The banner, with its horizontal red, black and green stripes, was adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) at a conference in New York City in 1920. For several years leading ...

It was never the official flag of the Confederacy. But the battle flag has since been claimed by white supremacists and mythologized by others as an emblem of a rebellious Southern heritage.

The state is two-thirds white and one-third back, just like the vote split on the flag. “This is really embarrassing,” said Melody McAnally, a 26-year-old law student in Jackson.

The first official American Flag, generally attributed to Betsy Ross, chose stars to mimic the Washington coat of arms. Congress passed the first Flag Act a year later in 1777, which required all ...