Today we break down flags that have been in the news; from variations on the American flag to revolutionary flags like the Gadsden Flag and the "Appeal to Heaven" pine tree flag.
These flags do not change in their design, but the meaning of these flags certainly does change.
For more flaggery, click here to hear our show about the history of the American flag and SCOTUS cases surrounding it, and click here to learn about why Nick thinks the NH flag is so terrible.
BONUS: Check out Hannah and Nick on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute - Conservatives want to burn flags too!
Listen:
Transcript
Archive: That girl. You can't claim us. We live here. 500 million of us. Do you have a flag?
Archive: This morning, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is under fire. The New York Times obtaining this photo of an American flag flying upside down.
Archive: A new report of a flag flying outside his new Jersey beach house, according to the New York Times, the so-called appeal to Heaven flag, the.
Archive: Upside down flag was a symbol associated with former President Trump's false claims of election fraud. Going forward.
Archive: It is possible that that flag, Don't Tread on Me could be outlawed in the workplace.
Nick Capodice: You're listening to Civics 101. I'm Nick Capodice.
Hannah McCarthy: I'm Hannah McCarthy.
Nick Capodice: And today we are talking about flags.
Hannah McCarthy: You do love talking about flags.
Nick Capodice: Nick I do. I am indeed a fan of vexillology. Hannah. That is the study of flags. And we could go on and on about the standard 50-star American flag that bedeck our nation. But we've got to drop some links first.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. So one of the very first things that Nick and I did together was an episode on the history of the United States flag and the Supreme Court cases about saluting it, not saluting it, burning it, etc. and we will put a link to that episode in the show notes short version of that story. Betsy Ross maybe didn't create it, and you do have a constitutional right to burn it.
Nick Capodice: And while we're playing our Golden Flag oldies, I just got to mention many years ago I did a piece on the New Hampshire state flag and why I feel it's just so terrible. Spoiler alert it's what's referred to as a seal on a bedsheet flag, and it's the only state flag with a location no longer in the state. It's depicting.
Hannah McCarthy: Uh, in real quick. I do feel like we should say, you know, on the terribleness of a flag. While you might personally, subjectively find any flag perfectly great, just wonderful as a thing, a flag serves a purpose beyond just decoration. And vexillology does assess flags.
Nick Capodice: Yeah. NAVA. The North American Vexillological Association ranked New Hampshire's flag 63rd place out of the 72 state and territory flags on the continent of North America. There's a link to that episode also down there in the show notes, just in case you can't get enough flag.
Hannah McCarthy: So we're not talking about, you know, the known standard US flag. And we are also not talking about state flags. So what are we talking about today?
Nick Capodice: We are talking about variations on the US flag and symbolic flags, flags that have been in the news lately. These are flags with historical political significance and American past and present. Specifically, we're talking about flags whose meanings have changed in the course of our history. Now, I'm not going to be talking about recent flags that were created for civil rights and social movements, like th e myriad varieties of pride flags, Black Lives Matter flags, thin blue, green slash, red line flags, etc..
Hannah McCarthy: Another day.
Nick Capodice: Another day, and another flag I'm not going to get into. Today is quite possibly the most controversial flag in the country. Robert E Lee's battle flag. That is what is referred to now just as the Confederate flag.
Hannah McCarthy: And you're not going to talk about that one.
Nick Capodice: I am not. That flag has a lot of scholarship and sensitivities around it, and it deserves a fully researched episode all of its own. So back to the flags we are going to talk about. Many of our listeners have probably already guessed why we're doing an episode about this right now.
Hannah McCarthy: Yep.
Archive: Now, since the news broke, several legal scholars have been questioning whether Alito showed bias here and damaged his credibility. Of course, even the perception of a conflict of interest could be problematic and undermine faith in the courts.
Nick Capodice: Have you been following this story?
Hannah McCarthy: I have a little bit.
Nick Capodice: Do you want to fill everyone in in case they're not familiar with it? Yeah.
