Video: Speaker Gunn: New State Flag Needed

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ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi could have a new state flag.

One of the state’s top politicians says it’s time to remove the symbol of the Confederacy.

Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn says the stars and bars on the state’s flag is offensive.

He made the statement to WCBI on Monday evening in Ackerman.

The current flag was adopted in 1894.

It’s the only state flag in the U.S. with the Confederate battle flag.

After nine people were shot at a Charleston, South Carolina church, discussions of removing the Confederate battle flag from the state House in South Carolina gained momentum.

Now, many are having the same talk in Mississippi.

“The flag is not the reason that happened. But having said that, I think there is going to have to be a conversation about the flag. It represents an offense to some people, and I think we will have to deal with that. I think we are going to have conversations about it,” said Gunn.

Gunn was attending a fundraiser for state Representative Joey Hood.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A top Mississippi lawmaker says the Confederate battle emblem is offensive and needs to be removed from the state flag.

Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday that remembering our past is important, “but that does not mean we must let it define us.”

Mississippi and Tennessee officials are grappling with whether to retain Old South symbols, even as South Carolina leaders are pushing to remove a Confederate battle flag that flies outside the statehouse there.

Mississippi voters decided by a 2-to-1 margin in 2001 to keep the state flag used since 1894. One of its corners has a Confederate battle emblem.

Some Tennessee officials want to remove a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol. Forrest was a Confederate general and an early Ku Klux Klan leader.

Categories: Local News

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