Police at the University of Mississippi escorted the state flag off campus Monday morning, after students, faculty, and administrators called for the removal of the banner, which features the Confederate battle flag in its top left corner.
The school’s student senate approved a resolution to take down the flag last week; the faculty senate immediately passed its own version of the resolution. The Mississippi flag has featured the Confederate emblem since 1894. While the design has long been a source of controversy in the state, residents voted to leave the flag unchanged in a 2001 referendum.
South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag from its capital grounds last July, after nine African-Americans were murdered in a Charleston church. Alabama quickly followed suit. In August, Virginia announced plans to remove the emblem from the state’s specialty license plates.
