May 7, 2001
Effingham County’s government can continue to display the former state flag inside the County Administrative Complex as long as the new Georgia flag is atop flagpoles outside county facilities.
Commissioner Homer Lee Wallace last week questioned whether the county might come under fire from state officials for publicly displaying the flag which contains the Confederate battle flag that represented Georgia from 1956 until this past January.
But on Friday, Howard Mead, the executive counsel for the Governor’s Office, said Effingham officials can continue to display the old flag.
“Everything Effingham County is doing is perfectly fine,” said Mead after reviewing state laws and conferring with the representatives at the Attorney General’s Office. ‘There is nothing inappropriate about it whatsoever.”
The flag in question was a gift from State Rep. Ann Purcell of Rincon and was flown at the State Capitol on Jan. 9, 1996 during the first Effingham Day at the Capitol. Local governmental and business leaders still make annual trips to Atlanta to discuss legislative issues.
The flag is inside a framed glass and wood case that hangs on a wall in a hallway at the back of the County Administrative Complex on Laurel Street in Springfield, where the commissioners meet.
Wallace said he does not dislike the former flag but was concerned about legal technicalities that could hurt the county.
Source: Savannah Morning News
“I didn’t ask that we take down that flag but I felt the county attorney should look into this to make sure the county is not in violation of a state law that could take away state funding,” Wallace said. “If we should lose state funding, that would put a very big burden on the backs of our taxpayers.”
Wallace was referring to provisions included in the legislation passed in January by the General Assembly when it changed the Georgia flag. Facing opposition to the new flag in some parts of the state, the legislature stated that local governments failing to display the current flag cannot receive state funds.
Wallace, who is the first and only black to serve on the commission, said race was not an issue in the matter.
“That flag has never done anything to me,” Wallace said. “Evil people may do wrong but a flag cannot do anything.
“My only concern was that the county not suffer because of some legal technicality,” Wallace said.