Georgia gets new flag without Confederate symbol

"I'm going to be traveling the state urging the people to vote for this new flag, because I believe this is the flag that can bring us all together, " said Brooks, a prominent member of the Legislative Black Caucus. "It has no racial connotations."

Even Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a Democrat who had not wanted a new flag, spoke favorably about it shortly after Perdue signed the measure into law Thursday.

"I am very appreciative of the leadership demonstrated by members of the General Assembly who worked to remove the incredibly divisive post-'56 flag from the referendum, " Franklin said, referring to the state flag, dominated by the Rebel battle symbol, that was adopted by the Legislature in pre-integration 1956. "Perhaps now we can discuss how best to deal with this ongoing recession and restore jobs to the tens of thousands of Georgians who are unemployed."

Perdue said he personally will vote to keep the new banner that was raised Thursday, rather than the one pushed through the General Assembly in 2001 by his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes.

"We, as a state, must heal the wounds, unite and move forward, " Perdue said.

The governor still plans to hold public forums on racial healing, but he said Thursday the specifics have not been completed.

The new flag is the first in 47 years that does not bear some form of the Confederate battle emblem. That Rebel battle symbol, viewed by some as also a symbol of racism, dominated the 1956 flag and appeared in miniature form on the flag adopted two years ago.

Supporters of the Rebel-dominated flag vowed Thursday to continue to dog Perdue and legislative leaders with protests until they relent and agree to put three options on next year's referendum: the new flag, the 2-year-old flag it replaced and the 1956 flag.

Petitions are being circulated statewide and will be presented to the governor, said "flagger" Dan Rylee of Dallas.

In the final hours of the 2003 legislative session on April 25, lawmakers approved plans for a non-binding referendum that gives voters a choice: the new flag or the 2001 blue flag. The vote will be March 2, 2004, the date of Georgia's presidential primary elections.

During ceremonies Thursday morning in his Capitol office, Perdue said the new red-white-and-blue flag "honors Georgia's past" but also "will allow us to move forward."

The governor said he would have liked the referendum to include the option of going back to the 1956 flag, as he initially proposed and promised during last year's election campaign. He said he was signing the bill out of respect for the legislative process.

"The General Assembly is a separate and equal branch of government and, for the first time in a long time, the governor intends to treat them as such, " said Perdue, Georgia's first Republican governor in 130 years. ''Good, well-meaning people could and do have opposite views on the flag. That doesn't make one group morally superior to another.''

Perdue defeated incumbent Barnes last fall in part because of votes from supporters of the Confederate battle emblem. He promised in his campaign that, if elected, he would propose a referendum on bringing back the controversial Rebel-dominated flag.

His original proposal to the General Assembly included a two-step process in which voters first could vote on whether to keep the Barnes flag. If they decided against it, they would have the option of voting for the 1956 flag or its predecessor.

"I can understand the disillusionment of those who worked for a referendum on the post-1956 flag, " Perdue said Thursday.

Had his initial proposal to the Legislature prevailed, he said, he would have voted for the pre-1956 flag.

"Let me be clear --- my goal was never to rig this process so that one flag stood a greater likelihood of winning over another, " Perdue said. "My goal was never to appease any one group or cause. My goal was to live up to my one and only promise regarding the state flag --- to afford the citizens of Georgia the opportunity to vote."

Perdue did not participate in the flag-raising but went on to other business, a spokesman said.

About a dozen supporters of the 1956 banner booed and yelled as the new flag was being hoisted, while many other people watching from the Capitol lawn applauded.

Tim Pilgrim, a demonstrator from Smyrna, said he and others who voted for Perdue because of the flag issue feel "double-crossed."

"We're getting another flag crammed down our throat, " he said.

Perdue signed an executive order requiring state agencies to fly the new flag as soon as possible.

By late summer, about 25,000 of the new flags are expected to be on display at schools, fire stations and other state government buildings.

Brooks said black legislators are happy with the new flag and viewed the 2001 banner as a necessary step in the long fight to eliminate the Confederate battle emblem.

"We always advocated a return to the pre-1956 flag, and now we're getting a new version of that, " he said. "The Lord works in mysterious ways."