June 14 is celebrated as Flag Day. On that day in 1777, the Continental Congress approved the stars-and-stripes design for the official American flag. Seeking a flag for American vessels and a symbol of unity, the Continental Congress "[r]esolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a constellation."

On April 4, 1818, Congress established that the field of blue should hold one star for every state in the Union. The design with seven red and six white stripes also was made official. On July 4, 1960, the 50th star was officially added to the field of blue, when Hawaii became a state.

The flag as a symbol of America and source of pride was observed with zeal in the mid-1800s. Cartoonists depicted the fair maiden Liberty draped with a flag in Kansas at the mercy of border ruffians. In January 1861, a clerk in New Orleans received a telegram from treasury secretary John Dix; the message read, "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." In South Carolina, Major Robert Anderson was determined to keep the United States flag flying over Fort Sumter as thousands of Southern troops surrounded the fort and blockaded the harbor. From April 14, 1861, until February 1865, the Confederate flag flew over Fort Sumter. The United States flag was burned in Memphis on April 21 and Confederate soldiers danced on flags Christmas 1862 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Throughout the Civil War spirits were stirred as they sang "We'll rally 'round the flag; Boys, we'll rally once again."

Four hundred years after Columbus landed at Plymouth Rock, Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Published in The Youth's Companion, the pledge was to be recited at commemoration ceremonies on October 12, 1892. It appeared in the same time period that many groups, including the American Flag Association, Grand Army of the Republic and Sons of the American Revolution, claimed the flag was being prostituted for commercial gain. The flag should be honored and protected from desecration. Mrs. John Hume, Daughters of the American Revolution chair, said, "What the cross is to our church, the flag is to our country."

What had happened in the 50 years from 1850 to 1900? The nation industrialized and advertised. There were no laws, restrictions or etiquette for handling the flag. In Chicago alone the flag was used for more than 120 types of commercial purposes, including in brewery advertisements, burlesque shows and as decoration on belts, toilet paper and whiskey barrels, according to an 1895 pamphlet.

In 1942 a joint resolution of Congress summarized the rules for display of the U. S. flag. In Sec. 176. Respect for flag (k): "The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning." On July 7, 1976, in Public Law 94-344 Congress amended the flag code.

The civil rights movement and Vietnam era protests brought the flag as a symbol to the public attention and conscience. In March 1966 at Purdue University, a guest speaker tore, spat and trampled on the flag during a meeting of the Students for Democratic Society. Illinois responded with a new flag desecration law, increasing the penalty from a maximum of $10 to a $1,000 fine plus one year in jail. Rufus Hinton, Sidney Street, and Gregory Lee Johnson added their names to others whose speech and actions upon the flag would take them to the Supreme Court.

Congressional efforts to prohibit actions that many considered desecration resulted in flag desecration laws and proposed constitutional amendments..