Florida's Senate seal will no longer feature the image of a Confederate battle flag after the body supported a proposal to remove it on Monday.
The seal is used around Florida's Capitol Complex in Tallahassee, including on a bronze seal in the Senate chambers, and can also be seen on the lapel pins senators wear as
well as stationary, according to the Miami Herald.
Senate president Andy Gardiner, who said that he wanted to get the issue behind him during the current special session on redistricting, added that other changes could also be made to the seal so the switch will not happen immediately.
"We want to make sure all the members are comfortable with the decision as to what the Senate seal's going to look like," Gardiner said, according to the Miami Herald. "The seal may change some more. It was good that we, at least, made the changes out of respect for those that had a concern."
State Sen. Rob Bradley insisted that all the flags should be examined and questioned
, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The new Senate seal design will replace the Confederate battle flag with the Florida state flag.
Other flags on the seal include those of the United States, France, Spain, and Great Britain.
Arthenia Joyner, the Senate Democratic Leader, told news reporters that the senators who want to suggest changes should bring them to the Senate rules committee like she did.
Joyner had asked for the senate to review the seal after the church shooting this summer in Charleston, South Carolina, the Times noted. The rules committee then unanimously supported getting rid of the Confederate battle flag from the seal earlier in October.
"Removing all the other flags, in my opinion, is not the answer," Joyner said. "The issue is to remove this painful symbol of oppression and suppression that black people endured during the era of slavery in this country and in this state."
Senate rules committee chairman David Simmons defended the proposal to remove just the
Confederate flag, according to the Tampa Tribune.
"The flags on the current seal appear to presume to represent sovereign nations," he said. "However, our research established that the Confederacy was never legally a sovereign nation."
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