All About the Red-Black-Green Flag of Pan-African Pride

Like the LGBTQ rainbow pride flag, the Pan-African flag, sometimes called the Afro-American flag, represents an ideology, not a nation-state.

It was also called the "Marcus Garvey flag" in the early 20th century, named after the Jamaican political activist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA).

In August of 1920, Marcus Garvey and other founders of the UNIA organization responded to a racist song that argued that every race had a flag except Black Americans. The group began work to quickly rebut this blatant racism and provide Black citizens with powerful symbols to celebrate their heritage.

After a monthlong convention in Harlem, the group formally adopted a design to encourage Black solidarity and unite Black people of African descent in an ideological movement called Pan-Africanism. One flag was created to promote unity for all African people.

Each of the three colors of the Pan-African flag has its own specific meaning and symbolism:

The flag is now a familiar symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement, which reignited the fight for equality and justice in response to the police-related deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and George Floyd in the 2010s and 2020.

Marcus Garvey did more than just create the UNIA flag; by the early 1920s, he had established over 700 UNIA branches in 38 states.

Although other Black community leaders scoffed at Garvey's ultimate vision of establishing a unified African empire with him as the provincial leader as an egotistical pipe dream, the UNIA and its symbolism provided a foundational channel for grassroots networking and hope for future Black Americans.

In 1923, Garvey was indicted for fraud and embezzlement and deported in 1927 following President Calvin Coolidge's pardon. Although the UNIA never recovered, other organizations like the Black Liberation Movement rose up to take the mantle and continue the fight for equality.

Many African nations that gained independence in the 20th century used red, black and green colors to align their national symbol with the ideals of the original UNIA flag.