The historic law to change the state flag, requires Governor Tate Reeves, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, and House Speaker Philip Gunn to each appoint three people to the 9 member Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag.
Wednesday, Gunn called on the Mayor of Oxford Robyn Tannehill, Mary Graham President of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and TJ Taylor of Madison who's a member of Gunn's legislative staff.
Lt. Governor Hosemann’s appointees include former Justice Reuben Anderson of Jackson. Anderson served as the first African American Justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1985 to 1991.
"I think the legislation encompassed a whole lot in the sense that they want as much input from Mississippians that they can get," said Anderson.
" That's what we'll try to do. Listen as much as we can and I think they gave us a short fuse to get this thing done."
He said, "We're going to get on our work early on in August and have it hopefully completed in 30 days or so."
Hosemann also selected longtime Vicksburg attorney J. Mack Varner and former public school teacher Sherri Carr Bevis of Gulfport.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, on behalf of the commission, began accepting new flag designs this week. Michael Morris with the department says in a matter of days, they've received hundreds of submissions from all over the state. He says anyone can submit as long as it meets the criteria.
" The flag design must include the words 'In God We Trust,'" said Morris. "Any flag that does not have that phrase on its design will not be considered. The flag design cannot include the Confederate battle flag of course."
The deadline to submit a flag design is August 13. The commission then has four weeks to make its selection and present one design to the state legislature for approval ahead of the November election.
