In April 2012 the Black Country Living Museum launched a competition to design a flag for the Black Country. The competition was launched in response to a campaign by the Parliamentary Flags & Heraldry Committee, encouraging local communities to develop their own flags to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II and the United Kingdom's hosting of the Olympics during 2012. After 1,500 votes were cast by members of the public, a design by 11-year-old Gracie Sheppard was chosen as the winning entry. The creation of the flag was used as the catalyst for starting an official Black Country Day, established in 2013, and a Black Country Festival, established in 2014. Black Country Day was first introduced in March, but later moved to July 14 to mark the anniversary of the invention of the Newcomen beam engine.
Design
The flag owes its design to a quote made in 1862 by Elihu Burritt, the American Consul in Birmingham. He described the region as "black by day and red by night" — a result of the local factory furnaces giving out smoke and grime during the day, and glowing by night. The flag background is therefore both black and red, with the chains showing a typical metal product manufactured in the area. The central white area represents the glass cone, a symbol of the region's glass-making heritage since 1790. The Pantone colours for the flag are:
Black
White
Red 186 C
Flying the flag
The flag is one of very few regional, non-historic county, flags that may be flown without consent of a local planning authority, providing the flag is "maintained in a condition that does not impair the overall visual appearance of the site" and does not block official signs. In 2013, on Black Country Day, the Black Country flag was flown alongside the United Kingdom's Union flag, at Eland House, the headquarters of the Department for Communities and Local Government in Victoria, London.
Accusations of racist connotations
In July 2015, historian and campaigner Patrick Vernon said the use of chains on the flag represented a disturbing image of an industry that profited from slavery and colonial rule in Africa. Dudley Council leader Pete Lowe demanded Vernon apologise for "his divisive words" and hand back his OBE award. Vernon defended his views, writing in the Express & Star, "That is why I find the Black Country Day logo offensive, as the foundries and factories made chains, fetters, collars, padlocks and manacles which were used on slave ships from Africa and in the plantations during slavery in the Caribbean and North America. The iron was used for trading by merchants for exchange in Africa. Such was the extent of this trade, Henry Waldram, a Wolverhampton ironmaker, advertised his specialism in Sketchley's and Adam's Universal Directory of 1770 as 'Negro Collar & Handcuff maker'." In July 2017, West Midlands newspaper the Express & Star reported that then recently elected local Labour MP Eleanor Smith had described the flag as "racist" and "offensive" and wanted it to be scrapped, citing possible slavery connotations of the chain imagery and colours. Responding to criticism, Smith said the flag made her feel "uneasy and unwelcome", and that she had been expressing the concerns of some constituents, but denied having ever described it as "racist". Dudley South Conservative MP Mike Wood raised criticism of Smith in the House of Commons, inviting Theresa May, Prime Minister at the time, to endorse the flag design. May commended the flag and praised Gracie Sheppard for its design. Writing in The Guardian in July 2017, University of Manchester historian of class and race Matthew Stallard responded, "It is, however, a historical fact that the Black Country was a key provider of metalworked goods to the slave trade and plantation economies of the Americas and throughout the British Empire. Scholars have consistently demonstrated the inherently interlinked nature of industrial development in all areas of the UK and imperial expansion, whether directly by trading British goods for people, using slave-produced raw materials, or the sale and use of British-made goods in slave or colonial economies." In July 2020, senior management at West Midlands Fire Service reportedly asked fire stations in the region not to display the flag on Black Country Day due to concerns the imagery of a chain could have links to slavery. According to the Express & Star, fire fighters asked for the decision to be overturned, describing it as “divisive” and “short-sighted”. Warley Labour MP John Spellar and Wolverhampton South West Conservative MP Stuart Anderson criticised the flag ban. The national Fire Brigade Union said they had not been consulted on the issue. West Midlands Fire Service defending its decision to not fly the flag in response to recent Black Lives Matter protests but encouraged Black Country Day celebrations.
