Flag Fight: The Latest Call to Action

Bikers from all over the state rode into the Capital City to make their voices heard on Mississippi’s state flag controversy.

In the past, the NCAA has expressed disapproval of the confederate battle flag, imposing a 15-year ban on post-season sporting events in South Carolina because a confederate battle flag flew over the state capitol.

The Confederate flag drew renewed public scrutiny after nine African-Americans were shot and killed on June 17 in a Charleston, S.C., church by 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who embraced the flag as part of his white supremacist ideology. “The Confederate flag is no longer a viable state or national symbol in 2015”.

A group of 60 influential former and current Magnolia State residents – including author John Grisham, actor Morgan Freeman, legendary quarterback Archie Manning, and “The Help” author Kathryn Stockett – called for the emblem’s removal from the Mississippi state flag, in a letter published Sunday in The Clarion-Ledger.

Ex-Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and Mississippi business leader Jack Reed Sr. also signed the letter along with other prominent figures like Jimmy Buffett, the music legend, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, Grammy-winning producer Glen Ballard, Basketball Hall of Famer Bailey Howell, former Gov. William Winter, baseball legend Boo Ferriss and a crowd of many others. “The flag is a turnoff”, commented state Sen.

A Confederate battle is brewing in Mississippi.

Republican Governor Phil Bryant said 64% of voters had rejected a proposal to change the flag in 2001.

‘Think of America in 1931 and then in 1945 – that’s 14 years, and a tectonic shift in national identity. “Think of 1961 and 1975”, he said.

Since the Charleston shooting, many states and public institutions have fielded renewed efforts to have symbols of the Confederacy removed.

Authorities believe the slayings to be a hate crime.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was successful in lobbying the legislature to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds.

It was taken down last month.