JULY 20, 2025 — For the first time in its history, a flag representing all of East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana was raised outside City Hall on the morning of June 26, reports the Advocate.
The new flag, approved by the Metro Council on Wednesday, is the creation of Mark LeBlanc, a city-parish accountant with a 36-year career and a lifelong passion for vexillology. His design was adopted to serve as a unifying emblem for the parish’s five distinct cities.
“I wanted to make this a gift,” said LeBlanc, who has worked for the parish since 1989. “I’m proud to work here. I’m proud to be a resident here.”
On the flag, a red background and a central vertical red stripe with a white border evoke the “red stick,” or le bâton rouge, that French explorers first saw along the Mississippi River. A wavy horizontal blue stripe represents the river itself, while a central shield honours the three European powers that once governed the region: the French fleur-de-lis, the Spanish castle, and the English Union Jack.
LeBlanc, who was also part of the committee that designed the city of Baton Rouge’s flag in 1995, said he followed a core principle of flag design this time.
“I’m one of those hard-liners that says a flag shouldn’t have words on it,” he stated. “It should be symbolic of the area and people it represents.”
The effort to adopt an official parish flag was championed by District 2 councilman Aaron Moak, who sponsored the resolution. Moak saw the flag as a timely symbol of cohesion.
“I thought now is the time. People are talking about the different cities and splitting up and who’s doing what,” Moak explained. “Why not push this forward and have this flag to represent the whole parish, that we can all stand under.”
The flag was officially hoisted at 7 a.m. on Thursday, June 26, fulfilling a childhood dream for LeBlanc, who recalled drawing flags on old diapers as a boy in the 1960s.
Image: Original: Mark LeBlanc, Vector: TheWanderingTraders, CC BY-SA 4.0
