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Richmond, Virginia (U.S.)

by Matthew White, 15 January 2002

Description of the Flag
Former Flag

See also:

Virginia

Description of the Flag

Here's the official flag of the City of Richmond, Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. I sketched it from flags flying around town so the boatman might be a little misshapen, but the general geometric proportions should be accurate. I took them from the City Code.
Matthew White, 15 January 2002

The city changed the flag design in 1993. The flag consists of 2/3 blue over 1/3 red horizontal bars, with a centered white silhouette of a person poling a bateaux on a river, presumably the James River. The person is nameless and faceless, representing all of the people who helped build the city of Richmond. Over the silhouette in a semi-circle are nine five-pointed stars, representing the nine states that were eventually carved from the State of Virginia's original territory.
anonymous contributor, 16 July 2002

Former Flag

Richmond's first city flag was a two-sided flag. Both sides contained designs within a Roman shield on a white background. The front featured Justice holding scales and blindfolded, surrounded by the words 'City of Richmond, founded MDCCXXXVII, by William Byrd'. The back had a Confederate Battle flag on it, with the words 'Deo Vindice' (God will vindicate) underneath the Battle flag. The surrounding field was a dark blue. The flag was adopted in 1914. However, due to the Confederate design being offensive to the black majority population and the overall design being very expensive to reproduce, it was rarely flown, especially since the early 1960's.
anonymous contributor, 16 July 2002