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Flag Day
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The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America's
birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the
Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. BJ Cigrand, a
schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin
Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary
of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as 'Flag
Birthday'. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public
addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to
enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as 'Flag
Birthday', or 'Flag Day'.
On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New
York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his
school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the
State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy
Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June
14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the
Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.
Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the
time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the
Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America
on April 25, 1893 adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of
Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to
display the Flag on June 14th. Leach went on to recommend that
thereafter the day be known as 'Flag Day', and on that day, school
children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child
being given a small Flag.
Two weeks later on May 8th, the Board of Managers of the
Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed
the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a
result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of
Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be
held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square. School children were
assembled, each carrying a small Flag, and patriotic songs were sung
and addresses delivered.
In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the
Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy
Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as
the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of
promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14th, 1894,
under the auspices of this association, the first general public
school children's celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in
Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with
more than 300,000 children participating.
Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K.
Lane, Secretary if the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address
in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that
morning: "I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your
eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself."
Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations,
Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was
officially established by the Proclamation of President
Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in
various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was
not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of
Congress designating June 14th of each year as National
Flag Day.
This article is from
http://www.usflag.org/flag.day.html |
