Arkansas state flag did not exist until 1913. During the Civil War, Arkansas soldiers fought under a variety of flags, but none represented Arkaksas.
Arkaksas secretary of state Hodges agreed set up a committee for selecting the winning design for Arkaksas state flag. Sixty-five designs were submitted. The committee chose a red, white, and blue design submitted by Willie Kavanaugh Hocker of Wabbaseka (Jefferson County).
Hocker’s design featured a rectangular red background centered a white diamond bordered by twenty-five white stars on a blue band. Three blue stars centered on the diamond on a white field. The three blue stars in the center field represented three countries—France, Spain, and the United States. The twenty-five white stars meant Arkansas join the Union as the twenty-fifth state. The diamond signifies nation’s only diamond-producing state.
The General Assembly added a fourth star to the central diamond in 1923 to represent Arkansas’s membership in the Confederate States of America. Today the Arkansas state flag is flown over governmental and private locations throughout the state. Representative Charles Blake introduced a bill to change the meaning of the star symbolizing the Confederacy to represent the various Native American tribes that have inhabited in Arkansas. However, the bill was refused by committee.
