Georgia State Flag

Georgia had no official state flag until 1879. When the state seceded on January 19, 1861, several unofficial banners served — including the Bonnie Blue Flag (a white star on blue) and a flag over the Savannah Custom House showing the coat of arms on white bordered with red. None were official. State senator Herman H. Perry, a former Confederate colonel, introduced Georgia's first official flag in 1879. He based it directly on the First National Flag of the Confederacy: a vertical blue band at the hoist with three horizontal red-white-red stripes.

The design evolved through seven more iterations over the next century. A 1902 amendment added the coat of arms to the blue band. By 1906, the coat of arms appeared on a white shield with a gold outline. In 1914, the year on the arms changed from 1799 to 1776 to reference the Declaration of Independence. Between the 1910s and 1920s, the coat of arms was replaced by the state seal. These were incremental changes. The 1956 change was not.

In early 1955, attorney John Sammons Bell suggested incorporating the Confederate battle flag into Georgia's design. State senators Jefferson Lee Davis and Willis Harden introduced Senate Bill 98 during the 1956 legislative session. The bill passed and was signed into law on February 13, 1956, taking effect July 1. The 1956 flag replaced the red and white stripes with the Confederate battle flag. A 2000 Georgia Senate research report concluded the design was adopted during an atmosphere of preserving segregation and resentment toward federal integration rulings, following Brown v. Board of Education.

Political pressure for a change grew through the 1990s, intensified by Atlanta hosting the 1996 Olympic Games. In 2001, Governor Roy Barnes pushed through a compromise design: a small version of the Confederate battle flag tucked among five historical Georgia flags under the words Georgia's History. The North American Vexillological Association ranked this design worst among all 72 state and provincial flags surveyed.

Sonny Perdue was elected governor in 2002 partly on a platform of a public referendum on the flag. In early 2003, the legislature designed a new flag based on the First National Flag of the Confederacy — the Stars and Bars — with the state coat of arms replacing the Confederate stars in the blue canton. Governor Perdue signed the bill on February 19, 2003. The referendum on March 2, 2004, gave voters a choice between the 2001 Barnes design and the 2003 Stars and Bars design. The 1956 Confederate battle flag was not on the ballot. The 2003 design won with 73.1% of the vote.

The triband stripe pattern — red, white, red — comes directly from the 1861 Stars and Bars, which was itself the design Georgia's first official 1879 flag was based on. The current flag returns to that same source, skipping past the 1956 battle flag interlude. The design choice in 2003 was deliberate: it allowed legislators to remove the Confederate battle flag while maintaining a Confederate design lineage.

The 13 white stars in the blue canton represent Georgia's position as one of the original Thirteen Colonies. The coat of arms at the center carries the state's constitutional symbolism: three pillars labeled Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation — the state motto — support an arch inscribed with Constitution. The pillars represent the three branches of government. A figure in colonial military dress stands between them with a drawn sword, representing defense of the constitution.

IN GOD WE TRUST appears below the coat of arms. Georgia is one of three states — along with Florida and Mississippi — whose flag carries this motto. In Georgia's case it appears as a direct textual statement beneath the constitutional imagery, reinforcing the coat of arms above it.

Georgia's flag uses red, white, blue, and gold. Georgia statute specifies Cable and Pantone values for red, white, and blue — all matching the U.S. national flag. Gold is not defined by color code in Georgia law, which means the shade of the coat of arms can vary between manufacturers.