News flash • Mayor Brown and city historian mark Flag Day with La

Buffalo, New York – Mayor Byron W. Brown and Buffalo City Historian Lindsey Lauren Visser today launched a new monthly history series that will highlight some of the people and places in Buffalo that have contributed to shape the community around us. The History Buff initiative will feature a monthly series of fun facts and videos that will be posted across all City communications platforms, including social media, the City website, City Hall, as well as the City of Buffalo Government Channel. .

Mayor Brown said, “History can be found and experienced in every neighborhood in the City of Buffalo, and the goal of the new History Buff initiative is to teach our community more about some of the people, places and major events in the city of good neighbors. who has helped shape the world around us. I thank our new city historian, Lindsey Lauren Visser, for leading History Buff, an engaging and informative learning experience that can help us appreciate the lives we currently lead, while revealing some of the history hidden from our city.

“Buffalo has such a rich and diverse history; there are so many topics we can and will talk about,” Ms. Visser said. “What I love most about the history of our city is that the events that took place here affected our state, national and even world history. These videos provide a great opportunity to highlight the continued importance of our city.

Mayor Brown and Ms. Visser launched History Buff in the Mayor’s office, focusing on Flag Day and the story of a Buffalo school teacher who – along with others – gave us the flag day.

According to city historian Lindsey Lauren Visser, Sarah Hinson, a teacher at School 31 on Emslie Street (now the Harriot Ross Tubman School), began what she called Flag Day exercises in 1891. She encouraged her students to salute the flag and recite the pledge. of allegiance. Hinson chose the 14th because that was the date the Continental Congress accepted the design of the American flag.

Hinson Flag Day has grown in size, with more schools and civic organizations participating each year. In 1901, she encouraged its celebration at the Pan American Exposition, where then-Senator and future Vice President Charles Fairbanks helped lead the festivities.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation officially establishing June 14 as Flag Day. On August 3, 1949, National Flag Day was established by act of Congress.

Other interesting pieces of national history that occurred in Buffalo, New York, during the month of June include the following.

• The anniversary of the first women’s suffrage parade in 1913.

• Congresswoman Winifred Stanley of Buffalo introduced America’s first equal pay legislation in 1944.
• First Juneteenth celebration in Buffalo, 1976.

• The Buffalo couple becomes the first same-sex couple to legally marry in New York State, 2011.

For more information about History Buffalo, email [email protected].