Coleman v. Miller

885 F. Supp. 1561, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4103, 1995 WL 148307
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 31, 1995
Docket1:94-cv-01673
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 885 F. Supp. 1561 (Coleman v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coleman v. Miller, 885 F. Supp. 1561, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4103, 1995 WL 148307 (N.D. Ga. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER

ORINDA D. EVANS, District Judge.

This civil rights action brought under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 2000a, and 1971 is before the court on Plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction. At issue is the constitutionality of the current state flag of Georgia, established by the Georgia General Assembly in 1956 pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1. Plaintiff is an African-American citizen. He seeks an injunction ordering the immediate removal of the Georgia flag from all state office buildings. He claims that the legislation establishing the flag and the flag’s design are discriminatory and racist in nature. The case is also before the court on Defendants’ unopposed motion for partial judgment on the pleadings. In addition, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Don Cheeks, Ben Harbin, Robin Williams, Eddie Brown Page, III, and Michael J. Padgett have moved to intervene. In this action Plaintiff seeks injunctive, declaratory, and monetary relief.

For the reasons discussed hereinafter, the motion to intervene will be denied.

Turning to the motion for preliminary injunction, evidentiary hearings were held on November 21 and December 15, 1994. The parties presented testimony by way of affidavits and live witnesses and exhibits were received in evidence. Having considered the *1564 evidence and arguments and briefs of counsel, the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Until 1879, Georgia did not have an official flag. Prior to that, a number of flags were flown in Georgia including the Confederate national flag, also known as the “Stars and Bars.” During the Civil War, the Confederacy adopted a square battle flag depicting a blue St. Andrew’s Cross on a red field. The battle flag was carried by Confederate troops during the Civil War. One of the Confederate generals was General Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan. The Confederate battle flag looked like this:

[[Image here]]

In 1879, Senator Herman Perry introduced a bill in the Georgia general assembly to adopt the first official state flag. 1878-79 Ga.Laws 114. The flag was a variation on the Stars and Bars. In 1902, the official design was modified slightly by adding the State coat of arms. 1902 Ga.Laws 81.- The resulting flag was the official flag of the State of Georgia from 1902 until 1956. It looked like this: 1

*1565 [[Image here]]

The court accepts the testimony of Defendants’ expert witness, Edwin Jackson, that the publication of Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone With The Wind in 1936 and its release as a movie in 1939 generated a wave of interest in southern history and culture throughout the United States, especially in the South. Also, the court accepts Mr. Jackson’s testimony that this generated a revival of interest in Confederate ancestry and focused attention on the St. Andrews Cross, a prime symbol of the Confederacy. However, Mr. Jackson gave few concrete examples of manifestation of this interest until the mid-1950’s, at which time expressions of interest in Confederate history coalesced with public outcry in reaction to desegregation mandates by the Supreme Court.

In 1952, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution providing that the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia should be completed. 1952 Ga.Laws 535. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954), holding that racial segregation in the public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause. In January 1955, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution urging completion of the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain, finding that inadequate progress had been made since the 1952 resolution. 1955 Ga.Laws 5.

In April 1955, John Sammons Bell, counsel to the County Commissioners Association of Georgia and Chairman of the State Democratic Party, presented his idea of redesigning the flag to the annual conference of County Commissioners. The County Commissioners voted at that time to support efforts to redesign the flag. As is stated in Bell’s affidavit, he had been a lifelong student of Confederate military history, and a collector of Confederate memorabilia. Long before the 1950’s, Bell had thought of the idea of redesigning the flag to incorporate the Confederate battle flag.

In May 1955, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294, *1566 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083 (1955) which required the desegregation of public schools proceed “with all deliberate speed.” Id. at 300, 75 S.Ct. at 756.

In September 1955, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating Robert E. Lee. In November 1955, the Supreme Court decided Holmes v. City of Atlanta, 350 U.S. 879, 76 S.Ct. 141, 100 L.Ed. 776 (1955), which required the desegregation of Atlanta’s public golf courses and, by extension, all public facilities, including buses, parks, beaches, and swimming pools.

The second Brown decision, in particular, fomented great controversy and deep emotion. In Georgia, politicians, including Governor Marvin Griffin, advanced a policy of massive resistance to desegregation. Georgia voters adopted a constitutional amendment allowing parents to withdraw their children from public schools and diverting public money to nonsectarian, segregated private schools. In June 1955, Thurgood Marshall came to Atlanta to help organize citizens to attack segregation. Two months later, the Georgia School Board ordered all teachers belonging to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to resign from the organization or have their teaching licenses revoked. Days later, the State Attorney General distributed to public schools and universities a background paper advocating the doctrine of interposition, which essentially holds that states may interpose themselves to block the enforcement of unconstitutional federal mandates such as Brown. During this time, the Ku Klux Klan displayed the Confederate battle flag.

Shortly after the Holmes decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. instituted a bus boycott there which lasted for over a year. In Georgia the Board of Regents voted to permit the Georgia Tech football team to play an away game against a team with one black player; however, they also passed a resolution that no black players could participate in home games.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
885 F. Supp. 1561, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4103, 1995 WL 148307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coleman-v-miller-gand-1995.