Biloxi City Council votes to table flag decision

The Biloxi City Council voted six to one to table their vote on whether or not to continue keeping the Mississippi state flag from flying over state buildings.
In late April, Biloxi Mayor Andrew ‘FoFo’ Gilich ordered all state flags bearing the Confederate emblem to come down from all city buildings. Some have praised his actions while others decided to protest outside of City Hall with the state flag in hand.
Councilman Robert Deming proposed a motion two weeks ago to require the state flag to fly at city buildings and reverse Mayor Gilich’s order to take the flag down. Deborah Simpson is in support of flying the state flag. She said, “The mayor just took it down without even consulting City Council, without letting anybody know. Now the other side will say they had every right to do that executive order and that may be in the letter of the law, maybe, I’m not sure, but it sure isn’t in the spirit of the people who voted in Mississippi. My personal greatest concern about this is the vote.”
James Crowell with the NAACP National Board of Directors said, “We just heard yesterday from a state representative who said he wanted to lynch people because they took down the Confederate monuments. Those kinds of things need to change and if Mississippi is going to be the new Mississippi that everybody is talking about, we need to start showing some changes.”
Although no decision was made today, residents still filled council chambers to show support and opposition to the state flag. One resident directly addressed Councilman Robert Deming on his proposed ordinance to restore the state flag. Biloxi resident Jeff Pope said, “You go from out there to in here and all your friends that you claim were black, you claimed to be your friends, now all of the sudden I guess they’re not your friends anymore. I don’t want to attack you. I don’t want to, but now that we have a mayor that’s willing to take the flag down, we should stand behind him, you should stand behind him too. We finally got an administration that wants to do something good. Let it happen.”
The one opposing vote to table the flag decision came from Councilman Robert Deming.