Flag of Mississippi

What the flag shows

Mississippi’s flag law describes every element, and gives most of them a meaning.

• The blue center panel. In Old Glory Blue, the blue of the US flag. The law says it stands for vigilance, justice and perseverance.
• The red bars. Wide bars at the hoist and the fly, in Old Glory Red, for the hardiness and valor of Mississippians.
• The gold edging. Narrow gold bars separate the red from the blue. Together with the magnolia’s gold center, they stand for the state’s visual arts, literature, music and performing arts.
• The magnolia. A white magnolia blossom, the state flower, in the center. It stands for the state, the hospitality of its people, and hope and rebirth, since the magnolia often blooms more than once over a long season.
• Twenty white stars. Ten on each side, ringing the blossom, for Mississippi’s place as the 20th state.
• The gold star. A segmented five-pointed star at the top of the ring, for the state’s Native American tribes, and also for the five inhabited regions of the world from which Mississippians come: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Oceania, and Europe. Its diamond-shaped segments refer to the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, revered in Native American cultures.
• “IN GOD WE TRUST.” In capital letters, joined into the bottom of the ring of stars. The words were required by the law that created the design commission.

The law sets the flag’s proportions at 72 by 120 units, or 3 to 5, though it allows them to vary.

The first magnolia flag

The magnolia is not new to Mississippi’s flags. In 1861 a state convention approved Mississippi’s first official flag. Governor John M. Stone later described it as a white field with a magnolia in the center, a blue field in the upper corner by the staff, and a red border and fringe. A convention in August 1865 withdrew that flag, along with the coat of arms.

The 1894 flag

In 1894, on Governor Stone’s recommendation, the Legislature adopted a new flag with blue, white and red bars and the Confederate battle flag in the upper corner. The change drew little public attention at the time. When the state’s laws were revised in 1906, the act adopting the coat of arms was left out, and in May 2000 the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the state had no official coat of arms. Governor Ronnie Musgrove appointed a 17-member commission on the flag and the coat of arms, and in a statewide referendum in 2001 more than 60 percent of voters chose to keep the 1894 flag over a new design. That left Mississippi’s as the last state flag containing the Confederate battle flag.

Retiring the old flag

On June 30, 2020, Governor Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1796. It retired the 1894 flag, ordered it taken down within 15 days, and created the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag. Any new design had to include the words “In God We Trust” and could not include the Confederate battle emblem. On July 1, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House handed the last flags flown over the Capitol to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Choosing the magnolia

The public sent in nearly 3,000 designs. The commission narrowed them to two finalists, both using a segmented gold star added by commission members: the magnolia flag, known during the process as the “New Magnolia,” and the “Great River Flag.” On November 3, 2020, voters approved the magnolia design with 73 percent of the vote. In January 2021 the House passed House Bill 1 by 119 to 1 and the Senate by 43 to 7, and Governor Reeves signed it on January 11, 2021, making the magnolia flag official.

The design is credited to Rocky Vaughan, working with Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles and Dominique Pugh, who drew the magnolia. Micah Whitson is credited with adding the Native American star.

Respect for the flag

State law requires the Mississippi flag to receive the same respect and etiquette as the US flag, although it sets no rules for retiring a worn flag. Mississippi also has an official pledge to its flag, taught in public schools alongside the Pledge of Allegiance. In the wording quoted in a 2002 bill, it reads: “I salute the flag of Mississippi and the sovereign state for which it stands with pride in her history and achievements and with confidence in her future under the guidance of Almighty God.”