As Black History Month opened on Feb. 1, 2022, St. Louis celebrated an eight-year tradition that no city in America, and just one in North America, shares. It is honoring the Red, Black and Green Flag for Black History Month.
“Everybody immediately seeing that flag would recognize that this is a manifestation of black aspirations, Black resistance to oppression,”
St. Louis 27th Ward Alderman Pam Boyd, who serves as Black Caucus president, said it is an honor to take part in the ceremony.
“We always push for this recognition because it sends a message and reminder that African Americans have contributed so much to the history of St. Louis, and it can’t be overlooked,” she said.
“We have not properly educated our youth on our own history. That is why we are adamant that this tradition continues.”
Robert Hill, editor-in-chief of the multivolume edition of “The Marcus Garvey & Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers” told St, Louis Public Radio in June 2017 Garvey thought of a flag as necessary symbol of political maturity.
“The fact that the Black race did not have a flag was considered by Garvey, and he said this, it was a mark of the political impotence of the Black race,” Hill said
“And so acquiring a flag would be proof that the Black race had politically come of age.”
The flag was formally adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which Garvey founded, during its 1920 Convention in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Hill said the Pan-African flag, which is also known as the Marcus Garvey, UNIA, Afro-American or Black Liberation flag, was designed to represent people of the African Diaspora, and to symbolize “Black freedom, simple.”
The Red, Black and Green Flag is on display inside and outside of the St. Louis City Hall throughout the month of February.
The Pan-African color bands each have a meaning.
Red stands for the blood of Africans who died fighting for liberation, and the shared blood of the African people. Black represents Black people, and green is a symbol of growth and natural fertility of Africa.
“Everybody immediately seeing that flag would recognize that this is a manifestation of black aspirations, Black resistance to oppression,” Hill said during a radio interview.
The flag also was a purposeful counter to a popular song composed in 1920 entitled “Every Race Has a Flag But the Coon.”
In Toronto, Mayor John Tory proclaimed February as Black History Month, “recognizing the history, heritage and contributions of African-Canadians,” he said during a ceremony.
The Toronto Sign at Nathan Phillips Square was lit red, black and green to mark the first day of the month.
