After being removed along with all the other state flags for building renovations, Mississippi’s state flag — which includes a depiction of the Confederate battle flag — will not go back up in a tunnel under the U.S. Capitol, nor will any of the other flags for U.S, states and territories, the chair of the committee on House Administration announced Thursday.
The decision was influenced by last year’s outcry over the presence of the Mississippi flag and other Confederate symbols in the Capitol, after a white supremacist shot and killed nine African Americans in a South Carolina church.
“Given the controversy surrounding confederate imagery, I decided to install a new display,” committee Chair Candice Miller (R-MI) said in a statement. “I am well aware of how many Americans negatively view the confederate flag, and, personally, I am very sympathetic to these views. However, I also believe that it is not the business of the federal government to dictate what flag each state flies.”
The move was first reported by the Washington Post.
In the place of the state flags in the tunnel between the Rayburn House Office Building and the U.S. Capitol, the Architect of the Capitol will install a display of reproductions of each states’ commemorative quarters. Mississippi’s quarter bears a pair of magnolia blossoms, according to the Post.
The Post also notes that the Mississippi flag remains hung in a tunnel on the Senate side of the Capitol that leads to the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
