Student senators at the University of Mississippi voted to remove the Mississippi state flag—which features a Confederate flag—from campus. Since the horrific mass shooting of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. this past June, the Confederate flag and its symbols have been at the center of controversy and debate. States like South Carolina, Alabama and Florida have decided to remove the flag from their statehouse grounds and state seals.
“This is an issue that affects us as students on a daily basis,” Allen Coon, head of the Ole Miss College Democrats, told the Huffington Post. Coon introduced the resolution to remove the flag.
Now that the student senate has passed the resolution, it must be reviewed and signed by the university’s president, according to Ole Miss student newspaper the Daily Mississippian. From there, it will be up to the school’s administrative team to decide whether or not to take the flag down.
Last Friday, the school’s chapter of the NAACP led an on-campus rally calling to remove the flag from campus. Students fought off racist comments from the Ku Klux Klan and other groups following the rally, the Clarion-Ledger reported. As they anxiously await the decision of the administration, it’s encouraging to see students at Ole Miss sparking change on campus and making sure their voices are heard.