Raising An Upside Down American Flag: A Cry From The Streets For A Nation In Distress
“People say, ‘well, blood was shed for freedom.’ That’s exactly why we’re here. To fight for freedom in a country where it’s being taken away each and every day." - Rev. Michael L. Pfleger
By John W. Fountain
CHICAGO—Here in this “sanctuary city,” under a patchy blue sky, scores of protestors, led by the Reverend Michael L. Pfleger, marched Monday morning to a flagpole outside the Faith Community of St. Sabina Church in protest of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance, its firing of government workers, and its mass deportation policy and other controversial issues drawing the public’s ire nationwide.
Surrounding the flagpole, protestors, some of them U.S. military veterans wearing hats representing their branch of service, chanted as the American flag turned upside down ascended into the sky, the protest at one point taking on the cadence of a 1960s Civil Rights march in cadence and song.
“Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around,” they sang as an inverted flag, a historic sign of distress, fluttered on a winter’s breeze. Their message and purpose for flying the star-spangled banner upside down was simple: "America is in a State of Emergency."
As Pfleger raised the flag, a woman shouted repeatedly, “Father God!”
The crowd responded in unison, “Heal the land!”
They chanted, led by Pfleger:
“It’s a state of emergency.
“In the United States of America.
“We will not be silent.
“We will resist! We will resist! We will resist.”
Minutes earlier, while standing at a podium outside the South Side church, Pfleger, St. Sabina’s senior pastor, outlined a long list of grievances.
“What we are seeing in America is not and cannot be accepted or normalized: Laying off of thousands of federal workers, demonizing thousands of Haitians, Africans, Venezuelans, Mexican immigrants as criminal and scooping them up like animals to deport them while pardoning actual criminals who invaded the Capitol causing damage to property, harm to law enforcement where one police officer died; and declaring a takeover and ethnic cleansing of Gaza; putting Medicaid and Medicare at risk;
“Shutting down the Department of Education, ending DEI, banning Black history, unraveling gun laws and blaming Ukraine for a war when Russia invaded them, giving a billionaire citizen total access to government and to American citizens’ confidential information,” said Pfleger. “These are only the beginnings of a long list of why America is in distress,” he added to shouts of ‘Amen’ from the crowd.
“This is not normal. This is not acceptable,” he continued. “And we will rise up and we will resist.”
Protestors, a rainbow coalition of the young and the old, carried various signs written in black marker on white placards:
“Save Federal Workers Jobs!”
“Human Rights Matter”
“No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land”
“This Is Not Normal”
Demonstrators also carried 8-by-10-inch signs with an upside-down flag inscribed with the words, “This is a state of emergency” written in color blue, and “America is in distress” in the red.
In the crowd of protestors was Rochelle Crump who described herself as a Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran and a WAC or Women’s Army Corps.
“We would have never seen ourselves standing here today to raise the flag upside down. For many years, we (have upheld) it as a sacred piece to what it meant to America,” she said, speaking from the podium. “But today we are here because America is under distress.”
Pastor Julie Contreras, of United Giving Hope also attended the rally, calling attention to the plight of migrant families.
“I want to send a profound message to this president and to those who believe that they stand in solidarity with him,” Contreras said. It is not true when you will take a child and tell that child he is a criminal or a terrorist and a threat to this nation,” she said. “United as people of God, we will rise.”
The protest began shortly after 11 a.m. with a prayer:
“This is not a time we should be comfortable in… But you have called us to commit to this call to be your disciples in the earth. For your word says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called your children,” a young man prayed, surrounded by protestors. “So, we are your children and we’re here to make peace. We’re not here to ask for peace. You said be peacemakers. We’re going to demand it. We’re going to create it…”
Also attending Monday’s rally was Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, who spoke about Project 2025, the controversial 900-page set of ultra conservative policy proposals that would expand presidential power and overhaul the federal government, which Trump tried to distance himself from during his presidential campaign.
“Project 2025 is real,” said Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, adding that they are seeking to engage the faith community in their fight because the Trump administration is trying to demolish the democracy that we know.”
“They would have us to believe that there is not an attack on the Black community. I am ringing the alarm to say that there is a very strong anti-Black agenda that is rooted in Project 2025,” Chamberlain said. “And whether you a poor white man, a poor Black man, a poor white woman, a poor Black woman, it is a very strong anti-poor agenda rooted in Project 2025. And if we do not fight, they are looking to take us back to when we were in chains.”
Monday’s hoisting of the flag upside down came on the heels of another over the weekend thousands of miles away. Protestors in California reportedly—upset over the Trump administration’s firing of 1,000 jobs at the national park service—hung an upside-down flag on the top of the El Capitan summit, a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation.
Well aware that many may be offended by flying the American flag upside down, Pfleger said:
“People say, ‘well, blood was shed for freedom.’ That’s exactly why we’re here. To fight for freedom in a country where it’s being taken away each and every day.
“This is not normal. This is not acceptable,” Pfleger said. “And we will rise up and we will resist.”
Protestors said the flag at St. Sabina will fly in its current state until America is “no longer under siege.”
After raising the flag, demonstrators joined in arms and sang, “We shall overcome…”
The flag, like the voices of resistance, fluttered in the breeze on a thawing winter’s day.
Email: Author@johnwfountain.com
