Mississippi’s Senate runoff race has been marred by accusations of “Old South” racism, which came up yet again on Tuesday — when a Confederate flag turned up on the grave of a local civil rights martyr.
“This political climate we are in, with the Senate race of Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith, has brought all sorts of people out of the woodwork with all kinds of beliefs,” explained Dennis Dahmer, son of slain NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer.
“It has emboldened them,” he told The Clarion-Ledger.
The flag was reportedly placed on Dahmer’s grave in Hattiesburg by an unidentified black woman. Witnesses said she first draped it around her body and went to vote — while also donning a red noose around her neck.
“It sounds like she’s trying to make some kind of political statement,” Dahmer said. “I’m not sure what that statement is. I don’t know if she is a supporter of the Lost Cause or maybe she sees my dad’s death as part of suppression, but that’s speculation on my part.”
Dahmer was reportedly killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan on Jan. 10, 1996, while attempting to defend his home from a firebombing.
The woman who placed the flag on his grave told local residents that the red noose she was wearing represented the blood of Christ, and that the Confederate flag was supposed to represent suppression. Her stunt comes just one day after someone hung nooses around the state Capitol in Jackson, along with signs explaining why.
“We’re hanging nooses to REMIND people that times HAVEN’T CHANGED,” read two of the signs. “On Tuesday November 27th thousands of Mississippians will vote for a senator we need someone who will respect the lives of lynch victims.”
The attempts to sow political chaos have been blasted by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and Dahmer’s family as well.
“Even if she had a positive intent, I wish she hadn’t done that,” Dennis said. “I wouldn’t encourage anybody to use anybody’s grave for any kind of political statement.”
The race between Hyde-Smith, who is white, and Espy, who is black, has been neck and neck as of late — with recent polls giving the GOP incumbent a slight lead.
Things got ugly earlier this month when Hyde-Smith was caught on video unabashedly joking about being in “the front row” of a public hanging, if she were invited. Espy called her out on the comment, saying it had “no place in our political discourse.”
“We need leaders, not dividers,” he later said. “And her words show that she lacks the understanding and judgment to represent the people of our state.”