Georgia's new flag flew over the state capitol for the first time on January 31, 2001.
| Georgia's new flag flew over the state capitol for the first time on January 31, 2001. |
Georgia's new state flag flew over the capitol building in Atlanta for the first time last Wednesday. About 100 people watched as it rose above the golden dome. "It's beautiful," said Tyrone Brooks, a black legislator who had fought to change the state flag for more than 10 years. "It's a great day for Georgia!"
A Star-Spangled Debate
The new blue banner replaces a state flag that had bitterly divided Georgians. The old flag featured the Stars and Bars of the Confederate flag, carried by Southern soldiers during the Civil War. To many people, especially African Americans, it was a disturbing reminder of slavery and hatred. To its supporters, the old flag merely represented pride in their Southern history.
In recent months, debate about the flag heated up. Civil rights groups threatened to boycott, or stop conducting business in, Georgia if the flag was not changed by March 31. Martin Luther King III, son of the great civil rights leader, urged the National Collegiate Athletic Association to move its 2002 men's basketball Final Four tournaments from the state. "The Confederate flag is repulsive to many African Americans throughout the nation," he said.
A Flag For The Future
Georgia Governor Roy Barnes was eager to end the bitterness. In January he asked state legislators to support a new flag that would unite Georgians. "We are one people forever woven together," he said.
Barnes also wanted to avoid a boycott. South Carolina lost millions of dollars in business last year because of a similar boycott, which ended only when that state removed the offending flag from the top of its capitol.
Georgia lawmakers approved the state's new flag last week. Its design is a compromise. The Stars and Bars still appears on it, but it is at the bottom, among five small flags that represent Georgia's history.
Now Mississippi is the only state whose flag is largely covered by the Confederate battle cross. Voters there will decide in April whether to adopt a new flag. Georgia's Lieutenant Governor, Mark Taylor, hopes his state's change "will echo across the South-and the nation."