User:The C of E/tren

Flag of Trenton, Georgia

Use	City flag
Adopted	2001

The Flag of Trenton is used as the city flag of Trenton, Georgia. It was adopted in 2001 partially as a protest following the change of the state flag of Georgia. The flag has generated controversy because it contains the Confederate Flag within it.

History

The former Georgia state flag

In 1956, the state of Georgia changed their flag to largely feature the Confederate battle flag as part of a protest against desegregation. In 2001, Georgia's State Legislature voted to change the flag, relegating the placement of the Confederate flag to a greatly reduced place on the state flag. The city of Trenton opposed this new flag. In the same year, the city's commissioners voted to adopt the former state flag as the city's flag as well as voting in favour of displaying The Ten Commandments on the city hall, which became official in 2002. Previously the State of Georgia had stated that they would withdraw funding for any municipality that refused to fly the new state flag. Trenton circumvented this when they adopted the flag by altering the former state flag by adding "City of Trenton" and "Incorporated 1854" to it. They also flew the new Georgia state flag and the flag of the United States along with the city flag in keeping with the state regulations.

The change was not universally supported and in 2004 the new mayor of Trenton, Anthony Emanuel removed it. However following objections from the Sons of Confederate Veterans that the flag represented their heritage, a referendum was held in 2005 with the city's residents voting 278-64 to keep the city flag.

Criticism

Tyrone Brooks, the Georgia representative who was behind the drive to change Georgia's state flag, criticized Trenton for readopting the old flag stating "I thought it was a terrible mistake for them to do that. I thought it was a terrible blow to the image of their community." The Trenton Diabetes Outreach Coordinator also stated "We want people here, we want people to come visit us, and not something that says you know what we like things the way they are and we are not willing to change."