January 2007

Statutes creating the state flag

Here are excerpts from Kansas laws that deal with the design and display of the Kansas flag. The source is the Kansas Legislature.

Chapter 73.--SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND PATRIOTIC EMBLEMS

Article 7.--FLAG AND PATRIOTIC EMBLEMS

73-701. State flag. A state flag be and the same is hereby adopted to be used on every and all occasions, when the state is officially represented, with the privilege of the use by all citizens on all fitting and appropriate occasions which shall be authorized by state authorities.

History: L. 1927, ch. 281, ¤ 1; March 23.

73-702. Same; description; form and makeup. The official state flag of the state of Kansas shall be a rectangle of dark-blue silk or bunting, three (3) feet on the staff by five (5) feet fly.

The great seal of the state of Kansas, without its surrounding band of lettering, shall be located equidistant from the staff and the fly side of the flag, with the lower edge of the seal located eleven (11) inches above the base side of the flag. The great seal shall be surmounted by a crest and the word KANSAS shall be located underneath the seal. The seal shall be seventeen (17) inches in diameter. The crest shall be on a wreath or an azure, a sunflower slipped proper, which divested of its heraldic language is a sunflower as torn from its stalk in its natural colors on a bar of twisted gold and blue. The crest shall be six (6) inches in diameter; the wreath shall be nine (9) inches in length. The top of the crest shall be located two (2) inches beneath the top side of the flag. The letters KANSAS shall be imprinted in gold block letters below the seal, the said letters to be properly proportioned, and five (5) inches in height, imprinted with a stroke one (1) inch wide; and the first letter K shall commence with the same distance from the staff side of the flag as the end of the last letter S is from the fly side of the flag. The bottom edge of the letters shall be two (2) inches above the base side of the flag. Larger or smaller flags will be of the same proportional dimensions.

The colors in the seal shall be as follows: Stars, silver; hills, purple; sun, deep yellow; glory, light yellow; sky, yellow and orange from hills half way to motto, upper half, azure; grass, green; river, light blue; boat, white; house, dark brown; ground, brown; wagons, white; near horse, white; off horse, bay; buffalo, dark, almost black; motto, white; scroll, light brown.

History: L. 1927, ch. 281, ¤ 2; L. 1961, ch. 376, ¤ 1; L. 1963, ch. 394, ¤ 1; June 30.

73-705. Flag Day proclamation by governor. The governor of this state shall on or before June 1 of each year issue a proclamation recommending that June 14, flag day, be observed by the people of this state by the display of the flag of the United States of America and in such other ways as will be in harmony with the general character of the day.

History: L. 1939, ch. 309, ¤ 1; June 30.

73-711. Display of Kansas state flag; definitions. As used in this act:

(a) The words "school district" mean and include any common-school district, rural high-school district, community high-school district, and any first- or second-class city school district; and

(b) the words "governing body" mean and include the district board of any common-school district, the district board of any rural high-school district, the board of trustees of any community high-school district, and the board of education of any city of the first or second class.

History: L. 1961, ch. 353, ¤ 1; April 10.

73-712. Same; display on school grounds each day of school year; exception. It shall be the duty of the governing body of every school district in the state and of the supervisory authority of every private and parochial school to provide an official state flag for the school district or for the school under its jurisdiction and control, and to have said state flag displayed on the school grounds each day during the school year: Provided, That when the weather is inclement, the flag may be displayed within the school building.

History: L. 1961, ch. 353, ¤ 2; April 10.

Copyright 2007 Leon Unruh

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