Miss. Senate votes to approve new state flag

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The Mississippi Senate passed the bill formally adopting a new state flag in Mississippi.

Adopting the new design was at the top of the agenda for state lawmakers when they returned to the Capitol on Monday.

Early last year, lawmakers voted to retire the flag that bore the Confederate emblem. Voters then approved the new flag with the Magnolia and the phrase “In God We Trust” back in November during the General Election.

Now, lawmakers have put that design into state law.

On Tuesday, the House voted 119-1 to approve the flag without any floor debate. Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to sign it into law after the Senate passed it as well.

“What’s affirming to me is the vote that occurred last November on November 3,” said Speaker Philip Gunn. “Almost 75 percent of the people of the state voiced their support for doing this. And so today, we are simply ratifying and putting in the law what the people of the state said that they wanted.”

“The flag sort of ushers in, I feel, a season of hope that we as a state can find something that we all can work together for the good of the state on,” said Rep. Robert Johnson. “That flag represents that now, a new wave, a new time in the state of Mississippi.

State officials say a ceremony will be held later this week to begin flying the flag outside the Capitol.