Mississippi State responds to racial inequality in the U.S. By Ava Richardson
Jailyn A. Myers, 2020 MSU graduate
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VISION 2021 | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Not long after the global COVID-19 pandemic began impacting the United States in March of 2020, another pressing issue also took center stage— racial inequality. The discussion of race and police violence in the U.S. was revived in May when George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, was killed in Minneapolis while in police custody and lying face down in handcuffs. Floyd’s death sparked an eruption of protests, rallies and civil unrest across the country on a scale not seen since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. National unrest prompted Mississippians to also discuss race and police violence, a conversation leading many to call for the removal of the state flag, originally adopted in 1894 and depicting a Confederate symbol. In June, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey issued a statement, with support from the NCAA, that the conference would not hold any championship events in Mississippi until the Confederate flag was changed. Mississippi State University, under the leadership of President Mark E. Keenum, along with seven other public universities and their respective presidents, supported the SEC decision, saying, “… we are committed to continuing to do our part to ensure Mississippi is united in its pursuit of a future that is free of racism and discrimination. Such a future must include a new state flag.” MSU’s efforts to create greater equity, justice, tolerance and reconciliation on campus and in the Starkville community included pursuing a new state flag, along with numerous other measures. “Over the past months, MSU has stepped up to address issues that