Hannah McCarthy: Uh, happily so. In May of 2024, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not recuse himself from two separate cases tied to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Recusing yourself as a justice or a judge means taking yourself out of the equation in a court case. So you would not sit as a justice or a judge, hear the arguments and issue your opinion or your ruling. And this happens when someone may have had experiences or has connections that could potentially prevent them from being objective when it comes to the subject of a case. So Samuel Alito was asked by several Democrats in the House and the Senate to recuse himself due to evidence that two controversial flags flew at his residences an upside-down American flag during the week of President Biden's inauguration, and a, quote unquote, appeal to heaven flag that flew for an undetermined period of time. Yeah.
Nick Capodice: And I'm going to talk more about the Justice Alito story and both of those flags a little bit later. But just to get started, just to prime the engine a little bit, let's start this journey with some variations on Old Glory itself.
Hannah McCarthy: I know that song. That's your grand old flag.
Nick Capodice: That's it, written by that Yankee Doodle Dandy himself, George M Cohan. That is the first song from a musical, Hannah, to sell over a million copies of sheet music. Wow. George M Cohan was apparently visiting Gettysburg, and there was a Civil War vet standing next to him with a folded flag, and the veteran said, she's a grand. The old rag, ain't she?
Hannah McCarthy: Oh, grand old rag. You know, that's that's charming and a very special way. It's, like, very personal. He should have used that in the song instead.
Nick Capodice: Well, he tried to, but a horde of people and organizations objected to him calling it a rag, even a grand old one. So he changed it.
Hannah McCarthy: I mean, it was a song for the people, right? You got to give them what they want.
Nick Capodice: You know, it's funny. That's exactly what he said, Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: Oh, there you go.
Nick Capodice: The first flag I want to talk about today is the 13 star, 13 stripe American flag.
Hannah McCarthy: This is our first flag. Yes?
Nick Capodice: Some people call it our second because there was a flag from 1775 called the Colonial colors that had the 13 stripes. And instead of stars, a Union Jack in the canton. The canton, by the way, is the square on the upper left side of the flag. But the 13 stars and 13 stripes is our official first flag.
Hannah McCarthy: I still can't get over that fun little fact that they initially planned to add a new star and a new stripe for each new state.
Nick Capodice: Can you even imagine 50 stars and 50 stripes?
Hannah McCarthy: So is there some deal with the 13 star flag these days?
Nick Capodice: Yeah, so this is often called the Betsy Ross flag. It's fairly common to see it in the United States. And you're going to hear this refrain a lot today. It has since in different times, in different years, been tied to white supremacist groups.
Archive: We've been talking this morning about Nike after the company pulled its sneakers with the Betsy Ross American flag following complaints from Colin Kaepernick, of course, sponsored by Nike. And now Dom Shoe has some new details and developments on the story that have just happened this morning. Dom.
Archive: It is. It was only a matter of time, Andrew, right before it got political and now it's getting political.
Nick Capodice: In 2019, Nike was planning to release a new sneaker, the air Max. One quick strike. They were going to release it on the 4th of July and they had the Betsy Ross flag upon it. Former NFL star Colin Kaepernick publicly expressed his displeasure that Nike was releasing a shoe with a flag from an era of slavery.
Hannah McCarthy: So how is it that this flag came to be associated with white supremacist groups? Is it because it is from an era of enslavement?
Nick Capodice: Yeah, this is sort of a gray area. Hannah, one of the first of many. Today, the Betsy Ross flag has been flown by the Ku Klux Klan. It's been flown by the modern day militia movement, and it was flown by insurrectionists on January 6th. At the same time, according to the Anti-Defamation League, if we had like a scale of offensive modern day symbolism of flags, this Betsy Ross flag would rank on the lower side, one of their researchers said, quote, we view it as essentially an innocuous historical flag. It's not a thing in the white supremacist movement, end quote. And while we're at it now, is as good a time as any to get a great big wanging qualifier out here. Hannah. You, your friends or your neighbors might fly some of these flags for your own personal reasons. And as an American citizen, you can. You have a right to fly any flag that you want, maybe a flag you love. And that means something to you got tied up with the movement that you don't agree with. All I'm saying today is that the symbolism attached to a flag is not static. It develops, it changes, and sometimes you don't have any control over that.
