As a national conversation about racism and issues facing black Americans intensifies, a Petal woman is hoping descendants of Confederate soldiers will sign her petition to change the Mississippi state flag.
Lisa Foster is a board member of the Mississippi Rising Coalition, a nonprofit aiming to improve the quality of life for marginalized Mississippians. She also founded the online petition to change the state flag, which is the last flag in the nation to feature the controversial battle emblem of the Confederate States of America.
The flag was adopted in 1894 by white lawmakers who were able to regain political control of the state following the Reconstruction era through a new 1890 Constitution that effectively disenfranchised black voters. Many of those lawmakers were direct descendants of Confederate soldiers, and they promoted the “Lost Cause” – the ideology that suggests the cause of the Confederacy was just and heroic – through iconography like the flag and towering monuments.
Foster said the state flag is not a good representation of all Mississippians and instead is a symbol of white supremacy.
“Few realize that this was not our state flag until an 1894 vote by a legislature that was 98 percent white in a state that was 58 percent black,” said Foster. “It symbolized a change in our laws where wealthy white Mississippians, faced with possible threats to their power, rewrote our state constitution to deny black men, and many poor white men, of their constitutional right to vote. Black voices were not heard even though they were the majority of the population.”
Foster, who was previously a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said she bought into the “Lost Cause” mythos for years until her education at the University of Southern Mississippi – along with her work experiences at Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis home in Biloxi – opened her eyes.
“I was a history major, and learning from that ... I decided the ‘Lost Cause’ wasn’t for me, that I didn’t want to believe in that,” she said.
Her attention focused on the state flag in 2015 when white supremacist and convicted mass murderer Dylann Roof – who was pictured with a flag featuring the battle emblem – shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Roof said he hoped to incite a race war, but, instead, the incident sparked a national dialogue about the emblem’s use and its particular prominence in the state flag.
“At the time, I would speak out about the flag, and I would say the flag doesn’t represent me, but people would tell me it does, that it represents my ancestors,” she said. “I got sick of hearing that, so I started writing the petition.”
Foster said she believes it is her responsibility as the descendant of a Confederate veteran to speak out against social injustice and false narratives.
“I’ve had the petition written since 2018, but I could never get the right moment – or the right way – to do it,” she said. “Right now, it seems like the right time. It is time to tell the world that in 2020, we are no longer the Mississippi of our ancestors, and it is time for black lives to matter in Mississippi. We have lived as a divided people way too long.”
She added that she is aware of potential designs for a new state flag, including the popular Stennis flag, which was designed by artist Lauren Stennis, granddaughter of former Mississippi Sen. John C. Stennis.
“At this point, I just want the current flag to come down,” said Foster. “I don’t want us to get stuck on what the new one will look like. I like the Stennis flag, but I want all voices involved in the new flag and not just one person or one group. The flag needs to be ours, collectively. We need to put some real thought into it.”
Foster is also aware of the argument that Mississippians have already voted to keep the flag. That referendum was on the ballot in 2001.
“That vote was almost 20 years ago, and many new voters – including millennials – are now able to vote,” she said. “We need to have another vote, and it needs to happen now. This can no longer hold us back.”
The petition was posted Sunday morning, and Foster said she already has 12 signatures.
“I’ve probably got about 20 total, including the ones I have to do a little research on and add,” she said.
Foster is requiring petition signers to be Mississippi residents and to clearly identify a Confederate ancestor from any state. She said she verifies each signature and the history of the ancestor before adding names to the petition.
“If someone doesn’t know who their ancestor was, I can help them find that ancestor,” she said. “If they’re not sure if they even have one, I can help them. If their grandparents were born in the South, chances are they have a Confederate ancestor somewhere.”
Foster said she has never been more proud of her community and the way they have united for recent protests, especially in speaking out against Petal Mayor Hal Marx and his recent social media comments about the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Marx made several comments about the killing that made nationwide news and were widely labeled as racist in nature.
“Our communities are coming together in very positive ways,” she said. “I think the history we’ve been taught – this very romanticized version of antebellum Mississippi, where slavery is minimized – is ending, and people are finally recognizing the state’s true history and striving to make a better future. I’m encouraged by it.”
Foster said she plans to keep the petition open for the near future. She will eventually submit it to the governor and to members of the Mississippi Legislature.
