2001 Mississippi flag referendum

The 2001 Mississippi flag referendum was a legislatively referred state statute appearing on an April 17, 2001 special election ballot, an election held specifically for this referendum.[1]

2001 Mississippi flag referendum
Counties of Mississippi colored according to referendum results
Location	Mississippi, United States
Date	April 17, 2001 (2001-04-17)
Voting system	simple majority for the first question first-past-the-post for the second question
Choose between Proposition A or Proposition B
Proposition A: Maintain current flag   64.39% Proposition B: Replace current flag with another that has a different canton   35.61%

Voters were asked to choose between two propositions relating to the Flag of Mississippi. Proposition A would keep the current flag, which features the Confederate battle flag in the canton. Proposition B would have slightly altered the flag by replacing the battle flag canton with another canton featuring 20 stars, arranged in a circle, representing Mississippi as the 20th state in the union, Voters overwhelmingly chose proposition A, which maintained the current flag[2]

Proposition A (Status quo)

Proposition B

[3][4][5][6]

Proposition A

Arguments

• "The [pro-Proposition A] economic argument didn't work because they could never name a single business that left the state of Mississippi or didn't come here because of the flag. And the racism argument didn't work because all these white liberals were lumping all black people together as helpless victims, and that didn't go over too well with anyone."[1]

Supporters

• Sons of Confederate Veterans
• United Daughters of the Confederacy

Proposition B

Arguments

• Pro-Proposition A forces issued an advertisement reading, “It's not right that our kids can't find good jobs close to home because companies won't locate in our state, but it's a fact. They have the wrong idea about Mississippi. A state flag that includes the Confederate flag just adds to those false opinions.”

Supporters

• Governor Ronnie Musgrove
• Former Governor William Winter
• Morgan Freeman
• Mississippi Economic Council
• Mississippi National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)[1]

Result

Voters voted to maintain the current flag, keeping the following law:

§ 3-3-16. Design of state flag. The official flag of the State of Mississippi shall have the following design: with width two-thirds (2/3) of its length; with the union (canton) to be square, in width two-thirds (2/3) of the width of the flag; the ground of the union to be red and a broad blue saltire thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with thirteen (13) mullets or five-pointed stars, corresponding with the number of the original States of the Union; the field to be divided into three (3) bars of equal width, the upper one blue, the center one white, and the lower one, extending the whole length of the flag, red (the national colors); this being the flag adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in the 1894 Special Session.

See also

• Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials

References

1. "Mississippi Flag Referendum (April 2001)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
2. Firestone, David (2001-04-18). "Mississippi Votes by Wide Margin to Keep State Flag That Includes Confederate Emblem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
3. "CNN.com - Mississippi votes 2-1 to keep existing flag - April 17, 2001". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
4. Ladd, Donna. "How Mississippians Voted in 2001 on the State Flag: The Numbers". jacksonfreepress.com. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
5. Gettleman, Jeffrey (2001-04-18). "Mississippi Votes to Keep Confederate Battle Cross on State's Flag". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
6. Duggan, Paul (2001-04-18). "Mississippi Keeps Its State Flag". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-07-04.