By deciding to remove the state flag of Mississippi from city property.
- On Tuesday night, Columbus city lawmakers voted to remove flags in
their city 6-0. The ruling is effective immediately and affects all
state flags flown inside and outside city property.
Mayor Robert Smith, who in 2007 became the city’s first black mayor, said he introduced the measure following the mass killing in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in June that prompted that state to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse.
- “I hope the sons and daughters of the Confederacy will appreciate how we see it. We want to unite.”
Telling them they are racist is a poor way to show you want to "unite."
Columbus City Councilman Charlie Cox thinks we need to apologise for history in order to make it right.
- “People think we’re still tobacco-chewing racists and that’s not the way it is,” said Columbus councilman Charlie Cox, who is white. “Mississippi is not the way it was back in the old days. People here want Mississippi to move forward and that’s what it will take.”
SOURCE: Guardian
