From 1920 to 1938 a flag was flown outside the headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in New York. The flag was simple white text on a black background saying “A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY”, and was used to illustrate and protest each instance of a lynching in America. It would be flown the day after a lynching to bring to light the terrifying regularity of lynchings and flew hundreds of times before they were stopped after the NAACP’s landlord threatened the organisation with eviction if they continued the practice.
In 2015 the contemporary artist Dread Scott remade the iconic flag, this time with the words “A MAN WAS LYNCHED BY POLICE YESTERDAY”. The change of text coming after the killing of Walter Scott, a young black man who was shot in the back as he ran away from police in South Carolina in 2015. When being exhibited at the Jack Shainman Gallery in 2016, the gallery was forced to remove the flag from the front of the building after legal threats from their landlord.
Inspired by the power, courage and brilliant messaging of the works by the NAACP and Dread Scott I made another reinterpretation of the flag. Using the same white text on a black background, this new flag says “A REFUGEE WAS DROWNED YESTERDAY”. Unlike the original flag outside the headquarters of the NAACP, this flag can never be taken down, as an average of 6 refugees drown every day whilst attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.