A Dadaist, Hammons' gesture of altering the national emblem of America allowed him to utilize and manipulate a readymade object to disrupt its original ingrained assumptions.

By Pan-Africanizing the American flag, Hammons aimed to challenge notions of nationalism and expose the hypocrisy of America’s professed ideals of freedom and equality.

He replaces the flag’s traditional red, white and blue with the Pan-African colors of red, black and green — symbolically representing the blood shed during slavery, the skin and pride of African Americans, and the wealth and prosperity stolen from their ancestors, respectively.

In "African American Flag," Hammons takes the quintessential symbol of America — the Stars and Stripes — and transforms it into a statement on Black pride and solidarity.