Americans will soon mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on the U.S. That night, backed by an American flag, President George W. Bush addressed the nation from the White House. Sixty years earlier, Americans listened to a similar speech from the White House, this time by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During his 9/11/1941… continue
The nation, one of its states and a branch of the military are marking special flag anniversaries this month. FLAG DAY One hundred years ago, as the U.S. grew nearer to entering World War I, President Woodrow Wilson officially established June 14 as Flag Day. “Many circumstances have recently conspired,” he wrote in 1916, “to… continue
As a state, Tennessee has an unusual flag. As a city, Nashville has a complicated flag. As a college, Austin Peay sports a gonfalon. When Tennessee entered the United States 220 years ago, it chose red, white and blue for its state flag. But the hues were arranged in a unique way. The red portion… continue
Three major national holidays that unfurl flags are fast approaching: Memorial Day at the end of May, Flag Day on June 14 and the Fourth of July. The problem with such familiar occasions is that we often forget their original meaning and focus instead on picnics and fireworks. Shortly after the Civil War, Memorial Day… continue
Walt Whitman, one of America’s finest poets, spent much of the Civil War in Washington, D.C., working in hospitals and caring for wounded servicemen. In April 1864, he sent a letter to his mother to share how the American flag affected soldiers and himself. “You don’t know,” he wrote, “what a feeling a man gets… continue