Mississippi House Speaker wants Confederate emblem off the state flag

Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn is calling for the removal of the Confederate emblem from the state's official flag.

"We must always remember our past, but that does not mean we must let it define us," the Republican lawmaker said Monday night. "As a Christian, I believe our state's flag has become a point of offense that needs to be removed. We need to begin having conversations about changing Mississippi's flag." The debate over the Confederate flag began after the Charleston church shooting last week, and an online petition calling for the removal of the emblem from Mississippi's flag has more than 4,500 signatures.

In 2001, 64 percent of voters approved a ballot measure that made the flag with the Confederate emblem the state's official banner, the Clarion-Ledger reports. Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said he did not think the state legislature would "supersede the will of the people on this issue," but Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones (D) said that changing the flag could be on the agenda during the next legislative session, which starts in January. "We're looking at it very seriously," he told the Clarion-Ledger. "We believe the state is more progressive [than in 2001]. We don't want to step on the historical aspect of it, but it's so offensive to so many people. That flag as a representation of the state has no right to be here."

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