Flag of Chicago

The three white background areas of the flag represent, from top to bottom, the North, West, and South sides of the city. The top blue bar represents Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River. The bottom blue bar represents the South Branch of the river and the "Great Canal", over the Chicago Portage.[3] The light blue of the flag's two bars is variously called sky blue[4] or pale blue;[5] in a 1917 article of a speech by designer Wallace Rice, it was called "the color of water".[6][7]

Kitty Kelly holding Flag of Chicago[8] from the Chicago Tribune, 1921. Note the two stars on the flag at the time.

There are four red six-pointed stars on the center white bar. Six-pointed stars are used because five-pointed stars represent sovereign states and because the star as designed was found on no other known flags as of 1917.[9] From the hoist outwards, the stars represent:

• Added in 1939: Commemorates Fort Dearborn, and its six points stand for political entities the Chicago region has belonged to and the flags that have flown over the area: France, 1693; Great Britain, 1763; Virginia, 1778; the Northwest Territory, 1789; Indiana Territory, 1802; and Illinois (territory, 1809, and state, since 1818).[1][3]
• Original to the 1917 flag: This star stands for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Its six points represent the virtues of religion, education, aesthetics, justice, beneficence, and civic pride.[1][3]
• Original to the 1917 flag: This star symbolizes the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Its six points symbolize transportation, labor, commerce, finance, populousness, and salubrity (health).[1][3]
• Added in 1933: This star represents the Century of Progress Exposition (1933–34). Its points refer to: Chicago's status as the United States' second largest city at the time of the star's addition (Chicago became third largest in a 1990 census when passed by Los Angeles); Chicago's Latin motto, Urbs in horto ("City in a garden"); Chicago's "I Will" motto; the Great Central Marketplace; Wonder City; and Convention City.[1][3]

Additional stars have been proposed, with varying degrees of seriousness. The following reasons have been suggested for possible additions of a fifth star:

Flag of Alliance Française de Chicago students

City of Chicago Flag, with the Star Spangled Banner and Illinois State Flag at its sides at Navy Pier

The Chicago PD's flag; adopted in April 1977.

• A fifth star could represent Chicago's contribution to the nuclear age (see Metallurgical Laboratory), an idea first suggested in a 1940s letter published by the Chicago Tribune and later championed by Mayor Richard J. Daley in the 1960s.[10][11][12]
• In the 1980s, a star was proposed in honor of Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago.[12][13]
• The 1992 Chicago flood was suggested as an additional natural disaster deserving of a star, in line with the existing star for the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. Another fifth star was in the works from a group of Chicago real estate professionals to represent Chicago's entrepreneurial spirit in the early 1990s.
• When Chicago was bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the Bid Committee proposed that a fifth star be added to the flag in commemoration,[12][14] but the bid was won instead by Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Anne Burke, Tim Shriver, and others have proposed adding a fifth star to commemorate the Special Olympics, which were founded in Chicago.[15][16]
• Other sports-related suggestions include recognizing the Chicago Bulls' dominance of the National Basketball Association in the 1990s[17] and a proposal for a fifth star if the Chicago Cubs should ever win the World Series,[17] which did not happen between their long drought of series wins in 1908, up to 2016.
• The Chicago History Museum has an ongoing exhibition where the public is encouraged to vote for a potential fifth star.[18]
• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot suggested that Chicago's response to the COVID-19 pandemic could warrant adding a fifth star to Chicago's flag.[19]