"Five Flags" redirects here. For other uses, see Five Flags (disambiguation).

Pensacola is often called the City of Five Flags due to the five national governments who have controlled the area at various times: Spain, France, Britain, the Confederacy and the United States. These five governments in fact used a variety of flags over the years.

Confederate flag [ edit ]

For many years, the flag flown over Pensacola to represent Confederate rule was the "battle flag," the design most commonly associated with the Confederacy. However, Pensacola's involvement in the Civil War had ended by 1862, before the battle flag was widely adopted, and there is no evidence that it ever flew over Pensacola.

Due to the controversial nature of the battle flag, which opponents say is a symbol of racial hatred, its use was increasingly criticized after the civil rights movement. After black students protested the use of the flag at Escambia High School (along with the "Rebel" mascot and school song "Dixie"), it was deemed "racially irritating" by U.S. District Court Judge Winston E. Arnow in 1973 and barred from the school's use. This in part led to riots at the school in 1976.

On January 25, 2000, Pensacola City Manager Tom Bonfield decided to replace the battle flag with the Stars and Bars flag, which was deemed more appropriate and "historically correct" by local historians, on several City of Pensacola facilities. The Pensacola City Council voted 7-2 on February 10 to confirm the use of the Stars and Bars flag instead of the battle flag. On the same day, however, the Escambia County Commission voted unanimously to keep the battle flag.

In 2015, after the Charleston church shooting, the Confederate flag was replaced by the Florida state flag.[2]