- Jun 17
- 3 min read
As the national Juneteenth Flag was recently unfurled in Tampa, its creator, Benjamin Haith, stood alongside local leaders to remind a new generation that the story of liberation is still being written.
Haith, an 83-year-old community activist and Army veteran, traveled from Connecticut to Tampa to participate in the special ceremony on June 12. The event, held at the City Center on Hanna Avenue a week before the Juneteenth holiday, also featured a wellness fair, live music, free food, and appearances from the Blake High School ROTC, Ms. and Little Ms. Juneteenth pageant winners, and the Buffalo Soldiers.
However, Haith, who created the national Juneteenth Flag in 1997, was the star of the show. Pastor Philetha Tucker-Johnson, president of the Tampa Bay Juneteenth Coalition, called the cultural icon a visionary whose design transformed the holiday into a “global visual declaration that freedom belongs to all people.”
“When the creator of the Juneteenth Flag steps into Tampa, history is not just visiting our city - history is standing in our presence,” Tucker-Johnson said in a prepared statement. “Ben Haith did not simply create a flag; he created a symbol that carries the heartbeat of freedom, resilience, remembrance, and unfinished purpose for generations across America.”
The red, white, and blue flag, like the holiday, commemorates June 19, 1865. That is the day when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that slavery, a 246-year-old scourge, was abolished.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. However, because the Union Army lacked a strong presence in the westernmost Confederate state, slave owners widely ignored the order for over two years.
Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980.
In 1997, Haith, also known as “Boston Ben,” recalled his family sharing Juneteenth stories during childhood visits to his aunt's farm. He began researching what was then an unofficial holiday and realized it needed a symbol.
Juneteenth became an official federal holiday on June 17, 2021 - over 24 years after Haith raised the first flag. Stakeholders must now work to preserve the significance of Freedom Day, he told WTVT at the Tampa ceremony.
"We become ambassadors for the spirit of Juneteenth to continue our ancestors' journey," Haith said.
After the event, several local leaders expressed their appreciation for Haith’s visit and the ceremony’s purposefulness on social media. Tampa Fire Rescue officials called his “powerful” presence a “reminder of the importance of honoring history while continuing to move forward as a community.”
Businessman and mayoral candidate Gary Hartfield also noted that Juneteenth - and the event - were more than a celebration of history. “It is a reminder of how far we’ve come, the work that remains, and the responsibility we all share to ensure future generations understand the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs that helped shape our country,” he wrote.
City Councilmember Luis Viera said the event was a “great celebration about what is right with our country” that honored “more than 350,0000 American soldiers for our Union/Federal Government who died and gave all in the Civil War to save the Union and emancipate 4,000,000 enslaved souls.”
“Juneteenth is a top reminder of how what is right with America can heal what is wrong with America,” Viera added.
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