MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2019 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Representatives Denton, Hudson, Taylor, Anderson

House Bill 1381

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. the width is two-thirds (2/3) of its length; in the center is a circle with a diameter two-thirds (2/3) of the width of the flag; the inner part of the circle is a white background and the outer part of the circle is composed of two (2) rings, an outer ring that is white and an inner ring twice the width of the outer ring that is old glory blue; in the center of the circle on the white background is a flower of the evergreen magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) one-fourth (1/4) of the width of the flag, with six (6) white outer petals, three (3) white inner petals, a gold pistil in the center, and surrounded by six (6) green leaves; on the inner ring of the circle are twenty (20) gold five-pointed stars, with all stars pointed upward; and the field of the flag is divided into three (3) horizontal bars of equal width, the upper one (1) being old glory blue, the center one (1) being white and the lower one (1) being old glory red.  The stars on the inner ring of the circle symbolize that there were twenty (20) states after Mississippi was admitted to the United States.

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