“The University of Mississippi community came to the realization years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others”, said Stocks in a statement, via the New York Times.
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Kyler Campbell and Virgil Dennison were both taken into custody October 22nd by Ole Miss Police. “Because the flag remains Mississippi’s official banner, this was a hard decision”.
“The lowering of the flag shows that the voices of today’s youth and leaders matter more than traditions and notions of heritage at Mississippi’s public universities”, Brooks said.
The state flag of Mississippi, with its Confederate canton, no longer flies at Ole Miss…
A handful of Mississippi cities and counties also stopped flying the state flag with the Confederate emblem after the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting.
USA attorney’s office spokesman Chad Lamar says the men are charged with possessing a firearm in a school zone. An FBI agent says in federal court records that the men are Klan members.
Today’s students forced the flag issue as the governor and most state lawmakers seek re-election on November 3, and many politicians have avoided staking positions. Not so Chris McDaniel, a state senator who lost a contentious Republican primary to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, and insisted that “Ole Miss should fly it, as long as they remain a publicly funded university”.
“Universities are supposed to be marketplaces of ideas, not cocoons designed for coddling the feelings of the perpetually offended”, the tea party favorite posted Monday on his Facebook page.
There was no sign of protest on campus Monday. Yet it’s actually been for the past decade or so that attitudes at the state’s flagship university have been shifting. That’s because the flag contains the Confederate battle flag in its design.
He held his ground on Monday. “If at a later date the general population of the State of Mississippi vote by majority to change the State of Mississippi flag, I will support the new state flag as well”. The event was sponsored by the University of Mississippi Chapter of the NAACP.
What became a lasting symbol of the rebel South and is now known as the “Confederate flag” or “rebel flag” is the rectangular version of the Confederate Army battle flag – a star-studded blue “X” overlaying a red field. If anything, it’s just the beginning of a process of more equality here on campus. Trustees insisted that he had to go because he resisted financial changes they wanted at the university’s hospital.
The Ole Miss Associated Student Body Senate passed the Mississippi flag removal resolution by a 51-13 vote, the DM Online reports. It’s the right thing to do. “It made a lot of us feel like we weren’t wanted here, like it wasn’t our school”, student Tysianna Marino said.
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“There was full agreement by the senior leadership team”, Stocks said in a press conference hours after the flag was lowered.
