Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has declared April as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, The Mississippi Free Press reports.
“Whereas, as we honor all who lost their lives in this war, it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us,” Reeve’s proclamation, which is dated April 12, reads.
It continued: “Now, therefore, I, Tate Reeves, Governor of the State of Mississippi, hereby proclaim the month of April 2024 as Confederate Heritage Month in the State of Mississippi.”
The state will be observing Confederate Memorial Day on April 27.
Reeves defended the move saying the state has been honoring Confederate Heritage Month for 30 years amid pushback, including from former governors.
“I didn’t do it when I was governor,” Former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus (D) told CNN. “Confederate Heritage? Really? The heritage that I think of with the Confederacy is slavery, is treason, and is losing. So which one of those heritages are we really honoring here? But it’s all part of that lost cause narrative, the ‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ that came about few years after the Civil War in an attempt to reassert white supremacy.”
Mabus continued: “It came hand-in-hand with Jim Crow. And, it worked for a long, long time. Statues were put up, this heritage notion. But what it does is incredibly hurtful, it is incredibly harmful, and it honors something that we should learn about, know about, but definitely, definitely not honor.”
Former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove told the Mississippi Free Press that Confederate Heritage Month is “something that should not continue in today’s world.”
Musgrove, who served as governor from 2000 to 2004 and also signed the proclamation, expressed regret for doing so.
“I cannot say why the practice started, but it was one that should never have been started,” Musgrove said. “It was one that I should not have signed and it should have ended a long time ago.”
