The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from an African-American attorney who called the Confederate battle emblem on the Mississippi flag “an official endorsement of white supremacy.”
The justices did not comment Monday in ending a lawsuit by lawyer Carlos Moore that sought to have the flag declared an unconstitutional relic of slavery.
Mississippi has used the same flag since 1894. It is the last state banner featuring the Confederate symbol, a red field topped by a blue tilted cross dotted by 13 white stars.
Edward Young, an 85-year-old white man who has called Mississippi home for more than 50 years and currently lives in Bay St. Louis, called the move Monday “very sensible.”
“This is part of our history,” Young said. “That flag has been flying over this land for a long time, so why would they want to remove it. We have no, uh, we don’t have any race riots like they do elsewhere. We get along very well with people here, no matter what color your skin is.”
Critics say the symbol is racist.
“I’m totally against the flag because of what it stands for,” said 48-year-old Edgar Trice, who is black and recently retired from the Army. “It’s the Confederate battle flag, and what were they fighting for? Slavery. So, I’m against that, and that’s my opinion on that.”
Trice said he’s not surprised by Monday’s decision and says Mississippi is “caught in a time warp.”
“Right now, other states are considering the openness of today’s time, but the state of Mississippi to me has always been behind, and I don’t know why anyone would have thought anything different.
So, it’s kind of, for me I have a open-minded peace about it, but at the end of the day, when you look at the flag, you think of the Confederacy, you think of slavery. We’re trying to get out of that time, but some people are still in a time warp.”