Interestingly, Garvey's colors, often with yellow added, spread throughout Africa, first as the flags of liberation movements, then as national flags when countries emerged from colonialism to independence and could design their own symbols. An organization in South Central Los Angeles called Flag, Pride and Dignity designed a flag of twelve narrow horizontal stripes of red, black, green and gold, the gold symbolizing 'the richness of the people.' Another version is the traditional American flag, but in red, black and green instead of red, white and blue. Cecil Lee's 'flag of inclusion' is the American flag with a box of red, black and green stripes next to, and the same size as, the box containing stars.

It consists of three vertical panels side by side: the Ethiopian flag, the American flag, with the traditional red, black and green between them. One comprehensive symbol is the 'unity flag' designed by Vincent W. They are perpetuated by the Rasta movement, and show up, for example, in Rastafarian clothing. The Ethiopian colors are green, yellow and red. The flag seems to have been first publicly displayed at Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association convention in New York on August 13, 1920.Ī related symbol is the flag of Ethiopia, the only African country independent of colonial rule, except Liberia. The agent quoted Garvey's explanation of the three colors: 'the black race between blood and nature to win its rights.' In 1920 Garvey said that red meant solidarity with the political Left, green meant solidarity with the Irish, who were also fighting for their freedom, and black meant the solidarity of all dark-skinned people.

The first report of Garvey's flag is from November 12, 1918, when a police spy described the red, black and green flag in the offices of Garvey's newspaper, The Negro World.

Garvey was the Jamaican-born black militant of the 1920s who emphasized the unity of all Africans along with that of all people of African descent in the worldwide Diaspora. Probably the best known is Marcus Garvey's Pan-African flag, three wide bands of red, black, and green. While there is no official African American flag, over the years several flags have been used to symbolize black identity, consciousness and nationalism.

Red black flag