MISSISSIPPI RETIRES LAST STATE FLAG WITH CONFEDERATE BATTLE EMBLEM
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — With a stroke of the governor’s pen, Mississippi is retiring the last state flag in the U.S. with the Confederate battle emblem — a symbol widely condemned as racist.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed the historic bill yesterday at the Governor’s Mansion, immediately removing official status for the 126-year-old banner that has been a source of division for generations.
“This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled and to move on,” Reeves said on live TV just before the signing.
Mississippi has faced increasing pressure to change its flag since protests against racial injustice have focused attention on Confederate symbols in recent weeks.
A broad coalition of legislators on Sunday passed the landmark legislation to change the flag, capping a weekend of emotional debate and decades of effort by Black lawmakers and others who see the rebel emblem as a symbol of hatred.
Reeves used several pens to sign the bill. As he completed the process, a cheer could be heard from people outside the Governor’s Mansion who were watching the livestream broadcast on their phones. Reeves handed the pens to lawmakers and others who had worked on the issue.
The Confederate battle emblem has a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. White supremacist legislators put it on the upper-left corner of the Mississippi flag in 1894, as white people were squelching political power that African Americans had gained after the Civil War.
ARIZONA GOVERNOR CALLS ON RESIDENTS TO WEAR MASKS
PHOENIX (AP) — After telling Arizonans that many public places were again being closed amid a surge of coronavirus cases, Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks.
“Arm yourself with a mask,” he said after issuing an executive order to shut down bars, nightclubs and water parks while pushing back the start of school in the fall. “It’s your best defense against this virus.”
While the Republican governor has never discouraged the use of masks, his full-throated endorsement of them was a big change from a largely lukewarm stance the last few months.
The change in tone on masks and a return to restrictions are the latest signs that Ducey, similar to some other Republican governors nationwide, is being forced to set political considerations aside amid surging cases.
Just a week ago, Ducey attended a Phoenix event in a church with President Donald Trump that featured many attendants not wearing masks. Ducey wore a mask when in the crowd during the event. However, he did not wear one while touring a section of the U.S.-Mexico border with Trump earlier in the day.
SEATTLE REMOVES “OCCUPIED” PROTEST ZONE BARRIERS
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle city crews used heavy equipment yesterday to remove makeshift barriers around the city’s “occupied” protest zone following two fatal shootings in the area.
Demonstrators dragged couches and other items to replace the structures. But those were largely gone later in the day.
People have occupied several blocks around a park and the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct for about two weeks after police abandoned the building following standoffs and clashes with protesters calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
Seattle police Assistant Chief Adrian Diaz said the large, makeshift barriers would be removed in steps to allow traffic to move through portions of a road that had been closed off.
Cement barricades that remained in front of the Seattle Police Department East Precinct building Tuesday were fortified by protesters with chunks of concrete and tarps.
WHITE POLICE OFFICER CHARGED WITH BATTERY FOR SHOVING KNEELING BLACK WOMAN TO GROUND
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A white Florida police officer was charged with battery yesterday for allegedly shoving a kneeling Black woman to the ground during a protest march last month.
Broward State Attorney Mike Satz says Fort Lauderdale officer Steven Pohorence, 29, was seen “intentionally touching or striking” the 19-year-old woman during a civil rights protest march on May 31.
The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Satz said in a news release that the decision on whether to seek a misdemeanor or felony charge was based on the extent of the injuries suffered by the woman, identified as Jada Servance in court documents.
The case was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The encounter was captured on video during one of the marches around the country protesting police brutality after the police custody death in Minneapolis of an African American man, George Floyd.
Pohorence was previously suspended with pay by the Fort Lauderdale police chief but as a result of the battery charge decision, his status will be changed to administrative leave without pay.
BOSTON ARTS OFFICIALS VOTE TO REMOVE STATUE OF FREED SLAVE KNEELING AT LINCOLN'S FEET
BOSTON (AP) — Boston’s arts commission has voted unanimously to remove a statue that depicts a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet.
The commission had fielded escalating complaints about the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Emancipation Group and the Freedman’s Memorial, as a nation confronting racial injustice rethinks old imagery.
The statue has stood in a park just off Boston Common since 1879. It’s a copy of an identical monument erected in Washington, D.C., three years earlier. The copy was installed in Boston because the city was home to the statue’s white creator, Thomas Ball.
Although the monument was created to celebrate the freeing of slaves in America, its design disturbed many who objected to the optics of a Black man kneeling before Lincoln.
More than 12,000 people had signed a petition demanding the statue’s removal. Officials did not immediately set a date to take it down, and said details would be worked out at their next meeting on July 14.
The memorial has been on Boston’s radar at least since 2018, when it launched a comprehensive review of whether public sculptures, monuments and other artworks reflected the city’s diversity and didn’t offend communities of color. The arts commission said it was paying extra attention to works with “problematic histories.”
Protesters have vowed to tear down the original statue in Washington, which has been protected by National Guard troops guarding it and other monuments.
FORMER MLB MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS IRKED BY AWARD
NEW YORK (AP) — Something still bothers Barry Larkin about his Most Valuable Player award.
The other name engraved on the trophy: Kenesaw Mountain Landis. “Why is it on there?” asks Larkin, the Black shortstop voted National League MVP in 1995 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Landis was hired in 1920 as the sport’s first commissioner to help clean up rampant gambling. But during his quarter-century tenure, no Blacks played in the majors. Jackie Robinson broke the barrier in April 1947, about 2 1/2 years after Landis died.
Few fans realize Landis’ name is plastered all over the Most Valuable Player trophies. Most people just call it the MVP. It's named after him and there's a sizable print of Landis on the award. In fact, Landis' name is in gold letters that are twice as big as those of the winners.
But there it is, prominently displayed on every American League and NL MVP plaque since 1944 — Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award, in shiny, gold letters literally twice as big as those of the winner.
With a sizable imprint of Landis’ face, too.
To some MVPs, it’s time for that 75-year run to end, especially as many other honors and tributes to those considered to be racist continue to fall.