They can't say it now.Īccording to the UNIA more recently, the three colors on the Black Nationalist flag represent:

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. Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride. In a 1927 report of a 1921 speech appearing in the Negro World weekly newspaper, Marcus Garvey was quoted as saying: which has been cited as one of the three songs that 'firmly established the term coon in the American vocabulary'. The flag was created in 1920 by members of UNIA in response to the enormously popular 1900 coon song 'Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon'. Variations of the flag can and have been used in various countries and territories in the Americas to represent Garveyist ideologies. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) formally adopted it on Augin 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. 'The Pan-African flag-also known as the UNIA flag, Afro-American flag, Black Liberation flag, and various other names-is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands of (from top down) red, black and green. THE HISTORY & SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RED, BLACK, AND GREEN FLAGįrom The content of this post is provided for historical, cultural, and educational purposes. These colors are sometimes accompanied by the color black. For historical purposes, this post also includes a sound file of and lyrics to the 1900 song 'Every Race Has A Flag But The Coon'.Ĭlick for the related post on the history and significance of the Pan African colors of red, gold, and green. This pancocojams post provides information about the history and cultural significance for African Americans of the red, black, and green flag and of that color combination in decorations, greeting cards, and other usages.Īs a means of presenting examples of the use of the colors red, black, and green in African American culture, this post includes a sound file of 'The Kwanzaa Song' by Teddy Pendergrass is included in this post.

Red black flag