EDIT National flag of the Sultanate of Lingga The Sultanate of Lingga was one of the mightiest Malay States in the region until the middle of the 19th century. Until 1818 the black flag was its national flag. Lingga subjected large parts of Malaya and spread its black flag over the whole south of the Malakka peninsula. The flags of Johore, Pahang and Terengganu had and have their roots in the flag of Lingga. As Lingga came more and more dependent of the Netherlands the country added – after making a contract – in the year 1818 a white upper staff quadrant on its black flag. This was probably meant to demonstrate the loyalty of Lingga to the Netherlands.

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EDIT The black flag as symbol for anarchism The exact origination of this association is very elusive. Black flags have recently been resurrected in Russia and continue to fly in most parts of the world.

There are ample accounts of the use of black flags by anarchists. Probably the most famous, was Nestor Makhno’s partisans during the Russia Revolution. More recently, Parisian students carried black (and red) flags during the massive General Strike of 1968.

But the anarchists’ black flag originated much earlier than this. The first account is actually unknown. It seems that this credit is reserved for Louise Michel, famous participant in the Paris Commune of 1871. According to Anarchist historian George Wood cock, Michel flew the black flag on March 9, 1883, during demonstration of the unemployed in Paris, France.

Not long after, the black symbol made its way to America. Paul Avrich reports that on November 27, 1884, the black flag was displayed in Chicago at an anarchist demonstration. According to Avrich, August Spies, one of the famous Haymarket martyrs, »noted that this was the first occasion on which [the black flag] had been unfurled on American soil« (Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, 144-145).

On a more dreary note, February 13, 1921 was the date that marked the end of black flags in Soviet Russia. On that day, Peter Kropotkin’s funeral took place in Moscow. Masses of people whose march stretched for miles, carried black banners that read, »Where there is authority there is no freedom« (Avrich, The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution, 26). It seems that black flags didn’t appear in Russia until the founding of the Chernoe Zhania (»black banner«) movement in 1905. Only two weeks after Kropotkin\'s funeral march, the Kronstadt rebellion broke out and anarchism was erased from Soviet Russia for good.

While the events above are fairly well known, as has been related, the exact origin of the black flag is not. What is known is that a large number of anarchist groups in the early 1880s adopted titles associated with black.
In July of 1881, the Black International met in London. This was an attempt to reorganize the anarchist wing of recently dissolved First International. Similarly, there was the Black Band in France (1882) and the Mano Negra (Black Hand) Andalusia, Spain (1883). These dates are immediately followed by Michel’s demonstration (1883) and the black flags in Chicago (1884).

Further solidifying this period (circa early 1880s) as the birth of the symbol is the name of a short lived French Anarchist publication: »Le Drapeau Noir« (The Black Flag). According to Roderick Kedward, this Anarchist paper existed for a few years dating sometime before October 1882, when a bomb was thrown into a cafe in Lyons (Kedward, 35). Backing up this theory, Avrich states that in 1884, the black flag \"was the new anarchist emblem\" (Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, 144). In agreement, Murray Bookch in reports that »in later years, the Anarchists were to adopt the black flag« when speaking of the Spanish Anarchist movement in June, 1870 (Bookchin, 51n1). At that time, anarchists widely used the red flag. It appears obvious (though not conclusive) that this is the period that the black flag bonded with Anarchism.

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