| Faith — All eyes are on Mississippi's Senate race today after Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s comment saying she'd attend a public hanging brought the nation's attention to the state's painful past. At least 581 people have been lynched in the state, the vast majority of whom were hung because of one thing: they were black. This brutal history is why actress Aunjanue Ellis, who calls Mississippi home, is asking for your help in getting the Confederate symbol off of Mississippi’s state flag. | |
 | | Petition by Aunjanue Ellis
McComb, MS, United States | |  5,112
Supporters | |
| At least 581 people have been lynched in the state of Mississippi throughout U.S. history, the vast majority of whom were hung because of one thing: they were black.
This history is troubling enough, but it’s even more so when you see Mississippi’s junior Senator, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, making a joke this month at a political fundraiser where she laughs about how if one of her donors invited her, “she’d attend a public hanging.” The comment drew sharp responses from voters on the left and the right, noting that Sen. Hyde-Smith’s opponent is an African American. But Sen. Hyde-Smith has yet to apologize.
This kind of language would be unacceptable in so many places around the country. But not yet in Mississippi, my home state, where one of the most violent and destructive symbols in all of American history -- the Confederate emblem -- still adorns our state flag. It’s time to say enough is enough.
Join me in calling on Mississippi to remove the Confederate symbol from its state flag. | |
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