June 14th – Today is Flag Day in America by Kaye Spencer

Flag Day at Kaye's house

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress authorized the 'stars and stripes' flag for the new United States. It wasn’t until 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as flag day.

For years prior to the official declaration of Flag Day, several states recognized a flag day, but the dates were all different. Then in August of 1949, by an Act of Congress, National Flag Day was officially established on June 14th. However, it wasn’t designated as an official federal holiday.

The first official flag is often referred to as the Betsy Ross Flag.

13-star flag flying in San Francisco - attribution below

Since the Betsy Ross House is the traditional site of Philadelphia’s Flay Day observance, here is a picture of her house.

Betsy Ross House - attribution below

Stony Hill School in Waubeka, Wisconson was the site of the first time Flag Day was officially observed. A teacher named Bernard J. Cigrand is credited with this event.

Stony Hill School - attribution below

I came across an entertaining article in the Washington Post dated June 10, 2011 and written by Marc Leepson regarding five common myths about the first American Flag. I’ve summarized, and added to, Mr. Leepson’s article:

Myth 1 “Betsy Ross made the first American Flag.”

Some historians deny this claim, because of the lack of credible, written records to support it. These historians base their beliefs upon letters and the congressional record of the time, which indicated the designer of the first flag was possibly Francis Hopkinson, an original signer of the Declaration of Independence (New Jersey), who possessed artistic skills. He also designed the seals and flags for the Navy, as well as contributed to the official U.S. seal.

However, other historians believe Betsy has just as much claim to the legend as Hopkinson, because,
“Betsy was paid a ‘large sum of money from the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making flags’”.
“George Ross, a member of the Flag committee, was the uncle of Betsy's late husband, John. This could be one reason why Betsy was chosen to make the first flag”.

Myth 2 “The red, white, and blue colors symbolize American sacrifice.”

It could be as simple as red, white, and blue were the colors of the first flag of the American colonies, known as the Continental Colors, and the color scheme carried through to the later flag designs. These colors originated with the colors of the Union Jack of England.

Myth 3 “The Pledge of Allegiance has long been recited in Congress and other governmental bodies.”

Documents show that the pledge was written in1892 by Francis Bellamy, a magazine editor for a Boston-based “The Youth’s Companion”, for a nationwide public school celebration commemorating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival. It wasn’t until the Spanish American War in 1898 that it became a mandatory recitation in public school, and then only in New York. In 1942, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

Myth 4 “It is illegal to burn the American flag.”

Until the Supreme Court ruled on a case in 1989 (Texas v. Johnson, which declared that federal and state laws that protect the flag are in violation of free-speech protections), it was illegal to burn the flag. However, this decision has undergone tests of constitutional legality over the years since then on the grounds of the First Amendment rights of free speech. So, right now, it is legal to use the American flag in acts considered to be in the realm of free speech.

Myth 5 “It’s okay to wear a Stars and Stripes T-shirt.”

…“The U.S. Flag Code frown on the use of the flag ‘for advertising purposes’…and more…”. But this code is essentially not enforced, because it is, as you’ve already realized, unenforceable. To quote Captain Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean… “The code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules…”

For your listening—and American patriotic—pleasure, I’ll leave you with this gem.

Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

Writing through history one romance upon a time

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Images Attribution

13-star flag flying in San Francisco

By Makaristos - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4979676

Betsy Ross house
Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Stony Hill School
By Freekee/Kevin Hansen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6938537

Resources, Quote Attributions, and Further Reading

Washington Post Flag Myths article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-american-flag/2011/06/08/AG3ZSkOH_story.html?utm_term=.3870fa5955f9

Articles regarding the legality of flag desecration
Time Magazine: http://time.com/3907444/flag-supreme-court-history/ and http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/law-protects-flag-burning-united-states/story?id=43855624 )

ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/law-protects-flag-burning-united-states/story?id=43855624

Flag Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)

The Flag of the United States of America
Information: http://www.usflag.org/history/the13starflag.html
Images of the flag through history: http://www.usflagdepot.com/store/page8.html

US History website
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagpics.html

Betsy Ross flag quote
http://historicphiladelphia.org/betsy-ross-house/flag/