Pan-African flag

The Pan-African flag (also known as the Afro-American flag, Black Liberation flag, UNIA flag, and various other names) is an ethnic flag representing Pan-Africanism, all peoples of Indigenous African descent, and/or black nationalism. A tri-color flag, it consists of three equal horizontal bands of (from top down) red, black, and green. August 17 - the birthday of Marcus Garvey, is celebrated as Universal African Flag Day.

The flag was created as a response to racism to African Americans and because Marcus Garvey wanted to unify African Americans under a common flag. The colors and flag were inspired by the Liberty League of Negro Americans.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) formally adopted it on August 13, 1920, in Article 39 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, during its month-long convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Variations of the flag can and have been used in various countries and territories in the Americas to represent Garveyist ideologies.

Pan-African Flags follow two similar color sets: red, black, and green inspired by the Black Liberation Flag. The second color set is derived from it but changes black to gold or yellow, to make the red, green, and gold color set. These two color sets dominate the flags of the African Continent.

thumb|Flag of Ethiopia (1975–1987), using the second set of Pan African Flag colors

History

thumb|Sheet music for "[[Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon"|alt=|left|220x220px]]

Liberty League of Negro Americans Flag Inspiration

Marcus Garvey wanted to create a flag to fight back and promote racial pride. He was inspired by the 1917 flag of The Liberty League of Negro-Americans whose perpendicular tri color flag was black, brown, and yellow. These three colors were meant to symbolize the colors of all the people from Africa in America, and their relationship to their own people and other peoples of the world. He would later use this as inspiration for his 1920 Black Liberation Flag, changing the colors to black, red, and gold. Then finally the black, red, and green. This song has been cited as one of the three songs that "firmly established the term coon in the American vocabulary". In a 1927 report of a 1921 speech appearing in the Negro World weekly newspaper, Marcus Garvey was quoted as saying:

The Universal Negro Catechism, published by the UNIA in 1921, refers to the colors of the flag meaning:

When the UNIA owned newspaper, the Negro World, held a competition in 1927 for why its readers considered themselves"Garveyites", many of the entries and winning entries said it was because the organization had a flag.

According to the UNIA more recently, the three colors on the Black Nationalist flag represent:

red: the blood that unites all people of Black 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 later became a Black Nationalist symbol for the worldwide liberation of Black people. As an emblem of Black pride, the flag became popular during the Black Liberation movement of the 1960s.

New Jersey School Board 1971-2026

New Jersey School Board 2026

In 1971, Lawrence Hamm, a seventeen year old Newark New Jersey school board member proposed a resolution to fly the Black Liberation Flag at schools and in classrooms as a teaching aid, at schools in Newark that were majority black. All five of the school boards members present approved this resolution that day, however four of the nine total school board members were absent at the time of voting. One of the absent school board members, who was white, took the board to court because he believed the resolution was illegal and unconstitutional. The school board member, John Cervase is quoted in saying,"(it) would deprive the public of tax‐supported schools free from propaganda and doctrine favoring a select racial or ethnic group, contrary to the public welfare." The Superior Court restrained the Newark School board's resolution. The same day as the restraining order on the resolution was signed, a bill in the New Jersey State Assembly was proposed and passed, restricting that no flag other than the flag of the United States of America can be flown on schools and government building and be put in classrooms.

New Jersey School Board 2016

In February 2026, after 50 years since first proposed, the Newark School Board allowed schools to raise the Black Liberation Flag in classrooms and buildings.

Juneteenth

19 June 1865, is the date in which enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received the news of their freedom. This is commemorated every 19 June with Juneteenth, which is considered the longest-running African American holiday. Many in the African American community have adopted the Pan-African flag to represent Juneteenth. The Juneteenth holiday became an official federal holiday 17 June 2021, and does have its own flag, however, created in 1997the Juneteenth flag.

2010s usage

In the United States, following the refusal of a grand jury to indict a police officer in the August 9, 2014, shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a Howard University student replaced the U.S. flag on that school's Washington, D.C., campus flagpole with a "black solidarity" flag (this tricolor) flying at half-mast.

2020s usage

In February 2023, the Pan-African flag was flown over the Denver Federal Center to commemorate Black History Month, which was the first time that flag was flown over any federal building. In Martinique, a new flag was raised which symbolises the same ties to Africa.

Derivative flags

Flags of nation states

File:Flag of Kenya.svg|Flag of Kenya

File:Flag of South Sudan.svg|Flag of South Sudan

File:Flag of Malawi.svg|Flag of Malawi

File:Flag of Malawi (2010-2012).svg|Flag of Malawi (2010–2012)

File:Flag of Biafra.svg|Flag of Biafra (1967–1970)

File:Proposed Flag of Angola (1996).svg|Proposed flag for Angola (1996)

File:MNLA flag.svg|Flag of Azawad

File:Flag of Martinique.svg|Flag of Martinique

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A number of flags of nation states in Africa and the Caribbean have been inspired by the UNIA flag. The Biafran flag is another variant of the UNIA flag with a sunburst in the center. Designed by the Biafran government and first raised in 1967, the colors are directly based on Garvey's design.

The flag of Malawi issued in 1964 is very similar and reflects the Black Nationalist flag's order of stripes. It is not directly based on Garvey's flag, although the colors have the same symbolism: Red for blood symbolizing the struggle of the people, green for vegetation, and black for the race of the people.

The Kenyan flag (Swahili: Bendera ya Kenya) is a tricolor of black, red, and green with two white fimbriations imposed, with a Masai shield and two crossed spears. It was officially adopted on 12 December 1963 after Kenya's independence, inspired by the Pan-African tricolour.

The flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis has similar colors, arranged diagonally and separated by yellow lines. It similar to the Malawian flag in that the colors are not directly taken from the Pan-African flag but the symbolism is the same.

Derivative flags in the United States

The Kwanzaa Bendera

In the 1960s The Us Organization redesigned the UNIA flag also changing order and significance of the colours to: black, red and green. Defining "black" for the people, "red" for struggle, and "green" for the future built "out of struggle".

United States Postal Service issued a stamp in 1997 to commemorate the African-American festival of Kwanzaa with a painting by artist Synthia Saint James 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 but instead used the similar flag (a black, red, and green horizontal tricolour) of the Black nationalist organisation Us Organization, which shares its founder, professor and activist Maulana Karenga, with Kwanzaa.

The bendera (flag in the Kiswahili language) was documented as an supplemental symbol of Kwanzaa, in Karenga's 1998 book The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa, and included in ceremonial use during the festival.

African America Flag.svg|David Hammons's African-American Flag

Hammons flag.jpg|African American Flag in New York city

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Alternative names

The flag goes by several other names with varying degrees of popularity:

the Afro-American flag
the Bendera Ya Taifa (Kiswahili for "flag of the Nation"), in reference to its usage during Kwanzaa
the Black Liberation flag
the International African flag
the Marcus Garvey flag
the UNIA flag, after its originators
the Universal African flag
the Red Black Green (RBG) flag
the Black Nationalist flag

Proposed holiday

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.

Notes

References

External links

Afro-American flags at Flags of the World
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
UNIA official website