Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) is designating the month of April to celebrate Confederate heritage; a tradition Mississippi Republicans have commemorated for nearly three decades.
According to Mississippi Free Press, the Republican governor released a proclamation highlighting the checkered history of the Confederacy. “April is the month when, in 1861, the American Civil War began between the Confederate and Union armies, reportedly the costliest and deadliest war ever fought on American soil,” the proclamation said.
That proclamation also offered a description of genocide labeling it as “the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group by destroying a group’s political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and economic existence, and destroying the personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of individuals belonging to the group.”
Tate's proclamation also highlights that in the state of Mississippi, April 30 has been declared Confederate Memorial Day, emphasizing Reeves' previous document signed back in 2021.
Following the release of the 2021 proclamation, Reeves appeared on Fox News where he argued that “there is not systemic racism in America”— a claim that the Mississippi Free Press notes is a contradiction of "mountains of evidence, including the vestiges of Jim Crow that remain in force in."
The news outlet went on to dissect Reeves' "Genocide Awareness Month proclamation" noting that it fails to acknowledge the history of "American slavery or the destruction of Native American cultures."
“The systematic destruction of lives has spanned areas and cultures from Armenia to Darfur, the Holodomor to the Holocaust,” Reeves tweeted. “Genocide has no place in society, and we must do everything we can to prevent it."
Last year, Reeve's office released a statement to the local news outlet, WAPT, emphasizing the governor's intent to follow in the footsteps of those who came before him.
“For the last 30 years, five Mississippi governors—Republicans and Democrats alike—have signed a proclamation recognizing the statutory state holiday and identifying April as Confederate Heritage Month,” the statement read. “Gov. Reeves also signed the proclamation because he believes we can all learn from our history.”