Flag of Georgia

Georgia’s first flags

Georgia’s first official state flag came in 1879. It was introduced by state senator Heman H. Perry, a former Confederate officer, and adapted the first national flag of the Confederacy, the “Stars and Bars,” with a tall vertical blue band at the staff and no stars. In 1902 a new law called for the state coat of arms on the blue band, and later the full state seal took its place.

The 1956 flag

In 1956 Georgia adopted a very different flag. Under Governor Marvin Griffin, the legislature put the Confederate battle emblem, the red field with a blue cross of stars, across two-thirds of the flag, with the state seal on a blue band at the staff. The bill passed without public hearings, at a time when Georgia’s leaders were fighting the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling against school segregation, and many Georgians saw the new flag as a statement of defiance.

For decades the 1956 flag was a source of conflict. By the 1990s business leaders, civil rights groups and many politicians were calling for a change.

A flag that lasted two years

In January 2001 Governor Roy Barnes pushed through a compromise. House Bill 16, which he signed on January 30, 2001, adopted a design by the architect Cecil Alexander: the state seal on a blue field, above a ribbon reading “Georgia’s History” with five small versions of Georgia’s historic flags, including the 1956 flag. Many critics found it cluttered, and supporters of the old flag were angry about losing it. The flag change became a major issue in the 2002 governor’s race, which Barnes lost.

The 2003 flag and the referendum

Barnes’s successor, Sonny Perdue, had promised Georgians a vote. The General Assembly drafted a new design, modeled on the 1879 flag and the “Stars and Bars,” and Perdue signed it into law on May 8, 2003. It was Georgia’s third flag in 27 months. On March 2, 2004, voters were asked to choose between it and the 2001 flag; more than 73 percent picked the new one. The 1956 flag was not on the ballot.

What the flag shows

• Red, white and red. Three horizontal bands of equal width.
• The blue canton. A square in the upper corner by the staff.
• The coat of arms. In gold: an arch inscribed “Constitution” held up by three pillars labeled Wisdom, Justice and Moderation, standing for the three branches of government, with a soldier holding a drawn sword.
• “In God We Trust.” In capitals below the arms.
• Thirteen stars. A ring of white stars around the arms, for Georgia and the other twelve original states.

The pledge

Georgia also has an official pledge to its flag, set out in O.C.G.A. § 50-3-2. Since a 2022 amendment it ends with the principles “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation, and Courage”; before that only the first three were listed.