Hannah McCarthy: So back to the Stars and Stripes. When do new stars get added to our flag?
Nick Capodice: On the next 4th of July, after a state is admitted to the Union. A new star is added. In the case of multiple states being added over the course of a year, which has happened a few times. A new star was added for each new state. We have had 27 variations so far, not counting Grampa Simpson's 49 Star Flag.
Archive: I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I'd recognize Missouri.
Hannah McCarthy: Something that always really got me when I saw a flag in the wild was one of those variations, Nick. There was this house that I always walked by that had a flag with 33 stars in a diamond pattern. And I looked it up, and apparently it was the Fort Sumter flag. Do you know why a house in New England would be flying that flag?
Nick Capodice: That was the flag that was knocked down when the Confederate Army attacked Fort Sumter. One article about the Fort Sumter flag read, quote, it was said that when the Stars and Stripes went down at Sumter, it went up in every loyal town and county in the States. Every window shutter is tied with red, white and blue. Even dogs are wrapped up in the Star Spangled Banner. The demand for flags is so great that manufacturers cannot supply them fast enough.
Hannah McCarthy: But do you know why, Nick? Why a house in New Hampshire would be flying that flag in 2024?
Nick Capodice: I honestly don't know. The only way to know for sure is to knock on their door and ask.
Hannah McCarthy: I do always wonder. I wonder if that could ever be interpreted as an invitation to come knock on the door and be like, hey, what's that flag about?
Nick Capodice: I think it is. I think a flag is a statement, and it's like an invitation to have somebody ask you what it's about.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, well we're journalists. Okay. Last American flag variation before we move on to other flags, can we talk about the history of inverting it?
Nick Capodice: You want to go into the Upside Down? I think we should. All right. In January of 2021, the month of President Biden's inauguration, an upside-down flag was flown at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Hannah McCarthy: A flag was flown is what we in the world of letters call passive voice, Nick.
Nick Capodice: I have been guilty of slipping into passive voice. Hannah, but this time it's on purpose. It's actively passive. Justice Alito has given several conflicting explanations as to why and when and how this flag flew, but the one commonality is that it was not he but his wife, Martha Ann Alito, that was responsible. And when members of Congress asked Alito to recuse himself from the upcoming insurrection cases, he refused, saying, quote, my wife is fond of flying flags.
Hannah McCarthy: So putting this particular interpersonal incident aside, what is the story of the inverted flag itself?
Nick Capodice: Well, it all goes back to the code. The US flag code. On Flag Day, June 14th, 1923, the National Flag Code was created. It became public law in 1942. And this code says what you can and you can't do with the US flag. And it has violated thousands of times every single day.
Hannah McCarthy: Every single day.
Nick Capodice: Every single day. For example, Hannah, the code prohibits wearing of the flag, having it on clothing or bedding, dipping it to anybody or anything. And my personal favorite, it should quote never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.
Hannah McCarthy: Oh come on, that would put every store out of business.
Nick Capodice: Every car dealership would be in trouble. And finally, back to the code. The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. And this upside down usage goes way back hundreds of years. Sailors would fly upside down flags to say they were sinking or they were under attack.
Hannah McCarthy: It seems to me that the upside down flag shifted from military distress to political or social commentary pretty quickly. I mean, I have seen footage of Vietnam War protesters flying it, Iraq War protesters too, and tied to Alito. Again, abortion rights advocates all over the country hung the flag upside down in the wake of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade. I think a lot of people, Nick, would also say that, you know, if this is a flag to show distress when it comes to life or property. In all of these cases, these individuals are flying a flag in relation to distress over life or property.
Nick Capodice: Yeah, than is a very good point. Some other recent examples here. It was flown at so-called Stop the Steal protests by people refusing to accept the will of the voters in 2020. And just this month, when Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges, conservative Member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene and conservative organization the Heritage Foundation tweeted pictures of an upside down flag. We've got to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to get into a few more flags, from rattlesnakes to pine trees.
