Flag waving a divisive issue in Mississippi

BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 17, 2015
Last modified: October 17, 2015 11:30PM

... Enmeshed in their own election-year politics and preferring to avoid the sticky subject of Old South symbolism, Mississippi’s top-elected officials have largely ignored the state flag ...

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant is seeking a second term in the Nov. 3 election, and said he wouldn’t call Mississippi legislators into special session this year to debate the flag ...

“If the (Mississippi) Legislature had been in session at the time the Mother Emmanuel tragedy happened, I think the momentum and the pressure to remove the symbol at that time would have carried the day,” said Susan Glisson, director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. “The emotion and the shock of that was very powerful. .?.?. It’s easy for emotions to subside.”

A few politicians called for change, including Philip Gunn, Mississippi’s first Republican House speaker since Reconstruction. Gunn is a leader in his local Baptist church, and said faith caused him to see the flag as “a point of offense that needs to be removed” ...

http://www.chieftain.com/news/4029255-120/flag-mississippi-confederate-state