The flag of the U.S. state of Mississippi was adopted on January 11, 2021, replacing the previous design discontinued in 2020. Its design consists of a white magnolia blossom surrounded by 21 stars and the words "In God We Trust" written below, all put over a blue Canadian pale with two vertical gold borders on a red field. The topmost star, gold and composed of a pattern of five diamonds, "represents ... the ... Native American tribes of ... Mississippi"; the other 20 stars are white and "[represent] Mississippi as the twentieth state" of the U.S.
The flag was designed by Rocky Vaughan, "with [the] support [of]" Sue Anna Joe, Kara Giles, and Dominique Pugh. Voters were asked to "vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’" on the proposed flag; they were not given the option to vote to retain the old flag.
It is one of three U.S. state flags to feature the words "In God We Trust" (the U.S. national motto), with the other two being those of Florida and Georgia.
Statute
Design of the flag
thumb|Mississippi state flag at the [[Old Warren County Courthouse|Old Courthouse in Vicksburg, 2022]]
The 2024 Mississippi Code, Title 3, § 3-3-16, simplified, describes the state flag as follows:
Dimensions 3:5, but variable, with two vertical bars at the hoist and the fly; the red outer bars are five times wider than the inner gold bars, flanking a blue central panel. In the center of the panel is a stylized white magnolia blossom with a stamen in gold, surrounded by a circle of twenty white five-pointed stars (ten on the hoist side and ten on the fly side). The circle is completed at the top by a gold five-point segmented star and at the bottom by the motto 'IN GOD WE TRUST' in capital letters and Americana font.
Colors
The statute further defines the colors of the state flag as follows: The state was then left without an official flag until the second one was adopted in 1894. In 2020, state legislators proposed new flag designs, leading to the adoption of the current flag the following year.