A group of Mississippi State University students protested the university’s continued flying of the state flag Wednesday by holding a sit-in at Lee Hall, the headquarters of President Mark Keenum’s administration.
About 100 students participated in the sit-in between noon and 3 p.m. Organizers said they wanted to show support for lowering and changing the state flag — which bears a Confederate symbol. They also issued the university a list of demands related to African-American and minority issues they say administrators are ignoring.
The group, dubbed the Lucky 7, issued 10 demands: take down the flag; equalize funding and support for black student organizations; increase minority faculty hires; address retention and graduation rates for African-American students; facilitate more diversity and sensitivity training; create on-campus safe spaces for black students; promote inclusive environments for all minority groups; have equal and fair treatment for African-American events, concerts and programs; end discrimination in the university’s housing program; and deliver more physical and mental health programs for black students.
Some of the demands, including a call for transgender bathrooms, went beyond the scope of African-American-specific issues.
Members made the flag’s removal the crux of Wednesday’s protest after Keenum, who said he supports changing the divisive symbol to one that unifies all Mississippians, failed to lower the flag as many other peer universities did, instead asking constituents to respect the state-level process needed for a permanent fix.
“Taking the state flag down arbitrarily is a symbolic gesture that accomplishes nothing toward actually changing the state flag to something that everyone can support and feel good about,” Keenum said in a prepared statement issued before fielding reporters’ questions Wednesday. “I support real flag change and I think I can best help accomplish that by working within the system to bring about that change. That I have done. That I will continue to do.”
As protesters’ chants echoed inside Lee Hall, Keenum said the university is studying each of the issues raised by the Lucky 7. Many of them, he said, are also strategic focal points for the university and his own personal goals.
“I want any student, any employee and any visitor who comes to this campus to feel safe, feel valued and to feel respected,” Keenum said. “That’s what I work to achieve.”
A timetable for addressing the issues was not announced, but Keenum said he hoped it could be soon.
MSU had a total of 20,873 students during the fall of 2015. Of those, 4,022 were black, according to the most recent numbers from the state Institutions of Higher Learning. That marks the highest African-American enrollment in the Southeastern Conference.
‘Action’ needed
After the 2015 murders of African-American churchgoers in South Carolina, many Mississippi municipalities, counties and universities chose to stop flying the state flag above their public facilities.
Locally, both Columbus and Starkville city boards and the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors lowered the state flag from their respective buildings.
MSU flies the flag at a few facilities, including Perry Cafeteria and North Farm, officials said. It also flies above the Hunter Henry alumni building, but that location is technically off campus.
Protest organizers Queen Brown and Darius Johnson said they appreciate the dialogue with MSU officials about the status of the flag, but it’s time for university leadership to stop talking and take action.
“It’s great when you get everyone talking and speaking to educate people, but we can’t always be talking,” Brown said. “At some point, you have to have action, and our actions are pressuring them. The biggest thing the administration has been saying is (the flag) is not on the drill field, that it’s not easily seen. If it’s hidden, does that really make things better?”
Johnson, who is a senior like Brown, said the university’s failure to fully address the issue — take down the flag — suggests it supports the divisive history behind the emblem.
“For our university to wave that flag is like saying we do support slavery,” Johnson added.
‘Symbols matter’
Standing on the bricks surrounding the Drill Field’s flag pole, MSU associate professor Jason Ward, who teaches classes on civil rights and racial politics, told protesters their demonstration acknowledges the continuation of a real problem in the state.
“You are not the problem. If you have not heard anyone say that on this campus, that is a problem,” he said to the gathering crowd. “Symbols matter. Symbols send signals. Flag up? That’s a signal. Flag down? That’s a signal. Those are symbols and signals that involved choices that are made, choices that should be discussed and choices that should be debated.”
Ward said continued usage of a Confederate emblem in the state flag marginalizes a large segment of Mississippi residents.
“We are flying the flag, of our own volition and choice, of ‘F— your feelings,'” he said to the crowd. “We are flying the flag of ‘Black lives don’t matter.’ We are flying the flag of ‘Get over it.’
“These are signals that demand a response,” he said.
Keenum: Let the process work
Keenum said MSU’s position of “respecting the process” will grant it a role with lawmakers when they move forward on the issue.
The MSU Student Association and Faculty Senate both have issued resolutions asking the state to change the emblem to one that unites Mississippians, and Keenum himself has called upon state lawmakers to make the change.
The controversial symbol, however, remains present at the university.
“Some will argue that might be the right thing to do,” Keenum said. “Some will say ‘Take it down,’ but I feel like a symbolic, arbitrary (act) has done nothing to change the state flag. I don’t want to impede or limit the voice of our students. I don’t want to impede the voice of our faculty. I want to have the chance to sit at the table and have dialogue — a respectful and civil dialogue — with the people that will make the decision on how to move forward with our state flag.”
Wednesday’s protest, he said, gives credence to the issues MSU has raised with the flag and should give lawmakers more reason to look into a solution.
“I applaud the students for taking a stand,” Keenum said. “We need a symbol … that we can all, as Mississippians, be proud of. Why would we want to have a symbol that is so divisive? It’s important, not only for the employees and students here and for their futures, but for my children and my children’s futures.”
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Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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