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This flag was adopted by the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA) at their convention held in Madison Square Garden on August 13, 1920.
Meaning and history
The three colors represent:
- red: the blood that unites all people of African ancestry, and shed for liberation;
- black: black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag; and
- green: the abundant natural wealth of Africa.
The flag was created in 1920 by the members of the UNIA in response to a racist song written in 1900 entitled The Only Race Without a Flag is the 'Coon'. The song was written by Will A. Heelan and J. Fred Helf and popular in the U.S. and Britain.
A 1921 report appearing in the Africa Times and Orient Review, for which Marcus Garvey previously worked, quoted him regarding the importance of the flag:
Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride. Aye! In song and mimicry they have said, "Every race has a flag but the coon." How true! Aye! But that was said of us four years ago. They can't say it now....
The flag later became an African nationalist symbol for the liberation of African people everywhere, though it has been mostly commonly seen in the U.S. As an emblem of black pride, the flag became popular during the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s. In 1971, the school board of Newark, New Jersey, passed a resolution permitting the flag to be raised in public school classrooms. Four of the board's nine members were not present at the time, and the resolution was introduced by the board's teen member, a mayoral appointee. Fierce controversy ensued, including a court order that the board show cause why they should not be forced to rescind the resolution, and at least two state legislative proposals to ban ethnic or national flags in public classrooms other than the official U.S. flag.
The flag is presently widely available through flag shops or ethnic specialty stores. It is commonly seen at parades commemorating Martin Luther King Day, civil rights rallies, and other special events.
The flag goes by several other names with varying degrees of popularity:
- the UNIA flag, after its originators; rarely used
- the Marcus Garvey flag; used mostly by vexillologists
- the Universal African flag; rarely used
- the International African flag; rarely used
- the Black Liberation flag; commonly used, especially since the 1960s
- the Pan-African flag; commonly used, especially since the 1990s
- the Black Nationalist, or African Nationalist flag.
Although other designs are also referred to as the International African flag or the Pan-African flag, the descending stripes of red, black, and green, popularized by UNIA in 1920, are the design most often referred to in this manner.
Similar flags
A Black Power flag is a variant of this flag with a raised, clenched fist centered over the red, black, and green stripes.
The Biafran flag another variant of this one, with a sunburst in the center.
The African National Congress flag is three horizontal stripes, descending black, green, and dark yellow (gold).
The Rasta flag is three horizontal stripes, descending green, yellow, and red. It is derived from the Ethiopian flag.
The flag of Ethiopia is three horizontal stripes, descending green, yellow, red, with a light blue disk in the center blazoned with a yellow pentagram, with yellow single rays emanating from the angles of the pentagram and terminating before the edge of the disk. It is the oldest national flag in Africa, and the colors of its three horizontal bands are sometime referred to as the Pan-African colors.
The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in 1997 to commemorate Kwanzaa with a modern graphic of a dark-skinned family wearing garments traditional in parts of Africa and fashionable for special occasions among African-Americans. The family members are holding food, gifts, and a flag. The flag in the stamp may have been meant to represent the Pan-African flag; however, instead of the stripes descending red, black, and green, the stamp's flag transposes the top two bands and descends black, red, and green.
In 2000, artist David Hammons created a work called African-American Flag which is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Based on the standard U.S. flag, its stripes are black and red, the field is green, and the stars on the field are black.
Proposed holiday
June 14 is celebrated as Flag Day in the U.S. In 1999, an article appeared in the July 25 edition of The Black World Today suggesting that, as an act of global solidarity, every August 17 should be celebrated worldwide as Universal African Flag Day by flying the red, black, and green banner. August 17 is the birthday of Marcus Garvey.
See also
External links
- Afro-American flags at Flags of the World non-commercial vexillology site
- "Every Race Has a Flag But the 'Coon":
- Sheet music from a Johns Hopkins University website
- Sheet music from the American Memory website of the Library of Congress
- 'Fly the Red, Black, and Green' article proposing holiday at The Black World Today, July 25, 1999
- Kwanzaa Stamp U.S. postage depicting similar flag, with explanatory press release
- MoMA Learning an educational exercise based on David Hammons' African-American Flag
- UNIA official website
References
"Black Flag," unattributed article in TIME Magazine, December 13, 1971. (re Newark school board controversy)
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