TUNICA COUNTY, Miss. — A north Mississippi county voted to stop displaying the state flag on all county-owned property.
The Tunica County Board of Supervisors passed the measure Monday because the flag contains a Confederate symbol.
This is just the latest call action to be taken in regards to the Mississippi flag. Tunica is the second governing body in Mississippi to make this move, and officials hope other counties and cities will do the same.
Removing the state flag is controversial, but leaders in Tunica County said it’s necessary.
Board President McKinley Daley said the Confederate emblem on the flag is a symbol of injustice.
“We stand in solidarity to ending racism,” Daley said.
Tunica County will also be compiling a list of all county roads, streets and properties with names that are linked to the Confederacy for renaming purposes.
“You still had people who fought so hard to keep slavery, to keep the Jim Crow laws, and if those names are being displayed then it’s almost as if we’re calling them heroes, and they’re not,” Daley said.
Daley said officials will also ask apartment complexes to change their names if the names have Confederate references.
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Residents WREG spoke with supported the decision.
“Because I’ve got grandkids coming up, and I want them to know right from wrong, and that they have rights to certain things,” Tunica County resident Lenoria Kendricks said. “Everybody to be treated the same.”
“You can’t see my smile through the mask, but I’m smiling about it,” resident Deforest Parks said. “I agree with it, and a lot of Mississippians agree with it. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”
The city of Gulfport is also removing the state flag from all city-owned buildings because of the Confederate emblem, and Ole Miss’ plan to remove a Confederate statue was recently approved.
WREG asked DeSoto County leaders if they were considering it, but for now the Board of Supervisors is not discussing the idea.
