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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec. 30, 2013—The Orange County Bar Association (OCBA) recently passed Resolution 2013R-01, which recommends the removal of the Mississippi State Flag from the Plaza of the Flags in Santa Ana’s downtown civic center because it incorporates the Confederate Battle Flag in its design.
The resolution, passed in a month that marked the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, explained that the flag’s design “is inextricably linked to a legacy of racism, exclusion, oppression, and violence in various ways, such as its adoption by groups opposed to school desegregation following judicial decisions in Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County and Brown v. Board of Education, as well as by hate groups including the Ku Klux Klan.” The resolution “urges the City of Santa Ana to remove the Mississippi state flag from the plaza and replace it with an alternative state symbol of the State of Mississippi to support equal justice for all.”
OCBA President Wayne Gross stated: “I am proud of the board of directors for passing this important resolution on the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. If we are to remain true to President Lincoln’s words that defined the Civil War as ‘a new birth of freedom,’ a flag design symbolizing racism and hatred has no place in or around courthouses.”
For more information and to read Resolution 2013R-01 of the OCBA Board of Directors in its entirety, please click here.
About the Orange County Bar AssociationEstablished in 1901, the Orange County Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary bars in California. The mission of the Orange County Bar Association is to enhance the system of justice, to support the lawyers who serve it, and to assist the community served by it.
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