Hannah McCarthy: But before that break, I am just going to flag that Civics 101 relies on listener support to operate. And if you are hearing these words, well, that's you. If you are so inclined, consider making a gift to our show at our website, civics101podcast.org. And thank you. We're back. We're talking flags here on Civics 101 and Nick. You promised me snakes and pine trees.
Nick Capodice: I did indeed.
Nick Capodice: Which of those do you want to do first?
Hannah McCarthy: Let's do trees, because I'm fairly sure a tree flag is also tied to Justice Alito. And I think we should just get that out of the way.
Nick Capodice: You got it. The next flag. An appeal to heaven. So what is called the appeal to heaven flag has those words. And a lone, tall green pine tree on a white background. This flag has a fascinating history involving something called the Pine Tree Riot, which I'm going to tell you about before I get to how it was adopted by the far right and Christian nationalists in particular. So here we go. Pine Tree Riot, 1772. Pine Tree Riot. Throw back a flagon of ale and you know about the British using trees from New England to make their tall, tall ships. Right.
Hannah McCarthy: Uh do I ever. I believe that I told you this story, Nick. England's greatest strength was their navy. And they ran out of trees and the forests of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Well, they had a lot of trees.
Nick Capodice: They sure did. They had a lot of tall, tall trees. And England wanted all of them. So they sent surveyors of the King's Woods to go about the colonies and mark any tree with a 12 inch or greater circumference, with a symbol that is known as the broad arrow. That tree is now the property of the king, and you would get heavily fined if you cut down one of those trees yourself to, you know, build something.
Hannah McCarthy: I can imagine this was pretty unpopular with the people of the colonies, extremely unpopular.
Nick Capodice: There were lots of small demonstrations about this law in the early 1700s, but the big one came in 1772, when a surveyor found a bunch of cut down trees with that mark on them in a sawmill in Ware, New Hampshire. The mill owners refused to pay the fine, and the sheriff, Benjamin Whiting, came to arrest them. The night that Whiting arrived, a group of 30 men covered their faces in soot. To disguise themselves. They sneaked into his tavern, maimed the faces of his horses, broke into his room, and beat him with tree branches. One lash for every tree in question. And I tell you this whole long story, Hannah, because this act of direct rebellion against the British, this was before the Boston Tea Party and quite possibly a contributor to its inspiration. Later, during the revolution, two warships launched from the Charles River, and they had this flag with the green pine tree and those words an appeal to heaven. Those words come from John Locke, his second treatise on government. The line is, quote, where the body of the people, or any single man is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of power without a right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven. This flag has hung in a lot of different collections around the country. Notably, it flew in San Francisco. It was put up in the 1960s and it was taken down just last week.
Hannah McCarthy: Did they take it down after the Alito story broke?
Nick Capodice: They did. The San Francisco Parks Department said that they had this flag in the first place because it was a historical revolutionary flag. But, quote, it has since been adopted by a different group, one that doesn't represent the city's values. So we made the decision to swap it out with the American flag, end quote.
Hannah McCarthy: Okay, so you said that this flag has since become tied to Christian nationalism, originally an anti-British pine tree flag. How did that adoption happen?
Nick Capodice: It was a gradual development. It started in the late aughts, 2009, with the birth of the Tea Party movement.
Hannah McCarthy: Okay, and the Tea Party movement. That is indeed in reference to the Boston Tea Party. A big part of this movement is revolution. And this was a revolutionary flag. Except this new Tea Party wasn't against unjust governance by a body across the ocean. It was against, you know, quote unquote, big government here in the United States under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the first Black president of this country.
Nick Capodice: And then in 2015, this flag got a big boost thanks to a Christian author and pastor named Dutch Sheets.
Archive: When it looks like there is no way, what do you do? You believe when you're a Valley forge and it looks like it's all over, what do you do? You appeal to heaven.
Nick Capodice: Dutch Sheets is a leader in a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation. This movement openly advocates for Christian dominion over all. It is the fastest growing Christian group in the country, with an estimated 33 million adherents, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who has an appeal to Heaven flag hanging right outside his office.
