Alabama entered statehood in 1819, although it wasn't until the state seceded from the Union in 1861 that a flag of their own was adopted.

A group of Montgomery Alabama women designed the "Secession Convention Flag" and it became Alabama's first official flag. It would be 76 years after the state of Alabama was admitted to the Union before the "crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white" would become the official flag of Alabama. Because no particular format was described for the dimensions of the flag in the Acts of Alabama (Act 383), the official flag may be either square or rectangle.