Dunn’s Civics > Black History > Immorality of Markets

The African American Flag

The African American flag, also referred to as the Pan-African flag, the UNIA flag, Afro-American flag or Black Liberation Flag, was originally created as an official banner to represent an international community for all African people. 

Influenced by the members of the  Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA). The organization formally adopted it in article 39 of the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World on August 13, 1920, during its month-long convention held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

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.

Does this flag have continuing symbolic value for African-American aspirations?