Flags!
We love 'em here in Mobile, because the are a constant display of the rich history of our city.
Six flags representing six separate governments that ruled Mobile over the past 300 or so years... France, Spain, England, the Confederacy, the Republic of Alabama (which lasted about a month...) and the United States of America.
Yep, they're all on display all over our city.
Or are they?
"It's easy to see how it could be confused because there was a lot of turmoil and war, confusion... when these things were going on, it's easy to pick the wrong flag."
So says Emmett Burnett.
Emmett Burnett is a writer, and in this month's edition of Mobile Bay Monthly, he found himself searching for the perfect representation of Mobile's flag flappin' history. It's not as easy as you might think!
"For example, the confederate flag had three revisions during four years of the confederacy," Emmett tells me.
This all came about when Victor Stanton, an archivist at Christ Church in downtown Mobile wanted to donate a custom made stained glass window featuring the six flags of Mobile.
"A family at the church requested they wanted a stained glass window installed, but they wanted it right," says Emmett. "They heard rumors that some of the flags were incorrect."
Take, for instance, the flags at Government plaza. The English flag should have the red cross, but NOT the red X.
"The red X ', he tells me, "was added later when England obtained Ireland 20 something years after they let go of Mobile."
It's a difficult chore to find a place that has all 6 of the flags correct, but it's not so hard to find a place that has a couple of them wrong. in fact, you don't have to look very far at all! Here at the new RSA Tower, the english flag is correct... but four others are not! And Emmett says it doesn't stop there...
"All over the city! Police cars, the seal of the city..."
The seal of the city is wrong?"
"There are several discrepancies... that aren't exactly... accurate."
"You don't want to say wrong, do you?" I ask him.
"That is correct!" he says, laughing!
He's right! I found a error on the city seal of an older patrol car. It bears the wrong Conferacy flag. But on a newer car, it's been fixed. Score one for the city!
Leighton Mosteller of Mobile Bay Monthly agrees, this shocking revelation won't change the world as we know it... but-
"In the grand scheme of things it's not the biggest blunder, that could happen, but it is important that we represent history factually."
But I'm proud to report there's at least one flag everyone seems to get right... the American flag!
In Mobile, Here's Darwin, NBC 15 News.
