Flaggers
Written by Benaiah on July 17th, 2006The Georgia Lt. Governors race may turn on an issue that might seem strange to everyone outside Georgia. Heck this is strange or silly at best.
So here is the back story. Back in 1956 southern states, including Georgia, were segregated societies between black and white. I don’t need to rehash the history here. In Washington moves were being made to enforce the integration of schools throughout the South.
In protest the Georgia Legislature changed its flag to the one to the left. Noted with its Confederate Battle emblem, this flag flew above the state capital until 2001, when Democratic Governor Roy Barnes signed into law a bill changing the 1956 a compromised proposal for a new Georgia flag featuring all flags to fly over Georgia.
The new flag (right) sparked controversy, partly because it was passed quietly with no media attention. Enter the Flaggers. The Flaggers lead primarily by the Georgia Sons of Confederate Veterans, vowed to get the flag changed back to the 1956 flag and punish Governor Barnes in the process.
The Flaggers galvanised rural voters sympathetic to their cause and helped elect Republican Sonny Purdue. In the 2002 election Purdue promised to bring the issue before the Georgia voters in a referendum. With The Flaggers help Purdue became the first Republican Governor elected in Georgia since Reconstruction.
Keeping his word Purdue put the issue before voters, except the 1956 flag was not an option. The Flaggers see this as being double-crossed. The Flaggers have vowed to take down Purdue in 2006 as they did Barnes. Wrapped up in the controversy is Ralph Reed, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor who served as head of the Georgia GOP and who is often credited with getting Purdue elected. It was Reed that brokered the unholy alliance between the Flaggers and Purdue. To the Flaggers Reed is as culpable as Purdue and is expected to receive their wrath.
In all honestly The Flaggers do not have nearly the power they had in 2002, because voters feel the issue was resolved with the referendum. The Flaggers still are a sizable group and could be the tipping point if they throw their support as they have indicated behind Casey Cagle, whom this blog has endorsedand who has not taken a stand on the issue.
Interesting note Georgia’s current flag (to the left) is similar to those prior to the 1956 flag. All are reminiscent of The First National Flag of the Confederacy.
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17
PM
This is true Alex, I should have made that more clear. But perception is big and unfortunately that is what I am hearing on the ground down here.
8
PM
OK Y’all, let’s take it from the top by a Flagger
You say “Back in 1956 southern states, including Georgia, were segregated societies between black and white. I don’t need to rehash the history here. In Washington moves were being made to enforce the integration of schools throughout the South.”
I reckon that somehow between 1865 and 1954 Kansas secretly moved South, as the big segregation ruling was from Topeka…
Plus Harlem, Watts, et al. seem to be self segregated by blacks.
Then you help spread the big lie by stating “In protest the Georgia Legislature changed its flag to the one to the left. Noted with its Confederate Battle emblem, this flag flew above the state capital until 2001…”
The TRUTH IS “On July 1st, 1956, Georgia Senate Bill 98 took effect. SB98 was signed into law on February 13th, 1956 by then-Governor Marvin Griffin, and it called for a new design to the Georgia State Flag.
What is now commonly referred to as the “56 Flag” was created by a suggestion from Atlanta attorney John Sammons Bell, then-chairman of the State Democratic Party, attorney for the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), and later Judge on Georgia Court of Appeals. His desire was to “forever perpetuate the memory of the Confederate soldier who fought and died for his state.”
The flag it replaced was designed by Waynesboro State Senator and former Confederate Colonel Herman H.Perry in 1879, based on the 1st Flag of the Confederacy, AKA Stars and Bars. Similar to our current flag, it had 2 red stripes and 1 white stripe, and a field of blue down the left side.
By 1955 however, people like Representative Denmark Groover argued at the time that the old flag never had enough meaning for him when he was a boy and that the new flag “would replace those meaningless stripes with something that has deep meaning in the hearts of all true Southerners”
Others like Senator Jefferson Davis of Cartersville also argued that the state should be entitled to adopt the new flag, because “Georgia suffered more than any other state in the Civil War and endured a scorched earth policy from the mountains of Tennessee to the sea.” SB98 was discussed and passed with little fanfare, and became law on July 1st, 1956.
It is a fact that under the 1879 Perry version flag, Jim Crow, lynching, segregation, and blatant discrimination were widely practiced and flourished in Georgia, as well as across America, but it is also fact that Georgia’s greatest gains in Civil Rights came under the “56 Flag”.
Under the 1956 Bell version flag, Georgia’s schools were fully integrated, Black citizens were no longer lynched, they began enjoying full civil and equal rights in business, political, and social settings. Georgia gained 3 professional sports teams - Falcons, Braves, and Flames - hosted 2 Superbowls, held the 1996 Olympics, and set the pace for the New South.
Georgia based troops took the “56 Flag” with them onto the foreign battlefields of Viet Nam, Grenada, Beirut, Bosnia, and Desert Storm, and just as their Confederate ancestors before them, fought and died for their homes, families, and flag. Millions of Georgia citizens aged 5 to 50 were born under that flag.
In 1958, the United States Congress passed laws granting the same rights and recognition enjoyed by Union Veterans to men who served in the Confederate States Army and Navy. To this day Confederate Veterans are United States Veterans.
Unfortunantly, the 1956 Bell version flag had it’s enemies. Attempts at claiming the “56 flag” was changed to fight integration a long 2 years after the Brown vs Board decision helped begin the BIG LIE that remains to this day. Although the historical facts are out there that plainly refutes this, truth means little for those with agendas.
