PHILADELPHIA – The nation’s oldest civil rights organization has passed a resolution demanding Mississippi change its state flag, which includes the Confederate emblem.
According to the resolution, adopted Tuesday by more than 2,200 delegates at the 106th NAACP National Convention in Philadelphia, the group plans to bring national attention supporting the end of Mississippi’s flag.
“Whereas, the State of Mississippi now remains the sole state in our country to embrace a symbol of war, hate and a failed attempt to perpetuate its right to slavery, into its flag while regarding it as ‘heritage’ despite inflicting degradation upon its citizen descendants of slaves,” the resolution said.
It goes on to say the Confederate battle flag has “by far been the constant, most visible symbol of hatemongers and hate groups who have engaged in violence against others because of their race and religion, which includes hanging, cross burning, car and home bombings, church burning across the south, and most recently church ass murders in South Carolina.”
Mississippi adopted the current state flag in 1894. In a 2011 statewide referendum, voters decided to keep it as the official flag. However, pressure has been mounting to change it since last month’s murders of nine people at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
