Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Flag Day: The Making of a Myth

6/14/2021

6 Comments

 
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“Resolved: that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union by thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”
            - Journal of the Continental Congress, June 14, 1777


Every morning in my grade school we pledged allegiance to the flag, mumbled the Lord’s Prayer, and sang a patriotic song. Flag equaled country, sacrosanct, deserving of reverence. It wasn’t always that way.

The young republic in 1777 needed an identifying banner to raise on ships or carry into battle. More practical than emotive, the new flags didn’t fly in classrooms or outside private homes. Their mythic overtones came later, in response to current events.

​Union loyalists flew the Stars and Stripes during the Civil War. Soon after, approaching the centennial, descendants claimed Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. In the late 1800s, U.S. flags promoted the assimilation of immigrants. A Wisconsin schoolteacher is among many credited with starting Flag Day. A marketer created the Pledge of Allegiance to boost flag sales to schools.
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Two world wars and the rise of godless Communism heightened the distinctively American “cult of the flag.” Presidents and Congress formalized Flag Day (1916, 1949), made “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem (1931), adopted the Pledge of Allegiance (1942), and added “under God” to the pledge (1954). Flags marked political discord in the 1960s, unity after 9/11, and polarization last January—surely not what the founders had in mind.
6 Comments
Dennis Doren
6/14/2021 07:13:56 am

Speaking of the changing messages implied by flying a flag, I saw something the other day that confused me. At one house both the US flag and the Confederate flag were (and are) both flying prominently. Given one was originally meant in direct contrast to the other, to the degree that scores of tens of thousands of people died fighting for their side, I truly do not know what message I was to understand.

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Sarah Cook link
6/14/2021 04:17:56 pm

Confusing indeed! And rioters carrying Confederate flags to the Capitol Jan. 6 called themselves patriots acting to save the United States. Perhaps the more powerful a symbol, the less logic or consistency in its use. I read a piece this morning arguing that leaders of the Confederacy were no more traitors than Washington et al were in rebelling against Britain, the only difference being that they lost. If the Continental Army had lost the American Revolution, I can't think we would still be flying the Stars and Stripes.

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Anne Liesendahl
6/15/2021 10:28:24 am

At one time I planned to write a children's book about the flag. Here's an early draft.

Ten year old Bernard and his father walked through the cemetery placing flags on the graves of the Civil War soldiers. They discussed how the soldiers looked for the flag when in battle to see whether they were winning or not. Seeing the flag helped many keep going. Bernard always remembered these walks.

From the early on Bernard sought to celebrate the American flag’s birth-day, June 14, 1777(1776?). At eighteen, he was teaching in a one room school house in Waubeka Wis. He placed a flag on his desk and asked his students to write “What the flag means to me”. When he moved to Chicago he convinced the public schools to celebrate Flag Day on the third Saturday of June. Ceremonies were held in five parks and over 300,000 children attended.

Bernard Cigrand spoke and wrote about the flag every chance he got. In the Chicago Argus newspaper, he wrote an article titled “The Fourteenth of June”. In it he proposed the yearly celebration of the birth of the flag. One of his first speeches was to a group known as the “Sons of America”. He suggested a flag holiday would be good for the country. The group was so impressed that they published a magazine, “American Standard” to get people interested in the flag and its birth date.

“All persons who desire to commemorate the birthday of the American flag, adopted 14 June 1777, are invited to meet at 8 PM in the assembly hall of the Grand Pacific Hotel.” That night the hall was crowded. Excited people discussed how the birthday could be celebrated and how to involve other people. The group formed the American Flag-Day Association. Its purpose was to celebrate the birth of the flag on the third Saturday in June and to involve public school children. When Cigrand became its president he changed the celebration to the actual date, June 14.

Soon the National Flag Day Society was established and over the years Governors, mayors and even five Presidents sent delegates. They agreed that all the states should observe June 14 as Flag Day. Flag Day ceremonies became so popular that in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Flag Day an annual event. Soon people began calling Bernard Cigrand the “Father of Flag Day”.

Cigrand died in 1932 but his campaign continued. Finally Congress passed the National Flag Day Bill. President Harry S. Truman signed it in 1949. Four years later the Tribune wrote the Bernard Cigrand “became known” as the Father of Flag Day and said he “almost single-handedly” established this day.

So today when you will see flags flown on all public buildings, most private businesses and many homes on June 14, thank the perseverance of Bernard Cigrand.

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Sarah Cook link
6/16/2021 06:41:06 am

Anne, this is lovely! I wasn't aware of Wisconsinite Bernard Cigrand until I started exploring the history of Flag Day this month. Various local communities had created their own Flag Day celebrations, many of them on June 14, but few had his drive and persistence to make it a national holiday.

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Rebecca link
6/20/2021 04:44:31 pm

I think the US flag is beautiful when it represents the many made one. When it is used as a line in the sand to divide us, that I'm less wild about. No one party gets to claim it. My two cents.

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Sarah Cook link
6/22/2021 07:08:10 am

Rebecca, I'm with you. Whether the Red, White, and Blue represents unity or red-vs-blue division is so much a matter of context. Either way, it can be a powerfully emotional symbol, as we saw in January both on the 6th and during the inauguration two weeks later.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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