On Wednesday, an attorney general of Mississippi said he will defend his state's flag against a lawsuit that seeks to eliminate the country's last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem. While Jim Hood believes that the flag hurts the reputation of Mississippi and should be changed, he said his opinion about state laws won't stop him from fulfilling his oath to defend them.
Attorney Carlos Moore of Grenada, Mississippi, who filed the lawsuit on Monday, said the flag is 'state-sanctioned hate speech'. Yahoo News reported that the flag makes Moore and other African-Americans fear for their lives. He declareD the flag to be unconstitutional and a federal judge should remove it.
Moore cited the killings of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston last June. Reports say that the white suspect had previously posed for photos carrying a rebel flag that has a blue X dotted by 13 white stars.
Meanwhile, Governor Phil Bryant called Moore's lawsuit 'frivolous'. According to ABC News, Gov. Bryant suggested that the voters should decide whether to redesign the state flag that has flown since 1894. In 2001, a statewide election took place and Mississippi voted 2-1 in favor of keeping the rebel emblem. Mississippi's population is about 38 percent black.
Twelve different legislations to change the flag were introduced by several lawmakers from various states, says The Washington Post. However, each of the bills stalled in committee and none was submitted to the floor before the deadline last Tuesday.
Attorney General Jim Hood said he will rely on a ruling from a similar case which was filed in Georgia back in the mid-1990. A black resident who hails from Atlanta filed a lawsuit over the design of Georgia's flag, however, Judge Evans ruled that 'there is no evidence' in the record that the flag itself implies discrimination against African-Americans
U.S. District Judge Orinda D. Evans ruled in January 1996 that she would not make Georgia stop flying its flag because "There simply is no evidence in the record indicating that the flag itself results in discrimination against African-Americans."
Hood believes that Georgia's case law will help Mississippi in defending the flag lawsuit.
