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# Montgomery, Alabama (U.S.)

## Montgomery County

Last modified: 2026-05-16 by rick wyatt
Keywords: montgomery | alabama | montgomery county |
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Image located by David Sigley, 15 May 2026

- Description of the flag
- Seal
- Previous Flag
- Fire and Rescue

See also:

- Alabama State University
- Amridge University
- Auburn University at Montgomery
- Faulkner University
- Huntingdon College
- H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College
- Montgomery County
- County and Municipal flags of Alabama
- Alabama
- United States of America

## Description of the flag

City of Montgomery Adopts New Official City Flag
May 6, 2026
https://www.montgomeryal.gov/Home/Components/News/News/4933/
The Montgomery City Council has approved a new official flag for the City of Montgomery during the May 5, 2026 council meeting. The flag has remained unchanged since 1952. The new flag will officially take effect on October 1, 2026.

### The Process

The effort to redesign the flag was led by the City Council’s Governmental Affairs & Administration Standing Committee, which launched a public contest inviting residents and designers to submit concepts representing Montgomery’s identity, history, and future. The committee received 27 submissions, with 10 designs meeting the contest guidelines. Five semifinalists were selected for further review before the committee ultimately chose a design submitted by Joshua Gordon, with several modifications incorporated into the final version.

### The Meaning

The newly adopted flag features several symbolic elements intended to reflect Montgomery’s heritage, leadership, and continued progress:

- Red diagonal bands symbolizing momentum, movement, and the city’s evolving story.
- A blue ceremonial ribbon stretching across the flag, representing renewal, unity, and new beginnings.
- Nine old gold stars honoring Montgomery’s nine City Council districts.
- A central outlined star symbolizing Montgomery’s role as Alabama’s capital city and serving as a beacon of unity and leadership.
- Olive branches above and below the central star representing peace, resilience, growth, and goodwill among Montgomery’s citizens.

### Next Steps

The newly adopted design will replace all existing official City of Montgomery flags beginning October 1, 2026.
Image of the flag: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/montgomery-city-council-approves-new-flag/ar-AA22woQd
David Sigley, 15 May 2026

## Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 6 April 2019

Source: https://flagpolesetc.com
Paul Bassinson, 6 April 2019

## Previous Flag

5:8 image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Text and image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) from American City Flags by permission of David B. Martucci.

### Design

The field of Montgomery’s flag is divided diagonally, gray at the hoist, red at the fly. A diagonal blue stripe, fimbriated in white with seven five-pointed white stars spaced evenly on the blue, separates the gray and the red. On a field of 5 by 8 units, the blue stripe is one unit in width (including fimbriations) and slants from the top 5 units from the hoist to the bottom 2 units from the hoist. In the center of the field, superimposed on the blue stripe and adjacent fields, is an open laurel wreath in gold 2.5 units in diameter. The fields on either side of the wreath’s interior are counterchanged (colors alternated) with those of the exterior, red on the hoist side and gray on the fly side. Above the wreath near the top and beginning 2 units from the hoist on the gray field is CITY OF, and below, on the red field beginning near the blue stripe and extending to within one unit of the fly’s edge, is MONTGOMERY, all in white block letters.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

### Symbolism

Gray, from the color of the uniforms of the soldiers of the Confederate States of America, represents the Confederacy. Red, the color of the saltire on the state’s flag, symbolizes Alabama. Blue denotes the “blue and gray” unity of today (the uniforms of the Union soldiers during the Civil War were blue). The seven white stars symbolize the seven original states of the Confederacy, “brought together in the center wreathed in glory and honor”, according to the city’s chamber of commerce.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

### Selection

In November 1951, the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce sponsored a contest for a new city flag. The chamber and the city’s board of commissioners appointed a board of judges, consisting of Mrs. Marie Bankhead Owen, Miss Ethel Johnson, Colonel Clanton Williams, Dr. Gorden Chappell, and Rabbi Eugene Blachschleger, to select a winner from the nearly 300 entries submitted.
Flag adopted: 19 April 1952 (official).
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

### Designer

The winner was Robert S. Ryan. The chamber, establishing the designer’s credentials as a citizen of the city, gives a larger biography than usual about Ryan, who at the time was a 33-year-old native of Montgomery, son and grandson of native Montgomerians, and a great-great-grandson of a pioneer Alabamian who came to this country from Ireland in a sailboat and landed at Mobile, Alabama. He is a World War Two veteran, and both great-grandfathers were Confederate soldiers from Montgomery.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

### More about the Flag

It should be noted though that a photo of this flag shows the gray substantially lighter than shown above.
Ned Smith, 18 November 2005

## Fire and Rescue

image located by Paul Bassinson, 16 March 2021
image source: https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryalfire/photos/2164316910371302