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7 Nov, 5 tweets, 3 min read
So this happened today: A Black Mississippi State football player ran out onto the field carrying a Mississippi flag—a Mississippi flag free of our Confederate, slave-owning past.
Mississippi voted to adopt this new flag to replace our old Confederate-themed state flag only four days ago:
mississippifreepress.org/6731/mississip…
Here's my @MSFreePress story on Mississippi's long road to changing our flag, how Black activists here led the charge for decades despite repeated setbacks, & how, 20 years after failing in 2001, change came this summer. #BlackLivesMatter mississippifreepress.org/3710/you-white…
Speaking of Mississippi State, now is a good time for @msstate to reconsider some of its own symbols. Via @DonnerKay & @11_mcgee: mississippifreepress.org/4650/mississip…
If you support our work at @MSFreePress to contextualize Mississippi's past and report on solutions for a better future, please support non-profit, paywall free journalism with a one-time or recurring donation.

Donations are currently *quadruple* matched: mfp.ms/donate

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More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
10 Nov
Mississippi House Rep. Price Wallace: “We need to succeed [sic] from the union and form our own country."

That tweet came in response to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' victory in the presidential race.

STORY: mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi… Image
Rep. Price Wallace's declaration that Mississippi needs to "succeed from the union" comes less than a week after Mississippians' voted to replace a flag that symbolized the last time we tried to *secede from the union with a new one. mississippifreepress.org/6731/mississip…
Top Mississippi Republican officials, on the other hand, have mostly remained silent about President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' victory. mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…
Read 6 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
10 Nov
NEW: “We need to succeed from the union & form our own country,” Mississippi Rep. Price Wallace tweeted after networks called the election for Biden, misspelling "secede."

Mississippi AG Fitch, meanwhile, is backing Trump's effort to overturn votes in PA.
mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…
Two young Mississippi House Republicans celebrated the fact that America elected a woman to the vice presidency.

Republican House Rep. Jansen Owen: "Regardless of one’s political ideology, this moment stands as a testament to our great nation." mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…
Republican Mississippi House Rep. Kent McCarty: “I would hope that ALL of us, regardless of party, can acknowledge the historical significance of the daughter of immigrants becoming the VP of the United States. ... I’m not sure why that’s controversial." mississippifreepress.org/6813/top-missi…
Read 6 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
8 Nov
This dude and his whole congregation appears to be going through a hysterical mass psychosis event over the election results.
It reminds me of the infamously super awkward laughing scene in Final Fantasy X.
The difference: Tidus, the Final Fantasy character, wasn't encouraging thousands of maskless people to gratuitously spray aerosol particles amongst one another indoors amid the deadliest pandemic in 100 years.

The US reported 133,000 new #COVID19 cases yesterday. Image
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
8 Nov
In Hattiesburg, a Confederate statue looms by a monument to voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer, murdered by the KKK in 1966.

Most Hattiesburg voted to remove it. But nearby white flight enclaves voted for it to stand in the majority Black city. mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c…
The map shows how Forrest County voted on the Confederate monument. ~80% of Hattiesburg voted to remove it from the majority Black city. ~60-80% of white voters in other parts of Forrest said the city must keep it & won 51-49.
Map: @wspittman/@MSFreePress
mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c… Map shows how one Census tr...
Most voters in Petal voted for the Confederate monument to remain in the city.

Petal, a destination for white families fleeing Hattiesburg after public-school desegregation, was the home of a klansman accused of helping conspire to kill Vernon Dahmer. mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c…
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
7 Nov
NEW: Forrest County voted to 51-49 to keep a Confederate monument standing on county property in Hattiesburg.

Hattiesburg voted overwhelmingly the monument from its downtown, but white towns & white flight areas overrode the majority Black city's vote. mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c…
*Hattiesburg voted overwhelmingly TO REMOVE the Confederate monument from its downtown
The Confederate monument stands near one to slain Black rights activist Vernon Dhamer, a KKK victim.

"That just cause resulted in the murder of this man who was pursuing civil rights. And then we let this thing that caused his murder continue to stand." mississippifreepress.org/6769/forrest-c…
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
4 Nov
BREAKING: Mississippi overwhelmingly voted to end a Jim Crow-era "electoral college"-like system for picking governors, which was intended to dilute the power of Black voters.

Mississippi will now choose top elected officials only by popular vote. #MSElex mississippifreepress.org/6733/mississip…
PSST: America's national electoral college is also rooted in upholding white supremacy and slavery. That's where MS got the idea.

At the federal convention in 1787, James Madison said he'd prefer a popular vote—if not for southern resistance to the idea.
mississippifreepress.org/6658/voters-co…
Mississippi also voted for a new state flag tonight, repudiating its old Confederate flag: mississippifreepress.org/6731/mississip…
Read 5 tweets

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