Dr. Samuel B. Hoff is a George Washington Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history and political science at Delaware State University. He has taught and published extensively on America’s founding era.
Sunday’s Flag Day commemoration has its roots in America’s Revolutionary era. Developing and displaying a single flag representing all the Colonies as they fought for freedom was an important unifying experience for the Founding Fathers, just as the flag symbolizes the common creed of the country in contemporary times.
Before 1775, the Colonies had flags modeled after British flags and maritime markers. After the Stamp Act tax imposed by the British in 1765, the Sons of Liberty group created a protest flag that was later updated. Once the American Revolution started, a series of flags were made and deployed for the Continental Army led by Gen. George Washington, including the Grand Union flag of 1775, the Betsy Ross flag of 1776 and the Hopkinson flag of 1777. The latter, developed by New Jersey Congressman and Declaration of Independence signer Francis Hopkinson, was the first use of the stars and stripes in a staggered pattern and would be the prototype of the single flag that ensued.
In 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, specifying the general nature of a national flag design. Later Flag Acts passed under the Constitution encompassed 1794 and 1818, each of which added to the number of stars due to increasing states in the union. The number of stars was updated 24 more times through 1960.
Once a free country, there were efforts in the United States to celebrate the nation’s spirit and strength through various holidays and festivities. As a symbol of national pride and patriotism, a Flag Day was proposed at the outset of the Civil War. A sustained movement for a national Flag Day occurred over the 1885-1915 time frame, when a plethora of individuals and organizations advanced the idea. One of the Flag Day proponents, grade school teacher Bernard Cigrand from Waubeka, Wisconsin, lobbied for decades for an observance each June 14, the date when the Continental Congress approved the 1777 Flag Resolution.
The federal government has taken some steps to establish a national Flag Day but has fallen short of creating a designated holiday on the June 14 date. For instance, Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge each issued a proclamation to recognize Flag Day. The first official national law recognizing Flag Day was enacted in 1949 by the Truman administration. A 1966 law extended Flag Day into National Flag Week. Still, none of these actions produced an official Flag Day holiday. In fact, only one state — Pennsylvania — has a law on the books that treats Flag Day as a holiday.
Clearly, the American flag means different things to various people. However, having a single day now to admire it, via parades and other events, elicits our shared heritage, like it did for those who pledged their sacred honor toward achieving independence two-and-a-half centuries ago.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
