John Grisham and Morgan Freeman are among the dozens of prominent Mississippi natives calling on their home state to remove the Confederate battle flag from the official state flag in a full-page ad in the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.

“It’s simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their own ancestors enslaved,” the ad reads.

The letter, which was also signed by Archie Manning, Hugh Freeze and Jimmy Buffet, touches on the history of the flag and notes that Confederate General Robert E. Lee asked that the flag be removed after the Civil War.

The confederate battle flag, once a mainstay on state flags in the South, has seen a backlash in recent years. The alleged June killing of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina by a white supremacist who posed with the flag prompted national discussions about the flag’s place and led the state to remove the symbol from state grounds.

Read Next: Watch the Emotional Speech That Helped Bring Down the Confederate Flag

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com.