Jacob said the flag was not a direct reaction to the first Black Lives Matter protests-an idea suggested by a previous origin story in Harper’s-but he allows he may have first seen the thin blue line image after those protests spurred the circulation of pro-police imagery online. Two sergeants carry the Thin Blue Line flag as they walk at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, in May 2019. “It’s a flag to show support for law enforcement-no politics involved.” The company officially disavowed its use in Charlottesville. “The flag has no association with racism, hatred, bigotry,” he said. Now, Jacob is the president of Thin Blue Line USA, one of the largest online retailers devoted exclusively to sales of pro-police flags, T-shirts, neckwear and jewelry. While in high school in West Bloomfield, Michigan, he had attended a memorial service for a police officer who had been killed on the job. He had seen the image of the flag on patches and stickers, he told The Marshall Project, but not an actual flag. In 2014, a white college student named Andrew Jacob was watching protests of police killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice. Now, as police again become the focal point of a fight for racial equality in the U.S., the flag has returned to both mirror and amplify divisions.īut how did this flag come to be so pervasive? And what does it really stand for? County officials in Oregon recently paid $100,000 to a black employee of a law enforcement agency there, after she said she was harassed by co-workers for complaining about her colleagues displaying the flag at work. But it has also been flown by white supremacists, appearing next to Confederate flags at the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville.
#Black stripes professional#
"The story of Juneteenth as we celebrated is the story of our ongoing fight to realize America's promise, not for some, but for all.Those who fly the flag have said it stands for solidarity and professional pride within a dangerous, difficult profession and a solemn tribute to fallen police officers. "America is a promise, a promise of freedom, liberty, and justice," Harris said.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in brief remarks on a CNN special that also featured musical guests, including Miguel and Charlie Wilson, that the holiday honors Black excellence and celebrates freedom, one of the country's founding principles. This year, Lee became only the second Black person to have her portrait hung in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol. The 96-year-old former teacher and activist is largely credited for rallying others behind a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. In Fort Worth, Texas, the woman known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," Opal Lee, led her annual Walk for Freedom. For generations, Black Americans have recognized Juneteenth, but it only became a federal holiday two years ago. The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed - two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the bloody Civil War. "Is #Juneteenth the only federal holiday that some states have banned the teaching of its history and significance?" author Michelle Duster asked on Twitter, referring to measures in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama prohibiting an Advancement Placement African American studies course or the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism. Still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop parts of that history from being taught in public schools. While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America's often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. This year, Lee became only the second Black person to have her portrait hung in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol.Īmericans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War. In Fort Worth, Texas, the woman known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," Opal Lee, led her annual Walk for Freedom on Monday. On a long holiday weekend seen by many as a reason for a party, others are urging quiet reflection about the end of slavery and the treatment of Black Americans throughout U.S. Americans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings.
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