Why We Hold High
The Red, Black & Green

By Bro. Zayid Muhammad
Reg.Chief of Staff, New Black Panther Party
Background
How did we get the flag? We got the flag on August 17, 1920 at perhaps the most important convention of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The UNIA was the organization, the vehicle by which he popularized Afrikan nationalism, Black people doing for themselves and having full control of their own destiny.
Although it had its base in the united states, this organization had a mass membership of well into the millions! From all over Afrika, the Caribbean, Central and South America! Wherever you had Black people respond to that clarion Garvey call of “Up you mighty race! You can accomplish what you will!” there you also found chapters of the UNIA! To this day, it is clearly recognized as the largest organization Black people have ever had!
So on August 17, 1920, UNIA representatives from its chapters from all over the world held a historic convention at Madison Square Garden to unify Garvey’s great work for Afrikan Redemption and Liberation.
One of that convention’s greatest highlights was the adoption of ‘our’ flag…The Universal Afrikan Liberation Flag.
It is said that when Garvey asked the spirited Black crowd for permission to put forth his proposal for a unifying symbol, a flag that spoke for all Afrikan people and that spoke squarely to the liberation and the unification of the entire Afrikan continent, a young female UNIA rep. from Harlem, by way of Louisiana, who would later come to be known throughout the Afrikan world as ‘Queen Mother’ Moore, pulled out a pistol and held it high in devotion to her leader and said “Speak! Garvey Speak!” electrifying an already excited crowd of proud Afrikan nationalists.
So Garvey proceeded to propose that our flag be simple and forward. It would have the colors red, black and green in three equally sized stripes. The red stood for the blood of our ancestors sold, tortured and killed in bondage and in racist oppression…Black for all of our people wherever they are in the world…Green for a prosperous free, independent and unified Afrika!
In an incredible moment of revolutionary nationalist democracy, Garvey put forward his proposal for debate and vote. The delegates accepted his proposal immediately and unanimously. This is how this powerful symbol of Pan-Afrikanism, of Afrikan people uniting all over the world, emerged…
The Uniqueness of The Flag
Over the years well beyond the glory days of Garvey’s UNIA, ‘the Flag’ has inspired struggles for independence all over the Pan-Afrikan world. Many countries with Afirikan majorities, have often adopted some variation of the red, black and green for their given new country’s flag upon independence. For example, Ghana’s national flag with its red, green and gold and the black star in the middle comes straight from both the Universal Afrikan Liberation Flag and Garvey’s ‘Black Star Line’ efforts to create an independent Black commerce order.
So from the door, we should understand that ‘the flag’ is not just an African-American flag, nor was it ever meant to be. It has, of course, rightly served to capture the desire of Black people in the united states to one day become an independent nation, just as it has been so for other Black people when they were colonized by outsiders who sought to exploit them by controlling their destiny. It should be noted though that many Black people who still somehow believe in their integrating into the violently shattered and scattered American dream also claim the flag as a way to simply and respectfully identify their Afrikan origins.
Our flag is unique for other reasons.
First, it is a flag that all people of Afrikan descent anywhere in the world can claim, no matter what Afrikan country one may have been born in, or what country outside of Afrika one is born in.
Second, unlike the ‘stars and stripes’ flag of the united states, or the ‘stars and the bars’ of the confederacy, or the ‘union jack’ of great britain, and the other flags of the colonizing countries of the ‘north,’ our flag is in no way associated with the controlling, exploiting or killing of any other people. It is not associated with the colonizing of any people. It is not associated with the genocide of any people.
What the New Black Panthers Believe
The New Black Panther Party believes in our flag as it was originally projected…as a unifying Pan-Afrikan tool for all of our people, as a part of a larger desire to liberate and unify the entire Afrikan continent for the good of the entire Afrikan world, and for our people captive here in the united states, as a unifying symbol capturing our desire to one day become an independent black nation.
While many of our people are not yet ready to see themselves completely independent of the white man, we challenge our people, in full support of them seeking to secure all of their legal rights, to have the courage to raise the flag high wherever they are a majority to reflect that dynamic and to demand respect as a unique and proud people…
UP YOU MIGHTY RACE!
YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WILL!
BLACK POWER!