University of Mississippi police officers removed the state flag from campus today in a morning ceremony after a campus-wide push from students, faculty and administrators called for the flag’s removal due to its Confederate ties. Ole Miss joins other Mississippi public universities, including Alcorn State, Jackson State and Mississippi Valley State, in choosing not to fly the state flag, which features a Confederate emblem in one corner.
The controversy surrounding the Confederate flag is nothing if not an overnight sensation 150 years in the making. That it took so many years to recognize the hurtful, hateful nature of the history it symbolizes is astonishing. That it took a tragic massacre in a Charleston chruch to bring the controversy to the forefront of public consciousness is also astonishing in its infinite sadness.
The news that the University of Mississippi removed the state flag from campus may not seem like anything more than a symbolic gesture, but it represents just how far even Mississippians have come in recognizing the need to rid themselves of the Stars & Bars and the racism and oppression it represents.
It seems the weight of history has finally caught up with the racists and those wedded to a long since discredited past. There are still those who believe White Makes Right, but Mississippi is no longer the hate-riddled uneducated backwater of Mississippi Burning. Those days of a half-century ago are the stuff of history books, and the generations destined to take over from the haters, racists, and bigots no longer want to be part of a heritage of exclusion and “separate but equal.” As the late Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
It would appear justice is nigh.
In a statement released by the University, current Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks said the respectful discussion that took place between everyone in the campus community inspired the administration to take quick actions.
Stocks also said the decision to remove the flag was not easy because it hold different meaning for everyone but in the end felt the flag did not welcome or value all members of the UM community so they supported the student-lead initiative to take it down.
Taking the flag down won’t by itself resolve issues of racism and exclusion in Mississippi. There are still those who believe the Confederacy will rise again and that African-Americans will be forced to return to their “rightful” place. I suspect it will take the dying off of the generation that came of age in the ’60s and ’70s for attitudes to truly change and for Mississippi to become a place that welcomes and cherishes diversity. In the meantime, taking down the state flag at a majority-White state university is the right thing to do.
As Chancellor Stocks indicated, taking the state flag down couldn’t have been an easy decision. It may be a symbol, but it’s one fraught with emotion, history, and in some cases ideology. In the end, though, taking the state flag down was an idea that originated with the student body, which leads me to believe there may just be hope for a future in Mississippi in which people are judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
“As Mississippi’s flagship university, we have a deep love and respect for our state,” Stocks said. “Because the flag remains Mississippi’s official banner, this was a hard decision. I understand the flag represents tradition and honor to some. But to others, the flag means that some members of the Ole Miss family are not welcomed or valued. That is why the university faculty, staff and leadership have united behind this student-led initiative.”
Older generations, locked into attitudes and hatreds that have been handed down over the years, aren’t going to be able to be counted on to change their way of thinking. Having grown up in a world in which Whites were considered to rule by birthright and tradition, discrimination was just the natural order of things. The younger generations? Perhaps they grew up recognizing the hatred and racism for what it is and decided they wanted a different, more inclusive world.
And a child shall lead us….
