Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) said for the first time on Saturday that he would sign a bill to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag if the legislation reaches his desk.
“The legislature has been stagnant for days because it considers a new state flag,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The discussion about the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it is time to end it. If they send me an invoice this weekend, I will sign it. ”
Mississippi lawmakers have been drafting legislation to remove the emblem from the upper left corner of the flag after a greater focus on Confederate symbols and racial injustice.
In his Saturday post, Reeves said bringing the state together will be “harder than recovering from tornadoes, harder than historic floods, harder than agency corruption, or prison riots or the upcoming hurricane season even harder than fighting the coronavirus. “
“For economic prosperity and for a better future for my children and yours, we must find a way to unite. To heal our wounds, to forgive, to resolve that the page has been turned, to trust each other. With God’s help, we can, “Reeves wrote.” It doesn’t matter where you are … I love you, Mississippi. “
The statement comes as a sudden change from Reeves, who just this week called for any flag changes to be approved by a vote at the polls, not by lawmakers in Jackson.
“There is an ongoing effort across the country to erase our nation’s history, to pretend that we are all so much better than our ancestors that we must erase their memory,” Reeves wrote Wednesday.
A possible resolution tabled over the weekend would be the first legislative push to change the state flag as residents voted nearly 2 to 1 to keep the current flag in 2001.
Two thirds of the 120 members of the State House I would need to vote in favor of suspending the rules to consider the change. Then you would need to go through the typical legislative process by majority vote before going to the state Senate.
Sources close to the House of Representatives leadership say they currently have a slim majority of votes to suspend the rules, Mississippi Today reported.
If the bill went through both houses, it would go to Reeves’ desk to get a signature.
The Mississippi flag, which was adopted in 1894 by white lawmakers, is the last remaining state that includes the Confederate emblem.
The potential change comes amid a national conversation about racial injustice and Confederate monuments after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The state has been under increasing pressure to change its flag. Walmart is no longer displayed the Mississippi flag in stores, in accordance with its policy of “not selling Confederate flag merchandise in stores and online sites.”
Country star and Mississippi native Faith Hill asked her home state to change the flag.
“I understand that many see the current flag as a symbol of Southern heritage and pride, but we have to realize that this flag is a direct symbol of terror for our black brothers and sisters,” he tweeted.
The NCAA also any college championship event prohibited from being played in states where the Confederate flag is prominently displayed. Shortly thereafter, a star player on the Mississippi state soccer team stated, “or change the flag or I will no longer represent this state. “
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