State Debates Controversial Flag Bill
Apr 23, 10:07 am ET
By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Georgia on Tuesday moved one step closer to passing a bill that could give voters a chance to resurrect a discarded state flag that bears a giant emblem of the pro-slavery Confederacy.
With only two days remaining in the southern state's annual legislative session, state senators began debating a proposal to change the current flag and seek the approval of voters in a binding referendum next year.
If Georgians reject the new design, which resembles a pre-1865 banner, a second referendum would be held to decide whether to return to a 1956-era rebel flag that was set aside two years ago by former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes.
Sen. Ginger Collins, a Republican who voted against changing the flag in 2001, said she had thought about the flag issue often during the past two years. "It's a very difficult choice," Collins said of the impending Senate vote.
The bill is the brainchild of Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, who defeated Barnes last November partly due to a backlash by white voters who were angry that the Democrat-controlled legislature changed the flag without consulting Georgians.
Prior to that change, two-thirds of the state banner was covered by a St. Andrew's cross with white stars and blue bars on a red background, perhaps one of the most recognized symbols of the Confederacy.
Millions of blacks consider the rebel flag and other such relics to be potent symbols of the racial hatred that was institutionalized in the Deep South. Georgia's legislative black caucus is solidly opposed to the bill.
They point out that the rebel insignia was added to Georgia's flag by white lawmakers as a protest against the civil rights movement and the effort by the federal government to extend equal rights to blacks in southern states.
"We are keeping hatred and bigotry and racism very much alive," said Sen. Regina Thomas, a Democrat from southern Georgia. "The honorable thing to do is to let this issue lie."
A small band of white heritage protesters stood outside the Georgia capitol on Tuesday to support reinstatement of the 1956 rebel flag, which they view as a symbol of Southern culture and the soldiers who died fighting for the Confederacy.
The flag bill has already passed Georgia's House of Representatives. If it passes the senate without any amendments, it would go to Perdue to be signed into law.
Georgia's new flag, a modified version of the stars and bars with the insignia "In God We Trust" inscribed on its banner, would then immediately be raised over state buildings.
The current state flag is dominated by a state seal, which sits above small versions of the state's five historic flags, including the rebel flag.
