Object Details
- Created by
- David Hammons, American, born 1943
- Caption
- Marcus Garvey designed the African American flag, which looked like the Italian flag, except that it is red, black, and green. But it is so abstract, so pure, that the masses were frightened by it. I made my flag because I felt that they needed one like the U.S. flag but with black stars instead of white ones. — David Hammons
- The colors and symbols of David Hammons’s now-iconic flag symbolically merge the red, black, and green colors of Marcus Garvey’s pan-African flag and the stars and stripes of the American flag. His commingling of colors and symbols of both flags simultaneously reference Black pride and heritage and the ways African Americans have celebrated freedom while confronting America’s unfulfilled promises.
- Description
- A flag artwork by David Hammons. The flag takes the stars and stripes design of the United States flag and replaces the red, white, and blue with green, red, and black, the colors of the Pan African flag. The canton in the upper left corner is green with 50 black stars, while the thirteen stripes alternate between red and black. One from an edition of five.
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Partial gift of Jan Christiaan Braun, who curated the ground-breaking exhibition Black USA, in Amsterdam in 1990, for which the African-American Flag was created. Museum purchase supported by The Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- 1990
- Object number
- 2022.7
- Restrictions & Rights
- © David Hammons
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
- Type
- flags
- Medium
- dyed cotton
- Dimensions
- L x W: 85 × 56 1/2 in. (215.9 × 143.5 cm)
- See more items in
- National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Textiles and Quilts
- Exhibition
- Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
- On View
- NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Topic
- African American
- African diaspora
- Art
- Black power
- Design
- Freedom
- Identity
- Justice
- United States History
- Record ID
- nmaahc_2022.7
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5db4e5525-b0cd-4bb4-a4d4-683f48f3edec
