A novel composite photo-alignment layer for ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) displays is explored. The key technique is to introduce a functional liquid crystal polymer into a rewritable azo-dye material with proper mixing. Bearing good alignment quality derived from the azo-dye, the composite layer provides strong anchoring energy comparable to that of rubbed polyimide layers. Furthermore, by using a two-step exposure process, the composite layer shows much better stability than that with a pure azo-dye material.