Day two of this week’s spirit week is AA Flag Day. The Afro-American flag was founded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist, who centered his fight for African-Americans across the entire world. He, alongside the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which he formed in July of 1914, “…Established 700 branches in thirty-eight states by the early 1920s,” according to National Humanities Center.org. Resulting from this, and Garvey’s philosophy of mixing both religion and politics, he made a stand against racism and more towards unity for African-Americans.

The flag itself has many different names. It is most commonly known as the AA flag, but also the Marcus Garvey, UNIA, and Black Liberation flag. The colors of the flag are not only colors, but they symbolize the fight of African-Americans and the hard work, blood, tears, prayers, etc. over a course of many decades. According to an article provided by NPR.org, ” Red stood for blood — both the blood shed by Africans who died in their fight for liberation, and the shared blood of the African people. Black represented…black people. And green was a symbol of growth and the natural fertility of Africa.”

So, in today’s theme, wear those greens, reds, and blacks, reflecting on the history of the AA flag and what it stands for today.