Flag of Georgia (U.S. State) - Historical Flags

Historical Flags

The state flag used from 1956 to 2001 featured a prominent Confederate Battle Flag, which some residents found offensive due to its historical use by the Confederate States of America and its contemporary use as a symbol by various white supremacy groups. People found it offensive because the emblem was originally adopted not during the American Civil War period but in 1956 during the height of the fight for desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Even in 1956, support for the flag was not unanimous, with the United Daughters of the Confederacy opposing the flag with a statement that the change "would cause strife."

Right after it was repealed as the state flag in 2001, the city of Trenton, Georgia adopted it as the official city flag.

Twenty-first century adherents of the 1956 flag claimed that the flag was designed to commemorate the upcoming Civil War Centennial five years away. Critics, including Georgia Congressman John Lewis, assert it was only adopted as a symbol of racist protest, especially against the decision of Brown v. Board of Education. A federal appeals court noted in 1997 that the 1956 bill changing the flag was enacted "when its public leaders were implementing a campaign of massive resistance to the Supreme Court's school desegregation rulings." Other measures passed that year included bills rejecting Brown v. Board and following up on then-Governor Marvin Griffin's announcement that "The rest of the nation is looking to Georgia for the lead in segregation."

Political pressure for a change in the official state flag increased during the 1990s, in particular during the run-up to the 1996 Olympic Games that were held in Atlanta. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) focused on the Georgia flag as a major issue and some business leaders in Georgia felt that the perceptions of the flag were causing economic harm to the state. In 1992, Governor Zell Miller announced his intention to get the battle flag element removed, but the state legislature refused to pass any flag-modifying legislation. The matter was dropped after the 1993 legislative session. Many Atlanta residents and some Georgia politicians refused to fly the 1956 flag and flew the pre-1956 flag instead. Governor Miller later apologized for his attempt at changing the flag.

Miller's successor as Governor, Roy Barnes, responded to the increasing calls for a new state flag, and in 2001 hurried a replacement through the Georgia General Assembly. His new flag sought a compromise, by featuring small versions of some (but not all) of Georgia's former flags, including the controversial 1956 flag, under the words "Georgia's History." Those flags are a thirteen-star U.S. flag of the "Betsy Ross" design; the first Georgia flag (before 1879); the 1920–1956 Georgia flag; the previous state flag (1956–2001); and the current fifty-star U.S. flag.

In a 2001 survey on state and provincial flags in North America conducted by the North American Vexillological Association, the redesigned Georgia flag was ranked the worst by a wide margin; the group stated that the flag "violates all the principles of good flag design."