So, when a commission of historians was tasked with adjusting its design, state residents were quick to respond – mess with the flag, and you mess up we.
The South Carolina State Flag Study Committee was created in 2018 to standardize the state flag – and met only five times before proposing the new one, influenced by the state’s history.
Southern Carolinians have not had an official flag since 1940, when the state revoked a code that required an official design. Most versions currently used in state government buildings are framed in deep indigo blue and feature a white crescent in the upper left corner and a white palm tree in the center.
The flag that the committee proposed does not differ much from the original iconography. The bottom would remain indigo, he said, because revolutionary soldiers wore uniforms of the same color, dyed with the indigo plant. The crescent – not a moon, but a badge worn by members of the 2nd Regiment of South Carolina – was historically accurate, so it would also remain in the same position.
The majority leader in the House, James Clyburn, was the rare South Carolina who supported his redesign.
Scott Malyerck, a political adviser appointed to the flag committee, told Post and Courier’s Avery Wilks that about 95% of the feedback he received on the flag was negative.
“Message received,” he told the newspaper.
The overwhelmingly unenthusiastic response prompted the commission to revise its bill before it went to lawmakers in 2021.