JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has declared April as Confederate Heritage Month.
The first-year governor is following the practice of several of his Democratic and Republican predecessors.
The state’s only African American congressman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, says Reeves’s action is “unnecessary.”
The Mississippi chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans posted Reeves’s proclamation on its Facebook page.
The document does not mention slavery as the central issue of the Civil War. It says Americans should learn from the “mistakes and successes” of the past. Mississippi is the last state with a flag that prominently features the Confederate battle emblem.