The proposed new design for the South Carolina state flag began circulating online late last month, and the social media reaction lacked any southern subtleties.
The provisional project included a crescent and a palm tree, the state’s official tree, on an indigo background, similar to the current but non-standard versions that manufacturers sell. The new version was approved by a committee of historians and politicians, but the tree, in particular, did not please many residents of the state. It even drew comparisons to the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, hurricane debris and a bathroom brush, according to the local newspaper The Post & Courier. The exit did an unofficial Twitter poll and found that only 22% of respondents approved.
“I just saw someone describe the heart of palm tree on the potential new South Carolina state flag as a toilet brush. I think I just died laughing,” I wrote a Twitter user.
“How can you screw up one of the biggest state flags in American history? Well, that South Carolina ‘historic commission’ somehow found a way to do that,” added other.
Craig Melvin of TODAY, a South Carolina native, also has some concerns about the new design.
“Ours is undeniably one of America’s top three flags in popularity … and historical significance,” he said by email. “The flags should unite all those who live under them. One thing is clear, this proposed new project united all true Southern Carolinians in their collective disgust and confusion. If it didn’t break …”
Since 1800, the state flag has had a crescent and a palm heart on a blue background, but there has not been a standardized flag since 1940, when the most recent standardized design was revoked. As a result, current representations of the state flag vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
In late 2018, the flag commission met for the first time to create a flag that could be used in an official government capacity and, in March 2020, presented its final design. The online reaction began when The Post & Courier shared the new draft in an article late last month.
All three primary elements of the new version – the crescent, the color and the tree – have a prominent meaning in the state’s history, said Eric Emerson, director of the state’s archives and history department, which is part of the flag committee, the TODAY. The indigo background and crescent come from the oldest flag of the South Carolina regiment surviving the Revolutionary War. The committee knew, however, that the heart of palm would be the most “complicated” to navigate, Emerson said.
“There are countless examples of historic palm hearts,” explained Emerson. “No two are alike.”
As a result, the committee chose one based on the art of Ellen Heyward Jervey, an amateur artist and librarian from Charleston, South Carolina. She shared her representations of the heart of palm with the creator of the 1910 version of the flag, which was used until 1940.
The answer was not universally negative, emphasized Emerson.
“I don’t anticipate anything from Twitter or any other form of social media, except negativity,” he said. “No one has ever tweeted, ‘This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen’. … Any new design, I predict the same type of response on social networks. “
He added that he received a lot of emails with positive feedback and “constructive criticism”, often asking questions about why the heart of palm looks so different from what South Americans are used to seeing.
“I explain: ‘Well, the manufacturers created them, and they are not really historic.’ … We don’t know where they came from, “said Emerson.
So, what’s next for the Palmetto state flag? Other media reported that the Emerson committee’s project was dropped, but that is not exactly true, Emerson said. He anticipates that the state general assembly will ask to see at least one alternative project and, if applicable, the history and archives department has some ready to use, he said.
“We can find a historic palmetto that looks more like what (people) saw before,” said Emerson. “I think that’s the problem. People just want to see something that is not very different, very dramatic than what they saw.”