In 1956, the Confederate Battle Flag was added to the state flag of Georgia. The New Pittsburgh Courier covered event, suggesting it was directly prompted by the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education ruling in an act of retaliation against what white Georgia lawmakers saw as “forced integration.”[1]
In 1992, conflict over the flag came to a head when Governor Zell Miller announced that he would be asking the state legislature to change the flag. A report by the Associated Press (AP)—republished in the New Pittsburgh Courier—stated that Gov. Miller was concerned that the Confederate battle emblem would tarnish Georgia’s international image during the 1996 Olympics. He proposed changing the flag back to its pre-1956 appearance: “a state seal on a blue field to the left, and red and white horizontal bars on the right.”[2]
The following month, supporters of the flag handed out literature, circulated petitions, and waved banners at a forum for state legislators considering the issue. Ray Harrelson, president of the Save the Flag organization, told the AP that they would be delivering the petitions to the Legislature in January. This AP report was then reprinted by the Philadelphia Tribune.[3]
Several days later, a group of about fifteen students burned the state flag in front of Georgia’s capitol building to signal their disapproval of the Confederate emblem. The students, according to the AP, were members of a group called Students for African American Empowerment. One member, Lawrence Jeffries, stated, “Sherman came through here and set Atlanta on fire. Today, we say burn, baby, burn.” Although agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation watched the demonstration, no arrests were made.[4]
The students also objected to the design proposed by Gov. Miller, as they claimed it was based on the First National Flag of the Confederacy, also known as the “Stars and Bars.” The Georgia Civil Rights Network petitioned for the state to go back to its pre-Civil War design—a blue flag with the state seal in the middle.
A former governor of the state expressed outrage over the demonstration and Gov. Miller’s attempt to change the flag. He told the AP, “that flag stands for the courage and heritage of our ancestors” and said Miller’s decision would “come home to haunt him.”[5]
The flag issue remained unresolved for years, during which Black papers continued to document the ongoing resistance to the Confederate design. An editorial published in the Atlanta Daily World expressed the flag’s impact on Black Americans. The author, Bob Bradshaw, wrote,
Each new day in, African American citizens of the state of Georgia are reminded of the not-to-distant [sic] past. They are reminded how they were not citizens but chattel… Change the symbol that churns up hate and hurls insult in the face of every African American in the United States, not just Georgia. Once that gets changed, we can maybe begin to change the hate in some peoples [sic] hearts to love and understanding as the good Lord intended.[6]
Mr. Bradshaw also drew an analogy to Nazi commemoration after the Holocaust: “Can you imagine Jewish people in Germany having to look and see the Swastika flown as a symbol? I can’t.”[7]
The Bennett College Student Newspaper, printed at a historically Black college in North Carolina, drew a similar comparison in their own editorial published a year later:
Government leaders in Atlanta wouldn’t dare flaunt Holocaust flags around their city. The Jewish community would be an [sic] a uproar… I don’t understand why this is an issue at all because it shouldn’t be. The flag bothers us, so take it down. Plain and simple.[8]
The Atlanta Daily World also made sure to publish reports of local resistance to the flag. These included the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce choosing to fly the pre-1956 flag[9] and the first Black sheriff of DeKalb County replacing the station’s state flag with a flag that represented the department.[10]
In 2001, the Winston-Salem Chronicle reprinted a National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) News Wire article announcing that the Georgia State Senate had approved a new state flag design.[11] The new flag had the state seal in the center with five smaller flags printed below it, including all the past state flag designs, the current American flag, and the Betsy Ross flag.[12]
Reactions to the flag were mixed. An Atlanta Daily World report captured the division within the Black community specifically, quoting Black State Representative Calvin Smyre as saying “A cloud has been lifted” in response to the vote.[13] However, Markel Hutchins, president of the National Youth Connection,[14] an Atlanta based group that supported Black youth, was less satisfied. According to the same article, he declared he could not “salute the flag as long as it has any semblance of the Confederacy.”[15]
In 2002, Sonny Perdue, “a poorly funded, unknown Republican,” beat Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes in the Georgia gubernatorial race, becoming the first Republican governor of the state in 130 years. An AP article reprinted in the Winston-Salem Chronicle attributed Perdue’s win in part to his promise to let Georgia citizens vote on the flag.[16]
Perdue, however, also took steps to prevent the inclusion of the 1956 flag as an option.[17] The design that won was a new take on the pre-1956 flag: two red bars with a white bar in the middle, but with a square of blue in the top left corner. In that corner was the state seal surrounded by a circle of stars.
