Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Grand Old Flag

Local Host Intro: The power to vote is central to democracies. But is voting always the best way to settle debate? Earlier this year, Georgia state lawmakers wrestled with the idea of letting people vote on whether to place the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag. Georgia Public Radio?s Emily Kopp reports.

On a cool January day in Atlanta?more than a thousand Southern heritage buffs, dressed in Confederate uniforms and antebellum dresses, paraded at the State Capitol.
They waved Georgia?s old state flag, with the star-studded blue cross on a red field, the symbol commonly known as the confederate battle emblem.
Georgia?s first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Sonny Perdue, had just taken office.
Sons of Confederate Veterans member John Hall said the governor soon would fulfill a key campaign pledge: to hold a vote on the state flag.
Hall: After 130 years, we?ve finally got somebody in there that?s on our side. Let?s give Sonny a chance. I don?t know him personally. I met him about a year ago. But let?s give Sonny a chance on this referendum. He?s a man of his word. Let?s give him a chance. God bless Dixie.

The flag raised high that day was central to Sonny Perdue?s victory.
Two years earlier, the sitting governor had convinced lawmakers to replace that rebel-cross flag with another one.
The ?2001 design? minimized the confederate battle emblem, and placed it in a row of historic flags below the state seal.
Southern heritage groups called the governor ?a dictator?.
When dark-horse candidate Sonny Perdue promised a vote on the flag, he won.
But the heritage groups? celebration was short lived.
Within days, opponents of the old flag stood on the same Capitol steps and rallied against a voter referendum.
NAACP Southeast Region Director Charles White spoke.
White: This referendum will only serve as divisive, detrimental to the harmonious relationship in our state. Haven?t we learned from our neighbors in South Carolina? You say let the people decide. However, if it was left up to the majority of people in Georgia, African Americans would still be in slavery today. (25)

In 1956, on the cusp of the Civil Rights movement, Georgia?s all-white legislature added the Rebel cross to the flag.
To construction company owner Timothy Pilgrim, the symbol recalls the heroism of his ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.
Pilgrim: Our flag was specifically created to honor our Confederate veterans, the Men who fought and died for Georgia. And so essentially this state flag honored my family and my state?s heritage, so yes, I feel very strongly about it. I was born under that flag in 1965 and that?s the only Georgia flag I?ve ever known, you know. (24)

But today, a third of Georgians are African American.
Many of them say they never would?ve supported the 1956 flag change.
They equate the confederate battle emblem with racism and terrorism.
The controversy dominated the legislative session.
Politicians shoved even the budget aside.
Governor Perdue?s floor leader in the House, Representative Glenn Richardson, introduced the voter referendum bill.
Richardson: The state flag represents all Georgians and should be a symbol that unites our state, not divides us. (6)

As lawmakers weighed voters? demands, they also struggled with their consciences.
Columbus Representative Calvin Smyre chairs the committee where the flag bill was introduced.
He said personally, he opposed the vote, but, as an elected representative, he felt duty-bound to hear it.
Smyre: I am fully committed to holding a fair and impartial hearing. Indeed, a referendum of some kind may be unavoidable. I will not exert my authority to prevent a vote from coming to the floor of the House, as much as I fear the repercussions of doing so. (31)

He was wrestling with one of the key conflicts of governing, says Emory University political scientist Robert Brown.
Brown: I mean that is one thing the representatives have to confront. Whether they?re going to be a kind of spokesperson directly for their representatives or are they a kind of a trustee and should they think of larger concerns, not only for the direct area they represent but the good of the state or the good of the larger community. (23)

In the twilight hours of the session?s last day, lawmakers settled on a compromise:
People would get to vote on the state flag, but the lawmakers would choose which flags would appear on the ballot.
The flag with the rebel cross would not be one of the options?
Political scientist Robert Brown calls the decision ?anti-democratic??but in the public?s best interest.
Brown: It was for the greater good. And the greater good of Georgia as a state in terms of say, not dredging up and potentially putting in place something that would certainly exacerbate race relations in the state as well as, again, affecting the state politically and economically. (24)

But Southern Heritage groups are not satisfied.
Dan Coleman speaks for the Sons of Confederate Veterans:
Coleman: The issue is certainly not solved taking down one politician?s flag and putting up another politician?s flag. The people have a right to decide and they very plainly expressed that will that they wanted to vote and they wanted the previous flag to be one of the choices. (18)

As the governor promised, Georgia will hold a flag referendum in March.
Voters will get to choose between the 2001 flag, with the state seal, and a new design that resembles the Stars-and-Bars of the Confederacy, a less controversial symbol?
But without the confederate-battle-flag option, many people say the vote will not bring a sense of closure.
Meanwhile, southern heritage groups are looking forward to the next election.
They plan to target lawmakers who dropped their flag from the ballot.
In Atlanta, I?m Emily Kopp, for Georgia Public Radio.

Tag: Georgia Public Radio?s Susanna Capelouto produced this report.