Story highlights Roy Barnes: Despite a political storm, Georgia got rid of the backward-looking symbol in 2001

Former governor says we need to go beyond symbols and correct racial inequities

Roy Barnes was governor of Georgia from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, the Democrat received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation for his successful effort to take down a Georgia state flag that prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Last week, I and many of my fellow Georgians watched our neighboring state of South Carolina wrestle with the issue of flying the Confederate flag on its State House grounds as we remembered our own state's fight over whether to reverse a 1956 decision to adopt a state flag that prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem.

As governor of Georgia, I successfully pushed for the replacement of that flag during our 2001 legislative session.

Roy Barnes

Everywhere I appeared in public after the flag change, I was greeted with protesters -- almost exclusively older white men -- waving Georgia's 1956 flag and the Confederate battle emblem itself. It did not come as a surprise. My predecessor as governor, Zell Miller, had a political near-death experience running for re-election in 1994 after attempting to persuade our Legislature to replace the 1956 flag in 1993.

Many believe my effort to change the flag led to my defeat for re-election in 2002. That year, the Georgia Republican Party's candidates, including its gubernatorial nominee, promised that if elected, they would hold a referendum that would allow Georgians to vote to bring back the state flag with the Confederate battle emblem. The tactic worked. Republicans won the governor's office for the first time since Reconstruction.

JUST WATCHED Report: Activists take down Confederate flag in South Carolina Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Report: Activists take down Confederate flag in South Carolina 01:27

The irony was obvious when watching a Republican Party whose first president was Abraham Lincoln rallying around the Confederate battle flag. It was, however, the ultimate example of the party's successful "Southern Strategy" begun by President Richard Nixon to exploit Southern whites' discontent with the Democratic Party's increasing support for civil rights and the growing racial diversity of its membership.

Read More