Mississippi House Speaker wants Confederate emblem off the state flag

The Mississippi state flag.
(Image credit: iStock)

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.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.