Concerning those who claim that the flag was “… designed as a last desperate grasp of defiance against integration.” Judge John Sammons Bell said “Absolutely nothing could be further from the truth … every bit of it is untrue.” He further stated that “Anybody who says anything to the contrary is wrong or perpetuating a willful lie.” Plus in the year 1956 several newspaper accounts of the proposed change in the GEORGIA FLAG were published. In none of the articles was there any hint that the flag change was for any reason other than that stated by the gentlemen who proposed the change.
Former Governor Ernest Vandiver said “I can assure you that there was no discussion of segregation or of the U.S. Supreme Court. All that was discussed was the coming centennial of the Civil War and this flag was meant to be a memorial to the bravery, fortitude and courage of the men who fought and died on the battlefield for the Confederacy. More Americans died in that war than any other war in the history of America, before or since.”
In April 1992, the Atlanta Journal Constitution conducted a poll of 43,000 people, and their results were that 75% of citizens wished the “56 Flag” remain as is. Then on July 5th, 1992, the Atlanta Journal Constitution released the results of their own investigation into the flag change of 1956:”There is little written record of the 1956 Legislature and no audio record. News stories about the change were few. In none of our research did we find any record of a stated connection between changing the flag and opposition to desegregation rulings.”
On Thursday, September 26th, 1996, during the annual Carter Town Hall Meeting at Emory University, Former Georgia Governor and Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter stated, “‘We should take the attitude that this (1956) flag is not racist in nature and the fact that the flag does play a major role in Southern history is a legitimate historic recognition.”
But the lies grew and multiplied. Another bit of untruth was that somehow the flag was “Bad for Business”, and although the previously mentioned sports franchises and events came here under the “56 Flag”, businesses like Home Depot were created here, Coca-Cola thrived and truly went global. Hartsfield Airport became the biggest in the world and 3 Interstates were built. Foreign companies built numerous plants here, and the economy was booming. The “56 Flag” was seen in movies like Smokey and the Bandit, and on TV shows like Matlock. Regardless, truth was ignored and facts tossed out the window.
In 1994, James Andrew Coleman filed a Federal Lawsuit against then Governor Zell Miller over the 56 Flag. Mr Coleman lost the suit and the flag remained, but once again Denmark Groover stood up to the plate, and in his deposition under oath he stated
” I have no personal knowledge which would dispute the purely historical motives which were expressed then and since by the sponsors and others involved with the legislation when it was introduced in the Senate. While I cannot say that the Supreme Court’s rulings regarding desegregation played absolutely no role in my decision to support the bill in the House, I can say that segregationist sentiment was not the overriding or even a significant factor in my vote concerning the new flag, or, based on personal observation and knowledge, in its ultimate adoption by the House….”
It all finally came to a head in January 2001, when Ex-Governor Roy Barnes Blitzkrieged the legislature with threats, lies, and intimidation. Having ran on a campaign not to touch the flag, and just finished an interview on CNN in October 2000, stating the flag was not an issue, his flag change happened so fast not even most legislators knew what was happening. Those who voted with him received extra money for their campaigns and districts, those who refused were stripped of funding, or even in the case of Bowdon’s Jack West, had his district removed thru redistricting for voting against the change.
Barnes told Georgians people will forget in 3 months, but Georgians are not as stupid as politicians think they are and voted him and his Democratic party out of power for the first time in 132 years. Roy Barnes was also dropped as a Vice Presidential Candidate option from the 2004 National Democratic Ticket. Under the Barnes Rag, our school children were dropped from 49th to 50th in education rankings, and the economy tanked. Barnes even lied about securing the infamous Mercedes Benz plant.
In what must surely be the most idiotic action by politically correct anti-Southern forces in the history of the known universe, the Roy “King Rat” Barnes ‘Ugliest Flag in the World’ (voted 72nd out of 72 by N.A.V.A.) was chosen by only 212,020 people out of nearly 4,000,000 registered voters.
With further lies you state ” The Flaggers lead primarily by the Georgia Sons of Confederate Veterans, vowed to get the flag changed back to the 1956 flag and punish Governor Barnes in the process.”
Incorrect propaganda states “Democratic Governor Roy Barnes signed into law a bill changing the 1956 a compromised proposal for a new Georgia flag featuring all flags to fly over Georgia.”
There was no compromise - it was Cecil Alexander’s monstrosity train wreck of a flag, forced on the unsuspecting populace of Georgia. The only ‘compromise’ if any was Barnes and the legislature allowed Tom Murphy to get a section of Interstate 20 and West Central Tech named after him, and created a judicial circut and made Murphy’s son the judge of that district, so that Murphy would allow the HB16 to come up for a vote!.
Standing on the Capitol steps on January 29th and 30th, 2001, the call then was “LET US VOTE” In the Mason Dixon Poll of January said 79% of Georgians say ” LET US VOTE” In the Heritage 8 meeting with Governor Perdue this spring, the demand was ‘LET US VOTE”. No calls for the restoration of the 56 Flag, the Georgia Sons of Confederate Veterans has NEVER taken an official stance on any flag choice, and your statement is leftist lying!
Also , there has been at least 20 previous flags that have flown over Georgia, not just the 5 on the ugly blue rag.
In a half truth you say “It was Reed that brokered the unholy alliance between the Flaggers and Purdue. To the Flaggers Reed is as culpable as Purdue and is expected to receive their wrath.
Reed took full credit for getting every single Georgia Republican for statewide office elected, and said the flag had absolutly nothing to do with it. We also found out a few months prior to the election that it was Reed himself that made sure the Republican Flag strategy was to tell the public that a flag vote was needed, but never offer any options, but that the 56 flag would never be a real consideration. Yeah Reed paid the price thru Flaggings at his FUNdraisers and at the polls, and the same groups are gonna avoid Perdue this time around.
As soon as Taylor is elected, we turn the cannons on him with the \tried and true “LET US VOTE” campaign that Barnes and Perdue found so refreshing