JACKSON, Miss. (AP) University coaches and Christian ministers filled the Mississippi Capitol on Thursday, urging legislators to seize the moment and remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag while Americans are reckoning with difficult discussions about race and history.
“It doesn’t take courage. It takes conscience,” said the Rev. Reginald M. Buckley, senior pastor of Jackson’s Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.
Mississippi is the last state with a flag that includes the emblem that many see as racist.
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Confederate monuments and other symbols are being removed in parts of the U.S. amid widespread protests over racial injustice after the videotaped killings of Black people, sometimes by police.