Poor Mississippi just lost the chance to have the coolest State Flag in the entire Union.
Despite a pandemic which has hit the Magnolia State pretty hard, and one of the most vitriolic Presidential elections in memorable history, the good citizens of Mississippi have another contentious choice on their hands: a new state flag. And they’ll be voting on that the same day as they make their choice for our next President!
As you might remember, the old state flag had the blue starred Saint Andrew’s Cross on a red field of the Confederacy on the upper quarter closest to the flag staff. In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the Mississippi legislature voted to repeal the state laws relating to the State Flag and removing the old flag from all public buildings. The law was signed by Governor Tate Reeves on June 30th.
From Wikipedia:
Under the terms of House Bill 1796, a body known as the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag will be constituted which is to suggest a design for a new state flag no later than 14 September 2020. The act stipulates that any design proposed by the commission must include the words "In God We Trust" and must not contain the Confederate battle flag. The commission will consist of nine members, three of which will be appointed by the Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, three members appointed by the Secretary of State of Mississippi, and three by the Governor of Mississippi. The proposed design will then be subject to a referendum to be held concurrently with the United States presidential election on 3 November 2020.
And that’s where the ‘skeeter briefly came into the picture.
From the Guardian:
The state department of archives and history (MDAH) said on Tuesday that a design featuring the blood-sucking insect had slipped through the screening process and should not have been among the selections posted online on Monday.
Mississippi recently retired the last state banner with the Confederate battle emblem that is widely condemned as racist. A nine-member commission will recommend a replacement flag that, by legislative mandate, cannot include the Confederate symbol and must have the phrase “In God We Trust”.
In the first round of a selection process, the public submitted nearly 3,000 designs. The commission narrowed that to 147 proposals making the second round, and the department put those on its website. One had a giant mosquito surrounded by a circle of stars, a design that has since been zapped.The Commission to Redesign the State Flag recently released a list of designs making it to the second round of flag selection progress.
From the Northside Sun, a weekly paper and monthly magazine in Jackson, Mississippi:
The Commission to Redesign the State Flag recently released a list of designs making it to the second round of flag selection progress.
Nearly 3,000 designs were submitted to the commission after the previous state flag was retired earlier this summer. The commission has whittled that number down to 147.
You can see the proposed flags that have survived to Round 2 at the link above. They’re all very nice, but just don’t have the same pizzazz as the ‘Skeeter Flag would have had.
Now, I’m not laughing at Mississippi. California’s flag has a picture of the Ursus arctos californicus, the California Grizzly Bear, which has been extinct since 1924. Oregon’s state flag is the only one in the Union with two different sides. And does anyone know what the motto on the New York State flag means? Excelsior?
Vexillologists across the nation, of which I proudly count myself one, will be watching the competition for the new Mississippi State flag with great interest. I just hope they don’t pick something boring.