Attorneys want Mississippi flag removed from O.C. civic center

A group of Orange County attorneys is calling for the removal of Mississippi’s state flag from a display in Santa Ana’s downtown civic center, saying its Confederate design symbolizes racism and hatred.

The Mississippi flag is the last to feature the Confederate battle cross -- a symbol, “inextricably linked to a legacy of racism, exclusion, oppression and violence,� the Newport Beach-based Orange County Bar Assn. said in a statement.

The association recently passed a resolution seeking the flag’s removal from Santa Ana’s Plaza of the Flags, where the banners of all 50 states ripple in a civic center that also includes the county’s central courthouse.

“I am proud of the board of directors for passing this important resolution on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address,� Orange County Bar Assn. President Wayne Gross said in a statement. The emblem, he added, “has no place in or around courthouses.�

This isn’t the first time the Confederate symbol’s place above the plaza has caused a flap.

In 1997, a Laguna Hills attorney campaigned unsuccessfully to have the flags of Mississippi and Georgia taken down.

Georgia has since changed its flag design, stripping it of the Confederate cross about a decade ago.

But a similar effort by Mississippi lawmakers and advocates in 2001 failed by a substantial margin, with two-thirds of the state’s residents backing the old design in a sharply divisive vote.

Gerardo Mouet, who heads the city of Santa Ana’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, which maintains the display, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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