"Flag Salute" is a poem written byEsther Popel about thelynching ofGeorge Armwood on October 18, 1933, inPrincess Anne, Maryland.[1][2] It was first published in August 1934 inThe Crisis[3] and later republished in its entirety on the cover ofThe Crisis in 1940.[1]
It juxtaposes the murder of Armwood with quotations from thePledge of Allegiance.[4]The poem reflects thatlynching in the United States had become a "ritual of interracial social control."[5]