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In the United States, we celebrate our nation’s founding on the 4th of July. We have Memorial Day to honor soldiers who died in the service, and Veterans Day to honor all who served. And then, there’s Flag Day.
It’s not an official federal holiday, and barely remarked upon for many Americans. So, what is the purpose of Flag Day? Why have a day set aside just to honor the U.S. national flag?
To answer that, let’s look at the people who advocated to give Old Glory its own day of recognition.
Flag Day doesn’t have a single origin story – instead, a cluster of people, working over decades, finally brought the day to fruition. Its first big push came from 19th-century teachers and historians advocating for a day to recognize the flag annually on June 14, nearly a century after the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag in 1777. As the Department of Veterans Affairs notes, some advocates saw Flag Day as a way to assimilate immigrant children into the new land, under a unifying symbol.
The National Flag Foundation cites B.J. Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher and eventual newspaper editor, as an early champion – he mobilized his students to celebrate the flag’s birthday when he was a teacher in 1885, and repeatedly called for a celebratory Flag Day in articles and speeches in his later career.
Cigrand may have been the most tireless advocate, but there were others: A New York City kindergarten teacher got his students to celebrate in 1889, popularizing the event so much that the New York State Board of Education moved to recognize an annual celebration. In 1893, a Pennsylvania historian rallied the schoolchildren of Philadelphia to celebrate in Independence Square. The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks made it an official day of recognition in 1907, after years of celebrating the flag in June. Slowly over the years, different teachers and civic organizers brought attention to the U.S. flag as a powerful symbol of the nation.
Finally in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation designating Flag Day as June 14. While World War I raged in Europe, and America struggled with how or whether to fully join the fray, Wilson urged Americans to look to Flag Day as a day of “renewal and reminder” of the country’s unity and traditions.
Flag Day only got official approval from Congress in 1949, at the urging of President Harry S. Truman. During the waning months of World War II, Truman’s 1945 speech on Flag Day honored the stars and stripes’ role as a beacon in the midst of turmoil
"“"As we press forward to final victory, we are strengthened with the knowledge that for millions of people in other lands as well as in our own, our Flag is a living token of human integrity and freedom."