A Man Was Lynched Yesterday — NAACP Flag, Fifth Avenue, New York

From an upper window above Fifth Avenue, a black flag hangs over the street. Four words: A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY.

Between 1920 and 1938, the NAACP flew this flag from their offices at 69 Fifth Avenue in New York City every time a lynching was reported in the United States. It was an act of witness — a public declaration that the country needed to see what was happening, even when the country did not want to look.

The flag was flown more than once. Each time it went up, it meant someone had been killed.

The landlord eventually threatened eviction if the NAACP continued to fly it. They flew it anyway. The practice stopped only when the threat of losing their offices became too great to ignore.

This photograph is one of the most recognized images of organized resistance to racial terror in American history. It belongs in the Resistance collection not because the NAACP won that day, but because they made sure the street below knew what had happened.

Available in three sizes. Framed or print only.