Georgia Lawmakers Not Eager to Remove Confederate Banner

Gov. Zell Miller warned lawmakers Tuesday to remove the Confederate battle banner from the state flag or be scorned by future generations. He said the banner is a lingering symbol of pride in slavery.

But legislative leaders said Miller’s animated, sometimes impassioned speech was like Pickett’s famous charge at Gettysburg--gallant but unsuccessful.

The red and blue crossed-bars emblem was incorporated into the state flag in 1956 amid mounting Southern resistance to school desegregation. Miller contends the flag sends the wrong message for the state that will be host of the 1996 Summer Olympics. But polls have shown little voter support for a change.

“It is clear the flag was changed . . . to identify Georgia with the dark side of the Confederacy--that desire to deprive some Americans of the equal rights that are the birthright of all Americans,” Miller said in his State of the State speech to a joint session of the Legislature.

Georgia has buried those days with its past, except for a flag that “exhibits pride in the enslavement of many of our ancestors,” Miller said.

House Speaker Tom Murphy, like Miller, a Democrat, said he was unswayed.

“My people gave me a message loud and clear last year during my campaign. I would say better than 95% of my people are opposed to it. So I can’t vote to change it myself,” Murphy said.