JACKSON, Miss.–Some people want to move on from the debate about the Mississippi flag, yet others want to move on from the flag itself. A rally Monday at the state capitol had people who want to keep the state flag shouting at the rally leaders who want to see the Confederate emblem off of the official emblem of the Magnolia State.
“I*t is time to see that flag right there in a museum,” said James Bowling, who took the mic on the front steps of the capitol. Bowling is a professor of religion at Millsaps College.
You’ve heard probably that actress Aunjanue Ellis, a native of McComb, who’s known for movies like “The Help” and the recent BET production “THe Book of NEgroes”, has moved a production from Mississippi to Louisiana because of the flag.
“That is a stance of principal, not of opportunism, a stance of principal,” she told media at a news conference. Ellis’ intent is to encourage movie companies to stay away from the state until the flag is changed.
Ward Emling, with the Mississippi Film Office, did not address Ellis’ concerns directly in an interview with News Mississippi, but he did say that Mississippi is continuing to attract filmmakers with tax incentives and an experience that film crews will get nowhere else.
“Locations are far more valuable than they were ten years ago,” he said. “We’re scouting more now locations that aren’t necessarily Mississippi.” Emling said Mississippi serves as a backdrop for movies that are set elsewhere, but use our locations to simulate places like Texas or Ohio.
That aside, it remains to be seen what effect Ellis’ coalition will have on movies that might be shot in the state.
Protesters seem to feel that the flag could be an impediment to other things, including the way people view Mississippi.
This problematic and exclusionary emblem restricts Mississippi to a ‘noose south’ instead of the pride of the so-called ‘New South'<‘ said Chokwe Antar Lumumba, son of the former Jackson mayor, who was a Civil Rights activist.
