Flag of Alabama

The flag of the U.S. state of Alabama was adopted by Act 383 of the Alabama Legislature on February 16, 1895, following the introduction of the bill by its designer, Representative John W. A. Sanford Jr. Its design features a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. A St. Andrew's cross, a diagonal cross known in vexillology as a saltire, represents the cross on which St. Andrew was crucified.

Statute

The Alabama state flag is defined by law as:

Secession Convention flag

On January 11, 1861, Alabama formally declared its withdrawal from the Union in the Declaration of Secession. On the same day, a flag was presented to Alabama Secession Convention in Montgomery, where the Convention passed a resolution designating it as the official flag of the body, to be flown whenever the convention was in open session. The flag was sewn and designed by several women from Montgomery, with much of its painting done by Francis Corra, a painter specializing in military and decorative banners.

Contemporary descriptions recorded its appearance.

The flag was flown until February 10, 1861, when it was removed after it had been left flying overnight and was torn. It was delivered to the Governor to be placed in the state archives and was never flown again.

Since its reappearance in 1939, this flag has often been incorrectly referred to as the "Republic of Alabama Flag."

This flag is depicted on the flag of Mobile, Alabama.

A flag with a similar motif remained in use from February 1861 to April 1862 by the 1st Alabama Infantry, at which time it was taken into Union possession following the capture of the regiment.

Single star flags

Around 1861, a number of unofficial flags featuring a single star were flown in Alabama and were commonly referred to as 'state flags,' even though no official design had been adopted.

Current flag

thumb|left|200px|The Alabama state flag displayed at [[Ivy Green, Helen Keller's birthplace in Tuscumbia]]

thumb|130x130px|right|The Alabama state flag with a square shape.

thumb|right|The Alabama state flag as depicted in the 1976 bicentennial postage stamp series.

thumb|State flag presented at the American Embassy in [[Paris, 1925]]

When the bill to adopt the flag was introduced by John W. A. Sanford Jr., it was accompanied by a physical example of the proposed flag referred to in later accounts as "the design submitted" or "the first Alabama state flag—the model". Despite this, the flag is still often depicted as being square, even in official publications of the U.S. federal government. A widely seen example of the square flag is in the logo of the Alabama Historical Association, which appears on all historical markers erected by the association, making it visible throughout the state.

More than a decade after its adoption, the flag was described as little known among Alabamians. Although one commentator has suggested a direct link to Alabama's flag, there is no clear evidence connecting Alabama's 1895 flag to Florida's red bars in 1900, and no one has provided definitive proof showing why Florida added the red bars to its state flag.

Theories on origin

thumb|right|The Hilliard's Legion flag

The inspiration for Alabama's flag is not known. Many have noted that the saltire was commonly used on flags of the Confederate States of America. No documentation in the legislative records indicates that the Alabama flag was intended to commemorate the Confederacy. Still, various people have asserted over the decades that the design was drawn from the Confederate battle flag.

The adoption of Alabama's state flag received minimal attention in the press.

In 1900, the Montgomery Advertiser reported the flag was "a memory and a suggestion of the Confederate battle flag". In 1906, a piece in the Birmingham Age-Herald made no specific connection between the Alabama flag and the Confederate battle flag, instead describing only the symbolic history of the St. Andrew's cross itself.

During a public ceremony held in the World War Memorial Building on Flag Day, June 14, 1940, Mrs. Albert J. Pickett, President of the Cradle of the Confederacy Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, said that the lawmakers who adopted the State Flag in 1895 had chosen the form of the Confederate battle flag as the state emblem out of their veneration for the heroes of the Confederacy and the history made by soldiers under that banner, adding that the legislative body would have adopted the battle flag in full as the state flag had the neighboring state of Mississippi not already done so. Using the words of Thomas M. Owen, she said that Sanford's design was meant to preserve some of the distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag, particularly the Saint Andrew's Cross, but also added that the colors were chosen to represent purity and purpose (white) and courage (red).

But other contemporary commentators, such as Steve Murray, Director of the Alabama Department of History and Archives, believe the origins of the flag are unclear. According to Murray, the flag's connections to the battle flag are thin and based on suppositions.|Alabama Centennial flag (1919).png|Alabama Centennial flag, made in 1919 by Mrs. Idyl King Sorsby to celebrate 100 years of statehood

|Alabama Sesquicentennial Flag.svg|Alabama Sesquicentennial Flag, designed in 1969 to mark Alabama's 150th anniversary of statehood

|Alabama Bicentennial Flag.svg |Alabama Bicentennial Flag, designed in 2019 to mark Alabama's 200th anniversary of statehood

Unofficial flags

thumb|160px|Digital reconstruction of the banner carried by state delegates during the 1896 Democratic National Convention.

After the state flag was adopted, there were some unofficial flags bearing the coat of arms being used. In 1896, delegates from the state went to Indianapolis to support presidential candidate Grover Cleveland. The men carried with them a purple banner with the coat of arms in the middle with the words "Here we rest" below.

During the Spanish-American War, the state organized the 1st Regiment Alabama Volunteers to be stationed in Florida. The regiment carried two flags, one was a unique American flag with red, white, and blue stripes with the name of the regiment embroidered on the stripes. The other flag had a blue field with the state's coat of arms in the center. It was painted by Jackson Halstead.

References

External links

Alabama State Flag at the Alabama Department of Archives & History
written account of the flag in 1987 by Don Siegelman, Alabama Attorney General