The commission, which studied the issue for six months, proposed a flag with blue and white stripes and 20 stars in a circle on a red background in the left-hand corner. Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the union.
The flag commission was headed by former Miss. Gov. William Winter, who said five public hearings around the state showed "strongly held" feelings about the existing flag, which has the Confederate battle emblem in the upper left corner.
"We have heard what the people have said. The people want to vote," Winter said.
During the recent hearings, there were sharp words between flag supporters and opponents. Last week, one man waving a Confederate battle flag told the panel: "This flag is just like my wife. You mess with my wife and you're gonna get your ass kicked."
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove created the 17-member flag commission after the Mississippi Supreme Court found earlier this year that the law adopting the state flag in the 1890s was inadvertently repealed in 1906. It said that the flag used since 1894 had no special legal standing.
One of the most active supporters of the existing Mississippi flag is a group called the League of the South. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the league a "neo-Confederate" hate group "rife with white supremacists and racist ideology."
Winter said a five-member design committee reviewed more than 1,200 proposed designs before voting on its final report on Tuesday.
Mississippi's legislature, scheduled to convene in January, will consider the report. The commission has proposed that the statewide referendum take place next year.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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