Ben Haith facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ben Haith
|
|
|---|---|
Ben Haith in 2023
|
|
| Born |
Hassie Benjamin Haith Jr.
1942 (age 81–82) Connecticut
|
| Known for | Juneteenth flag |
Hassie Benjamin Haith Jr. (born 1942), also known as Boston Ben, is an American activist, social worker, and designer of the Juneteenth flag. Haith has been active in anti-crime groups since the 1980s. He is also the founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation.
Career
Activism
Haith is a grass roots community activist who publicly identifies and critiques racial disparity. He is active in anti-crime activities and he has been critical of law enforcement. Throughout his life he has advocated for investigations of the police.
In 1983, when he was 40 years old, he ran for public office for the first time. Haith ran for the District 7 city council seat, which represented a predominantly African American section of Boston. He described himself as a community activist who also owned an advertising agency with his wife. He ran his campaign out of a tent near Dudley Station Historic District. In 1986, he advocated for black areas of Boston to secede from the city.
In 2008 Haith and others camped out in the empty apartments located in the Lenox Street projects and Orchard Park in Roxbury. The goal of the action was to end the "Stop Snitching" culture by getting neighbors to "drop a dime" when they saw illegal activity.
Juneteenth
Haith founded the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, and he led the holiday's first Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony in Boston's Roxbury Heritage State Park in 2000. Haith designed the Juneteenth flag in 1997, and in 2000 (after the addition of the text June 19, 1865), he copyrighted the design.
