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Black American Nationalist flags (U.S.)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 April 2026
based on photo, photo located by Alex Douglas, 19 May 2020

Description of the flag

See also:

Description of the flag

The flag in the picture is clearly a flag based on the U.S. flag, with 13 stripes (seven black and 6 white, starting with black at the top), with an inscription in the (black) canton very similar to the juxtaposition of the letters "f" and "p" (in red), a possible reference of the phrase "F*** the police" (sometimes written in slang form as f*** da police).
Now, regarding the context, it is absolutely clear that it is a protest flag, aimed at protesting at the U.S Police. In the previous days of the flag reported (early July, 2016) there was an important incident that took place and sparked (even more) outrage at the already troublesome situation, when the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man, took place, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 5, when two white Baton Rouge Police Department Officers fired at him, after they were attempting to control Sterling's arms. Mass protests across the country were constant and consecutive. This incident was followed by the shooting of Dallas Police Officers as well, the same week, sparkling more protests and incidents.
Esteban Rivera, 12 June 2019

The second image (photo) was also seen at a Black Lives Matter march in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2016. It gives a better view of the canton.
Jeremiah Cook, 19 May 2020

This second sighting provides a clearer image. Since it has been reported both in Baton Rouge (Louisiana) and Atlanta (Georgia) it is most likely through the coordination of minor groupings that protest such situations, especially in the southern States of the country.
Esteban Rivera, 20 May 2020

Neither of the two reports mentions whether this was carried by a protestor or a counter-protestor. Stylistically, the overall flag is closer to the Blue Lives Matter flags that represent a counter-protest to Black Lives Matter, but I wouldn't consider it the same flag.
Do we really know more than there were at least two physical flags that were different, but probably meant to be the same flag, leading to speculation that this was not a personal flag or a creation of a single manufacturer, and that they have some relation to Black Lives Matter?
Jon Radel, 20 May 2020

The flag is being used in the Atlanta area, as the other comments have mentioned, and it has a name: https://www.facebook.com/brozeamerican/about B.A.N Flag (according to this). There is a website about the flag, but it is down. Using https://web.archive.org/web/20161004182530/http://banflag.com/ "BAN" stood for Black American Nationalist. The movement is not active from what I can see and most social media is scrubbed or very obscure.
Zachary Harden, 29 November 2024

For the emblem on the canton, where Esteban Rivera sees "FP", I see rather two gallows facing outwards. Gallows and noose as symbols (as I recently learned) stand in the U.S. not only generically for death by hanging as elsewhere, but particularly for lynching of Black citizens during the Jim Crow era.
The overall device, with the two gallows pointing outwards, resembles a cross, topped as it is with a crescent pointing downwards, suggesting a halo: This could be a religious-inspired emblem of any sort – either fully Christian or allied Christian and Islamic.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 April 2026

It is quite embarrassing to guess if a symbol for lynching black people, "crowned" blasphemously with a halo, could be of "fully Christian" inspiration. We know about KKK and other awfully erring people and how they also misuse Christian symbols, but such things are nothing other than a blasphemous sharade, which should be called, if at all, "Christian" only with heavy quotation marks.
Martin Karner, 10 April 2026

The flag in question is of an African-American organization and, if my interpretation is correct, the gallows stand not for a celebration of the lynchings but are a form of reclaiming an instrument of past oppression, to remember that past and celebrate its overcoming. I might be reading maybe too much in the design, but these gallows are shown without the noose, meaning they are not in operation.

Such later rescuing or appropriation of symbols of former oppression is not unlike the pink triangle as a symbol of homosexuality, or indeed the cross (also originally a torture instrument) as a Christian symbol.

Presuming these are indeed gallows and that their are intentionally placed and shaped to suggest a cross, the only pending question would be whether what looks like a crescent is meant as a symbol of Islam (if this is an ecumenic or interfaith organization), or a mere addition to the cross motif.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 10 April 2026

Regarding the emblem in the canton, note that two addorsed gallows resemble the crucifixion, which is even more conspicuous with the crescent resembling an aureole. All in all, it is another example of African-Americans comparing their fate with that of early Christians, or that of Israelites in Babylonian captivity, or other similar Biblical histories, something that emerged as soon as the African slaves in North America had become acquainted with Christian teachings.
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 April 2026