Mississippi mayor in tears after ordering removal of state flag from city buildings

State lawmakers set to debate whether Confederate image should remain in state's flag

The mayor of Laurel, Mississippi ordered the removal of the state's flag from city properties as officials debate its future (City of Laurel)

A black mayor in Mississippi held back tears as he signed an executive order to remove the state's flag from outside Laurel City Hall and other city properties.

The order signed by Mayor Johnny Magee reads that "there comes a point in time in the annals of history when it becomes necessary to re-define who we are and what a collection of people represent" and the state's flag — which includes the Confederate battle flag — "should be a unifying image of our ideals and values".

"Now is such a time," he said.

Laurel's move follows renewed debate over the future of the state's flag in the wake of global demonstrations against racial injustice, as demonstrators seek the removals of symbols of white supremacy, including Confederate-era statues and the battle flag.

Mississippi's current flag was adopted in 1894, nearly three decades after the US Civil War during which the state was the second to secede from the US. In its declaration of secession, Confederate Mississippi said: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world."

"I don't apologise for being emotional," Mayor Magee said during a press conference on 23 June. "I have lived through some things with this flag and as they told [Martin Luther King Jr] to wait. Time for waiting is over."

The state's legislature is poised to vote on a measure to remove and replace the flag with a different design this week.

Several powerful organisations in the state have also pressured Governor Tate Reeves and lawmakers to swiftly adopt a new flag.

The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, the state's largest religious congregation with more than 500,000 members and 2,100 churches, has called for a "change to the current flag in order to mitigate the hurt that its symbolism entails".

Walmart, which has 65 stores and employs more than 20,000 people in the state, also announced it will no longer fly the flag at its stores.

Last week, the NCAA announced that it will not host major events in the state until the Confederate flag is removed. Several athletes have refused to play in protest.

Coaches from Mississippi's public universities joined the state's Legislative Black Caucus and black ministers from across the state at the capital of Jackson on Thursday to pressure lawmakers to change the state flag.

City officials in Gulfport also unanimously voted to remove the flag, swapping it for an older design featuring a magnolia tree and a blue square with a white star, representing the Confederacy's Bonnie Blue flag.

But the governor is reluctant to change the flag without a vote, he said. The state last voted to determine whether to change the design in 2001. More than 60 per cent of voters agreed to keep it as is.

Following the murders of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist in 2014, Mississippi's public universities and several jurisdictions stopped flying the flag.

The flags in Laurel will be retired to a local library as part of a collection of historic documents and artefacts.

In his order, Mayor Magee wrote that flags "have themselves grown to exemplify the threads of the fabric that bind the very fabric of the societies they represent and have served as a means to unify, rallying the spirit and passion of the citizens to one voice and purpose of the state, all of which again demonstrates the significance given to these flying emblems."