Thread by @ashtonpittman

"The belief that the South's past is only worthy of national scorn...shows how Black Southern activists have been erased from its regional memory," @ProfTDParry says.

This is ongoing! Look at news coverage of Mississippi changing the state flag. 1/
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…

Black activists & lawmakers fought alone for decades to change Mississippi's state flag.

Most white lawmakers came in at the last hour last year (or no more recent than 2015) to support changing the flag. Guess who media heaped most of the credit on? 2/ mississippifreepress.org/3710/you-white…

That's why we wanted to make sure at @MSFreePress to tell the stories of Black activists & lawmakers, young and old, who led the fight to change the state flag.

That doesn't mean white lawmakers deserve no credit. But don't erase the ones who led! 3/ mississippifreepress.org/13375/black-mi…

The Black Mississippians behind the flag change include people like Crystal Welch, who stepped in to stop Mississippi Democrats from adopting a compromise flag design that still included a less-offensive, more obscure Confederate symbol. 4/
mississippifreepress.org/13560/no-compr…

It's important to recognize that the young Black activists who in 2020 organized the biggest march in Mississippi since the civil rights era don't want to stop at changing the state flag—they want to change the state.

Don't erase them or their goals. 5/
mississippifreepress.org/13751/young-bl…

One reason it offends me when folks offer nothing but scorn for MS is that, when I think of MS, I don't just think of white supremacists. I think of heroes like Fannie Lou Hamer, Victoria Gray Adams & Vernon Dahmer.

Read @ProfTDParry's column:
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…