Editor's note: A version of this story was initially published in June 2020.
cnn
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On this holiday, you may see another red, white, and blue flag flying over state capitols and city buildings.
That banner with an exploding 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 his vision to life.
The flag was revised in 2000 to the version we know today, according to the National Eighteenth Observation Foundation. Seven years later, the date “June 19, 1865” was added to commemorate the day Union Army Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and told enslaved African Americans of the emancipation of he.
For more than two decades, communities across the country have held flag-raising ceremonies on Juneteenth to celebrate their freedom.
“This country has many spiritual aspects and I think this flag is of that nature,” Haith said. “The idea for the design came from me.”
Designing the flag and its symbols was a deliberate process, Haith said. This is what each element of the flag represents.
The white star in the center of the flag has a double 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 last remaining slaves in the country that, according to the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were free.
But the star also goes beyond Texas and represents the freedom of African Americans in all 50 states.
The explosive contour around the star is inspired by a nova, a term astronomers use to refer to a new star.
On the Juneteenth flag, this represents a new beginning for African Americans in Galveston and across the country.
The curve that extends across the width of the flag represents a new horizon: the opportunities and promises that await African Americans.
The red, white and blue represent the American flag, a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are Americans.
June 19, 1865 represents the day enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas, became Americans under the law.
And while African Americans today still fight for equality and justice, Haith said those colors symbolize the continued commitment of people in the United States to do better and live up to the American ideal of liberty and justice for all.
