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Harvey African American Flag (U.S.)

Last modified: 2016-03-05 by rick wyatt
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[Harvey African American Flag] image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 February 2015



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Description of the flag

This flag was created in 1991 by David Harvey (1965-2002) and his wife Tonya (nee Ivory), residents of Baltimore, MD. Their intention was to make a flag which would represent the African-American population as a whole, not being related to any political movement. The flags have been being produced and sold by DATON, Inc., a company founded by the Harveys, and were quickly accepted by a number of institutions, such as the Morgan State University (from which the Harveys have both graduated), National Black Catholic Congress, and many others, but David Harvey's early death seems to have slowed down the spreading of the flag a great deal.

The flag has a black eight-pointed star, surrounded with four gold "flashes of light", on purple field, all within a complex border composed of red, white, blue, green, gold and black segments. The symbolism of its design is described as follows:

  • Purple base - symbolizes the regal history of African-Americans.
  • Gold flashes of light around the star - symbolizes perseverance, love, knowledge and spirituality.
  • Black stripe (near purple base) - symbolizes African-American nearness to regality.
  • Green stripe - symbolizes abundant life in Africa.
  • Gold Stripe - symbolizes the riches of Africa.
  • Red, white and blue stripes - symbolize the integral part African-Americans play, have played, and will play in America's greatness.
  • Eight-pointed black star - symbolizes each individual African-American, that each one can shine. Each point of the star stands for an African-American principle:
    A = Aspirations,
    F = Family,
    R = Righteousness,
    I = Individuality,
    C = Community,
    A = Ability,
    N = Nobility,
    S = Scholarship.
    The acronym for the star is AFRICANS.
Sources:
[1] Morgan Magazine, Spring 2002, pp. 20-23: www.morgan.edu/Documents/news-events/morganmag/MorganMag_S02.pdf
[2] The National Black Catholic Congress website: nbccongress.org/black-catholics/african-american-flag.asp
[3] The Baltimore Afro-American, August 16, 1997, p. A6: news.google.com/
[4] Interview with David Harvey in 1998 talk show "Let's Talk with Derick Thomas" at YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kIhTRuRixs

Tomislav Todorovic, 7 February 2015


In the Spring 2002 issue Morgan Magazine (from Morgan State University in Maryland), is an article about the Harvey African-American:
issuu.com/morganstateu/docs/morganmag_s02/24 (pages 23-26)

image.issuu.com/101013143744-35b8a56929544a72b1bacaf8cbc12e97/jpg/page_24_thumb_large.jpg
Flying over the MSU Police station: campus-flags.jpg

Dave Fowler, 22 February 2015