The Hip Hop Unity Flag

The Flags of the World database includes an entry under Hip Hop Unity flag (U.S.):

In the summer of 1996, a flag symbolizing the values of the Hip Hop Nation was officially revealed in San Francisco. The Hip Hop Unity Flag is the brain child of community activist James P Queen who is the President of Racial Unity Inc. The flag features the colors of our human family: Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White. Unlike most flags whose stripes are laid horizontally the Hip Hop Generation-Unity Flag’s stripes stand vertical/side by side. The significance of this is to show equality… because no color is above the other. In short the flag stands for unity.

In a posting about the flag in 1996, hip hop journalist Davey D reports on several different appearances of this flag: by SF mayor Willie Brown at a Mayors Conference; at a Peace Walkathon in 1995 as a stage backdrop; and at a summer music festival sponsored by KMEL radio, at which it was endorsed by Russell Simmons, MC Hammer, and Ice Cube.

See also:

• Soul Searching – After all the bloodshed, rappers are ready to hoist a unity flag and jam for peace. By Billy Jam, San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, 1997.

And please help:

• We can’t find any other information about this flag, James P Queen, or Racial Unity Inc. (other than an entry for a supposedly active non-profit in New York that was founded in 1948).  If you can, let us know at info@portlandflag.org.