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So with the news out of Mississippi I figured I’d tell the story of the Great Georgia Flag Fiasco of 2001
So with the news out of Mississippi I figured I’d tell the story of the Great Georgia Flag Fiasco of 2001
So prior to 1956 Georgia used this as it’s state flag. Which wasn’t anything special but around the 1950s powerful segregationists in the GA State Assembly wanted to push the Confederate Battle Flag onto the state flag as a way of showing civil rights demonstrators “their place”
So in 1956 the infamous flag below was adopted. This flag lasted throughout the rest of the 20th Century as Southern “Boll Weevil” Democrats controlled GA government and despite liberalization of the Democratic Party through governors like Jimmy Carter, Joe Frank Harris, and
Zell Miller. During Miller’s tenure GA (in particular Metro Atlanta) grew in prominence and population and economic status and naturally that relic of a flag came up often but Miller and other Dems weren’t wanting to put up a fight and lose power to the emerging Georgia GOP.
However in 1998 Roy Barnes a Liberal Democrat came into power and promised to change the flag. And in 2001 a new flag was jammed through the State Assembly in order to get it over with. The monstrously below is what Barnes and the GA Assembly came up with
Personally if you take off all the other flags it isn’t that bad but most people hated it. The North American Vexillological Association (basically Flag Nerds) decried it as the worst state flag in America. The flag received pushback from both sides as
1. The old Confederate-influenced flag wasn’t permanently removed
2. Many Neo-Confederates decried it as “white-washing away history”
In opposition a group of “Flaggers” which existed before to protest against places who refused to fly the flag went all in on protesting the new
2. Many Neo-Confederates decried it as “white-washing away history”
In opposition a group of “Flaggers” which existed before to protest against places who refused to fly the flag went all in on protesting the new
flag and put up the old State flag and Confederate battle flag on the sides of roads and brought it to protests. Most hated the flag and wanted a redo but Barnes stood by the new flag. This allowed the GA GOP to pounce and ended up bringing current US Agri. Sec. Sonny Perdue
to the governorship on the promise to revise the flag. Perdue eventually decided on a referendum on the flag replacement and in 2003 the current state flag (seen below) was adopted by a wide majority in a referendum.
However some criticized the new flag as plastering the Georgia seal on the Confederate National Flag (the so called “stars and bars”) and not resolving the issue of Confederate influence. However the GA GOP declared Mission Accomplished and the flag remains with little desire
to fight another battle over changing the flag. Now personally I really don’t care for any of the flags especially compared to other states like Tennessee, the Carolinas, or Florida (my favorite state flag is Alaska’s). Will they ever change the flag again? Maybe but not anytime
in the near future. What would I change the flag to? It would probably include the English and Spanish crosses as references to GA’s colonial roots or something like Missouri’s flag.
In the end the lessons of the Flag Fiasco are people don’t like change, the South will probably never let go of its Confederate influences, and if you’re going to change your flag don’t put miniature versions of past flags in your new flag [FIN]
