Editor’s Note: A version of this story was originally published in June 2020.
CNN
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This holiday, you may see another red, white and blue flag flying over state capitals and city buildings.
This banner with a bright star in the middle is the Juneteenth flag, a symbolic representation of the end of slavery in the United States.
The flag is the brainchild of activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF). Haith created the flag in 1997 with the help of collaborators, and Boston-based illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf brought their vision to life.
The flag was revised in 2000 to the one we know today, according to the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation. Seven years later, the date “June 19, 1865” was added, commemorating the day Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger marched into Galveston, Texas, and announced to enslaved African Americans their emancipation.
For more than two decades, communities across the country have held flag-raising ceremonies on June 19 to celebrate their freedom.
“This country has so many spiritual aspects, and I think this flag is part of that,” Haith said. “The idea for this flag came to me on its own.”
The design of the flag and its symbols was a deliberate process, Haith said. Here’s what each element of the flag represents.
The white star in the center of the flag has a dual meaning, Haith said.
On the one hand, he represents Texas, the Lone Star State. It was in Galveston in 1865 that Union soldiers informed the country’s last slaves that under the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were free.
But the star also goes beyond Texas, representing freedom for African Americans in all 50 states.
The bright outline around the star is inspired by a nova, a term astronomers use to refer to a new star.
On the Juneteenth flag, it represents a new beginning for African Americans in Galveston and across the country.
The curve that spans the width of the flag represents a new horizon: the opportunities and promises that await black Americans.
Red, white and blue represent the American flag, a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are Americans.
June 19, 1865 marks the day enslaved blacks in Galveston, Texas became Americans under the law.
And as African Americans continue to fight for equality and justice today, Haith said those colors symbolize the American people’s continued commitment to do better — and to live up to the American ideal of liberty and justice for all.
cnn
