Michigan Has an Official Pledge to the State Flag – You’ve Certainly Never Ever Said It Before

Every schoolchild learns the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States. You could almost certainly recite it right now. However, we are equally certain that you have never heard of the pledge to Michigan's flag and couldn't recite it at all.

The state has had an official pledge to its flag since 1972 after it was adopted into law by the state's legislature.

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Here is the pledge to Michigan's flag:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of Michigan, and to the state for which it stands, two beautiful peninsulas united by a bridge of steel, where equal opportunity and justice to all is our ideal.

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The pledge to the flag is pretty straight forward and keeps closely with the cadence of the national pledge. The 'two beautiful peninsulas united by a bridge of steel' is, of course, a reference to the Mackinac Bridge and puts the writing of the pledge sometime after the bridge's opening in 1957.

Who Was Harold G Coburn - the Man Who Wrote Michigan's Flag Pledge?

The legislation enacting the state pledge gives authorship to Harold G. Coburn. In myriad articles that mention the Michigan flag pledge, none go behind mentioning Coburn's name and looking deeper into who this man was.

And there's little to find, just a few tantalizing breadcrumbs. A Harold G. Coburn was married in 1912 at Memphis in northern Macomb County. Two issues of Detroit Free Press, one in 1931 and another in 1941 notes a Harold Coburn as an officer of the state's Masonic community. If Coburn was civically-minded and involved in fraternal organizations, it would make sense for him to be the author of a pledge.

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A final historic newspaper mention comes from a 1972 mention, perhaps an obituary, in the Sault Ste Marie Evening News that notes Harold G. Coburn of Memphis was the author of the state's flag pledge.

Does Anyone Use the Michigan's Flag Pledge Officially?

If you've never heard of the state's pledge, it's likely no one is using the pledge in common practice. Researching the pledge, a mention is found in the minutes of city council of Cadillac. In 2014, the city's mayor noted that the state had a pledge and it should be recited at future council meetings. 10 years on, one wonders if the state pledge is still a part of Cadillac's council meetings. Contemporary minutes note the meetings start with a call-to-order, pledge to the flag and roll call.