New Albany senator falsely claims Black man designed state flag

BY CALEB BEDILLION Daily Journal 15 hrs ago Comments

TUPELO • State Sen. Kathy Chism, R-New Albany, believes the Legislature should not change the state flag and has without any evidence claimed that a Black veteran of the Confederacy designed the flag.

Historical accounts widely attribute the design of Mississippi’s flag, which was adopted in 1894, to Edward Scudder. Scudder was a white state senator and attorney.

But in a Sunday Facebook post, Chism, a freshman lawmaker, made a different historical claim without referring to any sources.



Kathy Chism Facebook post

BY CALEB BEDILLION Daily Journal

“The MS flag was designed by an African American Confederate Soldier,” Chism wrote. “I can only imagine how proud he was that his art, his flag design was chosen to represent our State and now we want to strip him of his pride, his hard work. I’m sure he put a lot of thought into this design.”

Within the comments to her post, multiple people corrected Chism’s claim. As of Monday evening, Chism’s original post remains.

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caleb.bedillion@journalinc.com

Twitter: @CalebBedillion