 | |
| Use | State flag  |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | November 6, 1900; 125 years ago (1900-11-06)[1] (initial version) May 21, 1985; 40 years ago (1985-05-21)[1] (standardization) |
| Design | A red cross on a white field, with the state seal in the center. |
Theflag of Florida is theofficial flag of theU.S. state ofFlorida. The flag consists of a redsaltire on a white background, with thestate seal superimposed on the center.[2] The current state flag was adopted on November 6, 1900, and has only been changed once on May 21, 1985 when the state seal was standardized.
It is one of three U.S. state flags to feature the words "In God We Trust" (the U.S. motto since 1956), with the other two being those ofGeorgia andMississippi.
The Florida state flag is defined by law as:[3]
"The seal of the state, in diameter one-half the hoist, shall occupy the center of a white ground. Red bars, in width one-fifth the hoist, shall extend from each corner toward the center, to the outer rim of the seal."
Spain was a dynastic union and federation of kingdoms whenJuan Ponce de León claimedFlorida for theSpanish Crown on April 2, 1513. Colonial authorities used several banners or standards during the first period of settlement and governance in Florida, such as the royal standard of theCrown of Castile. As with other Spanish territories, theBurgundian saltire was generally used in Florida to represent collective Spanish sovereignty between 1513 and 1821.[4] The red saltire of theCross of Burgundy represents the cross on which St. Andrew was crucified, and the standard is frequently displayed today in Florida's historic Spanish settlements, such asSt. Augustine.[5]
In 1763, Spain passed control of Florida toGreat Britain via theTreaty of Paris, following the latter's victory over France in theSeven Years' War, in exchange for other territory. Great Britain used theoriginal union flag with the white diagonal stripes in Florida during this brief period. The British also divided the Florida territory intoEast Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine, andWest Florida, with its capital at Pensacola. The border was theApalachicola River.
Spain regained control of the Florida Provinces (las Floridas) after theSiege of Pensacola and theTreaty of Paris following the American Revolutionary War, when Britain ceded its territories east of the Mississippi River. In 1785,King Charles III chose a newnaval and battle flag for Spain, which had become a more centralized nation-state, and its crown territories. This tri-band of red-gold-red was used with the Burgundian saltire in the provinces of East and West Florida until they joined the United States in 1821. Florida was admitted to the Union in 1845.
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In January 1861, Florida declared that it had seceded from theUnion and declared itself a "sovereign and independent nation,"[8] reaffirming the Preamble in theConstitution of 1838.[9] The state used theNaval Ensign of Texas as a provisional flag between January and September 1861.[7] It also used this flag when Floridian forces took control of U.S. forts and a Navy yard in Pensacola. ColonelWilliam H. Chase was commander of Floridian troops, and the flag is also referred to as the Chase Flag.
Later that year, theFlorida Legislature passed a law authorizingGovernor Perry to design an official flag. His design was the tri-band of theConfederacy but with the blue field extending down and the new seal of Florida placed within the blue field. As a member of the Confederacy, Florida saw use of all three versions of the Confederate flag. TheBonnie Blue flag, previously the flag of the short-livedRepublic of West Florida, was briefly used as an unofficialflag of the Confederacy. It features a single five-point star centered in a blue background.
Between 1868 and 1900, the flag of Florida was the state seal on a white background.[10] In a discrepancy, however, a later version of the state seal depicts asteamboat with a white flag that includes a red saltire, similar to Florida's current flag.[citation needed]
In 1899, Senator Thomas Palmer introduced Senate Joint Resolution No. 221 to amend Article XVI, Section 12 of the 1885 Florida Constitution by adding reddiagonal bars to the state flag. The resolution passed unanimously in the Senate on May 18 and in the House on May 31, and was published as Resolution No. 4 in the 1899 Laws of Florida. In the general election of November 6, 1900, Florida voters ratified the amendment by a vote of 5,088 to 3,819, thereby officially adopting the red-bar design.[11][12] The provision remained part of the 1885 Constitution until the 1968 constitutional revision omitted it; the Legislature then reenacted the language without substantive change in 1970 as Section 15.012 of the Florida Statutes, where it remains the basis for the modern flag's design.
