Community members took the Mississippi flag down around 7 a.m. Saturday. Juneau’s Black Awareness Association Secretary, Latarsha McQueen, removed the flag — which has an image of the Confederate flag in the upper left corner — and replaced it with the state’s first official flag, the Magnolia flag.
McQueen, former Assemblyman Marc Wheeler, and six other community members and their families watched the flag change. Friday morning Wheeler obtained a permit from the state Department of Transportation — which has authority over the right of way where the flags are posted — to remove the flags.
The flag has been part of a discussion in the community ever since the racially charged mass murder of church parishioners at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last month. While several other state flags include the Confederate stars and bars, the Mississippi flag is the only one to feature the full Confederate flag.
Controversy surrounding the flag has also prompted discussion on the topic of racism in Juneau.
