This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. A quick heads up. This episode has some offensive language.

After Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd last year,

tens of thousands of people all over the world took to the streets to protest police violence against black people.

And if you look at images from these marches, you'll probably start to notice a common color scheme. Lots of red, black, and green.

99 PI producer Christopher Johnson. You'll see those colors everywhere. Red, black and green,

picket signs and banners. Red, black and green hoodies and hats. And red, black and green flags.

Sometimes it's good to see that red, black and green flag, particularly when there's times of strife and people outrage and angry.

And they started to come to that realization that we're not getting anywhere with the begging.

More in Maccomal has several of these flags in different sizes, including a huge one that he likes to fly outside of his house.

He says that wherever they're protest or demonstrations against threats to black life, the red, black, and green will be there.

When people are ready for more than what they've been getting and they're ready to, you know, challenge the system,

then you'll see the red, black and green flags come out.

And not just at demonstrations. This tri-color scheme has been used on t-shirts, on high-top chucks, and in works of art that have sold for millions of dollars.

The flag was invented to unite black people all over the world who were living under racial repression.

And when it first came into existence, the flag posts some bold questions about where black people owed their loyalty to the nations where their lives were demeaned and threatened,

or to a new nation, one they'd built entirely for themselves.

And for hundreds of thousands of black folks, the red, black, and green symbolized the answer.

The flag has been in use since 1918, but I'm going to start a couple decades before that,

with the story of a super racist song about flags.

In the beginning of the 20th century, there was Vordival, there was Minster C, in America, and there was the tradition of Kuhn songs.

Can I say that word Christopher?

This is writer and historian Colin Grant.

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