
          Flag Waving Down South: Searching History for Solutions
          By Thurmond, Michael L.Michael L. Thurmond 
          Vol. 11, No. 1, 1989, pp. 14-15
          
          In the controversy surrounding proposals to remove the Confederate
battle emblem from the Georgia state flag, one impression stands above
all else: Most of the arguments on both sides are based on historical
myths.
          On one side are those who adamantly assert that the flag's change
in 1956 was simply an attempt to honor the Confederacy, although
legislative history clearly shows that other, less honorable motives
were at least as persuasive. On the other side are those who embrace
the readoption of the pre-1956 state flag, not realizing that its
design also is based on a Confederate flag.
          To make a rational decision about what flag should fly over
Georgia, we must first acknowledge the history in which the present
situation is grounded.
          On the morning of Jan. 11, 1956, a crowded gallery looked down upon
a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate as Gov. Marvin Griffin
presented the annual State of the State Address. He responded
defiantly to recent Supreme Court decisions outlawing racial
segregation: "We must not desert future generations of
Georgians. We must never surrender."
          Griffin outlined his legislative package of eight "no surrender"
bills whose purpose was to maintain segregation in Georgia. In
addition, a bill was introduced to place a St. Andrew's cross on the
Georgia flag. Despite opposition from various organizations, including
the Georgia United Daughters of the Confederacy, floor leaders pushed
the bill through the General Assembly. This bill established the
present state flag: a St. Andrew's cross (the old Confederate battle
flag) covered two-thirds of the flag, and the remaining one-third
displaying the state's coat of arms.
          The wording of the 1956 act is revealing. The act stated that the
new flag would consist of "the flag of Confederate States...approved
May 1,1863." Legislative records show that the flag adopted by the
Confederate Congress on that date was not the Stars and Bars or the
battle flag, but another Confederate flag known as the "Whiteman's
Flag."
          The first official flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars, was
carried into battle only once, on July 1,1861, at the first battle of
Manassas, where Confederate soldiers routed the Union forces. Because
of similarities between the Stars and Bars and the United States'
Stars and Stripes, some Confederate soldiers mistakenly fired on their
own troops on the battlefield. Two months later, the battle flag
replaced the Stars and Bars in the field for the remainder of the
war. However, the battle flag was never officially adopted as the flag
of the Confederacy.
          On May 1, 1863, the Confederate Congress adopted a second official
flag that consisted of a battle flag in the upper left-hand corner on
a field of white. Designed by William T. Thompson, editor of the
Savannah Morning News, the flag was designated
"Whiteman's Flag."
          Thompson wrote, "As a people, we are fighting to maintain the
Heaven-ordained supremacy of the Whiteman over the inferior or colored
race; a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause...Such a flag
would take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations and be
hailed by the civilized world as the 'Whiteman's Flag.'" The flag
was later sold and catalogued under that name. It was eventually
redesigned with a band of red on the end--a necessary change because
it otherwise gave the appearance of a flag of truce when drooped
around its staff.
          Thus our present state flag is a partial adaptation of a flag that
celebrated the notion of white supremacy, less a monument to the
Confederacy than a memorial to the segregationist politicians and
policies of the mid-1950s.
          Several black legislators have supported a proposal to restore the
Georgia flag to its pre-1956 design. But this effort overlooks the
fact that the pre-1956 design also incorporates a Confederate
motif. Like the Stars and Bars, 

the pre-1956 flag is divided into
three horizontal bands, one white band separating two scarlet ones.
          The current effort to change the present flag to its pre1956 design
is not the first. During the 1969 legislative session, Rep. Janet
Merritt of Americus, one of two white females serving in the General
Assembly, introduced a bill to strike the battle flag from the state
flag. The former schoolteacher stated that the Georgia flag with the
battle cross was adopted "in the emotional period of the decisions
on civil rights. The time has come to settle down and realize that a
Confederate battle flag has no place occurring in the flag of
forward-moving Georgia."
          On Feb. 26,1970, the House Judiciary Committee recommended passage
of Ms. Merritt's bill. Three days later it received a third reading,
but, for unexplained reasons, further action on the bill was
indefinitely postponed.
          Recent history suggests that the Georgia flag controversy has
either simmered or boiled for three decades. It is an issue that
refuses to fade away.
          The founders of our state did not fail to provide advice that might
be helpful in resolving this and other problems. This advice has
appeared on the Georgia flag from the earliest days of
statehood. Emblazoned on the seal of Georgia, it consists of three
words: wisdom, justice and moderation.
          As we ponder the pros and cons of Georgia's present flag, we should
remember that if we are wise in our reasoning; just in our
deliberations and moderate in our actions, then Georgia will continue
to fulfill its promise of greatness.
          
            Georgia State Rep. Michael Thurmond is a lawyer and the
author of A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens
History.
          
        