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Another public university in Mississippi is choosing not to display the state flag on campus because it contains a Confederate battle emblem many see as divisive. On Wednesday University of Southern Mississippi President Rodney Bennett ordered the state flag removed from the main campus in Hattiesburg and a branch campus on the Gulf Coast.
He said USM will only fly the U.S. flag because it’s more of a unifying symbol.
Bennett said in a statement “While I love the state of Mississippi, there is passionate disagreement about the current state flag on our campuses and in our communities. I am looking forward to a time when this debate is resolved and USM raises a state flag that unites us.”
His decision came two days after the University of Mississippi’s interim chancellor, Morris Stocks, ordered the state flag removed from campus in Oxford.
The display previously had the U.S. flag in the center, flanked by a state flag and a black-and-gold USM flag. The Hattiesburg American posted photos of people holding signs on campus Wednesday to both support and oppose removal of the state flag.
Since 1894, the Mississippi flag has had the Confederate battle symbol in the upper left corner. Mississippi’s three historically black universities had previously stopped flying the state flag.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson recently took down the flag with no fanfare.
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