Barnes and the state legislature decided the issue instead of the voters. However, the fight is not over. Just as the Mississippi voters were given a choice on their state flag (see figure 5), the citizens of Georgia will vote on a bill concerning their state flag design next year. Current Georgia Governor, Sonny Perdue, is proposing to hold a referendum on the flag issue in 2004. The bill would create the state's third flag in two years, this one with a state seal and three red-and-white stripes. But the new flag wouldn't become permanent unless voters approve of the design next year. If voters reject the new flag, the bill includes a provision that would allow them to choose between two other flags "one of which is the Confederate Southern Cross. .
Presently, civil rights leaders in Atlanta are scrambling to keep Georgia from joining South Carolina on the NAACP's boycott list. They are also requesting the NCAA not to take away the 2007 Final Four basketball tournament in Atlanta. The flag battle next year is sure to draw plenty attention to the state of Georgia as well as the 2004 Presidential election. .
However, the NAACP is not alone in its efforts to eliminate the Southern Cross. .
In Oxford Mississippi, university officials at Ole-Miss have asked students to refrain from waving the Southern Cross at all sporting events because it may offend students and visitors. I happen to know an instructor who attended Ole-Miss, and he asked a fellow Black student who played football about the flag. The student stated he was well aware of the tradition of waving the flag at Ole-Miss sporting events, but had no problem with it. He came to the university to play football for the Ole-Miss Rebels, which was his goal since his days in Pop Warner football.
In another case, a local Catholic church here in Lafayette will not allow the unfurling of any Confederate flag on its grounds when honoring the Confederate dead that are buried in its cemetery.