Tennessee Flags

Tennessee State Flag 1905 –

The official Tennessee State Flag design was adopted by the State Legislature on April 17th, 1905. Designed by Colonel Le Roy Reeves, an attorney serving in the Tennessee National Guard at the time, the layout consists of three white stars arranged within a blue circle with a white border around it, against a crimson red background with a blue and white border at the flag’s fly end. The three stars represent the three geographical “Grand Divisions” of the state. East, Middle, and West Tennessee. The blue circle around the stars symbolizes the unity of the three divisions. The blue and white border at the fly end was simply a design element to keep the flag from showing too much red when hanging limp. State law prescribes the exact arrangement of the stars on the flag’s central emblem and reads as follows:

“The arrangement of the three (3) stars shall be such that the centers of no two stars shall be in a line parallel to either the side or the end of the flag, but intermediate between the same; and the highest star shall be the one nearest the upper confined corner of the flag”

The Arkansas flag is the only other state flag with a red background.