Creator of Juneteenth Flag is Norwich Resident, Formerly From Stamford and Boston

Juneteenth did not begin with Connecticut resident Ben Haith, but among the most visible symbols of the newly christened federal and state holiday is the red, blue and white flag that he designed nearly a quarter century ago.

Haith, who is a Norwich resident, created the Juneteenth flag - the one now used nationwide - with artist Lisa Jeanne Graf in 1997, while he was living in Boston.  Haith grew up in Stamford, and until the 1990s, he only heard of the holiday once in passing in the 1950s while visiting an aunt in Virginia, the Norwich Bulletin reported. 

“What’s happening with Juneteenth is much larger than me; I’m just a small part of it, and I appreciate people’s thanking me about designing the flag, which represents something much larger than itself. It’s a flag about humanity. It’s a flag about people who accomplished a lot, even though they went through a lot. Hopefully, people will start thinking about Juneteenth throughout the world, to help bring peace to our world,” Haith, a Norwich resident since 2008, told the Bulletin, in an interview featured in media across the country in the days prior to the Juneteenth observance.

Describing the flag’s design, Haith explained “That’s a Juneteenth Star, but it means other things as well, like the Lone Star of Texas, which they also have on their state flag. The red, white, and blue represents our national flag. The flag also represents a new people, with the star bursting out. The red curve represents the star rising into the heavens, where the other stars are in the blue. We all belong to the universe.”

Texas is where the enslaved people were told on June 19, 1865, that they were free - two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln declared their freedom.  The occasion has been celebrated by Black families, mainly in the South, since before 1900, but only more recently beyond that region, and beyond the Black community. 

The flag was first raised in 2000, the Boston Globe reported, at a ceremony at Roxbury’s Dillaway-Thomas House.  Awareness of the flag increased during the past two decades, as awareness of the significance of Juneteenth grew, culminating with its being established as a national holiday a year ago.  Connecticut is among the states to have made Juneteenth a state holiday as well, effective this year.

Haith was recognized during Norwich’s flag raising ceremony last Friday, the first in the state this year. 

“We’ve come a long way, but I think people from all over the world are going to be able to relate to Juneteenth,” Haith told the Globe, adding, as WTNH News8 reported,  “Hopefully, this flag will be a symbol that we can do more. For not only the African American people, but all people.”