A Historical Record of Power and the Mississippi State Flag

The Vote They Overruled

In 2001, Mississippi voters chose to retain the historic 1894 state flag. In 2020, state officials removed it without first asking those voters whether their decision should be reversed. The vote offered afterward did not put the historic flag back on the ballot.

The essential fact: Mississippi's 2020 referendum was not a rematch of the 2001 referendum. By the time voters saw a ballot, the 1894 flag had already lost its legal status—and the law prohibited the commission from proposing a design containing its defining battle-flag emblem.

I. The Undisputed Record

Two votes—but two fundamentally different questions

2001: A genuine choice including the historic flag

64.39%

On April 17, 2001, voters chose between Proposition A, which retained the existing 1894 flag, and Proposition B, which offered a replacement. Proposition A received 494,323 votes; Proposition B received 273,359. The historic flag therefore remained Mississippi's official flag.

2020: Approval or rejection of one replacement

No restoration option

On November 3, 2020, voters were asked whether one commission-selected design should become the official state flag. A “No” vote would not restore the 1894 flag. It would require the commission to produce another design under the same statutory restrictions.

This is the point most abbreviated accounts obscure. Voters approved the New Magnolia design in 2020, but they were never allowed to decide whether the 2001 decision should stand. The old flag and the new flag never appeared together on the 2020 ballot.

II. Chronology

How the people's decision was displaced

1894The Legislature adopted the historic flag. Its design was later codified in Mississippi Code § 3-3-16.
November 2, 2000Jimmy Giles addressed the Mississippi State Flag Commission. His recorded statement defended the flag, challenged economic claims made against it and argued that the decision belonged to Mississippi voters. Watch the speech.
April 17, 2001Voters retained the 1894 flag. Proposition A prevailed with 494,323 votes, or 64.39 percent, against 273,359 votes, or 35.61 percent, for Proposition B.
June 2020Political, institutional and commercial pressure intensified. National organizations, major businesses, athletic bodies and public officials pressed for removal. Whatever one thinks of those arguments, they did not constitute a new statewide vote between the competing flags.
June 27, 2020The Legislature suspended its ordinary deadline rules to take up flag legislation. This procedural step opened the way for late-session passage of House Bill 1796.
June 28, 2020The Legislature passed House Bill 1796. Contemporary records report a House vote of 91–23 and a Senate vote of 37–14.
June 30, 2020Governor Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1796. The act repealed the statute defining the 1894 flag, ordered its removal from public buildings and created a nine-member design commission.
July–September 2020A commission selected the replacement. Three commissioners were appointed by the Speaker of the House, three by the Lieutenant Governor and three by the Governor. The law required the design to include “In God We Trust” and prohibited inclusion of the Confederate battle flag.
September 2, 2020The commission selected the New Magnolia design. It sent that single design forward for the November ballot.
November 3, 2020Voters approved the commission's design. They were asked to vote yes or no on that design. The 1894 flag was not an option.
January 11, 2021The New Magnolia flag became official. The political replacement of the flag was complete.

III. The Ballot Architecture

The decisive difference between 2001 and 2020

Question	2001 referendum	2020 referendum
Was the 1894 flag on the ballot?	Yes. Proposition A retained it.	No. It had already been removed by statute.
Could voters choose between old and new?	Yes. Proposition A versus Proposition B.	No. Voters saw one commission-selected replacement.
What happened if the replacement lost?	The existing flag remained.	The commission would prepare another replacement under the same restrictions.
Could a design use the historic flag's canton?	The existing flag itself was an option.	No. House Bill 1796 prohibited the Confederate battle flag in the commission's proposal.
What did a “Yes” vote mean?	Not applicable; voters selected A or B.	Approve the New Magnolia design.
What did a “No” vote mean?	Not applicable; voters selected A or B.	Reject that design—not restore the 1894 flag.

Therefore: The 2020 result proves that a majority preferred the New Magnolia design to sending the commission back to work. It does not prove that voters preferred it to the 1894 flag, because that comparison was withheld from the ballot.

IV. The Exercise of Government Power

Who made the controlling decisions

The Mississippi Legislature made the threshold decision that the 1894 flag would cease to be the official flag. It also wrote the design restrictions and determined the limited form of the later referendum.

