NATCHEZ — As other Mississippi cities recently made political statements removing the state flag from outside public buildings, the City of Natchez may have been among the first to effectively speak out on the topic, years ago.

The city has no recent history of flying the state flag over its public buildings.

Oxford, Starkville, Hattiesburg and Vicksburg have taken down the state flag from their respective city properties amid a debate to redesign the Mississippi flag. A portion of the state flag contains a Confederate battle symbol, which many people believe represents the state’s racist past.

The state flag does not fly over City Hall in Natchez, and Mayor Butch Brown said he does not remember it ever flying there.

The state flag flew briefly over the Natchez Police Department in 2011 until the board of aldermen directed then police chief Mike Mullins to remove it.

Former mayor Jake Middleton said at the time the flag was removed because the aldermen had decided years before to not fly the flag on city property.

In 2001, 60 percent of Mississippians voted to keep the state flag, but the debate was recently sparked again following the racially motivated murders of nine members of a black Charleston, S.C., church in June.

Ward 2 Alderman Rickey Gray said he believes the flag is not representative of the people of Mississippi. Gray was on the board of aldermen when it decided to take the state flag out of the city council chambers several years ago.

“It really wasn’t a big issue at the time (on the board),” Gray said. “We had elected officials who didn’t have a problem with taking it down.”

The state flag was recently put back in the council chambers.

“About two or three months ago, it came up that the flag was missing from the council chambers, and I inquired about it and someone found it and put it back up,” Brown said.

The flag was put up in council chambers after Brown took office in 2012, likely sometime in the past year.

Gray said his feelings on the flag are still the same as they were when the board first decided to remove the flag from the council chambers.

“I’ve always been the type of person to try and bring people together, and that flag does not bring people together,” Gray said. “If any state needs to come together, it’s Mississippi.”

The aldermen have had no formal discussion, Brown said, about joining other cities in the state in making a statement about the flag.

He also said he supports flying the flag in the city council chambers as long it is the official flag of Mississippi, but would likely support a redesign of the state flag.

“I think if we can do something to unify the community … certainly I am for making our community stronger,” he said.

Brown said he considers the flag debate and the decision to change it or put it to a vote an issue in the hands if state leaders rather than local officials.

“It’s a debate that is not really in my corner,” he said. “But if it is something the people of Mississippi want, I would certainly support that.”

The city currently has no plans of flying the state flag outside city buildings.