The black flag with the motto Viurem lliures o morirem (We live free or we will die) was flown by Catalan army and militia corps during the final stages of the
War of the Spanish Succession, when the Allies had already abandoned Catalonia that fought alone against the Spanish and French armies during 1713–1714. This black flag was packaged in 2012 with the historical novel Lliures o Morts[1] (Free or Dead) authored by
Jaume Clotet and David de Montserrat.
The
Anarchist black flag has been an anarchist symbol since the 1880s. Anarchists use either a plain black flag or a black flag with an "A" and an "O" around it, this symbol is a reference to a
Proudhon quote "Anarchy is Order Without Power".[2] Since the
Spanish Revolution of 1936, the diagonal red-and-black flag became more widely used.
Upon the surrender of Nazi Germany in
World War II German
U-boats were ordered to fly a black flag and sail to an
Allied port and surrender.[3]
The
Jolly Roger, or skull and crossbones, is flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates about to attack. The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones (although swords are also common), a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones (probably tibias) set in an x-mark arrangement, most usually depicted crossing each other directly under the skull, on a black field. This design was used by several pirates, including Captains "Black Sam" Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor. Some Jolly Roger flags also include an hourglass, another common symbol representing death in 17th- and 18th-century Europe. Despite the prominence of flags with art in popular culture, plain black flags with no art were often employed by most pirates in the 17th–18th century. Historically, the flag was flown to frighten the pirates' victims into surrendering without a fight, since it conveyed the message that the attackers were outlaws who would not consider themselves bound by the usual rules of engagement—and might, therefore, slaughter those they defeated (since captured pirates were usually hanged, they did not have much to gain by asking quarter if defeated). Since the decline of piracy, various military units have used the Jolly Roger, usually in skull-and-crossbones design, as a unit identification insignia or a victory flag to ascribe to themselves the proverbial ferocity and toughness of pirates. In a non-naval context the skull and crossbones motif has additional meanings, for example, to signify a hazard such as poison.
The
Ahmadiyya flag, first designed in the 1930s during the second
Caliphate. Just as the black colour absorbs visible light, similarly the black colour symbolizes the absorption of spiritual light.
The flag of the
Chetnik movement in
Serbia and former
Yugoslavia during the 20th century, with the words "Sloboda ili smrt ('liberty or death') inscribed in white under a skull.
The National League of Families
POW/MIA flag was adopted in 1972 and represents support for U.S. Vietnam War soldiers, airmen, and sailors, especially those captured by the enemy.
Jihadism in the 20th/21st century
In
Ali Soufan's book The Black Banners, he explains the title by noting that quotes from various
Hadiths regarding "Black Banners" of a "new army" taking over Khorasan have some kind of prophetic significance with many modern adherents of
extremistjihadism. He notes that it is "not a coincidence" that
Osama bin Laden made
al-Qaeda's flag black. Soufan also notes that there is debate about whether the prophet Mohammed actually spoke some of the quoted Hadiths (such as one attributed to
Abu Hurairah). He also notes that Sheikh
Salman al-Ouda has said the Black Banner hadiths are not able to be authenticated.[4]
In society
Black flags are often[citation needed] associated with funerals in the West, particularly state funerals and public
mourning. In the former
Yugoslavia, a plain black flag is the flag of mourning. It is displayed for 40 days after death on the deceased person's house.
The black flag is the symbol of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist group,
Neturei Karta. It is flown as a sign of mourning over the creation of the
State of Israel, most commonly on
Israeli Independence Day.
The
SwedishPirate Party has a black flag as a symbol, shaped like the letter P.
In the German and Finnish militaries, black has been the traditional color of armored troops, which carries over to the flags of armored units. In Finland, also combat engineers have a black flag. The Armoured Brigade has a black flag defaced with a helmet, and engineer battalions have the black flags defaced with various symbols.
The New Zealand Rugby Union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, have a predominantly black flag with a white fern superimposed: see
List of New Zealand flags.
The flag of
Cornwall is mostly black with a white cross on it.
As a signal in competitions and sports
The black flag is a
racing flag used to signal a driver's disqualification. In
sail racing, when the black flag is displayed with the
preparatory signal, a boat that is over the starting line in the minute before the starting signal is immediately disqualified without a hearing. In some forms of racing, a black flag is used to disqualify competitors or indicate some other penalty (such as a forced pit stop in
NASCAR).
Fictional black flags
In The Silmarillion and other
Middle-earth writings of
J.R.R. Tolkien, the banner of the evil overlord
Morgoth is described as being entirely black with no insignia. In The Lord of the Rings set several thousand years subsequently, the good
Dúnedain bore a flag with solid black background as their royal standard, charged in silver with depictions of heirlooms from the founding of
Gondor and Arnor including the
Palantiri and the
White Tree.