The Confederate flag has become so controversial that people are being kicked off campus for flying the Mississippi state flag, which features the Confederate battle flag, The Daily Caller reported.
The protesters were flying the state flag at the University of Southern Mississippi on Sunday when an officer approached them. “I said, ‘the state flag has to come down?’ and he said, ‘yes per orders of Doctor [President Rodney] Bennett that state flags are not allowed on the campus,’” Kimberly Craven, one of the protesters, said.
Bennett decided in October that only the American flag would fly on campus, and that they would no longer fly the state flag on any of their campuses.
Governor Phil Bryant, a USM alumnus, had a different opinion. “I think that if you’ve got a publicly funded institution like that, they should be respectful of the people of the state,” he told the Associated Press.
The officer appears to have acted out of confusion, however. While the school no longer flies the flag, it is allowed on campus.
“The University of Southern Mississippi supports the right to lawfully and peacefully protest on or in front of the Hattiesburg campus with regard to the state flag. Any information leading individuals to believe otherwise is inaccurate,” the school said in a statement.
While the school “supports the right,” many students at universities across the country do not. A YAF poll from October found that students oppose allowing the Confederate flag on campus, 44 percent to 41 percent. This includes 54 percent of liberal students, even though they agreed that free speech is more important than making sure people aren’t offended.
Craven and other protesters have been on campus every Sunday to fly the state flag in protest of Bennett’s decision and plan to keep showing up.
“To me, it’s a symbol of courage and it just reminds me of a time when people have the courage to stand up to the government,” Craven told WDAM.
Alexander Ignatiev, a Hattiesburg attorney, told WDAM that there’s cause for a lawsuit.
“The fact that a police officer told them that they had to remove that flag is enough to create the basis of the lawsuit” because “flags are a protected type of speech and fundamentally a public university doesn’t have the ability to restrict what type of flag was shown,” Ignatiev said.
