ATLANTA – Despite the historic and final decision by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and the state legislature to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state house grounds, flags – and other national symbols – will continue to be points of debate as they hold meaning beyond simple identifiers of a nation-state or a group, a Georgia State University historian said.

Dr. Harcourt Fuller, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History at Georgia State, is an expert on the history of the development of national symbols, such as flags, national anthems, coats-of-arms, paper currency and coins, postage stamps, museum exhibits, monuments, statues, memorials, and more.

Dr. Fuller is the author of “Building the Ghanaian Nation-State: Kwame Nkrumah’s Symbolic Nationalism” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and is also a creator and co-producer of the new documentary “Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess,” which is slated for an Oct. 19 premier at the United Nations. The documentary is about a Jamaican heroine, now depicted on the country’s currency, who fought the British in the early 18th century.

“The recent removal of the Confederate battle flag, and the flying of various other flags during protests and counter-demonstrations at the state house grounds in South Carolina demonstrate that symbols matter,” Dr. Fuller said. “Since the establishment of modern independent countries, mainly between the 18th and 20th centuries, people have created and contested symbols that not only reflect the foundations, histories, identities and cultures of nations, but also ethno-racial, regional, political or religious groups.”

Many areas of the world have experienced turbulent histories resulting from nationalist and other kinds of revolutions, civil wars, foreign conflicts, and segregationist regimes, and these histories add to the symbolism and meaning behind national symbols.

“Displays of symbols related to these histories often expose the conflicted legacies of the past,” Dr. Fuller said. “Despite the historic and final decision by Gov. Haley to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state house grounds, the controversy will continue as long as this and other contested symbols are displayed in public spaces, and insofar as there continues to be drastically differing views about the history, meaning and current relevance of these symbols in the larger American society.”

Dr. Fuller holds a doctorate in international history and a Master of Science degree in history of international relations from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), along with degrees from the City University of New York (CUNY). His extensive research interests in international history include Africa and the African diaspora, African nationalism, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and more.

For a full biography, list of books, articles, and documentaries, visit www.harcourtfuller.com.