Mississippi State Flag History Today

By Ken Long


Mississippi joined the Union as the 20th state in 1817 and gets its name from the Mississippi River, which forms its western border. Early inhabitants of the area that became Mississippi included the Choctaw, Natchez, and Chickasaw. Spanish explorers arrived in the region in 1540 but it was the French who established the first permanent settlement in present-day Mississippi in 1699.

Three major groups of indigenous peoples constituted the earliest inhabitants of present-day Mississippi. The largest of these groups, the Choctaw, numbered approximately 20,000 and were located primarily in the southern and central part of the state. The other two groups were the Natchez, who numbered about 4,500 and were centred in southwestern Mississippi, and the Chickasaw, who had a population of about 5,000 and ranged from their principal villages in the northeastern part of the state into what are now Tennessee and Kentucky.

The flag of Mississippi was adopted on 23 April 1894. It is composed of three horizontal stripes blue - white - red, and a Confederate flag in canton. It is only in the United States, and therefore in the world, to use this powerful symbol of the Civil War of 1861.

It must be said that this state, which wasn̢۪t a part of the thirteen founders of the United States in 1777, closed the gap in 1861 being one of the leaders of the Secession of Jefferson Davis. In 2001, a referendum was launched locally to replace this canton by another, taking as a model the national flag : blue with 20 stars this time, as Mississippi was the 20th state to have joined the United States. The referendum was a total failure, which got only 35% approval rating.

The Mississippi Flag bears clear resemblances with the earlier flags of the Confederate States. The colors blue, white and red are indicative of the American national colors. According to the Legislature of Mississippi, the 13 stars stand for the original 13 colonies of the US.

The Flag Company Inc specialized in flag designs offered a special edition of decals and flags to memorize the history of Mississippi Flag for the future.




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