What You Didn’t Know About the Franco-American Flag

Let’s go over the Franco-American flag I mentioned in my first post. 

Each color and symbol represents an aspect of the Franco-American story. 

So let’s break it down: 

• Red, white, and blue represents France and the United States. 
• The star symbolizes the unity of Franco-Americans. 
• The Fleur-de-Lis symbolizes our connection to Quebec (it could also stand for French-Canadians outside of Quebec and Franco-Americans with their lineage leading back to France rather than Quebec). 

Remember in my first post, I said that a Franco-American was an American with a family lineage from Quebec? So why does this flag also represent France? 

Because everyone in our community has different ideas about what makes a Franco-American, some consider Americans of direct French origin as Franco-Americans. While others would refer to them as French-Americans. 

So again, it’s strictly an opinion. 

I know this can get confusing, but when speaking about Franco-Americans, the majority of the time it’s referring to Americans with Quebec lineage. 

Although there is not much information about who designed this flag, it was given to Édith Butler, a Canadian singer-songwriter of Acadian heritage, by the Franco-American community of Upstate New York and New York City. 

Butler then presented the flag at one of her concerts in Manchester, New Hampshire on June 24, 1992, which is known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in the French-Canadian and Franco-American community. 

The Franco-American flag is not well known, but we can create visibility by flying it at our home, bringing it to community events such as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, or any other way to bring our community together and invite other communities to celebrate with us. 

Do you have any ideas about bringing the Franco-American flag to the forefront? Comment them below and order your own flag today!