Hundreds rally against Confederate sign on Mississippi flag

Civil-rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams, Mississippi-born rapper David Banner and a prominent South Carolina lawmaker are calling on Mississippi to remove the Confederate battle emblem of the pro-slavery South during the US Civil War from its state flag.

About 400 people took part in a change-the-flag rally Sunday outside the Mississippi Capitol. Rally leaders said the flag used since 1894 is racially divisive.

State Rep. Jenny Horne of South Carolina says Mississippi is hurting its own economy with the flag. Horne gave an impassioned speech in July as South Carolina lawmakers voted to remove a Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, weeks after nine black worshippers were massacred in a Charleston church.
 

The suspect in the shooting had previously posed for photos with the rebel flag.