TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on May 25, 2026

The Tennessee State Museum on May 30 will premiere a new documentary about the origins of the state flag and its designer, Captain Le Roy Reeves. A graduate of Johnson City College, Reeves originally planned to become a teacher. After a brief stint, he left teaching to take the Tennessee Bar Exam and joined his father’s law practice in Johnson City. Just as Reeves was beginning his law career, he decided to join the National Guard, earning the rank of captain. Disappointed with the state’s lack of heraldry and a unifying symbol for its three Grand Divisions, Reeves began drafting designs and selecting colors for a flag that would be “distinctly Tennessee.” For two years, Reeves appealed to legislators, military officials and civic groups before the flag was adopted on April 17, 1905. Read more in a press release from the museum.

Reeves' original sketch of the flag, courtesy of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University