Mississippi flag is not a banner that unifies us, so change it, AG hopeful says

A Republican candidate for attorney general wants to change Mississippi's state flag.

Too many young people are leaving the state, Andy Taggart said, and that's because Mississippi is stuck looking to its past.

It may be a symbolic change, Taggart said, but designing a new state flag — one that does not include the Confederate battle flag — will show people Mississippi is looking ahead, toward the future.

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According to Taggart, the flag acts like a "snapshot" of Mississippi, and the current snapshot is about the Civil War, which was driven by slavery.

"That is not an accurate snapshot of our state," Taggart said, "but that is exactly what some people conclude when they see the snapshot."

If elected attorney general, Taggart would have no power to change the state flag. Taggart said he believes it's up to the Legislature to make the change.

But he thinks it's important to have someone in a statewide office championing a new flag. Taggart said he believes that would give lawmakers "conservative cover" to step out on the issue and support a new flag.

Taggart discussed the flag during a sit-down interview with the Clarion Ledger on Friday as he officially kicked off his campaign statewide.

Until Taggart, no other Republican candidate for statewide office has actively injected the flag as a major issue into this year's campaign. He thinks it is a key part of recruiting young people to Mississippi and getting them to stay.

"Unlike monuments, unlike street names, unlike building names, our state flag is supposed to be the banner under which all of us march and is a symbol of unity for all of us in the state of Mississippi," Taggart said. "And no matter how strongly people feel as though we ought to keep the current state flag, every objective observer would have to agree: Our current state flag is not a banner that unifies Mississippians."

Taggart appears to have had a harder stance on the flag than the sole Democrat running for attorney general, Jennifer Riley Collins.

When asked if she had an opinion on changing the flag, Collins wrote: "For me the issue is less about taking the current flag down and denying any part of the state's history but instead more about lifting a flag that represents the pride all Mississippians have for our state."

Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, is one of Taggart's primary opponents. Baker would not say how he personally felt about the flag, but noted that he was the only Republican candidate who has not called for changing the state flag.

"It's just for stirring up stuff," Baker said. "I don't really understand what the motivation is."

Baker thinks the decision is in the hands of voters — not the Legislature — and he's not seeing anyone organizing a referendum on the issue. 

Treasurer Lynn Fitch, a third Republican candidate for attorney general, has previously supported changing the flag. Reached by the Clarion Ledger Monday, she said the flag is an economic issue.

"Our flag is a part of our history and should be preserved," Fitch said in a statement, "but we need to find a way to address the concerns of the Mississippi Economic Council and our business community that the volatile nature of our most visible state symbol is impacting all our great work to bring new businesses and people to our State."

Changing the flag is a contentious issue in Mississippi.

In 2001, more than 60 percent of Mississippi voters rejected a new flag design that did not include the Confederate battle flag.

Conversations about removing Confederate symbols surged in 2015 when a white nationalist who previously posed in photos holding the Confederate battle flag killed nine African American worshipers in a Charleston church.

Mississippi is the only state to feature the Confederate battle flag within its state flag.

Mississippi's three historically black public universities stopped flying the state flag years ago. After the shooting, the state's five formerly white-only public universities abandoned the flag, too.

Some Mississippi cities, including Jackson and Biloxi, do not fly the Mississippi state flag because it contains the Confederate battle flag.

Lawmakers filed more than a dozen bills to redesign the flag this year, but all were rejected without consideration early in the session. 

In 2016, Rep. Kathy Sykes, D-Jackson, filed a bill that would change the state flag to one designed by Laurin Stennis, the granddaughter of the late Sen. John Stennis.

The so-called Stennis Flag was not adopted, but the campaign to make it Mississippi's state flag is not over. The flag is seen on bumper stickers, front porches and business across the state.

A municipal judge in Clarksdale took down the Mississippi state flag in his courtroom and put up the Stennis flag instead, outlets reported in 2018.

Contact Giacomo "Jack" Bologna at 601-961-7282 or gbologna@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @gbolognaCL.

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