ATLANTA - In a move that is certain to inflame race relations in Georgia, the
new governor on Wednesday proposed a referendum next year on whether to bring
back the old state flag with its big Confederate emblem.
Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue said he wants the non-binding vote to be held the
same day as the state's presidential primary in March 2004.
He acknowledged that "Georgia is somewhat a divided house" over the flag and called it "an issue that should be healed as soon as possible."
The state NAACP threatened an economic boycott of Georgia if the state goes back to the flag with the prominent Confederate emblem.
"If they think we're playing, they should try us. They'll see," state NAACP president Walter Butler warned as several hundred NAACP members gathered at the Capitol.
The NAACP has been boycotting South Carolina for the past three years over a Confederate banner that flies on the Statehouse grounds. The Confederate emblem is not part of the South Carolina flag.
Supporters of the Confederate emblem say it represents Southern heritage, while Blacks and others say it represents racism and slavery.
Perdue had campaigned on the promise to give voters a say on the flag.
The referendum proposed by Georgia's first GOP governor in 130 years would have to be approved by both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House.
Hoping to avoid the kind of turmoil that convulsed South Carolina, the Georgia Legislature changed the flag two years ago, reducing to a tiny square the big Confederate emblem that was adopted in 1956 in the midst of Southern segregationist defiance.
It was Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, who led the fight to get rid of the Confederate emblem. He blamed his loss to Perdue in last fall's election to anger over the move, especially among rural Whites.
Charles Lunsford, president of the Heritage Preservation Association, applauded Perdue's proposal. "It gives us an opportunity for a fair contest," he said.
Under Perdue's plan, voters would be asked two ballot questions, the first a yes-no question on whether to keep the current flag. The second would ask if voters wish to revert to the previous state flag with its big Confederate emblem, or to the flag that flew until 1956 and did not bear any version of the Confederate symbol.
NAACP leaders urged lawmakers to block the referendum, saying they are certain
the Confederate version would win.
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