(SP) – A state legislator in Mississippi is proposing a bill he hopes will serve as a compromise to the Magnolia State’s controversial flag that retains an inlay of the stars-and-bars Confederate flag.
“I think we can modernize our flag to represent what is important to us today, while also speaking to our proud Southern heritage,” said Rep. Robbie McGraw, who serves in the state legislator for the area around Booneville, Mississippi. “What does that better than the flag of the conference we all know and love and cherish.”
McGraw said that House Bill 1723, titled “The Let’s SEC the Confederacy Act,” would put the logo of the Southeastern Conference in the top-left corner of the state flag where the stars and bars currently exist. Both the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State are full members of the SEC and many of the state’s residents take great pride in belonging to perhaps the greatest conference in college football, despite the struggles of the Mississippi schools themselves.
But HB 1723 faces hurdles to getting passed — and not just from those who want to keep the Confederate flag as part of the state’s flag. There is currently another bill, HB 1709, that proposes that the Southeastern Conference change its logo to the Confederate flag.
“We all know that the SEC is what the Confederacy was always designed to become: successful and powerful and the pride of all Southern men and women,” said Rep. Randy Scoggin. “That’s why I am proposing that the SEC not be allowed to do business in the great State of Mississippi until it changes its logo to the flag of the Confederacy to honor its roots and those who fought and died to make the conference what it is today.”
