The Mississippi Senate has joined the House in a historic vote that is expected to bring down the Mississippi flag with its Confederate battle emblem.
The Senate voted 36 -14, followed by loud cheers, to suspend rules late Saturday afternoon so a bill can be considered to remove the flag. The two-thirds majority vote to suspend the rules by both chambers all but assures that Mississippi will finally take down a flag that has divided the state.
Both chambers need only a majority vote on a bill to remove the flag. Rules had to be suspended because the time had passed to consider general legislation such as the flag bill.
“My charge to you today is to pray first, aim high and stay focused,” Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, said as the last member to speak before the vote. “Once you do that, the lord will belss you our children and the state.”
Before he spoke, Democratic Sen. Barbara Blackmon quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor political nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.”
She added, “The time has come to take this flag down because it is right.”
Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Ellisville, was unable to muster enough support for a statewide referendum on the flag.
“You’re sowing the seeds of discord by not allowing people to talk about this and discuss it,” he said. “Don’t you think our state is better off when the people talk about these issues and decide these issues collectively rather than having it forced down their throats?”
The legislature voted as business, political and religious leaders in Mississippi continued to press for removal of the current state flag, the last in the nation to feature a Confederate battle emblem.
A growing Black Lives Matter movement and the Confederate flag’s long and sometimes violent embrace by white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan, overcame vocal opposition from those who claim the flag represents their Southern heritage.
It appears both chambers will consider the flag bill itself Sunday afternoon.
The House voted 85-34 early Saturday afternoon to suspend the rules so a flag bill can be adopted.
The House resolution called for a flag bill that would include the following items:
- Remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
- Establish a commission to come up with a new flag design, which must include the words, “In God We Trust,” by Sept. 14.
- Put the new flag design before Mississippi voters in a Nov. 3 special referendum.
- Forbid that the new design include the Confederate battle emblem.
Gov. Tate Reeves, who has said he wanted another vote of the people to decide the flag’s fate, said earlier this week that he would not veto a bill changing the flag. The two-thirds vote for a suspension of rules indicated the Legislature would have the votes to override any veto, he said in a Facebook post.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 5:09 PM.
