Official Alabama State Flag

Alabama State Flag

The Alabama State Flag was authorized by the Alabama Legislature on
February 16, 1895. The act says the flag must be a crimson cross of St. Andrew
on a field of white. The act does not designate a square or a rectangular flag.

Flag Facts

Any department or agency supported by state funds must display the Alabama State Flag, in accordance with appropriate flag display rules, on a flag pole or flag poles located near the main entrance of each facility or building.

Under an Act approved September 26, 1923, the State flag and the U.S. flag must be displayed every day on which school is in session, at all public schools in the State. In 2001 the law was changed to also require state flags to be flown at county courthouses, state offices, and municipal buildings.

Alabama has an official state flag salute:

Flag of Alabama I salute thee. To thee I pledge my allegiance, my service,
and my life.

Other Official Flags

On January 11, 1861, leading up to the Civil War, a group of Montgomery women designed a flag for the Alabama Secession Convention. One side of the flag displayed the Goddess of Liberty holding a sword in her right hand and a small flag with one star in her left hand. In an arch above this figure were the words "Independent Now and Forever." On the other side of the flag was a cotton plant with a coiled rattlesnake. Beneath the cotton plant are the Latin words: "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not). This flag was flown until February 10, 1861, when it was removed after it was damaged by severe weather. It was never flown again.

From March 4, 1861 until Union General James H. Wilson's occupation of Montgomery in April 1865, a Confederate National Flag was flown, either the First National Flag or the Second National Flag. After the end of the Civil War, the United States Flag was used for all official occasions until the state adopted its
state flag in 1895.

Click here for a drawing of the state flag that you can color.

Sources:
Act 1895-383, Acts of Alabama, February 16, 1895.
Act 23-444, Acts of Alabama, September 26, 1923.
Act 2001-472, Acts of Alabama, May 15, 2001.
Alabama State Emblems, Alabama Department of Archives and History, nd.

Return to Kids' Emblems page

Updated: May 4, 2007
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/kids_emblems/st_flag.html


	Alabama Department of Archives & History 624 Washington Avenue Montgomery, Alabama 36130-0100 Phone: (334) 242-4435 E-Mail:debbie.pendleton@archives.alabama.gov