Travel by Theme > SENDING A MESSAGE > 2 of 9

David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois. He studied advertising at Los Angeles Technical College and also took classes at Otis College of Art. Hammons works with a wide variety of materials such as fried chicken, dung, bottles, hair, snowballs, and cigarettes.

Sending a Message

• Describe what you see.
  
  
• What is your reaction to the colors you see here?
  
  
• What are some things and ideas a flag might symbolize? Where are some places you might see flags? What are some possible reasons why people choose to display flags?
  
  
• How would you compare Hammons's African-American Flag with the American flag?
  
  
• In your opinion, why might Hammons have created African-American Flag?

On August 13, 1920, Marcus Garvey (a Jamaican-born black-nationalist leader who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914) introduced the Universal African Flag to the world. The colors red, black, and green all have special significance. Red symbolizes the "color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty," black, "the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong," and green for "the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland." ¹

Hammons said, "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. But then who needs stars when we have Michael Jackson." ²

Hammons explained, "I feel it is my moral obligation to try to graphically document what I feel socially."

• Looking at his version of a flag, what do you think he might "feel socially?"
  
  
• What do you think about Hammons's need to communicate his beliefs and opinions through art?

1. Marcus Garvey, "Universal Black Men Catechism," speech recorded by Rev. George Alexander McGuire, c. 1920.
   
   
   
2. David Hammons, "No Wonder," interview by Louise Neri, Parkett, no. 31 (Winter 1992): 53