The University of Mississippi quietly removed the state flag from its place of honor on Monday, heeding the calls of those who say the banner’s Confederate battle emblem is harming the school’s future.
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The University of Mississippi, also known as “Ole Miss”, has lowered the state flags on its campus.
The UM ASB was not the only entity on campus that was calling for the removal of the flag, as faculty members and students alike supported the idea as well. In August, the University of Texas at Austin opted to remove an outdoor statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America to be re-purposed as part of a “new educational exhibit”, according to university officials.
“We would’ve appreciated a moment to celebrate with our supporters, but we could understand why the administration would handle it this way”, he said. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen.
The state of Mississippi’s flag features a Confederate flag in the top left corner, the only state flag to do so.
It remains to be seen how Ole Miss’ removal of the flag will affect ongoing efforts in the state to ban the flag altogether. Also, the Daily Mississippian, the campus newspaper, reported that on Oct.16, after the NAACP sponsored a rally in protest of the flag, members of the global Keystone Knights, a Ku Klux Klan affiliate, showed up to show their disapproval. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement to The Clarion-Ledger, “Mississippians overwhelmingly voted in 2001 to adopt the current Mississippi state flag”. Stocks praised the collegiality of the discussion, stating, “Their respect for each other, despite genuine differences of opinion, was an inspiration to us all“.
The law Bryant’s statement cited makes display of the state flag optional, not mandatory, at public buildings. “But we believe for us to accomplish our academic mission this was the right move at the right time”.
“It helps move us forward”, athletic director Ross Bjork told the Associated Press. “The actions at Ole Miss serve as proof that the desire for a state flag that represents all Mississippians is shared by residents young and old”. “We join other leaders in our state who are calling for a change in the state flag”. The night before that momentous occasion, a group of agitated white students tried to raise Confederate flag in the middle of the campus.
The school is the latest Southern institution to dissociate itself from the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag.
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The flag descended in the Lyceum circle, where it had flown in 1962 during a riot that killed one, upon the enrollment of the first black student under court order.
