This week in Clarksdale, history was made, yet ignored moments after. Carlos Moore became the first African American to take the bench as the municipal judge in the Delta city on Tuesday. Without question, it’s an achievement that deserves recognition and applause.
According to the American Bar Association’s Directory of Minority Judges of the United States, only 15.7 percent of Mississippi’s judges are minorities, so Moore taking the bench is clearly a step in the right direction.
However, his first action as the municipal judge was a step backward. It has sparked a bit of controversy, and it’s a topic that has been hot around the state over the past two decades. Moore’s first order of business was to remove the state flag of Mississippi from the courtroom.
His reasoning behind the decision included the demographic of people he would be seeing in the courtroom, along with accounting for justice.
“Most of the people that appear before me will be African American, and they need to feel that the courtroom is gonna be a place they can get justice,” he said. “That flag does not stand for justice.”
Following his first day on the job, Moore shared his decision on Facebook.
“Just finished my first day on the bench in Clarksdale Municipal Court,” he wrote. “My first act was to order the Mississippi flag with the Confederate emblem removed from my courtroom. It was ordered to never re-appear in my courtroom or chambers. It was such a great feeling to see the police officer drag the despicable flag from the courtroom during open court. Great first day!”
The Grenada attorney had also filed a lawsuit last year saying the state flag violated the U.S. Constitution, but a federal judge kicked it out.
This topic is something that I have discussed in my columns in the past, and it is one that will always be debated.
The current flag was adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in an 1894 special session and flew as the unofficial state flag until it was officially adopted in 2001. It was officially adopted when former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s proposed revision of the flag was voted against by a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent.
It was Mississippians and nobody else that voted to retain the current flag, so it should be respected as such.
Now I completely understand and respect people’s opposition to the flag. The Confederate emblem on it has long been viewed as a symbol of slavery and racism. However, in my opinion, that is all the more reason to retain the flag. Not because slavery and racism is right; quite the contrary actually. I believe we should retain the flag across the state because it reminds us of our dark past. You have to remember where you’ve been to help guide you moving forward.
Therefore, there are two primary reasons that I disagree that the state flag should be removed in any case.
1.) The Confederate flag, and subsequently the Mississippi flag, serves as a reminder of our past, our history. Simply removing the flag does not get us any closer to equality in America.
2.) Removing the flag is like removing a chapter on the Civil War from our text books. Good or bad, we need to remember and respect our history. In the bad history cases, they serve as a lesson to be learned, so we do not repeat our mistakes. It should be viewed and respected as a black eye in our nation's history.
While slavery and the Civil War are among the ugliest things in American history, they also are a huge part of our history and deserve to be treated as such. History should never be kicked to the curb for any reason. One of our main goals as Americans should be to preserve our rich history, good or bad.
I know racism still exists today and anybody who thinks it does not needs to open their eyes. But the racism today is nowhere close to what it was 50 years ago when segregation ended or 150 years ago during the Civil War.
However, it isn’t enough to say we are better off today as a united America because we weren’t united 50 years ago. But removing our history isn’t a step in the right direction. It’s a step backward. n
Joshua Campbell is sports editor for The Columbian-Progress. He can be reached at (601) 736-2611 or by email at joshuacampbell@ columbianprogress.com
