History of US Flag

History of America's Flag

Adam Tyler

Francis Hopkinson's Original Flag

1. I learned the flag officially originated on June 14, 1777 at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia while discussing the Declaration of Independence.
2. I learned the flag has evolved as the design has changed 26 times. Some of the big changes was the Act of January 13, 1794 which provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795, the Act of April 4, 1818 which provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of each new state which was signed by President Monroe, the Executive Order of President Taft dated June 24, 1912 which established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each which was a single point of each star to be upward, the Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated January 3, 1959 which provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each that staggered horizontally and vertically and the Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated August 21, 1959 which provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically. None of these were permanent.

3. Some factors that have shaped the flag are, between 1777 and 1960 Congress passed several acts that changed the shape, design and arrangement of the flag and allowed stars and stripes to be added to reflect the admission of each new state. Today the flag consists of 13 horizontal stripes, seven red  with six white. The stripes represent the original 13 Colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well; red symbolizes hardiness, white symbolizes innocence, and blue represents justice.

4. The flag is a symbol as it stands for courage (red), liberty (white), and justice (blue), but doesn't seem to be as widespread as people think as many people think that the flag is a big fat lie and that it doesn't represent America as so many people are mistreated because of racism and terrorism. However, I and some people still think that the American Flag does represent those things due to how well we have it over other countries. Some of the flags' nicknames are the Continental Colors, The Grand Union Flag, Stars and Stripes, and Old Glory as they were made by the British who were in union. Popular music tells us that the flag is a symbol of courage in battle. From most music featuring the American Flag, such as Green Day's American Idiot, shows that the American Flag has represented a generation rocked by events such as the Iraq War.

5. I think that people respect and understand the flag as it represents how good their country is. They continue to upgrade the flag like how they continue to upgrade America itself until it reached a good place. They put their hand over their heart and stand up to look at the flag at Randolph School's football game while the band plays Star-Spangled Banner as football is an important event in America (to most people), while in other countries, people don't have American football. The flag represents how lucky we are to have so much and we respect it for that. Also, we burn the flag when it hits the ground, like burying someone who has just died.

6. I think that despite many people liking (or at least tolerating) the flag, some have found it to be a symbol of lies, that America is not great and is unfair. A football player named Colin Kaepernick actually took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner and refused to put his hand over his heart, stating that people aren't treated well in America. Many people also think the same, that things haven't gotten much better since the flag was invented and that we are still hurtful and mean to people that are different from us (which isn't exactly false).

Sources:

History: Origin of the American Flag=how the American Flag was made according to history and some of its nicknames
USA Flag Site: History of American Flag=how the American Flag was upgraded throughout history and changed
Wikipedia: Frank Hopkinson's Original Flag is up above