In February, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi quietly declared April to be Confederate History Month.
The proclamation was not included on the state's official website but was posted on the website of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization known for pushing a revisionist history of the Civil War, the Jackson Free Press reports.
The proclamation explained that April would be the appropriate month to honor Confederate heritage because it "is the month in which the Confederate States began and ended a four-year struggle." April 25th is Confederate Memorial Day.
The legacy of the Confederacy has been a point of controversy of late, following the mass shooting at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. Days after the shooting, the Mississippi House Speaker, Republican State Rep. Philip Gun called for the state flag to be redesigned, the Associated Press reports.
Currently, the flag features a Confederate battle emblem. Gunn deemed the rebel cross "a point of offense that needs to be removed."
However, the Mississippi legislature failed to come to consensus on how to change the flag on Feb. 23, and so the flag will remain as it is for the rest of 2016.
Gunn, however, said the fight to change the flag was not over.
"The flag is going to change," he said in a statement, according to the AP. "We can deal with it now or leave for future generations to address."
Sources: Jackson Free Press, AP via CSN News / Photo credit: Trip Burns/Jackson Free Press, USDA/Wikipedia