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Veterans' Stories And History Exhibits Featured At Pittsburgh's American Flag Education Center

Jakob Lazzaro
/
90.5 WESA
Spectators watch National Flag Foundation Chairman Romel Nicholas speak in the Koppers Building lobby on Thursday, June 14, 2018.

An American flag education center is opening in downtown Pittsburgh. 

The National Flag Foundation said the facility in the lobby of the Koppers Building will include interactive exhibits of veterans’ stories and the history of the flag. The building will also feature a rooftop red, white, and blue lighting display.

Flag Foundation chairman Romel Nicholas said the flag stands for unity and rises above the fray on issues.

“The purpose of the Flag Foundation is to educate above and beyond that in the spirit of what brings the country together, not what separates the country," Nicholas said. 

He said he thinks visitors will be particularly interested in the center due to the recent controversy surrounding President Trump and the NFL. Over the past two season, players kneltduring the national anthem to protest police violence.

Nicholas said the Flag Foundation respects the right of the players to protest and citedTexas v. Johnson, the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring flag burning legal under the first amendment.

“‘We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents,’” Nicholas, quoting Associate Justice William Brennan’s majority opinion, said. 

The Pittsburgh-based organization turns 50 this year, and the learning space is expected to open in 2019.

Jakob Lazzaro is a digital producer at WESA and WYEP. He comes to Pittsburgh from South Bend, Ind., where he worked as the senior reporter and assignment editor at WVPE and had fun on-air hosting local All Things Considered two days a week, but he first got to know this area in 2018 as an intern at WESA (and is excited to be back). He graduated from Northwestern University in 2020 and has also previously reported for CalMatters and written NPR's Source of the Week email newsletter.