The stars and stripes evoke conflicting emotions among different individuals and groups of students. For some, the flag conjures patriotic feelings; for others, resentment at injustices perpetrated in the name of American freedom and under the star spangled red, white and blue. As a history major who focuses his studies on the Civil War and a student with a special dedication to the well-being of his university, I thought it appropriate to share a brief reflection about what the American flag means to me. 

When I see, as I saw just this past Saturday evening on a campground in rural Missouri, the flag being gently lowered from its pole and folded with great care, I am reminded of the sacrifices of previous generations to bring about “a more perfect Union.” Most of all, when I see the American flag, I am reminded of the sacrifices of Union veterans of the Civil War, a conflict, which as Lincoln said, tested whether America, “or any nation so conceived and so dedicated” to liberty and human equality, could “long endure.” I recall, among other things, the bayonet charge of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top where this band of farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks brought about a Union victory on the second day at Gettysburg. On the whole northern soldiers fought to preserve the country which the founders formed in 1776. Little did many of them know that they would ultimately be fighting not only for their own freedom but to bring freedom to the enslaved. Furthermore, it was the sacrifice of Black soldiers who had the greatest impact on bringing about this result. A Black soldier soldier in the 54th Massachusetts regiment, which the movie “Glory” portrays, wrote, “if we fight to maintain a Republican Government, we want Republican privileges … All we ask is proper enjoyment of the rights of citizenship” (quoted in “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War” by James M. McPherson). A white Illinois private wrote, “I have seen a great meny [sic] fighting for our country. Then why should they not be free?” These Black men, many of them former slaves, truly shed their blood for, as Lincoln said, “a new birth of freedom.” They did so under the stars and stripes of the American flag. When I see the flag flying in the bright sky, I am reminded of the valor of these Union soldiers, both Black and white, and am often overwhelmed with great emotion.

Unfortunately, despite the Union victory, the rights of the newly freed slaves were undermined through a horrendous system of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. Nevertheless, the founding principles of the American republic, secured by the Civil War, served to inspire resistance to these tyrannical laws. It was the Civil Rights Movement, composed of thousands of ordinary Americans, Black and white, northern and southern, which ultimately dealt the death blow to institutionalized white supremacy in the United States. As many of them marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, what symbol of freedom and justice did they carry but the American flag? The brave efforts of the men and women of the Civil Rights Movement mystically unite with those of Union soldiers a century earlier in a great tradition of American liberty. When I see that flag under which they fought and marched, I am honored at the freedoms they brought about for future generations of Americans and liberty-loving people everywhere. 

In my mind, the flag of the United States embodies the best values of the American experiment: freedom, equality under the law and the chance for all people to live a decent life. “All men are created equal,” reads the Declaration of Independence and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Unfortunately, the ideals of the American Revolution were not bequeathed to all residents of the new country. Nevertheless, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” American history has been the drama of bringing into these blessings of freedom those who were once excluded from them. In short, Americans have been a people striving to live in conformity to their ideals. The stars and stripes embody this struggle. In honoring the flag, I am simply expressing gratitude for these sacrifices of my fellow Americans.