For 126 years, Mississippi’s flag featured the Confederate Battle flag in its canton. Despite its inclusion of the racist symbol, the people of Mississippi voted to keep this version of the flag in a referendum in 2001.
Following nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, the state finally removed the flag and created a commission to design a new one.
Voters chose The New Magnolia flag, designed by Rocky Vaughan, Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles, Dominique Pugh, and Micah Whitson. The flag was made official November 2020 and renamed the In God We Trust flag.
The Mississippi flag features a panel of blue charged with a magnolia blossom at the center. Surrounding the blossom is a circle of twenty white five-pointed stars and a single gold star at the top.
Below the magnolia blossom, the words “In God We Trust” are inscribed in Americana typeface.
The panel of blue is flanked by gold and red vertical stripes.
Mississippi as the 20th state to join the union
the indigenous peoples of Mississippi
hospitality, rebirth
faith
The flag’s official colors are white, gold, Old Glory Red, and Old Glory Blue (both of which differ slightly from the U.S. flag colors of the same name).
Blue represents vigilance, justice, and perseverance, red represents hardiness and valor, and gold represents Mississippi’s rich cultural history.
The Mississippi flag is generally produced with a 3:5 width to length proportion.
Its visual elements are described in proportional units. The flag’s vertical height is 72 units and horizontal length is 120. The outer red bars are 25 units wide each, the inner gold stripes are 5 each, and the center blue panel is 60 units wide. The central artwork is two-thirds the height or 48 units.
The original Mississippi flag, known as the “Magnolia Flag.” The blue canton was modeled after the Bonnie Blue Flag, a symbolic banner of the Confederacy.
This controversial flag, featuring the Confederate battle flag, was removed in 2020 following nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
The current Mississippi state flag.