 JACKSON, Miss. AP - The Mississippi flag is fading from public display in many places, even before the governor signs a bill that will retire the last state banner in the U.S. that includes the Confederate battle emblem. A broad coalition of legislators passed the landmark bill Sunday after a weekend of emotional debate. On Monday, a U.S. flag fluttered outside the state Supreme Court building and a pole for the state flag stood vacant. Several local governments also furled the 126-year-old state banner. In the middle of a pandemic, we - the legislators of the state of Mississippi - decided that it was past time to remove the flag, Democratic state Rep. Oscar Denton of Vicksburg said Monday as he stood on the Capitol steps with other Legislative Black Caucus members. Widespread protests in the past month have focused attention on racial injustice in the U.S., and Mississippi came under increasing pressure to surrender the flag that has the Confederate emblem - a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars. A few supporters of the flag marched outside the Mississippi Capitol with it Saturday and Sunday. Inside the building, dozens of spectators cheered and some wept with happiness after legislators voted to change the flag. Senators on opposite sides of the issue embraced. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to sign the flag bill this week, and the banner will be removed from state law. It still flew Monday on two poles atop the Capitol, signaling that the House and Senate were working. White supremacist legislators put the Confederate emblem on the upper-left corner of the Mississippi flag in 1894, as white people were squelching political power that African Americans had gained after the Civil War. The Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups have used the rebel emblem, and critics have said for... 