Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Flag of Arkansas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The flag of the U.S. state of Arkansas consists of a diamond on a red field, representing Arkansas's diamond mines (Arkansas was the first state where diamonds were mined naturally). The twenty five white stars around the border of the diamond represents Arkansas's position as the 25th state to join the union; the star inside the diamond and above "ARKANSAS" is for the Confederate States of America. The three stars below "ARKANSAS" have three different meanings: The nations to which Arkansas has belonged (Spain, France, and the United States); the year in which the Louisiana Purchase occurred (1803); and Arkansas being the third state (after Louisiana and Missouri) formed from the Louisiana Purchase. The flag was designed by Willie Kavanaugh Hocker of Wabbaseka, Arkansas from a field of sixty-five entries in a 1912 contest.
Around 1912, the Pine Bluff, Arkansas chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) wished to present a state flag for the commissioning of the battleship USS Arkansas. When it was discovered that Arkansas did not have a state flag, the DAR chapter decided to sponsor a contest to design a flag. Hocker, a member of the Pine Bluff DAR chapter, won with a design that is similar to the current flag. Hocker designed the flag with three blue stars in the middle of the white diamond and omitted "ARKANSAS". At the request of the flag committee, chaired by the Secretary of State, Earle Hodges, Hocker added "ARKANSAS" and rearranged the stars to one on top and two on bottom. This flag was adopted by the legislature on February 26, 1913. [1]
In 1923, the legislature added a fourth star, representing the Confederate States of America. This fourth star was originally placed so that there were two stars above the state name and two below; this was to include the Confederacy alongside Spain, France, and the United States. Since this disturbed the other two meanings of the original three stars, the legislature corrected this in 1924 by placing the Confederate star above "ARKANSAS" and the original three stars below it, as it is today.
- Flag protocol (Arkansas Secretary of State website, also includes detailed history)
- History and meaning of the Arkansas state flag (Flags of the World)
- Arkansas flag law (Arkansas General Assembly website)
|
|
|
|---|---|
| States | Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming |
| Federal district | Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) |
| Insular areas | American Samoa · Guam · Northern Mariana Islands · Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands |