Contemporary Arts Center to fly flag of Dread Scott

Dread Scott’s flag, “A Man Was Lynched By Police Yesterday,” on view at Jack Shainman Gallery (2016). Photo courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery.

By David T. Baker
Contributing Writer

“A man was lynched yesterday.” Those are the words that appeared on the NAACP’s iconic flag that was flown from the window of their New York headquarters from 1920 to 1938 in response to widespread lynching of Blacks in America.

Now, artist Dread Scott has created a version of that flag that reads, “A Man Was Lynched By Police Yesterday,” as a means of fostering a national conversation about ongoing and widespread instances of police brutality against Blacks in America.

On November 5, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans will be raising Scott’s flag following a discussion about “race, police brutality, and art.” The discussion will be a public conservation between Scott and community organizer Angela Kinlaw.

“In 2015, Walter Scott fled for his life, stalked by a policeman who then cold bloodedly shot him in the back. We all saw the video and in response to this murder I made the artwork, ‘A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday,’” Scott explains of his motivation for having created the flag in his artist statement.

“During this conversation, Scott and Kinlaw discuss the violent consequences of an unresolved history of race relations that have largely defined the past decade of public discourse in America,” said Mariana Sheppard, director of public programming at the Contemporary Arts Center.

The conversation will begin at 2 p.m. During the discussion, Scott and Kinlaw will discuss the use art “as a tool for mediation and racial reconciliation.”

According to Sheppard, the CAC plans to fly Scott’s flag to acknowledge “lives being taken in our communities, as an invitation to a public dialogue, and as a sign of hope that history can be articulated, transcended and put in the service of education and healing.”

Scott’s flag will be raised following the discussion and remain on view from Nov. 5 until Nov. 12. The discussion and the flag raising are free and open to the public. For more information about the flag raising, visit www.cacno.org.

You can follow news and updates from David T. Baker on Twitter at @Tadfly.

This article originally published in the October 31, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.