On Wednesday June 19, 2024 we commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The Juneteenth Flag, is a symbolic representation of that event. Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF), created the flag in 1997 with the help of collaborators, and Boston-based illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf brought their vision to life. The white star in the center of the flag has a dual meaning - it represents Texas, where in Galveston in 1865 Union soldiers informed
the country’s last remaining enslaved people that, under the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were free. The bursting outline around the star is inspired by a nova, a term that astronomers use to mean a new star. The curve that extends across the width of the flag represents a new horizon: the opportunities and promise that lay ahead for Black Americans. The red, white and blue represents the American flag, a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are Americans.