Archive: The appeal to Heaven flag is a critical, important part of American history. It's it's something that I've always revered since I've been a young man. I had people misuse our symbols all the time. It doesn't mean we don't use the symbols anymore.
Nick Capodice: I want to get back to this pastor. Dutch Sheets. Sheets did a nationwide tour in 2015 named the appeal to Heaven tour, and I've seen videos of his speeches. He holds the flag up in front of him. This tour was given in direct response to the Supreme Court's findings in Obergefell v Hodges, the marriage equality case. It was also in response to myriad abortion cases all across the country. Sheets said, quote, it is not settled law until God says it's settled law and we're going to change these things. There's got to be a hope that comes if we appeal to heaven.
Archive: If when they planted that cross on the beach there at Plymouth Rock and dedicated this nation to God, wrote that covenant agreement, the Mayflower Compact and dedicated this soil to the furthering of the gospel. If God was really in that covenant and he was really behind this, maybe, just maybe, if he's in it, we're going to win.
Hannah McCarthy: This flag also grew to be associated with Donald Trump, right? Yes. Okay. So then if I have to guess, it also became associated with the stop the Steal movement, because I know that it was flown at the insurrection on January 6th, which is why it's such a big deal that it was flown at the home of a Supreme Court justice.
Nick Capodice: Yeah, I think you can still see it on Google Street View, by the way. All right, Hannah, one more flag before we respectfully fold this episode up and put it in the fire. We're going to round it out today with a timber rattlesnake and four famous words "don't tread on me."
Hannah McCarthy: Quick reminder to our listeners. Civics 101 is produced by New Hampshire Public Radio, and you do see this flag quite a lot in New Hampshire.
Nick Capodice: You sure do. Bumper stickers, houses. It's all over the place, and we're going to get to why in a second. This bright yellow flag is known as the Gadsden flag.
Hannah McCarthy: Am I wrong? Is is Benjamin Franklin tied to this somehow?
Nick Capodice: Yeah. Whenever an American animal metaphor happens, Ben F shows up. The snake, the pigeon, the turkey.
Speaker14: The turkey.
Speaker15: The turkey is the truly noble bird.
Nick Capodice: Ben Franklin is all over this one, starting with a satirical letter in the Pennsylvania Gazette that he wrote, Britain was sending convicted felons to the colonies, and Franklin suggested in return he would mail them a crate of rattlesnakes in a more serious vein, in 1754 he published what we now call the rattlesnake cartoon.
Hannah McCarthy: Oh, I have seen this cartoon. It's the rattlesnake chopped into several pieces, each piece being one of the seven colonies with the words join or die below. Basically, the colonies have to stop just looking out for themselves and unite against common enemies.
Nick Capodice: That's the one. What I didn't know was that this was the very first political cartoon published in an American newspaper. Really? Yeah. Christopher Gadsden was a member of the Continental Congress from South Carolina. He was an enslaver. He constructed Gadsden's Wharf in Charleston. That's the war for an estimated 40% of enslaved people were brought to the United States. In 1775. He commissioned the design of the flag that we know today the Gadsden flag, the Don't Tread on Me flag. The snake faces left, and it has 13 rattles on its tail, representing the 13 colonies.
Hannah McCarthy: All right, so what ends up happening with the Gadsden flag?
Nick Capodice: A lot happens. We're going to jump ahead to the 1970s, when the Gadsden flag was adopted by the Libertarian Party.
Archive: Should someone have to have a government-issued license to drive a car?
Archive: Hell no.
Archive: What's next? Requiring a license to make toast in your own damn toaster?
Nick Capodice: The Libertarian Party believes in very limited government. That clip, by the way, was from the libertarian presidential debates in 2016. So the Don't Tread on Me represents an individual's rights instead of the nation's unified strength. In New Hampshire, something called the Free State Project, they use this flag, and sometimes they use a porcupine instead of a rattler.
