Flag of Georgia (US state)
Georgia’s flag has three stripes, red, white and red, and a blue canton holding the state coat of arms in gold, with “IN GOD WE TRUST” beneath, in a ring of 13 white stars. The flag law of 2003 says the stars stand for Georgia and the 12 other original states that formed the United States; the coat of arms, an arch on three columns, is the one at the centre of the state seal of 1799.
How to read it
The flag is set by the Official Code of Georgia, § 50-3-1, as rewritten by House Bill 380, which Governor Sonny Perdue signed on 8 May 2003. It is a square canton on a field of three horizontal bands of equal width, scarlet, white and scarlet; the bottom band runs the full length of the flag, and the other two run from the canton to the fly. The canton is a blue square as tall as two of the bands, in the upper hoist, with a gold representation of the coat of arms from the centre of the Great Seal adopted in 1799 and amended in 1914, the words “IN GOD WE TRUST” in capitals directly beneath, and 13 white five-pointed stars around both. The law leaves the official colour system, type sizes and fonts and overall dimensions to the Secretary of State, the flag’s custodian. In an advisory referendum on 2 March 2004, more than 73 percent of voters chose this flag over the one adopted in 2001. The state’s pledge to the flag, adopted in 1935, names the state motto: “I pledge allegiance to the Georgia flag and to the principles for which it stands: Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation.”
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Georgia’s flags since 1879
The General Assembly gave Georgia an official flag in 1879, and in 1902 ordered the coat of arms put on its blue band. The flag of 1956 to 2001 carried the Confederate battle flag over two thirds of its field; the New Georgia Encyclopedia records that some legislators of 1956 wanted to mark the coming centennial of the Civil War, and names opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education rulings on school integration as a strong impetus. House Bill 16, passed in January 2001, replaced it with the state seal above a gold ribbon of five historic flags, and House Bill 380 brought in the present design in 2003. The encyclopedia notes that this design, like the flag of 1879, is based on the first national flag of the Confederacy.
Not the flag of the country Georgia
The country’s flag is a different design: under its law of 2018, Georgia’s national flag is white with a large red cross touching all four sides and a smaller red cross in each of the four squares between its arms. The US state’s flag has no cross.
Read next
- Next in US state flagsFlag of KentuckyKentucky’s flag is navy blue with the state seal in the centre: two men embracing, ringed by the motto “United we stand, divided we fall”, inside a wreath of goldenrod with “Commonwealth of Kentucky” above. The Kentucky Historical Society says the two men are symbolic, a frontiersman for the state’s frontier settlers and a statesman for Kentuckians who served in government, and not Daniel Boone and Henry Clay.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More US state flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers, lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- Georgia House Bill 380 of 2003 (state flag), as passed, Georgia General Assembly, House Bill 380 (2003 session), as passed House and Senate, amending O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1, Georgia General Assembly, Section 1 (new § 50-3-1(a)); Section 2 (advisory referendum)
- State Flags of Georgia (New Georgia Encyclopedia), Edwin L. Jackson (University of Georgia), “State Flags of Georgia”, New Georgia Encyclopedia, originally published 26 July 2004, last edited 15 July 2020, New Georgia Encyclopedia (Georgia Humanities and the University of Georgia Press), Article text
- Organic Law of Georgia on State Symbols of Georgia (2018), Organic Law of Georgia No. 3724-IIs of 14 November 2018 “On State Symbols of Georgia”, English translation, Legislative Herald of Georgia, Legislative Herald of Georgia (Matsne), Article 2
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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