A Project Chane Collab with Chris Myers

“I’m an architect, I live in the neighborhood, I work in the neighborhood. I just kinda stumbled on the fact that Jackson had a flag 15 years ago. I think we were marching in the St. Paddy’s Day Parade and somebody had one on, and I was like, ‘What is that?’ Somebody told me about it, and I did some research and looked it up. It turned out it had been the [Jackson] flag since 1992. The cool thing is it was almost completely democratic in its design, which doesn’t usually end up in good design. They formed a commission ... and put out a call for submissions from everybody. They got over a thousand entries - mostly from Jackson Public School students and other local students.”

They sent it to a designer, Clay Moss, who took the common themes from the top 25 entries and created the flag we see today. The flag’s symbolism was simple: a gold star representing Jackson’s position as state capital; a blue center for Jackson’s location along the Pearl River; a white cross, noting the city’s designation as “Crossroads of the South;” and a green field, representing growth, prosperity, land, trees, the magnolia, hope, and fertility.

My good friend, Author Jones, and I realized, nobody knew about this. It was our goal to raise awareness of the flag’s existence. One St. Paddy’s Day, we came to Studio Chane and printed some shirts to sell - we sold out in 30 minutes.

Author had lived in D.C. for a while and they have a really nice flag -  you see it everywhere. People are on every corner selling different versions of it. I wanted that to happen with the Jackson Flag too. I started selling them online, but it was a lot of work. I wasn’t making any money off it - the goal was to just get it out there. I talked to Chane a few times, and finally worked out the logistics. Our main goal is to just have it available to anyone who wants to buy it or see it.

I want people to know it and to use it [the flag] to symbolize our united vision for the city. Years ago, Jackson Public Schools abandon the Mississippi State flag for obvious reasons, but a lot of them used Jackson flags to take the place. You’ll see it a lot downtown or in city offices, but I want to see it at homes and wherever else it can be.”