MAGNOLIA — Magnolia aldermen voted Tuesday night to remove the state flag from city hall, opting to eventually replace it with an emblem representing the town.
The board voted 3-0 to remove the flag from all city property. Aldermen Lonnie Cox, Mercedes Ricks and Becky Magee agreed to the removal, siding with Mayor Anthony Witherspoon’s belief that the flag is divisive and should be removed because it includes Confederate insignia.
Aldermen Sharon Butler and Joe Cornacchione were absent.
“This is a way to ease tensions,” Cox said. “I believe it needs to be remodeled. It should be history now, and I think we need something new to move forward.”
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has said he won’t call a special session of the Legislature to discuss the flag issue, meaning it won’t be addressed until January, when the Legislature reconvenes.
Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said they’ll abide by the results of a 2001 ballot initiative in which a majority of Mississippians voted to keep the current state flag. Other elected officials, including both of the state’s U.S. senators and its House Speaker, have said it’s time to change the flag.
“This is to join the ranks of the states of Alabama and South Carolina, Sen. Thad Cochran, House Speaker Philip Gunn, and those on both sides of the aisle,” Witherspoon said of Tuesday’s vote.
The city will put together a task force to consider design details from the community for the city flag, which will likely include a magnolia blossom.
“The city of Magnolia does not have a city flag. This is a great moment for this time and this city to move forward with one. It’s an opportunity to make history, and also to get our young people involved in its design,” Witherspoon said.
“I would like to have a flag that represents everyone in the city buildings of Magnolia,” Alderman Becky Magee said. “I don’t think our state flag does, and I think we need one that represents everyone.”
Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny L. Dupree ordered the state flag be taken down from all city-owned properties not long after the racially-motivated shootings in Charleston, S.C., took the lives of nine African-American church members. Witherspoon said he could have issued that directive also, but he wanted to involve the board in the decision.
“This is too important of an issue. I could have exercised my executive authority. I’m the chief executive of the city, but with the national attention, I wanted us to move as a unit,” he said.
South Carolina lawmakers voted this morning to remove the Confederate battle flag from the capitol lawn, and in Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley ordered it removed from the Confederate memorial on the capitol grounds.
Mississippi remains the only state in the country to include the actual Confederate banner on its state flag.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at national cemeteries in the deep South, including the cemetery at the Vicksburg National Military Park.
After the Magnolia board exited an executive session on Tuesday, the officials removed the flag and stand from the city meeting room and placed it into storage.
Cox agreed with House Speaker Philip Gunn who suggested the flag be put in a museum. The mayor said he would talk to the Magnolia-South Pike Chamber of Commerce who already has plans to develop a museum in Magnolia.
He said he will contact chamber president Jimmy Harris to see if he would be willing to accept the flag as a museum donation.
In the interim, the flag will remain out of public sight until it “finds its new home,” Witherspoon said.
