Former Gov. Roy Barnes, who engineered the redesign of Georgia's state flag 14 years ago, said Wednesday the state should take new steps to distance itself from its painful Civil War legacy.
The Democrat said the Confederate battle emblem should be erased from state-issued license plates, and that Georgia should no longer celebrate Confederate Heritage Month or Confederate Memorial Day.
"February 12, 1733 - that's not a state holiday. And that's the day Georgia was founded," he said. "We don't celebrate the day they opened the first public schools in the state as a public holiday. History should be balanced."
Georgia's embrace of Confederate symbols has come under increased scrutiny since the racially-tinged massacre of nine black worshippers at a Charleston church by a suspected white supremacist.
Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday the state would redesign a Sons of Confederate Veterans license plate, though he stopped short of vowing to remove the Rebel emblem from the tags. His spokesman Brian Robinson on Wednesday signaled the governor wanted to take a broader approach to the debate.
"The governor believes this issue should be approached holistically and comprehensively, not issue by issue," he said.
Some critics say he hasn't gone far enough. State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, said Democrats will rally behind legislation that would outlaw Confederate Memorial Day, an annual holiday which most state employees take as a day off.
Barnes, who spoke after a taping of Bill Nigut's "Two Way Street" show on Georgia Public Broadcasting, said Deal is on "the right track" but that more needs to be done.
"There is a place for the Confederate battle flag. Museums. Confederate cemeteries. But it's not on state tags," he said. "As he feels his way through this, he'll come to the same solution."
Earlier, during a taping of the GPB show that will air Saturday, Barnes took stock of his 2002 election defeat to Republican Sonny Perdue. Angst from teachers about his education reform and plans for a new exurban highway contributed to his defeat. But he said no factor played a bigger role than his decision to shrink the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag.
"I don’t think I would've been defeated if not for the flag. Just look what happened. Teachers didn't get a raise for seven, eight years - why didn't they get mad about that and beat an incumbent?" he said. "I attribute it to the flag. I don't have any doubt about it. I had boys that generally went deer hunting on election day make sure they voted against me first."
He added: "The third rail in Southern politics is race. And we don't seem to have learned anything."
Stay tuned for Jim Galloway's analysis of Barnes' legacy in this space later today.
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