MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2019 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Representative Sykes

House Bill 561

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 3-3-16, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CHANGE THE DESIGN OF THE OFFICIAL FLAG OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

     BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

     SECTION 1.  Section 3-3-16, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     3-3-16.  The official flag of the State of Mississippi shall have the following design:  * * * with width two-thirds (2/3) of its length; with the union (canton) to be square, in width two-thirds (2/3) of the width of the flag; the ground of the union to be red and a broad blue saltire thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with thirteen (13) mullets or five-pointed stars, corresponding with the number of the original States of the Union; the field to be divided into three (3) bars of equal width, the upper one blue, the center one white, and the lower one, extending the whole length of the flag, red (the national colors); this being the flag adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in the 1894 Special Session. On a field ten (10) units high by fifteen (15) units wide, vertical bars at the hoist and fly, in Old Glory Red (Pantone red 193C), three (3) units wide, flank a central panel in white.  Centered in the panel, a large five-pointed star in Old Glory Blue (Pantone blue 282C), inscribed within an imaginary circle four and seventy-five hundredths (4.75) units in diameter, is surrounded by nineteen (19) small five-pointed stars in Old Glory Blue (Pantone blue 282C), each with a diameter of seven-tenths (0.7) unit and oriented point-upwards, equally spaced with their centers on an imaginary circle six and nine-tenths (6.9) units in diameter and one (1) star at the top of the circle.

The small stars represent the first nineteen (19) states admitted to the United States, and the center star represents the State of Mississippi as the twentieth state to join the Union.  The small stars form a circle, a shape that represents wholeness, unity and potential.  The red bars stand opposite of one another, recognizing the passionate differences that the people of our state sometimes harbor.  Joining all of the elements is a field of white symbolizing illumination, spirituality, brightness and promise.

     SECTION 2.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.

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