Battle over Confederate flag shifts to Magnolia State

[struggle4progress]

With the Confederate flag gone from the South Carolina State House grounds, some residents of Mississippi are confronting their state flag, the only US flag to incorporate the Southern cross.
By Jessica Mendoza
JULY 13, 2015

... The split is especially stark in Mississippi, the heart of the Deep South and whose state flag is the only one that incorporates the “rebel X” Confederate insignia – Georgia changed it's flag to eliminate the Southern Cross in 2001. In a telling snapshot, the city of Hattiesburg, located in the southern part of the state, has removed all state flags from city buildings. Less than three miles away, the town of Petal has done the exact opposite and voted to fly the state flag at all of its city buildings ... The state’s Republican governor, Phil Bryant, has refused to call a special legislative session to address the issue ... Yet shortly after the South Carolina shooting, Philip Gunn, the Republican speaker of the state House, called for the Confederate emblem’s removal from the state flag ... “A backlash is beginning,” Ben Jones, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which represents 30,000 descendants of Confederate soldiers, told Reuters. “We are putting flags out. Everyone time one is taken down, we put five or six of them up.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0713/Mississippi-divided-Battle-over-Confederate-flag-shifts-to-Magnolia-State-video

[struggle4progress]

1. Texas high school defends confederate flag

Monday, July 13, 2015 07:37AM

Jamie Richardson, the valedictorian of the Class of 2015, said the emblem has always been a kind of a pride for her school ... "The Confederate flag has never been about hate or racism and it's never been used to discriminate students or any group of people. It's always just been kind of a pride thing to be proud of our school," said Richardson. "It's always been a symbol of pride and you know our mascot, the fighting rebels. You know the rebel soldier was a mighty fighting warrior so we kind of tend to like that tradition," Richardson's father, Milton Richardson, said. The high school has used the Confederate flag since the 1950's, and the superintendent said there are no plans to stop now. He tells KFDM-TV the school district always follows the wishes of the people living within the district. So far, there haven't been any complaints.

http://abc13.com/education/texas-high-school-defends-confederate-flag/847656/