Mississippi Lawmakers File Bills to Redesign Controversial State Flag
Jessica Remer, WBMF, January 22, 2019
The Mississippi state legislature seems poised to take up the state flag as several new bills filed in the first weeks of January focus on its redesign.
Mississippi is the last state in the country whose flag still bears the Confederate Battle flag.
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House Bill 433 {snip} would let the people decide on whether to change the flag by way of a statewide special election in November 2019.
With House Bill 18, Rep. David Baria presented a design featuring a large blue star, 19 smaller stars and red and white panels.
House Bill 561, filed by Rep. Kathy Sykes, would feature a large blue star on a white field encircled by 19 similar stars and flanked by red bands. The Washington Post reports Sykes filed the bill on behalf of Laurin Stennis whose father served in the state legislature and whose grandfather was a member of the U.S. Senate.
In 2001, Mississippi voters decided to keep the current flag. Then in 2015, an online petition to change the state flag received more than 5,000 signatures.
