Florida began rolling out redesigned driver’s licenses and ID cards on September 30. On the back, alongside an image of the Space Shuttle Discovery, the cards display “Let Us Alone,” a motto associated with an unofficial flag shown in 1845, the year Florida entered the Union as a slave state. State Rep. RaShon Young has asked the state to remove the phrase from the government credential.
A Redesign Meant to Celebrate Florida's Story
The new cards, available at service centers statewide beginning Sept. 30, according to CBS News Miami, combine images of Florida landmarks and wildlife with updated anti-fraud features. The front and back include the state seal, Castillo de San Marcos, a Florida manatee, an alligator worked into the REAL ID star, an orange tucked into the O in Florida, and the Discovery shuttle, according to the original Creative Loafing Tampa report. NBC Miami also reported that the shuttle and motto appear on the card’s back. Florida officials say the design marks the nation’s 250th anniversary, and the state has touted nearly double the fraud protection of the previous design, per Florida Politics.
What REAL ID Requires
According to the Department of Homeland Security, REAL ID sets minimum security standards for license issuance and production and governs which licenses federal agencies may accept for certain official purposes. Florida has touted nearly double the fraud protection of its previous card, but the reporting cited here does not specify which features of the new design exceed the federal baseline.
Existing Florida licenses and ID cards remain valid until their expiration dates, so residents are not required to swap them out early because of the redesign, CBS News Miami notes.
A Lawmaker Pushes Back
State Rep. RaShon Young, a Democrat from Orlando, has asked the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to remove the motto. He argued that its historical context makes it an inappropriate message for a government-issued credential, according to Florida Politics.
Young has also called for the agency to consult historians and representatives of Florida’s diverse communities as it considers the design, per the same Florida Politics account. The original Creative Loafing Tampa report quoted him saying the state should not celebrate “we the people” without acknowledging those who were denied its protection.
The Flag’s 1845 Record
The phrase has a documented and tangled past. The “Let Us Alone” flag was unfurled at the inauguration of William D. Moseley, Florida's first governor, on June 25, 1845, according to Florida Memory, the state's official archive. That same day, the Florida House of Representatives agreed to a joint resolution adopting the flag, but the Senate initially objected to the motto. Northern newspapers of the era also took notice; the Boston Courier called the slogan rather strange for a territory joining a federal union, according to the original Creative Loafing Tampa report.
The Senate later approved the flag and wording in a simple resolution. Florida Memory records its consent on December 27, 1845, six months after the inauguration, and notes that the chambers’ use of different forms of resolution may mean the flag was never officially adopted. Florida later adopted an official flag when it entered the Confederacy, according to the original report.
How Florida and Other States Changed Their Flags
Florida’s state symbols changed again in 1900: according to the Florida Department of State, the Legislature submitted a constitutional amendment adding diagonal red bars to voters because the flag lacked color when furled; voters ratified it. In a separate state-flag decision, Mississippi retired its 1894 flag on July 1, 2020, and lawmakers directed that its replacement exclude the Confederate battle flag and include “In God We Trust,” according to the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Georgia’s 2003 flag change was another distinct case: CBS News reported that the state replaced its two-year-old design with one that did not include a Confederate battle emblem.
Coverage of the controversy has continued to spread; a recent WUSF segment examined the motto's history alongside the debate over how Florida handles other remnants of its past. For now, the state has not announced any change to the card design, and the new licenses continue to roll out at service centers across Florida as older credentials phase out naturally at expiration.
