Happy Juneteenth!
This Juneteenth Flag design is 5x7" on 13 mesh. Available for instant download free here!
This is a bold and colorful version of the American Flag, this time with Pan-African colors and a bright yellow reminder of the holiday we celebrate to acknowledge the freedom of all formerly enslaved peoples on June 19, 1865.
On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee Reconstruction, nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers. The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.
The Juneteenth Flag is ready to be brought to life through needlepoint! This design is 4" round on 18 mesh needlepoint canvas, available as a free digital download, here.
The Juneteenth Flag is full of symbolism.
The flag uses the colors red, white and blue of the American Flag. Featured prominently in the center of the flag is a bursting star. The five-pointed star refers both to Texas and to the "freedom of African Americans in all 50 states". Surrounding it is a 12-ray nova (or "new star") representing a new beginning for all. Running through the center of the flag horizontally, is an arc that is meant to symbolize the new horizon of opportunity for black people. According to the president of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation Steve Williams, the star is a "Bursting star of freedom." Williams also states that the arch representing the horizon shows blue above and the red color below is symbolic of the ground soaked with blood; the blood which was shed of the Black Americans enslaved by the United States. The red, white, and blue colors were meant to convey the message that all enslaved people in the United States — as well as their descendants — are American.
The African-American Flag is provided as a needlepoint chart for instant download. The design dimensions are 3.3x5.7" on 18 mesh and 4.6x8" on 13 mesh. Available for free as an instant download, here.
About the flag:
"Marcus Garvey designed the African American flag, which looked like the Italian flag, except that it is red, black, and green. But it is so abstract, so pure, that the masses were frightened by it. I made my flag because I felt that they needed one like the U.S. flag but with black stars instead of white ones." — David Hammons The colors and symbols of David Hammons’s now-iconic flag symbolically merge the red, black, and green colors of Marcus Garvey’s pan-African flag and the stars and stripes of the American flag. His commingling of colors and symbols of both flags simultaneously reference Black pride and heritage and the ways African Americans have celebrated freedom while confronting America’s unfulfilled promises. - National Museum of African American History and Culture