‘Talking about unity;’ Dayton mayor discusses controversy over Pan-African flag at City Hall
An attempt to celebrate Black History Month with a Pan-African flag flying outside City Hall in Dayton is creating controversy.
Mayor Jeffrey Mims, Jr. said he did not expect any controversy to be created after flying the flag.
“The issue is how do we unify people, how do we put everyone in a position where they feel like they have value,” Mims said.
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Mims told News Center 7 this is the second year the city has flown a flag for Black History Month. He said he has received some calls, News Center 7 did as well, including one man who claimed the flag was unconstitutionally in a place above the American flag.
“Clearly, it’s not,” Mims said. “You can see where it is now. Haven’t since yesterday at noon,”
The mayor said the flag is a liberation flag, developed in 1920. It’s also known as the Pan-African flag, but some people have called City Hall for clarification on the flag’s meaning.
Dayton police Sgt. Kyle Thomas, who also is president of the Dayton Police Union, said city employees and members of the community have reached out with some concern.
While the Pan-African flag has three clean stripes, different groups have used the same color scheme with symbols added to represent other things. Sometimes groups simply adopt the traditional liberation flag as a symbol of their group.
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Thomas said police officers know very well that optics matter and good intentions can miss the mark or be hijacked for someone else’s agenda.
“There’s already been some demonstrations in front of City Hall, some photo opportunities with some of the groups celebrating their flag, taking ownership,” Thomas said.
The mayor said this month and the message for flying the flag is simple.
“They are talking about unity. They’re not talking about separation of anything,” he said.
Mims doesn’t want the flag or this month to be anything that pulls people apart. He said Dayton needs everyone pulling together to continue moving the city forward.