House Speaker Philip Gunn publicly advocated changing the flag, presided over the House during passage and received statutory authority to appoint three members of the design commission.

Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann presided over the Senate, supported changing the flag and received statutory authority to appoint three commissioners.

Governor Tate Reeves announced that he would sign the legislation, signed it on June 30, 2020 and appointed three commissioners.

The Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag operated inside rules the Legislature had already fixed. It could select a replacement design, but it could not return the 1894 flag to the voters as an option.

Many other public officials, organizations, businesses and institutions advocated removal. Advocacy is protected political activity. The constitutional grievance addressed here is not that they spoke; it is that government officials structured the law and ballot so voters could not directly reconsider the very choice they had made in 2001.

V. Law Versus Legitimacy

Was the 2020 action legally possible?

Yes, as a matter of ordinary legislative power. The 2001 referendum preserved a statute defining the flag; it did not place the design in the Mississippi Constitution or expressly make the result permanently immune from later legislation. A later Legislature therefore possessed legal authority to repeal Mississippi Code § 3-3-16.

That legal authority does not resolve the democratic question. A government can possess the technical power to enact a measure while still acting contrary to the political mandate expressed by voters. The strongest, most accurate criticism is therefore not that the Legislature plainly lacked all legal power. It is that officials overrode a direct statewide choice without returning the controlling old-versus-new question to the people.

No court ruling located for this record holds House Bill 1796 unconstitutional. “Corruption,” if used to allege bribery, fraud or another crime, would require evidence not presently established here. This record instead documents the exact public acts and permits readers to judge their legitimacy.

VI. The Media Question

What can—and cannot—presently be proved

News reports across Mississippi and the nation extensively covered removal of the 1894 flag, the commission process and approval of the New Magnolia design. Many accounts emphasized the removal of Confederate imagery, legislative vote totals and the margin approving the new design.

The narrower democratic issue often received less emphasis: the 2020 ballot did not offer the 1894 flag, and a “No” vote could not restore it. That omission can create the false impression that voters reversed their 2001 decision in a direct old-versus-new contest. They did not.

There is not presently evidence sufficient to state as historical fact that the officials who changed the flag “control the media,” Facebook, X or other social-media companies. Political influence, shared institutional preferences, editorial framing, content moderation and ownership are different things. Any claim of coordinated control requires records identifying the actors, communications and decisions involved.

This page will document such evidence if it becomes available. Until then, it will not replace one distortion with another.

VII. Jimmy Giles's Judgment

A vote taken away

I regard what happened in Mississippi as an extraordinary betrayal of democratic government.

In 2001, the state asked the people to decide. The people decided. In 2020, politicians did not ask the people whether that decision should be reversed. They reversed it themselves. Only after the historic flag had been removed and forbidden from the replacement process did they permit another vote.

That was not a second vote on the same question. It was a controlled ratification vote on a choice the government had narrowed in advance.

I describe this as the most undemocratic act in American history. That is my judgment, not an adjudicated fact. The historical facts supporting my judgment are public: the 2001 result, the text of House Bill 1796, the roll calls, the commission restrictions and the wording of the 2020 ballot.

Every person in Mississippi—and every defender of democratic government in the world—should examine that record and answer one question:

If the people are sovereign, by what democratic principle may their government erase their direct vote and then deny them the option they previously chose?

VIII. Source Record

Documents and corroborating reports

Mississippi Legislature, House Bill 1796 as sent to the governor (2020)—commission creation, appointments, design requirements, repeal, removal and referendum procedure.
Archived House Bill 1796 record—description of the act repealing the statute defining the flag and creating the commission.
2001 Mississippi flag referendum compilation—vote totals, percentages and proposition descriptions, citing the Mississippi Secretary of State.
Axios, June 30, 2020—passage, signature, legislative vote totals and the consequence of rejection.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History, September 2, 2020—commission selection of the New Magnolia design for the November ballot.
2020 Mississippi flag referendum compilation—ballot question, results and statutory commission structure, citing official records.
TIME, June 25, 2015—contemporary recognition that the 2001 vote represented the will of Mississippi voters and political statements against overriding it.
Jimmy Giles before the Mississippi State Flag Commission, November 2, 2000—the campaign's preserved video record.

Prepared September 18, 2026. This is a continuing historical record. Corrections and additional primary documents should be sent to info@gilesforgovernor.com.