Flag of Alabama
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The current flag of the U.S. state of Alabama was adopted by Act 383 of the Alabama Legislature on February 16, 1895. The bill to adopt the flag was introduced by its designer, Representative John W. A. Sanford Jr. and features a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white.<ref>Code of 69 (1975) § 1-2-5</ref><ref name="BAR2">Template:Cite news</ref>
Statute
The Alabama state flag is defined by law as:<ref name=":0"/> Template:Blockquote
The cross of St. Andrew referred to in the law is a diagonal cross, known in vexillology as a saltire. Because the bars must be at least Template:Convert wide, small representations of the Alabama flag do not meet the legal definition.
History
Secession Convention flag
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Template:FIAVTemplate:FIAV Secession Convention flag, 1861 (obverse)
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Template:FIAVTemplate:FIAV Secession Convention flag, 1861 (reverse)
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On January 11, 1861, Alabama formally declared its withdrawal from the Union in the Declaration of Secession.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ADAH1">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />
Contemporary descriptions recorded its appearance.<ref name="ADAH1"/> The Atlanta Intelligencer reported on January 14 that the banner was made of blue silk, and bordered with white. On January 16, a Montgomery Weekly Advertiser reporter described the flag as one side depicting the Goddess of Liberty holding an unsheathed sword in her right hand and a single-star flag in her left, with the inscription "Alabama — Independent Now and Forever" in an arch above all. The reverse featured a cotton plant with a rattlesnake coiled at its base, the words "Noli Me Tangere", ("Touch Me Not" in Latin) above, and the Coat of Arms of Alabama.
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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="ADAH1"/> Following the Federal occupation of Montgomery by Union forces in 1865, the flag was taken to Iowa, where it remained until it was returned to the Alabama state archives in 1939.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="ADAH1"/>
This flag is depicted on the flag of Mobile, Alabama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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. <ref name="ADAH2">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name="ADAH2"/> One example is the Young Men's Secession Association flag, considered in a 1861 New York Times article as the "flag of Alabama pro tempore".<ref>Flag of the Young Men's Secession Association of Mobile. Alabama Department of Archives and History. Accessed November 14, 2025.</ref>
Current flag
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Alabama's current flag was adopted in 1895. The legislation introduced by Representative John W. A. Sanford Jr. stipulates: "The flag of the state of Alabama shall be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. The bars forming the cross shall be not less than six inches broad, and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side."<ref>Code of 69 (1975) § 1-2-5</ref> A St. Andrew's cross represents the cross on which St. Andrew was crucified.<ref name=nyt>Template:Cite news</ref>
The legislation that created the state flag did not specify whether the flag should be square or rectangular.<ref name=":0" /> In 1987, the office of Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman stated in a letter that the proper shape of the state flag is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions.<ref name="ag87">Template:Cite web</ref> Despite this, the flag is still often depicted as being square, even in official publications of the U.S. federal government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="nyt" /> At the time, few U.S. states had their own flags, and the idea of a distinct state flag was still relatively new. Before the adoption of the state flag, the United States flag was used for all official occasions following the end of the Civil War. <ref name=":0" />
The flag of Alabama is very similar to the flag of Florida, which was derived from the Spanish Cross of Burgundy.<ref name="SJLR">Template:Cite journal</ref> Southern Alabama was originally part of Spanish Florida and subsequently West Florida. However, Alabama adopted its flag design in 1895, five years earlier than Florida did.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association ranked Alabama's state flag 29th in design quality of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territorial flags.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Theories on origin
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.<ref name=sn>Template:Cite news</ref> Still, various people have asserted over the decades that the design was drawn from the Confederate battle flag.<ref name="SJLR" />
In 1900, the Montgomery Advertiser reported the flag was "a memory and a suggestion of the Confederate battle flag".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="nyt" /> In 1915, Thomas M. Owen, the first director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, wrote that the flag bill's sponsor and the rest of the legislature had intended to "preserve, in permanent form, some of the more distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The authors of a 1917 article in National Geographic expressed their opinion that the Alabama flag was based on the Confederate battle flag.<ref>Lt. Commander Byron McCandless & Gilbert Grosvenor. "Flags of the World." National Geographic Magazine. Vol 32. No. 4, pp. 281–420 (October 1917).</ref>
In 1924, Bell Allen Ross, a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, said that Rep. John W. A. Sanford Jr. modeled his design of the Alabama flag on the battle flag used by his father, John W. A. Sanford, while commanding the Hilliard's Legion regiment.<ref name="hlr">Template:Cite web</ref> She said Sanford's design was meant to preserve some of the distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag, particularly the Saint Andrew's Cross.<ref name="BAR2"/>
In a 1987 letter, Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman wrote that the flag was modeled after Sanford's 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment battle flag.<ref name="ag87" />
More recent commentators note that the Alabama flag was adopted during a period of promotion of the "Lost Cause" of the culture of the antebellum South.<ref name="sn" /> Other former Confederate slave states, beginning with Mississippi, and followed by Florida, had also adopted new state flags around the same time that they disenfranchised African Americans and passed laws establishing Jim Crow segregation.<ref name="Coski8081">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name=murray>Template:Cite news</ref> According to Murray, the flag's connections to the battle flag are thin and based on suppositions.<ref name="murray"/> Murray said, "I would conclude that if they were wanting to evoke the Confederate battle flag, they would have been more explicit about doing it either in the design which could have more closely resembled the Confederate flag."<ref name="murray"/> Murray also noted that Alabama may have wanted to approve a new state flag to prepare for an exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, later that year.<ref name="murray"/>
It is possible that the Alabama flag is meant to resemble the cross of Burgundy flagTemplate:According to whom used by the Spanish Empire. As is, both flags are nearly identical, and parts of Alabama were a Spanish colony.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other flags
Governor's flag
Template:See also The flag of the governor of Alabama is a variant of the state flag. In the top saltire, the flag displays the state coat of arms. The bottom saltire contains the state military crest, which consists of a cotton plant with full bursting boll. {{#invoke:Gallery|gallery}}
Anniversary flags
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Unofficial flags
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with the name of the regiment embroidered on the stripes.<ref name=":1">The age-herald, May 6, 1898</ref> The other flag had a blue field with the state's coat of arms in the center. It was painted by Jackson Halstead.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
External links
- Alabama State Flag Template:Webarchive at the Alabama Department of Archives & History
- written account of the flag in 1987 by Don Siegelman, Alabama Attorney General
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