Flag of Washington, D.C.

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Flag of the District of Columbia

The flag of Washington, D.C. consists of three red stars above two red bars on a white background. It is based upon the design of the coat of arms of the family of George Washington. For heraldic reasons, the stars are properly called "mullets."

For over a century, the District of Columbia was without an official flag and flew several unofficial banners — usually the flag of the D.C. National Guard. In 1938, Congress established a commission to choose an official, original design. The commission ended up choosing in a public competition a design by Charles A.R. Dunn, a graphic designer. His design was officially adopted on October 15, 1938. Dunn had first proposed this design for the D.C. flag in 1921.

In 2002, the D.C. city council debated a proposal to change the flag in protest of the District's lack of voting rights in Congress. The new design would have added the letters "D.C." to the center star and the words "Taxation Without / Representation" in white to the two red bars. The change presumably would have been temporary and revoked once the city achieved equal representation or statehood. It passed the city council on a 10-2 vote but support for the proposal soon eroded and the mayor never signed the bill.

In a 2004 poll on the North American Vexillological Association website, Washington, D.C.'s flag was voted the best design among United States city flags [1]. It had previously placed eighth in their survey of North American state and provincial flags [2].