In 1956, the Georgia General Assembly approved a new state flag that included the St. Andrews Cross, a battle emblem of the old Confederacy. This flag, understandably, unsettled African Americans in the state. In the late 1990s, business and civic leaders began seeing it as an embarrassment while trying to promote global tourism and economic development, especially as Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games. Zell Miller was the Democratic governor of Georgia from 1990 to 1999. As governor, he proposed changing the flag. Still, he was met by extreme legislators and citizens advocating to keep the current flag as it symbolized the Confederate heritage in Georgia. Miller eventually withdrew his plan.1 While Roy Barnes was governor of Georgia from 1999 to 2003, he also proposed changing the state flag in 2001 after African American leaders threatened an economic boycott. Barnes believed this division over the flag would destroy forty years of economic development and threaten Georgia’s position as an economic leader in the South. Barnes’s proposed flag contained a miniature version of the current flag along with four earlier versions of the state flag.2
Changing the flag was put to a vote in early 2001. Barnes pushed the General Assembly to approve the new state flag quickly. Senator Jack Hill was the twenty-ninth vote for changing the flag, and five Republican senators followed suit.3 This vote split geographic boundaries as well as political parties. The state senate resulted in a thirty-four to twenty-two final vote, and twenty-six white Democrats in the state house voted against the flag change.4
Not long after the vote, Confederate flag-waving protests took place across the state and turned the new flag created by Barnes into a significant campaign issue. Sonny Perdue, a gubernatorial challenger in 2002, promised Georgia voters in his campaign to hold a vote for citizens to determine the state flag by popular vote. Those wanting to restore the 1956 flag were called “flaggers” and constantly reminded Georgians that Barnes did not hold a vote for the public to choose the flag by attending any political rallies or appearances held by politicians who voted for the flag. Due to their demonstrations, these groups hindered Barnes’s ability to have proper campaign events. One of the reasons Perdue won the 2002 election was because of his stance on the flag. Critics accuse him of appealing to the racist bias in Georgia and that Perdue saw it as a way to generate a majority of votes.5
Senator Hill voted on House Bill 16 in 2001, returning to the pre-1956 flag and calling the 1956 flag the “Georgia Memorial Flag.” The flag was modified to include the state seal and five previous state flags. It was a decision made by legislators in the capital, not Georgia voters. House Bill 380 in 2003 was another bill Senator Hill voted for. This bill initially included a referendum on returning the flag to the 1956 flag. However, after deliberation between Republicans and Democrats in the state house and senate, the referendum was between the 2001 flag and a new flag, which includes three horizontal stripes and a blue canton with a ring of thirteen white stars around Georgia’s gold-colored coat of arms.
After Senator Hill’s 2002 switch, he had opposition in the next few elections. A negative campaign phrase against the senator was “Let's Boot’ Anti-Southern Jack Hill.” Many rural white voters felt betrayed by him and believed he was a betrayer of Georgia’s “southern heritage.” The St. Andrew’s Cross is a common symbol of white supremacy since the pro-segregation State’s Rights Democratic Party, the “Dixiecrats,” used it as their party symbol. Senator Hill’s vote for stepping away from using the “Stars and Bars” was a clear statement of where he stood when it came to race, and he became a target of flaggers and those who believed in protecting their southern heritage.