History Buff Series Launched
Mayor Byron W. Brown and City of Buffalo Historian Lindsey Lauren Visser, launched a new monthly history series today that will highlight some of the people and places in Buffalo that have helped to shape the community around us. The History Buff initiative will include a series of fun facts and videos each month that will be posted on all of the City’s communication platforms, including social media, the City’s website, Bulletin Boards in City Hall, as well as the City of Buffalo Government Channel.
Mayor Brown said, “History can be found and experienced in every single neighborhood citywide in 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 that helped to shape the world around us. I thank our new City Historian Lindsey Lauren Visser for spearheading History Buff, an interesting and informative learning experience that can help us appreciate the life we have now, while also reveal some of our City’s hidden history.”
“Buffalo has such a rich and diverse history; there are so many topics that we can and will talk about,” said Ms. Visser. “What I love most about our City’s history is that the events that took place here affected our state, national, and even world history. These videos are a great opportunity to highlight the ongoing importance of our City.”
Mayor Brown and Ms. Visser launched History Buff in the Office of the Mayor, with a focus on Flag Day, and the story about a Buffalo School teacher who – with others – gave us 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 selected the 14th as it was the date the Continental Congress accepted the design of the American flag.
Hinson’s Flag Day caught on, with more schools and civic organizations participating each year. In 1901, she encouraged its observance 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 procla mation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day. On August 3, 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.
Additional news available at: www.buffalony.gov Other interesting pieces of national history that happened in Buffalo, New York, in the month of June, include the following.
June 14th • The Anniversary of First Women’s Suffrage Parade in 1913.
June 19th • Congresswoman Winifred Stanley of Buffalo introduces the first equal pay legislation in America, 1944.
• First Juneteenth celebration held in Buffalo, 1976. June 24th
• Buffalo couple becomes the first same-sex couple to legally marry in New York State, 2011.
For more information about History Buffalo, email historian@buffalony.gov.