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In Mississippi, A Call To Change The State Flag

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The Mississippi state flag flies under the American flag. (jimmysmith/Flickr)
The Mississippi state flag flies under the American flag. (jimmysmith/Flickr)

Mississippi may consider removing the Confederate emblem from its state flag, after Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn called for the change yesterday, becoming the first high-profile Republican to do so. In 2001, 66 percent of Mississippi voters chose to keep the existing state flag, which was adopted in 1894.

Mississippi state Senator Sally Doty, a Republican who faces a primary election in 45 days, tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson that the flag debate is "a very difficult conversation" in Mississippi right now, and she has friends on both sides of the issue.

After last week's deadly shooting in at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that state is re-considering flying the Confederate flag at a monument in front of the statehouse. And lawmakers in Tennessee are calling for the removal of a bust of a Confederate general and early KKK leader from an alcove outside the state Senate chamber.

Guest

  • Sally Doty, Republican state senator in Mississippi, representing the 39th District.

This segment aired on June 23, 2015.

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