Hannah McCarthy: For those who are not familiar, the Free State Project is a movement encouraging 20,000 libertarians to relocate to New Hampshire and from there secede from the union based on a provision that some people think that they are misinterpreting. Up to this point, New Hampshire has not seceded from the Union. You probably would have heard about it, but the state has become a magnet for libertarians who now play a fairly large role in the New Hampshire state government and to some extent shaped the culture.
Nick Capodice: And just like the appeal to Heaven flag, the Gadsden flag became part of the anti-establishment symbolism of the Tea Party in 2009 2010, and this flag is far more prevalent than the pine tree flag in American culture and debate. In 2014, a couple murdered two police officers in Las Vegas, and they covered one of the dead bodies of the officers with the Gadsden flag. It was flown at many protests in the wake of the 2020 election. And yes, it was flown both inside and outside the Capitol building during the January 6th attacks.
Hannah McCarthy: So we talk about the First Amendment a lot on this show. We talk about the First Amendment a lot in this country. Uh, but this is making me specifically think of a student's right to freedom of expression at school. I'm remembering some time last year that this flag in particular was a part of a student speech controversy.
Nick Capodice: It was in August 2023, a seventh grader in Colorado Springs was removed from school due to his refusal to remove patches sewn onto his backpack. There were a half a dozen featuring semiautomatic weapons, and another one being the Don't Tread on Me flag.
Archive: This situation got a ton of attention online a few months ago. Now that's seventh grader Jayden Rodriguez is suing, saying the school is infringing on his right to free speech.
Nick Capodice: This caused a national uproar. Members of Congress denounced the school's actions. The Democratic governor of Colorado stepped in himself to say, this flag had a long and storied history, and the student was allowed to keep the patch on his bag.
Archive: For the boy's mother. Her recording was seen by millions of people on social media, which struck a nerve with a nation. In an ongoing conversation over how some of America's more controversial history should be taught or portrayed.
Hannah McCarthy: So what's really interesting to me about all of this is that you've got these images on cloth, right? That image does not change, but its meaning does. Flags are symbols, but symbols of what? That's up to you, right? Symbols are a graphic language, and language means different things in different contexts. And so it really becomes about, well, what movement is flying the flag to represent that right. To represent distress, to represent revolutionary spirit, to represent I am being tread upon. And it's really the person who is holding it up. And the movement that they are from that brings this association upon this symbol. So there's there's symbolism and then there's association and they're two very different things.
Nick Capodice: Yeah. And one thing I found really interesting when sort of researching the flags for this episode is times that movements do change the symbol like they do alter the graphic language specifically with the Gadsden flag. Uh, abortion rights activists have flown a version of the Don't Tread on Me flag, where the rattlesnake is coiled into the shape of a uterus. And in the 1990s, a queer self-defense group in San Francisco. They put the snake on top of a rainbow flag.
Hannah McCarthy: I think also this makes me think, Nick, that you know, the long history of these flags and the fact that every American has the right to fly these flags, uh, it means that these flags can be a very out loud, very public symbol and at the same time be a kind of secret handshake. Right? It's all about your own context. If you're in the know, if you see a flag that you know means something because your own community is saying that, it means that then you know that that person is flying it to say, I'm with you. It's really it's all about the context. It's all about, you know, how this flag language is used.
Nick Capodice: How do you want to end this one, Hannah?
Hannah McCarthy: How do you want to end it? It's your episode.
Nick Capodice: Well, I didn't go into the Pride flag in this episode because it didn't sort of fit with the theme. But, you know, I did write it in June, so I guess happy Pride month.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, happy Pride babies.
All right. Cool.
Nick Capodice: That's all the flags I'm going to wave today. This episode is made by me. Nick Capodice with you. Hannah McCarthy. Thank you. Our staff includes senior producer Christina Phillips and executive producer Rebecca Lavoie. Music in this episode by Bijou broke for free. Lennon, Hutton. Apollo, Francis. Wells, Diana. Oates. Starlight. Fabian. Tell. Howard, Harper. Barnes, Ben. Elson, twin Musicom, Kevin McCloud, maiden, Blue Dot Sessions, Joe Calling, and Chris Zabriskie. Civics 101 is a production of NHPR New Hampshire Public Radio.