Faith Hill Would Also Like Mississippi to Get Rid of Its Racist Flag Already

Faith Hill is joining a chorus of expected (college campuses) and unexpected (Southern Baptists, Walmart) voices in protesting the Mississippi state flag, which incorporated a Confederate battle flag 30 years after the Civil War.

Hill, a Mississippi native, posted her thoughts on Twitter Thursday night, urging lawmakers to vote to change the flag in its June 26 legislative vote. “I understand that many view the flag as a symbol of heritage and Southern pride,” Hill wrote “but we have to realize that this flag is a direct symbol of terror for our black brothers and sisters.”

And she is absolutely correct. The Confederate flag was incorporated into the state flag in 1894, serving as both a nod to aging Civil War veterans that their participation in the rebellion to uphold slavery was not forgotten and an overt dogwhistle to racists that, in Mississippi, the government would work to uphold white supremacy. And the violent legacy of that flag is still apparent today. In October 2019, a memorial to Emmett Till, the black child lynched after being accused of whistling at a white woman in 1955, had to be replaced by a bulletproof version, as white supremacists continue to brutalize moments to the murdered 14-year-old.

The vote on the new flag, featuring the state seal alongside the words “In God We Trust,” is set to go before the state House and Senate, according to the Clarion-Ledger, and could be decided this weekend.