By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

“Symbols matter.”

That was the argument offered by Rep. Charles Blake, D-Little Rock, for his bill that would change the meaning behind the star representing the Confederacy on the Arkansas state flag.

Based on a 1924 design, the flag has four blue stars in its center area. The three below the state’s name commemorate its belonging to France, Spain and the United States prior to statehood. The one above commemorates its belonging to the Confederacy.

Blake, who is African-American, says that era shouldn’t be forgotten or commemorated. His House Bill 1487 would change the star’s meaning but not the flag itself. Instead of the Confederacy, it would represent the Native American tribes who first occupied the landscape.

Why the change? He told the House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday that the 1924 design came five years after the Elaine Race Massacre, at the height of the Ku Klux Klan’s power in Arkansas. He said he wears a flag pin on his chest every day with that star being a reminder of the state’s history. Arkansas should be mindful of African-American students being taught to honor a flag that commemorates the Confederacy. Perception of the state is another reason to change.

It was an uncomfortable committee meeting. It was never ugly, but the reality was that 19 of the committee’s 20 members have had very different racial experiences than Blake’s. So have I.

Some legislators expressed support. Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville, said the flag doesn’t commemorate the segregation era or the Elaine Race Massacre and shouldn’t glorify the Confederacy. She pointed out that the Confederacy’s star sits above the one representing Arkansas’ pre-statehood membership in the United States. Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, said passing the bill wouldn’t change history but would show consideration towards the descendants of slaves. Rep. Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, said the state eventually will change the star’s meaning, so legislators should get on the right side of history.

It was obvious from the beginning that the bill would fail. Among the arguments against: One legislator pointed out that the Native American peoples already are represented by “Arkansas,” originally a Quapaw Indian word. Another said we cannot know the intentions of legislators in 1924 any more than future legislators will know today’s. Another asked if Blake would accept an amendment moving the United States to the top star and the Confederacy to one of the bottom three. He would not.

By the time the debate was over, the committee’s lone African-American, Rep. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock, was crying to the point that she chose not to speak. Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, who was in the audience, afterwards shed tears.

The bill failed on a voice vote. On a roll call, eight were nays, five were ayes, and six (plus the chairman) didn’t vote.

Speaking to reporters, Blake seemed neither agitated nor deterred. He recalled the day four years earlier when, 10 days into his first session, he’d proposed decoupling the state’s joint Martin Luther King-Robert E. Lee holiday. He’d had no idea then that the crowd of people in the Capitol was there to oppose him.

That bill failed. Two years later, the holidays were decoupled with the governor’s strong support. (On Monday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the Associated Press he supports Blake’s bill.)

This one may take longer. There’s no widespread public outcry against the star. You can argue that it merely represents unchangeable history.

Meanwhile, Arkansas’ relationship with its past remains … complicated. There’s still a sense among some that the cause was just, that the Civil War was really about states’ rights, and that “we” lost.

Sometimes you can’t change the symbol until the public’s perception of what it symbolizes changes. Or maybe a few large employers someday will tell a governor the flag is a marketing problem.

Before the committee meeting, I was against Blake’s bill. I thought the four stars mostly marked historical eras, including one sad one. I thought we probably should just leave well enough alone.

I still think Arkansas has one of the prettiest flags around. But I won’t look at it, or that one star sitting in a special place above the state’s name, quite the same way again.

Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.