the country’s last remaining enslaved people that, under the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier, they were free. The bursting outline around the star is inspired by a nova, a term that astronomers use to mean a new star. The curve that extends across the width of the flag represents a new horizon: the opportunities and promise that lay ahead for Black Americans. The red, white and blue represents the American flag, a reminder that slaves and their descendants were and are Americans.