Newburgh Councilman Omari Shakur is planning to raise the Pan-African flag at the city flag pole overlooking the Hudson River to commemorate Black History Month for the second time this February.
Last year, the flag flew just for the last week of February. Shakur is assembling a small group to raise it on February 1.
What You Need To Know
- Newburgh will raise a Pan-African flag on February 1 for Black History Month
- Last year’s flag drew feedback that it was small and seemed awkward below the larger flags
- Councilman Omari Shakur plans to hang his smaller flag unless, and until, someone provides a larger one
“We’re just going to go a quick ceremony, but the flag will be raised for the whole month this year,” he said during an interview at the flagpole Monday.
Shakur said the flag design, first created in 1920, later became an important symbol during the Black power movement of the 1960s and today’s police reform movement.
“The red was for the blood, the black was for the people, and the green was for the land,” Shakur explained. “That was the flag that represents the embodiment of us becoming from slaves to, now, free people, to be liberated.”
The Pan-African flag will fly just below the POW-MIA flag, as it did last year, on the pole at Broadway and Golden Street.
Newburgh residents were pleased, Shakur said, but adds that they kept telling him the flag, at 3 feet by 5 feet, was too small and out of place beneath the larger flags.
“What flag?” passerby Joe Robinson asked.
Robinson, who always takes his afternoon walk by the flags, does not remember seeing the red, black, and green last year.
“If it was up there last year, I didn’t see it. What’s it look like? You got a picture of it? I’ve never seen it. I’ve noticed those two right there,” he said pointing to the American and POW-MIA flags.
Shakur does not want anyone to miss it this year.
Per an order from Governor Andrew Cuomo to all municipalities with police departments, the city of Newburgh is overhauling procedures and policies to improve police-community relationships.
Shakur wants the officials, police, and citizen board members involved in the police department’s remodernization to be reminded of Black struggle every day, all month.
“This is where we all come together — the community, the police and city officials — to create a dialogue...and make sure going forward, we have a police department that serves and protects everybody,” Shakur said.
Shakur plans to hang his smaller flag unless, and until, someone provides a larger one. The short ceremony will be at 3 p.m. Monday.