Mississippi governor opposes ‘separate but equal’ option for second state flag

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he’s against having two state flags implying it would further divide the state.

Mississippi has the only state flag that includes the Confederate battle emblem, a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars.

White supremacist Mississippi lawmakers set the flag design in 1894 during the backlash to political power that African Americans gained during Reconstruction. People who voted in a 2001 statewide election chose to keep the flag, but the rebel symbol has remained divisive in a state with a 38% Black population.

Some people and businesses have been flying a flag designed in 2014 by Jackson artist Laurin Stennis. It has red vertical stripes on either end with a white field in the center topped by 19 small blue stars encircling a large blue star that represents Mississippi as the 20th state.

Stennis is the granddaughter of the late U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, who retired in 1989 after being a segregationist for most of his four decades in Washington. While she rejects that part of her grandfather’s mindset, some critics have said Mississippi should not adopt a state flag that has commonly been called the “Stennis flag” in recent years.

All of Mississippi’s public universities and several cities and counties have stopped flying the state flag in recent years because of the emblem. The state has two SEC schools — the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. Leaders at both universities said the state should change the flag.

“Mississippi needs a flag that represents the qualities about our state that unite us, not those that still divide us,” Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce and athletic director Keith Carter said in a joint statement. “We support the SEC’s position for changing the Mississippi state flag to an image that is more welcoming and inclusive for all people.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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