Replies

Why would you tell a big lie like that?

If its a lie, your question should be addressed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Not me. As follows.

Atlanta Journal Constitution - July 7, 1992

Q&A section of the AJC on 7/5/92.

John C. Hall, Jr., of Atlanta, asked:

The media has said the Georgia flag was changed by a "defiant Legislature" reacting to Supreme Court desegregation rulings. Was this the stated reason the change was made?

Q&A answered:

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 made between changing the flag and opposition to desegregation rulings. Both senators who introduced the bill, Willis Neal Hardin and Jefferson Lee Davis, are deceased. We contacted Judge John Sammons Bell, a retired chief judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals, who was head of the state Democratic party in 1956. He originally suggested the change to the senators and actually designed the flag. He said, "Introduction of the bill was for one reason and one reason only: to create a living memorial to our great heritage and the brave people involved. And that is the truth. I assure you that the three of us honored and loved that flag too much to denigrate it in the way that has been charged. The great interest in the Civil War Centennial at the time is what obviously boosted its passage." The approaching Civil War Centennial was being planned then on a nationwide basis. A centennial committee was formed. President Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation, and a series of postage stamps commemorating the war was issued.

The Atlanta Journal did an investigation on this and could find no proof that this is the case.

That statement is a flat lie because the AJC DID find evidence of the origin of the flag being based in a desire to fight desegregation, as Tucker's piece indicated.

Walt