NASA recognizes Juneteenth with ceremonial flag-raising (photos)

NASA held a flag-raising ceremony on Thursday (June 15) to recognize the Juneteenth holiday.

The gathering was held in front of the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington, D.C., and was attended by more than two dozen NASA employees and guests. It celebrated Juneteenth, a holiday observed every June 19 to mark the end of slavery in the United States.

Opening remarks were given by Glenn Delgado, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of Small Business Programs. Delgado also brought NASA Administrator Bill Nelson to the podium, which was set up next to the building’s three flag poles. NASA posted a gallery of the event on the agency’s Flickr account.

Related: Facts about NASA’s real ‘Hidden Figures’

Following Nelson’s short address, the Juneteenth flag was hoisted to wave alongside NASA’s agency flag and the U.S. national flag, all three now flying in front of NASA headquarters.

Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of African Americans and an end to slavery in the United States. President Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was given on Jan. 1 of that year; however, the order could not be enforced until the South was defeated in the Civil War. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that slavery officially ended in Texas, and the first Juneteenth was celebrated a year later.

Juneteenth grew into wider public awareness throughout the U.S. during the 2020 civil rights protests and was declared a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021.

The date “June 19, 1865” is printed in white on the Juneteenth flag, which is divided lengthwise into blue and red halves. The red side curves down, as if to suggest the sun setting in the distance, representing new horizons. The five-pointed white star in the flag’s center recognizes Texas’ “Lone Star” moniker and is encircled by a many-pointed starburst outline, called a nova, to stand for new beginnings.

Following the flag-raising ceremony, Nelson and Delgado posed for a photo next to the NASA headquarters sign, underneath the draped flagpoles standing above them.