The fight to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol is far from over, but the push is already spreading to other states. As the state that actually incorporates the Confederate flag into its state flag, Mississippi is the next logical place to fight for change—but it's Mississippi, so we'll see.
The state's Republican House speaker has come out in support of changing the flag. Philip Gunn wrote on Facebook that:
We must always remember our past, but that does not mean we must let it define us. 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.
However, the state's Republican Gov. Phil Bryant is opposed, citing a 2001 ballot vote in favor of keeping the flag as it is. Mississippi voters chose to keep the flag by a
64 percent to 36 percent margin, with 36 percent no doubt coincidentally being the percentage of the state's population that was African American.
Other states are likely to take action to remove their Confederate symbols before Mississippi's flag changes. In Virginia, Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is moving to take the Confederate flag off of state-issued license plates. The state had been compelled by the courts to allow the design on specialty plates for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, but McAuliffe is taking advantage of last week's Supreme Court decision allowing Texas to reject such a design. In Tennessee, Democrats are joined by the state's Republican Party chair in calling for a bust of Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest to be removed from the state capitol.
A key question is whether the momentum for removing Confederate symbols will continue, or whether the issue will be allowed to die for another decade or more as the immediacy of the Charleston murders fades.