Wearing the American flag might be more controversial than you think.
Just two months after Abbie Hoffman and his Yippies protested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, he shook the foundation of American ideals and patriotism again, this time with what he was wearing. To interrupt the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Washington — which had gathered to investigate the Chicago riots — Hoffman donned an American flag shirt.
He is believed to be the first and only person to be arrested for wearing a flag shirt and charged with desecration of a flag. In arresting him, police ripped the shirt off his back.
Nearly 50 years later, the American flag is plastered on shirts, bikinis, socks, election campaign merchandise, and party favors like napkins and plates. From politicians and baseball players to bikini-clad models and your cousin at last year’s Fourth of July barbecue, flag clothing is everywhere, and it’s become its own American tradition.
To this day, no one knows who designed the flag or why that particular color combination and pattern were chosen, says historian Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography. Primarily used by the military at the time, the flag didn’t become a staple in American households until after the Civil War. “It was almost unheard of for individuals to fly the flag the way they do now,” Leepson says. But “it was everywhere you looked in the North after [the war]. Women wore flag pins in their hair, for example.”
https://www.racked.com/2017/7/3/15879778/american-flag-clothes-code
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