Ole Miss removes Mississippi flag containing Confederate symbol

One of the most celebrated universities in the American south has taken down the Mississippi flag because it contains part of the Confederate battle emblem.

In a powerful step that underscores the growing moves against a symbol considered by many to symbolise racism and discrimination, the University of Mississippi - commonly known as Ole Miss - lowered the flag on its Oxford campus.

“The University of Mississippi community came to the realisation years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others,” Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks said.

“Since that time, we have become a stronger and better university. We join other leaders in our state who are calling for a change in the state flag.”

Campus police officers lowered the furled the flag at a ceremony on Monday morning. The flag will be preserved in the University Archives along with resolutions from students, faculty, and staff calling for its removal, the university said in a statement.

The school is the latest Southern institution to dissociate itself from the symbolism of the Confederate battle flag. Critics of the emblem call it a reminder of slavery and segregation.

It was seized on by white supremacists as the civil rights movement gained strength during the 1960s.

Since 1894, the Mississippi flag has had the Confederate battle emblem in the upper left corner - a blue X with 13 white stars, over a field of red. Residents chose to keep the flag during a 2001 statewide vote and supporters of the emblem says it represents history and heritage.

Yet the fight over the fight has intensified since the shooting deaths last he black church in South Carolina after it emerged that the suspect, Dylan Roof, who has been charge with nine counts of murder, had posted images of himself with the banner on the internet. Along with a racist “manifesto”, he also posted images of himself standing in confederate war cemeteries and at the sites of former slave plantations.

Officials at the University of Mississippi - where the flag became a symbol associated with white supremacy after the college was forced to enrol blck students in 1962 - have tried to distance the school from Confederate symbols during the past two decades. Sports teams are still called the Rebels, but the university several years ago retired the Colonel Rebel mascot.

Officials acted after students last week voted to remove the flag, saying the confederate symbol had no place at the campus.

Several Mississippi cities and counties have stopped flying the state flag since the Charleston shootings in June. The state's three historically black universities had stopped flying the flag earlier, and the state's only black US representative, Democrat Bennie Thompson, does not display the state flag in his offices.