Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves defended declaring April as Confederate History Month, telling the Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that he thinks “everyone should learn from our history.”
Confederate History Month is a 32-year tradition in Mississippi dating back to 1993 and has been proclaimed each year by both Democratic and Republican governors — with the exception of 2019, when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant instead declared April to be a “Month of Unity.”
Reeves has signed the proclamation each of the six years he has been in office. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Mississippi Miracle Is Real,’ Gov. Tate Reeves Says Of Soaring Educational Outcomes)
“This is my sixth year in office. This is my sixth year to sign the exact same proclamation, doing the exact same thing,” Reeves told the Caller.
“What I would simply tell you is that Mississippi has a complicated history. There’s no question about that, but I think everyone should learn from our history — both the good and the bad times — and that’s what we’re going to do,” Reeves asserted.
The state also celebrates Confederate Memorial Day, a day to remember the Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War, on April 25. Public employees will have the day off of work. Attempts to drop the holiday in favor of Juneteenth have repeatedly failed in the state legislature.
The Confederate History Month proclamation states, in part, “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 will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us.”
Reeves’s decision to continue the tradition has previously been met with backlash.
In 2024, the Los Angeles Times editorial board said Confederate History Month is evidence the country is still “trying to decide whether to keep moving forward or take a giant step into the racist past.”
Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who served from 2000 to 2004, said in 2023 that he should have never supported Confederate History Month.
“I cannot say why the practice started, but it was one that should never have been started,” the former governor told the Mississippi Free Press. “It was one that I should not have signed, and it should have ended a long time ago.”
Mississippi was the second state to secede from the Union in 1861 and was a key battleground during the Civil War; Mississippi troops fought in every major theater during the war.
Reeves noted that Mississippi changed its state flag in 2020 to remove the Confederate emblem. The state legislature passed a bill following the death of George Floyd to get rid of the old flag, and, subsequently, nearly 73 percent of voters approved a new flag featuring red and blue vertical stripes with a magnolia flower in the center.
