Senate Democratic Leader Successful In Removing Confederate Flag From Senate Seal

By  //  October 20, 2015

'It needed to be removed' – Arthenia Joyner

Roughly five months after she began her mission to strip the Confederate flag from the seal that marks the Florida Senate, Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) on Monday could declare victory. (CapitalSoup.com image)
Roughly five months after she began her mission to strip the Confederate flag from the seal that marks the Florida Senate, Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) on Monday could declare victory. (CapitalSoup.com image)

TALLAHASEE, FLORIDA – Roughly five months after she began her mission to strip the Confederate flag from the seal that marks the Florida Senate, Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) on Monday could declare victory.

“Anyone who knows the history of blacks in the South, including Florida, understands what that flag represents,” said Senator Joyner.

“And to see it as part of the official emblem representing the Florida Senate and the power this institution holds as a lawmaking body was deeply offensive to me. It needed to be removed.”

The move by the full Senate to strip the flag from the Senate seal came on the opening day of the Legislature’s third special session.

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The Senate Rules Committee agreed to revisit the Senate seal, and recommended it be changed by replacing the Confederate banner with the Florida state flag, which now joins those of the United States, Great Britain, France and Spain – all flags which have flown over the state throughout its history and displayed on the seal.

In June, Senator Joyner first requested that the flag be removed following the massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, and that state’s push to take down the Confederate flag from public grounds outside the capitol.

The Senate Rules Committee agreed to revisit the Senate seal, and recommended it be changed by replacing the Confederate banner with the Florida state flag, which now joins those of the United States, Great Britain, France and Spain – all flags which have flown over the state throughout its history and displayed on the seal.

The change required two thirds of the sitting membership to approve the new insignia. It goes into effect immediately.

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