Gov. Wes Moore invoked Maryland’s state flag during a podcast appearance last week to bolster his call for mid-decade congressional redistricting, framing the banner as a symbol of contradiction that proves the state’s and nation’s capacity for healing amid racial and political tensions.
The comments came in an interview on The Press Box podcast, where Moore was asked whether the country could handle another Black president. He pointed to President Donald Trump’s push for redistricting in Texas, which Moore said targeted Black elected officials. Moore used the example to press Maryland lawmakers to act.
There’s no way that I’m going to let Maryland sit on our hands, Moore said. He urged Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore City who opposes mid-cycle redistricting, to put it to a vote and figure out where our senators are.
Moore continued: What I hope is that this is a country that is going to understand and think about what are the values that this country actually holds true. And do I understand kind of the history of this country? Absolutely.
He then turned to the flag. I mean, literally, you look at our flag, Moore said. Our flag is a contradiction because our flag is literally a Confederate symbol mixed with a Union symbol. Despite that, I stand here as the governor of that same state. So do I think that our state and do I think that our country has the ability to heal itself? I do.
A Moore spokesperson said the governor has referenced the flag and its history in at least six interviews or remarks in 2025. Moore frequently wears a state flag lapel pin and has handed out similar pins to others he meets.
Marylanders display intense pride in the flag. The design appears on countless products, including dog collars, ties, scarves, watchbands, quilts and full flags. One Annapolis insider quipped that the flag would poll better in Maryland than God.
House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk expressed confusion about the flag’s mention in the redistricting context. I don’t know why that came up, she told reporters. She focused instead on civil rights concerns, saying the state faces issues like racial profiling and community attacks.
Moore spokesperson David Turner addressed questions about the comments. Maryland’s flag is undoubtedly the best flag in the country, Turner said in an email. It also symbolizes the state’s complicated history. As you know, the Crossland arms were adopted by the Confederacy, and the Calvert arms were adopted by the Union. The Governor often uses that history to provide audiences unfamiliar with the legacy of the state a way to understand it quickly. There’s not more to it than that unless someone is willfully ignoring the facts, which happens from time to time in politics.
Official records from the Maryland Secretary of State’s office provide the precise history. The flag, adopted by the General Assembly in 1904, derives from the coat of arms of the Calvert family, Maryland’s colonial proprietors. George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, quartered his shield with yellow-and-black from his paternal line and red-and-white from his maternal Crossland family.
During the Civil War, Maryland remained in the Union but was deeply divided. Union supporters used the black-and-gold Calvert colors. Confederate sympathizers adopted the red-and-white Crossland cross bottony, including on clothing, pins and flags carried by Maryland-born Confederate soldiers.
The combined quartered design emerged in the late 1800s as a gesture of post-war reconciliation in the border state. It appeared in sketches by 1880, at the 1888 Gettysburg dedication, and as a regimental color for the Fifth Regiment, Maryland National Guard in 1889. The General Assembly made it official on June 1, 1904.
The Secretary of State’s office describes the flag as a unique symbol of challenges met and loyalties restored, a flag of unity and reconciliation for all the state’s citizens. The Crossland elements predate the Confederacy as family heraldry, though they were embraced by secessionists during the war.
Moore’s description as a literal Confederate-Union mix captures the wartime associations but simplifies the pre-Civil War origins and the deliberate reconciliation purpose of the combined design. Marylanders’ pride in the flag stems from this narrative of unity after division.
Moore’s comments align with his frequent emphasis on racial themes in politics. As Maryland’s first Black governor, he often connects historical progress to current challenges, including redistricting framed as a response to efforts targeting Black representation.
The state continues its reckoning with history. A statue of Roger Brooke Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision, was removed from State House grounds in 2017. The pro-Confederacy state song Maryland My Maryland was decommissioned in 2021. New memorials honor Black Marylanders, including statues of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and a forthcoming monument to Black Revolutionary War soldiers.
The House passed a redistricting bill recently, but the Senate remains divided. Moore has testified strongly in favor, warning that inaction would be judged harshly by history.