A bipartisan group of Mississippi lawmakers are working to create a proposal to take the Confederate battle emblem off of the state’s flag, Mississippi Today reports.
A dozen lawmakers are working on a draft that would change the flag’s current design to the Stennis Flag, which features a big blue star encircled by 18 stars surrounded by red bands, according to the newspaper.
The current flag, which was adopted in 1894, is the last state flag that features something from the Confederacy.
The topic of changing the flag was last brought up before voters in 2001. Residents voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the current design.
As people protest the death of George Floyd, a black man, who was killed by a white former police officer, calls to change the flag have erupted. During a Saturday protest, the newspaper reported that people chanted “Change the flag!”as they marched in Jackson.
Sources close to Monday’s talks said Gunn told lawmakers he would like to keep the state flag topic from reaching the ballot and that he would support a suspension resolution to adopt a new flag if they could get 30 Republican members on board.
A suspension resolution requires two-thirds of the 120 state members to vote in favor of suspending the rules to consider the change. Then, the proposal would have to move through the standard approval process. Gov. Tate Reeves would be the one to sign the proposal into law.
But Reeves indicated, the flag design should be left to voters to decide, not lawmakers.
“There are a lot of people who have been vocal about this issue for a long time,” Reeves said on Monday. “My position has not changed. I spent much of 2019 telling the people of this state what I believe is there is going to come a time at some point I’m sure, when the people of Mississippi are going to want to change the flag. My position is, when they want to do that, it should be the people that make that decision, not some backroom deal by a bunch of politicians in Jackson.”
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