The state flag with the state military crest and the coat of arms of Alabama in the lower and upper sections
The current flag of the U.S. state of Alabama was adopted by Act 383 of the Alabama Legislature on February 16, 1895. The flag was designed by John W. A. Sanford Jr. and features a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white.[1]
On January 11, 1861, a flag was presented to Alabama Secession Convention in Montgomery, where the Convention passed a resolution designating it as the official flag of the body, to be flown whenever the Convention was in open session.[2][3] The flag was sewn and designed by several women from Montgomery, with much of its painting done by Francis Corra, a painter specializing in military and decorative banners.[2]
Contemporary descriptions recorded its appearance.[3]The Atlanta Intelligencer reported on January 14 that the banner was made of blue silk, and bordered with white. On January 16, a Montgomery Weekly Advertiser reporter described the flag as one side depicting the Goddess of Liberty holding an unsheathed sword in her right hand and a single-star flag in her left, with the inscription "Alabama — Independent Now and Forever" in an arch above all. The reverse featured a cotton plant with a rattlesnake coiled at its base, the words "Noli Me Tangere", ("Touch Me Not" in Latin) above, and the Coat of Arms of Alabama.
The flag was flown until February 10, 1861, when it was removed after it had been left flying overnight and was torn. It was delivered to the Governor to be placed in the state archives and was never flown again.[2][3]
Following the Federal occupation of Montgomery by Union forces in 1865, the flag was taken to Iowa, where it remained until it was returned to the Alabama state archives in 1939.[2][3]
A flag with a similar motif remained in use from February 1861 to April 1862 by the 1st Alabama Infantry, at which time it was taken into Union possession following the capture of the regiment. [5]
Current flag
The Alabama state flag displayed at Ivy Green, Helen Keller's birthplace in TuscumbiaThe Alabama state flag with a square shape.The Alabama state flag as depicted in the 1976 bicentennial postage stamp series.
Alabama's current flag was adopted in 1895. The legislation introduced by Representative John W. A. Sanford Jr. stipulates: "The flag of the state of Alabama shall be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. The bars forming the cross shall be not less than six inches broad, and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side."[6] St. Andrew's cross represents the cross on which St. Andrew was crucified.[7]
The legislation that created the state flag did not specify whether the flag should be square or rectangular.[2] In 1987, the office of Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman stated in a letter that the proper shape of the state flag is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions.[8] Despite this, the flag is still often depicted as being square, even in official publications of the U.S. federal government.[9]
More than a decade after its adoption, the flag was described as little known among Alabamians.[7] At the time, few U.S. states had their own flags, and the idea of a distinct state flag was still relatively new.
The flag of Alabama is very similar to the flag of Florida, which was derived from the Spanish Cross of Burgundy.[10] Southern Alabama was originally part of Spanish Florida and subsequently West Florida. However, Alabama adopted its flag design in 1895, five years earlier than Florida did.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association ranked Alabama's state flag 29th in design quality of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territorial flags.[11]
"The flag of the State of Alabama shall be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. The bars forming the cross shall be not less than six inches broad, and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side." – (Code 1896, §3751; Code 1907, §2058; Code 1923, §2995; Code 1940, T. 55, §5.)
The cross of St. Andrew referred to in the law is a diagonal cross, known in vexillology as a saltire. Because the bars must be at least six inches (150mm) wide, small representations of the Alabama flag do not meet the legal definition.
Theories on origin
The Hilliard's Legion flagThe Spanish Cross of Burgundy flag
The inspiration for Alabama's flag is not known. Many have noted that the saltire was commonly used on flags of the Confederate States of America. No documentation in the legislative records indicates that the Alabama flag was intended to commemorate the Confederacy.[12] Still, various people have asserted over the decades that the design was drawn from the Confederate battle flag.[10]
In 1900, the Montgomery Advertiser reported the flag was "a memory and a suggestion of the Confederate battle flag".[13] In 1906, a piece in the Birmingham Age-Herald made no specific connection between the Alabama flag and the Confederate battle flag, instead describing only the symbolic history of the St. Andrew's cross itself.[7] In 1915, Thomas M. Owen, the first director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, wrote that the flag bill's sponsor and the rest of the legislature had intended to "preserve, in permanent form, some of the more distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag".[14] The authors of a 1917 article in National Geographic expressed their opinion that the Alabama flag was based on the Confederate battle flag.[15]
In 1924, Bell Allen Ross, a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, said that Rep. John W. A. Sanford Jr. modeled his design of the Alabama flag on the battle flag used by his father, John W. A. Sanford, while commanding the Hilliard's Legion regiment.[16] She said Sanford's design was meant to preserve some of the distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag, particularly the Saint Andrew's Cross.[17]
In a 1987 letter, Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman wrote that the flag was modeled after Sanford's 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment battle flag.[8]
More recent commentators note that the Alabama flag was adopted during a period of promotion of the "Lost Cause" of the culture of the antebellum South.[12] Other former Confederate slave states, beginning with Mississippi, and followed by Florida, had also adopted new state flags around the same time that they disenfranchised African Americans and passed laws establishing Jim Crow segregation.[18][19]
But other contemporary commentators, such as Steve Murray, Director of the Alabama Department of History and Archives, believe the origins of the flag are unclear.[20] According to Murray, the flag's connections to the battle flag are thin and based on suppositions.[20] Murray said, "I would conclude that if they were wanting to evoke the Confederate battle flag, they would have been more explicit about doing it either in the design which could have more closely resembled the Confederate flag."[20] Murray also noted that Alabama may have wanted to approve a new state flag to prepare for an exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, later that year.[20]
The flag of the governor of Alabama is a variant of the state flag. In the top saltire, the flag displays the state coat of arms. The bottom saltire contains the state military crest, which consists of a cotton plant with full bursting boll.
Flag of the Governor since 1939
Flag of the Governor before 1939
Anniversary flags
Flag allegedly flown to commemorate Alabama statehood, circa 1819[22]
Alabama Centennial flag, made in 1919 by Mrs. Idyl King Sorsby to celebrate 100 years of statehood[23]
Alabama Sesquicentennial Flag, designed in 1969 to mark Alabama's 150th anniversary of statehood
Alabama Bicentennial Flag, designed in 2019 to mark Alabama's 200th anniversary of statehood
Unofficial flags
After the state flag was adopted, there were some unofficial flags bearing the coat of arms being used. In 1896, delegates from the state went to Indianapolis to support presidential candidate Grover Cleveland. The men carried with them a purple banner with the coat of arms in the middle with the words "Here we rest" below.[24]
During the Spanish-American War, the state organized the 1st Regiment Alabama Volunteers to be stationed in Florida. The regiment carried two flags, one was a unique American flag with red, white, and blue stripes[25] with the name of the regiment embroidered on the stripes.[26] The other flag had a blue field with the state's coat of arms in the center. It was painted by Jackson Halstead.[26][27]
1 2 Siegelman, Don (1987). "Opinion of Don Siegelman"(PDF). Office of the Attorney General of the State of Alabama. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 14, 2008. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
↑ "Our Flag"(PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. 2007. Archived from the original(PDF) on August 5, 2010.
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Flag of the Governor since 1939
Flag of the Governor before 1939
