The new Flag of Mississippi features a white magnolia blossom and the words “In God We Trust” on a red field with a gold-bordered blue pale. This flag was chosen by the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag and was approved by state referendum on November 3, 2020. Afterward, it was passed by the state legislature on January 6, 2021, and became the official state flag of the U.S. state of Mississippi on January 11, 2021.

The previous Flag of the State of Mississippi was adopted by the U.S. state of Mississippi in 1894, replacing the flag that had been adopted in 1861.

In 2000 after a fair amount of controversy regarding the State’s flag which included the Confederate Flag in the canton corner, the Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled that state legislation in 1906 had repealed the adoption of the state flag in 1894, so what was considered to be the official state flag was only so through custom and usage.

On January 12, 2001, Governor David Ronald (Ronnie) Musgrove signed House Bill No. 524. This bill was precipitated by a series of design proposals intended to remove the representation of the Confederate battle flag from the canton corner of the current State flag. Some Mississippians were offended by the official design and proposed a new design they thought would be more acceptable to the entire populace of the State. The legislature and the Governor decided to put an end to the controversy over the State flag and passed a law that would put the design of the Mississippi State Flag to a vote. This vote would determine whether the State flag that had flown over Mississippi for 107 years would continue to fly over the State or whether a new design would be raised over the State capitol. The vote was scheduled for April 17, 2001. [Source]

From Wikipedia: “The proposal would have replaced the Confederate battle flag with a blue canton with 20 stars. The outer ring of 13 stars would represent the original Thirteen Colonies, the ring of six stars would represent the six nations that have had sovereignty over Mississippi territory (various Native American nations as a collective nation, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Great Britain, the United States and the Confederate States), and the inner and slightly larger star would represent Mississippi itself. The 20 stars would also represent Mississippi’s status as the 20th member of the United States.

The new flag was soundly defeated in a vote of 64% (488,630 votes) to 36% (267,812) and the old flag was retained.”

The pledge to the state flag is:

I salute the flag of Mississippi and the sovereign state for which it stands with pride in her history and achievements and with confidence in her future under the guidance of Almighty God.

—Mississippi Code Ann., Section 37-13-7, 1972

Adopted in 1798 (when Mississippi was still a U.S. territory), the great seal of Mississippi displays an eagle with spread wings and a shield with stars and stripes centered on its chest. The eagle clasps an olive branch and arrows in its talons (symbols of peace and strength).

The eagle is proudly positioned in the center of the seal, with its wings spread wide and its head held high. A bunting of stars and stripes adorns its chest. In its talons, the eagle grasps an olive branch symbolizing a desire for peace and a quiver of arrows representing the power to wage war. The outer circle of the seal holds the words “The Great Seal of the State of Mississippi”.

From Wikipedia:

The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was commonly known as “Teddy” (though he loathed being referred to as such). The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Sharkey County, Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt’s attendants, led by Holt Collier, cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.

Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a new toy. He created a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read “Teddy’s bear,” after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co.

Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes. Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses, babylike features that enhance the toy’s cuteness. Teddy bears are also manufactured to represent different species of bear, such as polar bears and grizzly bears, as well as pandas.

While early teddy bears were covered in tawny mohair fur, modern teddy bears are manufactured in a wide variety of commercially available fabrics, most commonly synthetic fur, but also velour, denim, cotton, satin, and canvas.

The committee to design a Coat of Arms was appointed by legislative action February 7, 1894, and the design proposed by that committee was accepted and became the official Coat of Arms. The committee recommended for the Coat of Arms a “Shield in color blue, with an eagle upon it with extended pinions, holding in the right talon a palm branch and a bundle of arrows in the left talon, with the word “Mississippi” above the eagle; the lettering on the shield and the eagle to be in gold; below the shield two branches of the cotton stalk, saltier-wise, as in submitted design, and a scroll below extending upward and one each side three-fourths of the length of the shield; upon the scroll, which is to be red, the motto be printed in gold letters upon white spaces, as in design accompanying, the motto to be –VIRTUTE et ARMIS” which means by valor and arms.

Mississippi’s Official State Bird is the Mockingbird, but the mockingbird is also the Official State Bird of Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and Texas.

The Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs selected the mockingbird as their club bird and lobbied the state to adopt the mockingbird as the official state bird of Mississippi.

The bill to designate the mockingbird the official state bird of Mississippi was approved in the Mississippi House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously. The legislation was signed by the Governor on February 23, 1944.

Some folks can’t see the forest for the trees. But in Mississippi, we are well aware of the fact that without the trees, there would be no forest.

According to the Mississippi State University Forestry Extension Service:

Mississippi is a heavily forested state with 18.6 million acres of forestland (62% of the state’s land area). The total economic impact of forestry and the forest products industry is $14.8 billion. Almost 66 percent of the state’s forestland is owned by private, nonindustrial forest landowners.

Over 125,000 private landowners own land that is used in timber production and almost 200,000 people are employed around the state in jobs related to the timber industry.

Beverley Kreul wrote an article for FarmFlavor.com entitled “Mississippi Forest Landowners Harvest and Regrow Timber” that included a great graphic that details the production cycle that foresters live by:

Tony Howe wrote “Growth of the Lumber Industry, (1840 to 1930)” for Mississippi History Now and in it he detailed how forestry in Mississippi grew to become a huge economic factor in the state:

Then several important developments in the late 1800s made possible the growth of the lumber industry in the state. By the 1850s, Mississippi sawmills began to replace less efficient reciprocal saws, which cut up and down, with the circular saw. Dry kilns, developed in the 1870s and 1880s, made it possible for mills to process long-leaf yellow pine for ever-expanding markets. In addition, the increased use of the crosscut saw replaced the more labor-intensive method of cutting trees by ax. Furthermore, with the exhaustion of timber supplies in the North and East, experienced loggers moved to Mississippi to build sawmills. Many local people became operators of large sawmills, some producing as much as 300,000 board feet of lumber per day. All of these factors led to the building of larger sawmills that produced lumber at phenomenal rates.

Here are a few more facts about the Mississippi Timber Industry from the MSU Forestry Extension Services:

• About 65 percent of Mississippi’s land is in forest. This is about 19.6 million acres according to the latest forest survey taken in 2006.
• The value of Mississippi’s timber harvest has exceeded $1 billion each year since 1993 and reached an all-time record of 1.45 billion in 2005.
• Mississippi’s forest products industry consists of four major sectors:
  • Solid Wood Products which includes pine and hardwood lumber, plywood, poles, oriented strand board, and other “composite” forest products.
  • Pulp and Paper which includes fine writing papers, “liner-board” used for cardboard boxes, tissue and absorbent papers, and market pulp.
  • Wood furniture and related products which consists mostly of upholstered wood furniture such as couches, love seats, and recliners.
  • Timber harvesting which includes the harvesting and transportation sector.
• According to a 2008 study by James Henderson and Ian Munn of MSU:
  • The total industry output of Mississippi’s forest products industry generates an economic impact of nearly $17.4 billion annually.
  • The forest products industry accounts for $7.1 billion annually in value added economic impact for the state.
  • The Mississippi forest products industry contributes to 8.3% of all jobs in Mississippi. An estimated 123,659 full or part-time jobs have their “roots” in Mississippi’s forest products industry. (This total includes direct, indirect, and induced employment).
  • In terms of wages and salaries paid annually, Mississippi’s forest products industry generates a statewide economic impact of $4.4 billion.
  • In 2007, Mississippi’s forest landowners, mostly private, non-industry owners, collected $630.8 million for their standing timber sold that year.