The New Mississippi State Flag And Our “Mrs. Hamer”

During all of the hullabaloo of our recent presidential election, states managed to pass new laws or make some historic changes to their state. The citizens of Mississippi, for example, approved a new design for their state flag. Why, you may ask, was this historic, and what does this have to do with our work? Let us explain.

The Old Design

Since 1894, the state flag of Mississippi had the confederate flag as one of its elements. Events of this year, most notably the murder of George Floyd, finally convinced the Mississippi legislature that this vestige of the Confederacy had to go. The fact is not lost on us that it really took threatened stadium boycotts by sports institutions like the SEC and NCAA before Mississippi took action. We don’t want to show that flag here, but click here if you want to view it.

The New Design

The Mississippi legislature received over 2000 flag designs. Each one had to include the motto “In God We Trust” and had to exclude the confederate flag. Rocky Vaughan, Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles, and Dominique Pugh designed the flag (see above) the voters approved last week.
You can decide for yourself whether this is a good flag design (see below), but here is the explanation of the flag’s elements. We’re just so happy it doesn’t have the confederate flag on it:

• magnolia blossom: Mississippi is the magnolia state, the state flower is the magnolia, and the state tree is the magnolia tree.
• 20 stars: Mississippi is the 20th state in the union
• gold five-point star: represents the Native Americans who originally inhabited the area (Micah Whitson contributed this design element)
• blue background: a nod to the US flag, representing vigilance, justice, perseverance
• red bands: represent hardiness and valor
• gold stripes and flower’s gold stamen: a nod to the rich cultural history of Mississippi, especially the visual arts, literature, music, and performing arts

“Mrs. Hamer”

We worked on “Mrs. Hamer” for over eight months. The longer we worked, the more we felt compelled to tell Fannie Lou Hamer’s story. Her simple goal was to gain the right to vote for her fellow Black Mississippians. Think about it for a minute. Mrs. Hamer spent her entire life going to post offices, city halls, and other buildings that flew a flag designed to remind her that she was not equal in the eyes of the state. Mrs. Hamer spoke at the 1964 Democratic Convention in protest of the fact that the Mississippi state delegation had NOT ONE Black member in it. She faced poll taxes and other Black voter suppression.
It was the tireless work of Fannie Lou Hamer and countless other activists that led to Voting Rights Act of 1965 and now the election of Kamela Harris, the first Black and Indian-American woman as vice president. Vice President-Elect Harris acknowledges that she stands on the shoulders of women like Mrs. Hamer. So, here’s to the legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer and the continuing march to realize America’s basic idea of “liberty and justice for all.”

Our FLH Project

Read our other posts about our Fannie Lou Hamer project:

• Voting Rights and Our Fannie Lou Hamer Project (Nov 12, 2019)
• Are You Registered to Vote? Our Art asks You to Protect Your Voting Rights! (Feb 25, 2020)
• “Fannie Lou Hamer’s Hair” in Why We Love Photoshop and Why Teach Online – Try Us! (Mar 3, 2020)
• Collaboration in Isolation: A New Road Map (May 5, 2020)

Fun Flag Facts

The five elements of good flag design are:

• Keep it simple. A child should be able to draw it from memory.
• Use meaningful symbolism.
• Use 2-3 basic colors.
• No lettering or seals. They can’t be seen from a distance. (Uh oh, Mississippi!)
• Be distinctive or be related.

How do we know this? From the North American Vexillological Association, of course! NAVA is solely devoted to the study of flags. And, there’s even a word for it!

vex·il·lol·o·gy/ˌveksəˈläləjē/
noun
the study of flags

You might enjoy watching this John Oliver bit on flag designs and Roman Mars’ TED Talk on ugly city flag designs. They’re hilarious!

• John Oliver, New Zealand Flag Debate
• Roman Mars, Why City Flags may be the Worst-designed Thing You’ve Never Noticed