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As the Juneteenth holiday approaches, you’ll start to see various symbols of Blackness across the country. Front lawns, apartment balconies, and clothing with the pan-African flag, “Black Power” fist, and other celebratory symbols will be everywhere. But did you know there’s a specific flag for Juneteenth?
In fact, it has a backstory that goes back to the late 1990s. Capital B spoke with Ben Haith, the flag’s creator, and others to learn more about its history and impact.
The History
Haith, a community organizer and activist known better as “Boston Ben,” created the flag in 1997. In an interview with Capital B, Haith said once he learned about Juneteenth, he felt passionately it needed representation.
“I was just doing what God told me,” Haith said. “I have somewhat of a marketing background, and I thought Juneteenth, what it represented, needed to have a symbol.”
Haith wasn’t impressed with the initial concept, but every Juneteenth holiday he would raise the flag near his son’s middle school in Roxbury, a majority Black community in Boston.
After getting his inspiration for the flag, he knew which colors and symbols he wanted in the flag — he just needed to finalize it. That’s when he met illustrator Lisa Jeanne-Graf, who responded to an ad in a local newspaper and finalized the flag in 2000.
The Design Elements
The Colors
Juneteenth is often associated with red, green, and black: the colors of the pan-African flag. However, those aren’t the colors of the Juneteenth flag. The banner shares the colors of the American flag: red, white, and blue. In the past, Haith has said it was a purposeful choice — a reminder that Black Americans descended from slaves are exactly that: American.
“For so long, our ancestors weren’t considered citizens of this country,” Haith said. “But realistically, and technically, they were citizens. They just were deprived of being recognized as citizens. So I thought it was important that the colors portray red, white, and blue, which we see in the American flag.”
Read the full article about the Juneteenth flag's creator by Kenya Hunter at Capital B News.