MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On the heels of Mississippi’s governor signing off on changing the state flag, some counties are in limbo over when the flag must come down and how.
At the Desoto County courthouse in Hernando, the Mississippi state flag still flies high. It is also flying at the courthouse in Tate County.
But in neighboring Marshall County, the state flag was taken down from the courthouse Wednesday. It’s also no longer flying at courthouses in Lafayette, Tunica and Panola counties.
Desoto County Court Administrator Vanessa Lynchard says according to the state, they have 15 days to remove the flag.
“They clarified that any building has until July 15th to do that,” Lynchard said. “The county is just waiting to hear from archives and history before we develop our plan for disposal of the flag.”
The law that changed the state flag says 15 days from the governor’s signing of the bill, the flag must come down. That would be July 15th.
It was Wednesday that Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves held a ceremony to decommission the state flag after signing the bill into law to remove it.
“A flag is a symbol of our present, our people and our future. For those reasons we need a new symbol,” Reeves said.
The Desoto County administrator says they are deciding how to dispose of the flag. Their only directive from archives and history is to dispose of it properly, as you would the American flag.
“The options that are available to us for the disposal of the flag is you can have a ceremony for the disposal and any kind of flag etiquette protocol will give you instructions on how to do that,” Lynchard said.