In 1908 thesecretary of the state ordered a state custom state flag. It measured around 6 by 8 feet, with state seal being surround bygold leaf.[13]
No one has provided definitive proof showing why Florida added the red bars to its state flag.[11] The available evidence does not conclusively show whether the red bars were meant as a nod to Confederate symbolism, a reference to Florida's earlier Spanish history, a practical fix to avoid the flag looking like a white surrender flag, or some mix of these reasons.
When interpreting a modern Florida law with unclear wording, researchers typically consult the bill's staff analysis, a document explaining its purpose, history, and intent; however, because Florida did not preserve legislative documents created before 1969, no committee reports or other materials from the 1899 flag amendment survive, making the usual tools of legislative history unavailable for determining lawmakers' intent.[11]
A 1965University of Florida Press book recounts that the red bars added to Florida's flag in 1900 were suggested by the former GovernorFrancis P. Fleming, who believed the plain white field resembled aflag of truce when hanging limp.[11] A story that traces back to a 1936 letter from attorney and former legislator John P. Stokes, who, after inquiring through Chief Justice J. B. Whitefield and Fleming's son, concluded that Fleming had both proposed the red bars and inspired the constitutional amendment.[11] Stokes attributed Fleming's concern to hisConfederate Army experience, where he would have seen theConfederacy's nearly all-white1863 national flag appear like a surrender flag when still.[11] A flaw that led the Confederacy to adopt a redesigned flag in 1865.[11] Though no surviving personal papers definitively confirm Fleming's involvement.[11]
It is considered likely that it was Fleming who proposed adding the red bars to Florida's flag.[11] Fleming came from a prominent family whose roots in Florida dated to an 1816 Spanish land grant to his grandfather.[11] A land grant issued under a Spanish regime whose troops flew theCross of Burgundy, a symbol he likely knew.[11]
Some historians interpret the addition of a red saltire as a commemoration of Florida's contributions to the Confederacy by GovernorFrancis P. Fleming, who served in the 2nd Florida Regiment, Confederate army.[14] The addition was made during a period promoting the "Lost Cause" of the antebellum South, around the time of the flag's change.[15][16] According to historian John M. Coski, the Florida legislature adopted its new flag near the time when itdisenfranchised African Americans and passed newJim Crow laws andsegregation.[17] Other former Confederate slave states, such asMississippi andAlabama, also adopted new state flags around the same time that they instituted segregation laws.[17]
Not all historians agree with assertions about association with the Confederacy.[18] James C. Clark, a lecturer in theUniversity of Central Florida's history department, does not believe that Fleming's new flag had anything to do with the Confederacy.[18] "That St. Andrew's Cross that Fleming added, the red cross, dates back to the original flag the Spanish flew over Florida in the 16th century."[19] Similarly,Canter Brown Jr., a Florida state-educated historian who has written extensively on Florida history, says he has "seen no specific evidence linking this flag to the Confederate one."[19]
Theories suggest that Florida may have borrowed the red-bar design for its flag fromAlabama's state flag, adopted in 1895, which also features a red diagonal cross (the St. Andrew's Cross, or "saltire") on a white field, and one commentator has even directly proposed that Alabama's flag might have inspired Florida's 1900 design.[20] Despite the similarity, however, there is no evidence linking Alabama's flag to Florida's red bars: no Florida newspapers reported on Alabama's flag in 1895, and in the months leading up to the 1900 election, no newspaper mentioned the resemblance between Florida's new red bars and Alabama's flag.[11] Moreover, there is no surviving correspondence between Fleming and Sanford, who might have been positioned to transmit the idea, although the two likely knew each other through Confederate veterans' organizations.[11]
In 2001, a survey conducted by theNorth American Vexillological Association ranked Florida's state flag 34th in design quality of the 72Canadian provincial,U.S. state andU.S. territorial flags ranked.[21]
Florida does not currently have a flag that represents the governor. An unofficial governor's flag was used in 1968 by governorClaude Kirk on his limousine, which flew next to the state flag. It was described as a blue flag with a white eagle in the center, with the eagle being chosen to represent Kirk's self-appointed title, "The Eagle."[25]
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The flag changes in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coincided with the passage of formal Jim Crow segregation laws throughout the South. Four years before Mississippi incorporated a Confederate battle flag into its state flag, its constitutional convention passed pioneering provisions to 'reform' politics by effectively disenfranchising most African Americans.
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