Olivia Haynie
Please cite as:
Haynie, Olivia. “‘Change the Symbol That Churns up Hate’: The Georgia State Flag Controversy.” False Image of History: Perspectives on Confederate Commemoration from the Black Press (online). Fall 2024 Edition. Schaefer, Donovan O., ed. URL = https://falseimage.pennds.org/essay/georgia-state-flag-controversy/.
References
Associated Press. “Georgia flag war continues.” Philadelphia Tribune, June 16, 1992.
Associated Press. “Gwinnett Flies Georgia Flag Sans Rebel Emblem.” Atlanta Daily World, April 27, 2000.
Associated Press. “Perdue Bans Old State Flag At Inauguration.” Atlanta Daily World, January 9, 2003.
Atlanta Daily World. “DeKalb Sheriff Retires State Flag Of Georgia.” March 6, 1997.
Bennett College Student Newspaper (Greensboro, NC). “Confederate flag; Take it down.” February 24, 1994.
“Georgia Flag, Symbol Of Hate, Insults To Blacks Everywhere.” Atlanta Daily World, October 30, 1993.
Haines, Errin. “Boycott Averted As Senate Adopts New Georgia Flag: Reaction To Compromise Is Mixed Among Local Activists.” Atlanta Daily World, February 1, 2001.
NNPA News Wire. “Redesigned Georgia state flag has new emphasis.” Winston-Salem Chronicle, February 8, 2001.
Ross, Sonya. “Atlanta Collegians Burn Georgia Flag To Protest Confederate Problem.” New Pittsburgh Courier, Jun 27, 1992.
Wyatt, Kristen “Flag threatens city’s reputation.” Winston-Salem Chronicle, February 27, 2003.
Ross, “Atlanta Collegians Burn Georgia Flag To Protest Confederate Problem,” New Pittsburgh Courier. ↩︎
Ross, “Atlanta Collegians Burn Georgia Flag To Protest Confederate Problem,” New Pittsburgh Courier. ↩︎
Associated Press. “Georgia flag war continues,” Philadelphia Tribune. ↩︎
Ross, “Atlanta Collegians Burn Georgia Flag To Protest Confederate Problem,” New Pittsburgh Courier. ↩︎
Ross, “Atlanta Collegians Burn Georgia Flag To Protest Confederate Problem,” New Pittsburgh Courier. ↩︎
Atlanta Daily World, “Georgia Flag, Symbol Of Hate, Insults To Blacks Everywhere.” ↩︎
Atlanta Daily World, “Georgia Flag, Symbol Of Hate, Insults To Blacks Everywhere.” ↩︎
Bennett College Student Newspaper (Greensboro, NC), “Confederate flag; Take it down.” ↩︎
Associated Press, “Gwinnett Flies Georgia Flag Sans Rebel Emblem,” Atlanta Daily World. ↩︎
Atlanta Daily World, “DeKalb Sheriff Retires State Flag Of Georgia.” ↩︎
The NNPA is a press association of over 200 Black-owned newspapers from around the United States. ↩︎
NNPA News Wire, “Redesigned Georgia state flag has new emphasis,” Winston-Salem Chronicle. ↩︎
Haines, “Boycott Averted As Senate Adopts New Georgia Flag: Reaction To Compromise Is Mixed Among Local Activists,” Atlanta Daily World. ↩︎
The author of the article quoting Hutchins misprints the name of the group, calling it the “National Youth Coalition.” ↩︎
Haines, “Boycott Averted As Senate Adopts New Georgia Flag: Reaction To Compromise Is Mixed Among Local Activists,” Atlanta Daily World. ↩︎
Wyatt, “Flag threatens city’s reputation,” Winston-Salem Chronicle. ↩︎
Associated Press, “Perdue Bans Old State Flag At Inauguration,” Atlanta Daily World. ↩︎