After their first try failed, here’s the new SC state flag design senators agreed on
South Carolina senators finally settled Wednesday on a possible standardized design for the state flag after past designs were widely ridiculed on social media.
The full Family and Veteran’s Services Committee unanimously chose flag design “A” — which, they said, relies on historical elements dating back to the state’s second flag — sending the design choice to the Senate floor for a final vote.
The design uses the original indigo blue, pantone 282C, and the original shape and proportions of the crescent used in the second state flag. The crescent is still shown at an angle, opening to the top left corner of the flag. The proposed flag change also employs the trunk design and grass element from a sketch drawn by Ellen Heyward Jervey that was used in the official flag design from 1910. The palm fronds are perky, full and more symmetrical.
The historical significance of the design was a major draw to lawmakers.
“I think when people look at our state flag, they need to know that that’s the official one and it has some historical context,” said state Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter.
South Carolina has not had a standardized flag design since 1940, when the Legislature repealed that portion of the code of laws. The laws were repealed because it required Clemson University to produce state flags at cost, and the university no longer wished to do that.
Since, designing the flag has largely fell to manufacturers, who each produce a slightly different design. For example, the flag flying atop the State House dome is not the same from those displayed inside the building.
Lawmakers tried to standardize the flag in 2018, tasking a group of historians with designing something that gives a hat tip to the state’s historical flags. In March 2020, that group delivered a design to lawmakers. Once it became public, it was widely ridiculed.
Most of the backlash centered around the wispy palmetto tree in the design proposed. Some joked that the tree looked like it barely survived Hurricane Hugo, a major storm that ripped through South Carolina in 1989.
The original design used elements from the oldest surviving state flag: the 2nd South Carolina Regiment Flag sewn in 1776. Historians took the shape and design of the crescent and the original color, pantone 282C, from that flag. For the March 2020 design, historians also borrowed Jervey’s tree sketch that was used in the official flag design from 1910.
“The first flag they came out with, the first iteration, I didn’t think much of it either,” said state Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, the bill’s sponsor. “There were all kinds of hideous remarks made about it.”
But lawmakers said Wednesday they are under no illusion that every South Carolinian is going to be happy with the latest design.
“It’s not going to please everyone,” Cromer said, noting criticism he has received over the two latest proposed designs. “Everyone’s got an opinion.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 11:27 AM.
