Morgan Freeman and John Grisham are calling on the state of Mississippi to remove the Confederate battle flag from the official state flag.
The two were joined by dozens of other prominent Mississippi natives who made the demand in a full-page ad in the Monday print version of the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.
“It’s simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their own ancestors enslaved,” the ad reads. “It’s time for Mississippi to fly a flag for all its people.”
According to a report in the Clarion-Ledger, the letter, which was also signed by legendary quarterback Archie Manning, famous musician Jimmy Buffet, “The Help” author Kathryn Stockett and others “is the latest in a growing wave, from House Speaker Philip Gunn to Mississippi’s SEC football coaches to the great-great-grandson of Confederate President Jefferson Davis — all saying the Confederate battle flag belongs in a museum.”
“The tide is turning with business leadership saying it hurts our ability to recruit corporations and with coaches saying it hurts our ability to recruit athletes,” said state Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson. “The flag is a turnoff.”
The Confederate battle flag itself, has become a nationwide issue in recent years, particularly after the June killing of nine churchgoers in South Carolina by a white supremacist who posed with the flag in photos online.
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