Ga. Chamber Ducks Flag Issue

The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce has found a way to avoid the controversy over the Confederate flag and still stay true to its state: It’s flying an old Georgia flag on its building, one that predates the addition of the Confederate battle emblem.

The Confederate emblem was incorporated into the Georgia flag in 1956, only two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional.

The pre-1956 version also displays the state seal on a blue field on the left side, but on the right side--where the current flag has the Confederate emblem--are three horizontal bars, two red and one white. The Chamber of Commerce in Gwinnett County, an Atlanta suburb where blacks make up 5% of the population, had its grand opening Thursday.

Efforts to alter Georgia’s flag have fizzled since a losing battle in 1993, but a new movement for change has gained momentum since a tourism boycott in South Carolina prompted the state Senate there to vote to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse dome. Mississippi is the only other state that includes the Confederate emblem on its official state flag.