LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — (KTHV) – 2023 will be 100 years since the last update the Arkansas state flag, but one Arkansas native wants to see something new.
Graphic designer Jordan King has lived in Arkansas his entire life. He said he is proud of where he is from and how Arkansas is starting to attract new tech talent and businesses.
"I have a lot of pride in our state. We have a lot of things going on,” King said.
That pride is the driving force behind a new project. King wants to completely redesign the Arkansas State flag.
"There were two main issues I noticed with the current design. One being it hasn’t aged really well,” he said.
King said he has done a lot of research into state flags. He said these days there are vexillologists (or flag experts) who have created flag guidelines for what a flag should look like. He said the Texas flag is a great example.
“One of the rules of thumb is a kid should be able to draw the flag from memory. The current flag, it’s a little cluttered, it’s got a lot of shapes and objects,” King said. “It has the word Arkansas on there, and most experts say you don’t need any wording on a flag, you should just be able to look at the flag and immediately tell that’s Arkansas.”
The other issue he has, is with the fourth star at the top of Arkansas in the middle.
"Chelsea Clinton tweeted about it recently and she said she wished the flag didn't have that star,” King said.
Julienne Crawford with Arkansas State Archives said the fourth star was not added until 1923. The original flag designed by school teacher Willy Hocker in 1913 only had three stars.
"She had three stars in the middle for the governments under which Arkansas was under in the past which was the Spanish, French and the United States,” Crawford said.
Crawford said Secretary of State Earle Hodges at the time put out a campaign for Arkansans to design the state flag. He lead a committee to select the state flag in 1913. Hocker’s original design was picked, and later new additions were added on to it by 1923.
“Originally there was not the word Arkansas on it,” Crawford said. “She used the red, white and blue to represent the United States. The diamond shape because Arkansas has diamonds. Then she had the 25 stars around to represent that Arkansas was the 25th state to enter the union.”
King has since designed his own flag, removing the fourth star completely. He kept the originals colors called Glory Red and Glory Blue. He kept the diamond in the design as well.
“The confederate star, we realize that some people see it as a piece of their southern heritage. Other people see it as a really present reminder of oppression,” King said. “When you have a symbol like that on the flag, it doesn’t unite people.”
But King is not just proposing his own flag, he wants other Arkansans to also design their own. He started the website NewArkansasFlag.com for people to submit their ideas, too.
“My idea is that there should be a contest similar to the contest in 1912 when people from around the state first submitted designs,” King said. “The cool thing about the original flag is that it was designed by a school teacher. It just goes to show, you don’t have to be an artist or designer to capture your state pride.”
King hopes this website will spark conversation. He wants to see change in the legislation by 2023.
"Asa Hutchinson said it's important to look at you history through the eyes and experiences of other people and not just yourself,” he said. "A flag redesign can really capture the best parts of our state and really unite people."
An Arkansas lawmaker also proposed Friday that the star on the state’s flag no longer represent the confederacy. Democratic Rep. Charles Blake said instead it should commemorate the contribution of Native Americans to the state.