All U.S. states trying to make progress in the 21st century, please step forward … whoa. Not so fast, Mississippi.

On Tuesday, 65 percent of Mississippi’s voters went to the polls to choose their state flag, and they cast their ballots (largely along racial lines) in favor of keeping a 107-year-old piece of cloth with a Confederate emblem on it.

What were they thinking?

It’s bad enough that Mississippi is already so darn tricky to spell, but now it’s gone and legally bound itself to a symbol associated with repression and the Ku Klux Klan.

Mississippi is now the only state in America that displays a prominent Confederate emblem on its flag (Georgia has a mini-emblem at the bottom of its state banner, alongside four other shrunken flags). About a year ago, Mississippi’s Supreme Court discovered that the “stars and bars” wasn’t officially listed as the state’s flag. So, instead of making a decision at that particular moment, the legislature decided to let the people of the state, made up of 2.8 million citizens & 61 percent white and 36 percent black & choose which flag they wanted.

Before Tuesday’s voting, about two-thirds of the state wanted to keep its current Confederate-covered flag, while the other third wanted something completely different. Though blacks and whites were found on both sides of the flag argument, a racial divide was still evident, with more whites wanting to keep the flag and more blacks wanting to replace it.

Proponents of the banner boast of its historic relevance to the South and the Civil War, with many saying their ancestors fought under the Confederate flag and that’s what they associate with the emblem & not the other little thing that was a factor in the war: slavery. Opponents of the flag, which was adopted in 1894 & about 30 years after slavery was abolished & say its mere presence elicits images of discrimination and violence toward blacks.

Flag supporters can fight all they want to separate racism from their beloved Confederate emblem, but history already has branded it an ugly period along

America’s timeline. It’s a kick in the face to the roughly 33 percent (mostly black) Mississippi residents who are deeply offended by such a symbol.

Despite this recent step backward, Mississippi has made strides over the years, boasting more black elected officials in its state than any other in the nation. And the fact that its people are so vocal with their opinions shows that Mississippians aren’t quietly holding their beliefs under their breaths, as some of us in the North do so well.

But the Confederate emblem is a part of history, and it should be kept where it deserves to be: in the past. Many whites look at the emblem as a representation of their Southern roots, while many blacks view it as a haunting reminder of humanity at its worst. People who support the flag aren’t necessarily racist, but they are fighting a losing battle to remove stains on the emblem that can never be erased, no matter how good the people are who want it to mean something else. No one can forget what that emblem once represented, the trying times that led to its creation and the negativity and outright disrespect for another race that now accompany the symbol.

Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who sought a new flag, wants the state’s economy to pick up through tourism and more corporations taking root in his state’s soil. He’s hoping Mississippi can mirror the success of next-door neighbor Alabama, which reported an economic boost once it removed the Confederate emblem from its flag, with such companies as Mercedes Benz and Honda setting up shop.

But if Mississippi wants to change its image, it’s heading in the wrong direction. And it’s not just out-of-state residents who are holding this view.

Attorney Tony Gaylor, a Mississippi resident, expressed frustration toward his state’s decision to keep the old flag.

“The flag & outside of a symbol of racism & is an advertisement,” he said. “As long as the state continues to advertise itself as racist, it will be seen as racist.”

Instead of segregating itself from the rest of America, Mississippi needs to fold its offensive state banner and put a stop to the boundaries it’s creating, both in-state and out-of-state, by waving that powerful piece of cloth.

Though a flag shouldn’t be used as leverage to make racial assumptions about heritage-supporting human beings, the still-unresolved wounds of this country’s horrific past shouldn’t be forced down the throats of citizens solely because those citizens are in the minority.

I believe a battle already was fought in attempts to end that sort of dominating madness.