Cooperation Jackson and local ministers call for state flag change

By Howard Ballou | June 19, 2020 at 10:58 PM CDT - Updated June 19 at 10:58 PM JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - More pressure for Mississippi to change its state flag Friday with a press conference by a community development organization.

Members of Cooperation Jackson, along with local ministers, cited Mississippi as the only place in the country with the confederate battle flag as its major symbol of power and pride.

Organizers call it’s a state-sanctioned symbol of white supremacy and black submission, pointing out the current flag was not approved by a vote of the people, but by state lawmakers at the time.

Sacajawea Hall added, ”But in 1894, legislators in Jackson created the current flag, so if the process of legislators in the Capitol deciding on a flag is illegitimate, then the current flag is illegitimate. Furthermore, there is no legal requirement for a public vote to decide a change in the flag.”

”The flag represents a time when most people of African descent were bound in chattel slavery and could be sold like cattle and bred like dogs,” continued Hall.

Pastor Horace McMillon said, ”This is a symbol that was of a hatred and oppression from the worst days of our history. It’s time for Mississippi to adopt the flag and the symbol that represents all of us.”

Cooperation Jackson is a community development organization located on Bailey Avenue in Jackson.