Delta State University has joined its other seven sister schools by taking down the Mississippi state flag.
The decision, implemented Thursday on the Cleveland campus, was anticipated.
After Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women lowered the flags on their campuses this past summer, Delta State was in the uncomfortable position of being the lone holdout. Considering that the school has one of the largest black enrollments of the state’s five historically white universities, it would have been insulting to a significant portion of its student body — not to mention an unwanted distraction — to keep flying the flag with its controversial Confederate emblem.
The Legislature should heed this symbolic rebellion not just at the universities but at a number of cities and counties that have voted to take down the flag.
It has become a symbol not of unity but of division, and there’s no way that’s going to change. The flag needs to be retired and a new one adopted.
