vote on their state flag... The only vote issued did not include the flag that sparked all the controversay in the first place!. In addition, only 6% of registered voters showed up at the polls, BECAUSE the real Georgia state flag wasn't included in the referendum!! There is currently a bill that has just been filed with the Georgia State House to allow the real flag to be included in a statewide vote, as well as the current flag. No matter your feeling on the flag personally... There SHOULD BE a vote on...

Southern Heritage Political Action Committee Press Release November 5, 2004 Primary and General Elections Results. The Southern Heritage Political Action Committee (SHPAC) is proud to announce that a total of Eighteen anti-Southern Politicians on Georgia’s “Deck of Shame” have been removed during the 2004 election cycle. Eleven before and after the primary elections and seven after the general elections. The majority of the Eighteen removed was the direct result of the SHPAC efforts. Of the five Major political targets the SHPAC selected four were defeated, a ratio of 80%. Major SHPAC Political Targets: 1. Ginger Collins, State Senator (R), District...

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) - The Confederate emblem on the state flag has again cost Mississippi the chance to host a national sporting event. Three years after the NCAA denied Delta State its bid to host the Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, Mississippi State lost an invitation to serve as a host site for a prominent Division I regular season basketball tournament in November. END EXCERPT The rest of the article can be found here

<p>Is there anywhere that the palmetto and crescent moon aren't?</p> <p>The classic symbol has become the single most ubiquitous symbol for South Carolina - and far more than just a state flag.</p> <p>It's all but inescapable.</p> <p>Look for it on the back windows of the cars that people start with the keys attached to their palmetto key chains as they press the gas with their palmetto sandals and their palmetto shirts tucked into their pants cinched with palmetto belts.</p>

<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Southern heritage groups called for an economic boycott of Atlanta yesterday, a day after Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved a state flag without the Confederate battle emblem.</p> <p>About 50 people rallied outside the Capitol, saying the tepid turnout for the flag referendum meant that people thought it was phony. The ballot didn't allow voters to choose the 1956 version dominated by the Confederate cross of stars.</p>

Georgians want the Confederate emblem back on their state flag, and are frustrated that a referendum this month won't give them that option. What they don't know is that if the emblem's creator were alive, he'd vote to bury it. It's said that Social Security is the third rail of American politics, but an honest look would turn up something just as deadly. Though it lacks New Deal stature, nothing is more hazardous to a political career than the Confederate flag. Like Sherman's march, it lays waste to everything in its path. In recent years alone the flag has ruined...

ATLANTA (AP) — Controversy over the Confederate roots of the Georgia flag helped break the Democrats' 130-year grip on the governor's office in 2002. Now a question over changing the state's flag again could give voters even more reason to show up for the state's open Democratic presidential primary. On the March 2 ballot along with the Democratic presidential candidates — including Southerner John Edwards of North Carolina — is a question asking whether Georgia should keep its current state flag, which resembles a flag used by the Confederacy, or return to an older flag featuring the state seal and...

Sonny Perdue's actions during his first 13 months in office and called his 2002 election campaign "racist." Taking the podium before a crowd of reporters, the newly installed Democratic leader said the governor was "hamstrung" during his election campaign, pressured by controversy over the state flag and education reforms. "They inherited a $1 billion surplus, raised taxes and blew through the surplus," Kahn told a gathering of Georgia Press Association members. "They talked about how the governor's office wasn't going to push legislation &#8230; that was his excuse for not being able to get anything done."Kahn also likened Perdue to...

<p>The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a claim that the Mississippi flag contains a Christian symbol that represents state endorsement of a particular religion.</p> <p>John Ellis Briggs, a Muslim who sought punitive damages of up to $77.77 million and a ruling to ban the flag from public display, was appealing lower court dismissals of his claim the flag's Confederate battle symbol included the St. Andrew's Cross.</p>

JACKSON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a claim that the Mississippi flag contains a Christian symbol that represents state endorsement of a particular religion. John Ellis Briggs, a Muslim who sought punitive damages of up to $77.77 million and a ruling to ban the flag from public display, was appealing lower court dismissals of his claim the flag's Confederate battle symbol included the St. Andrew's Cross.Briggs filed suit in federal court in Gulfport in 2001. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2002. Briggs appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which...

Just because a cause is lost doesn't mean the fight's over. That's the Confederate way. Thwarted in the final moments of last year's session of the Legislature, supporters of Georgia's 1956 state flag will take another stab at putting the Rebel cross before voters over the next few weeks. Analogies with Pickett's disastrous charge at Gettysburg come quickly to mind. "We're used to having the odds against us," said William Lathem of Paulding County, leader of the Southern Heritage PAC, one of several groups that want to extend debate on the state's most volatile political issue by one more year....

JACKSON, Miss. -- The U.S. Supreme Court will discuss Jan. 9 whether to hear arguments in a case in which a Muslim claimed the Confederate battle emblem in Mississippi's flag is actually a Christian symbol. Lower federal courts had rejected John Ellis Briggs' argument that the Mississippi flag contains the St. Andrew's Cross and that the symbol represents state endorsement of a particular religion. Briggs' lawsuit seeks punitive damages of up to $77 million. It also seeks to have the symbol "removed from display in public places." Since 1894, Mississippi's flag has contained the Confederate battle emblem, a blue X...

<p>A St. Cloud VA Medical Center resident said Monday that he has filed suit against the center, its director, the secretary of veterans affairs and President George W. Bush.</p> <p>He filed the suit because the VA displayed state flags featuring the Confederate symbol.</p>