The Mississippi Mayor cries whils signing order to take down state flag.
What We Know:
- On Tuesday, the Mayor of Laurel, Mississippi Johnny Magee, broke into tears when he signed an order to remove the Mississippi state flag from his town.
- According to Upworthy, the flag has been a point of disagreement in the town where 61% of its inhabitants are black.
- Before Mayor Magee signed the order to eliminate the flag from the city buildings, he paused for a full minute trying to fight back tears.
- At a press conference earlier this week Mayor Magee said, “There comes a point in time in the annals of history when it becomes necessary to redefine who a people are, and what a collection of these people represent. It is the opinion of the mayor of this city that now is such a time.”
- According to Mayor Magee, the flag that incorporated the Confederate stars and bars, was created in 1894 and still remains flying in many parts of the nation’s poorest and segregated states.
- The Confederate flag represents the 11 Southern states that attempted to secede from the United States. They operated as a separate government from 1860-1865 when the Union defeated them in the Civil War. The states fought the war in order to maintain chattel slavery so that the South would retain its agricultural superiority built on the backs of the slave trade.
- Since the death of George Floyd, Confederate flags and monuments have been under attack by protesters. Demonstrations in all 50 states contributed to the flags and statues to be removed.
So far, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and Alabama have removed Confederate statues.
