In a almost unanimous decision, the University of Mississippi Faculty Senate voted to remove the state’s flag from campus, according to WMC-TV.
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The removal came after the university’s student body passed Resolution 15-13 against the flag.
Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks ordered the flag to be lowered and said it was being sent to the university’s archives.
“Seeing an institution with such an unpleasant history take steps toward progress can have an huge impact on the decisions of lawmakers”, University of Mississippi NAACP Chapter Vice President Tysianna Marino said. “This is what we represent, this is what we promote, this is our identity.’ I’m a Mississippian (and) that is not my flag”.
However, a few conservative members of the Ole Miss student body, such as 21-year-old student senator Andrew Soper, argued that the school should keep the flag on its campus grounds. But our state flag does not communicate those values.
On October 25, a senior at Ole Miss, Ann-Marie Herod, published an op-ed for NBC explaining the pain the flag causes students of color on campus. The alleged killer had published photos of himself online with the Confederate battle flag – a revelation that led to retailers, manufacturers and local governments to curtail its use. “We need to begin having conversations about changing Mississippi’s flag”.
Greg Stewart, a Confederate heritage supporter pushing the initiatives, says “current” would be inaccurate if legislators change the flag before an initiative gets on the 2018 ballot.
Officials acted after students last week voted to remove the flag, saying the confederate symbol had no place at the campus. “Ole Miss Students and my fellow Mississippians, rise up and push back on political correctness and support the state flag”. Ole Miss administrators have tried to distance the school from Confederate symbols.
“There was a time where we were not wanted at this University”. Delta State University and the University of Southern Mississippi, too, have issued statements calling on the state to redesign the banner. The university’s old mascot was a bearded plantation owner called Colonel Rebel.
The university joins other public universities in the state in choosing not to fly the state flag, which features the Confederate battle flag in one corner.
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There has been a broader reckoning in the South about the Confederate emblem since a June massacre in South Carolina in which a 21-year-old white man is accused of gunning down nine African-Americans at a Charleston church.
