JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — Mississippi is on the verge of changing its state flag to erase a Confederate battle emblem that's broadly condemned as racist.

Mississippi has the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem — a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars.

White supremacists in the Mississippi Legislature set the state flag design in 1894 during backlash to the political power that African Americans gained after the Civil War.

Former Ole Miss basketball player Blake Hinson told his hometown Daytona Beach (Florida) News-Journal that the Mississippi flag played a part in his decision to transfer to Iowa State.

If a majority voting that day accept the new design, it will become the state flag.