Georgia is set to roll out a redesigned license plate that still features the Confederate battle flag emblem, months after halting the sales of the state-sponsored specialty tag in the wake of the Charleston, S.C., church massacre.
The Department of Revenue and the Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said this week that they reached an agreement on the redesign and that it could be available as early as next week.
A department spokesman said the draft of the design was not yet available, but leaders of the Confederate group said it would eliminate the larger image of the Rebel flag that forms the background of the plate while retaining a small, “blood red” version of the emblem in the foreground.
Gov. Nathan Deal ordered a redesign of the license plate in June after nine black worshippers were gunned down and police described the suspect as a white supremacist. But the governor stopped short of calling for the Sons of Confederate Veterans tags to be phased out.
Taking that step, which leaders in other Southern states ordered over the summer, is made more difficult in Georgia because state law requires a “special license plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” with the proceeds of the sales going to benefit the group.
Some legislative leaders have indicated little appetite to change the law allowing the specialty licenses plates, even as Confederate symbols of all kinds — including flags and retail items — come under renewed scrutiny across the South in the months since the Charleston shootings.
Deal’s administration quietly erased Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday from the official Georgia calendar in August. And debate has swirled over other symbols of the Old South, including the faces carved into Stone Mountain, the portraits and sculptures enshrined in the state Capitol, and even restaurants that feature the Rebel flag.
The state-issued license plate emblazoned with the Rebel emblem, though, is a particularly sore spot for some critics. At least 3,500 motorists have signed up for the Confederate tag, and the group’s leaders say demand has recently surged.
More than 4,200 people signed a petition released by Better Georgia, a left-leaning advocacy group, calling for the state to stop selling plates featuring “symbols of hate and division.” The Sons of Confederate Veterans countered with a membership drive, a lobbying campaign and the threat of legal action.
Tim Pilgrim, a leader of the organization’s Georgia chapter, said the group reached an accord with the state to remove the Confederate flag in the background as long as a logo featuring the battle emblem remained “in its place of prominence on the tag.”
“We hope to have that completed by the end of this week,” he said, “and our tag will start to be available to our membership and the citizens of Georgia by next week.”
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