Civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams on Sunday joined a crowd of about 100 people to call for a change to the Mississippi state flag.
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“Mother is the reason why this is taking place she told supporters gathered for Sunday’s One Flag for All rally near the Jackson State University campus”.
A pro-Confederate activist who showed up to counter-protest in Jackson over the weekend said that people who wanted to remove the Rebel flag symbol from the Mississippi state flag appeared to be anti-Semitic and un-Christian.
South Caroline state Representative Jenny Horne said that Mississippi is hurting its own economy by keeping the battle emblem on the state flag. “The economic development opportunities that Mississippi is missing out on – you don’t even know it, but it’s costing all citizens jobs”.
The racially motivated killing of nine black church members in Charleston, South Carolina in June has thrust the Confederate battle flag under a national spotlight. Three men held flags with various Confederate emblems near Sunday’s rally. She wore Sunday a pin displaying a photo of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was the minister of Emmanuel AME Church and was among those killed June 17.
“Since South Carolina removed the flag, we’re healing as a state”, she said. Supporters of the flag say that it is a sign of their history, and critics view it as a reminder of segregation and slavery, according to The Associated Press. “What was the Civil War fought over?”
Meanwhile Mrs Evers-Williams also addressed the rally saying the flag was not a symbol od unity.
Hundreds of people rallied against the continued usage of symbols of the Confederacy. “I’m southern til the day that I die”, said Rapper and activist David Banner.
Mrs Evers-Williams said: ‘If a former Confederate general recognizes the divisiveness of a symbol of disunity, we must do so also’.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves say if the issue is reconsidered, it should be done by voters rather than by legislators.
There are many Mississippi residents who do not want to see the flag changed.
Instapoll 16. Do you support a proposal to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag?
“It’s incumbent upon our generation and the generation that comes behind us to stand up for equality and justice and to not back down in the face of opposition”, said Representative Horne.
A Jackson resident, Sharon Brown, said Sunday that she will start gathering signatures soon for an initiative she hopes to put on the 2018 statewide ballot.
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“And the flags that we fly now don’t say that”, she said.
