In 1883, Louise Michel led the homeless, housewives, sex workers, and other precarious workers of Paris excluded by the unions in a large march that turned into a riot in Paris’ Latin Quarter. During the riot, she carried a large black flag to symbolize her allegiance to no state, and the riot became known as the “black flag riot”, popularizing the black flag as a symbol of anarchism.

Inspired by this action, Chicago anarchists Lucy Parsons and Lizzie Holmes would organize a similar march on Thanksgiving of 1885, which became the first public anarchist protest in the United States to make use of the black flag. During the Haymarket trial, the use of the black flag in these protests played a prominent role trying to defame the Haymarket martyrs. As Lucy Parsons put it:

"While the judicial farce was going on the red and black flags were brought into court, to prove that the anarchists started the riots. They were placed on the walls and hung there, awful specters before the jury.

But what does the black flag mean? It was carried through the streets of this country to mean that the people are suffering—that the men are out of work, the women starving, the children barefooted in the middle of winter.

When President Cleveland issued his Thanksgiving proclamation, the anarchists formed in procession and carried the black flag to show that countless had nothing for which to return thanks. When the Chicago Board of Trade, that gambling den, was dedicated by means of a banquet, $30 a plate, again the black flag was carried, to signify that there were thousands who couldn’t even enjoy a 2 cent meal.

And the red flag, what does that mean? Not that the streets should run with gore, but that the same red blood courses through the veins of the whole human race. It means the brotherhood of mankind

Break the two fold yoke. Bread is freedom and freedom is bread."

In another incident at the barricades, Michel famously saved a cat caught in the crossfire of a shootout she was engaged in. Word of the incident spread like wildfire, and the image of an unruly woman with a black cat at her bosom stuck. When she was imprisoned for her actions following the Commune, she took three stray cats with her to prison, and much to her fellow inmates surprise, taught them to live in harmony with the rats.

When she was finally released from prison, Louise Michel, continued to take in stray cats, dogs, and other injured animals, and her London flat became known as “the Menagerie” to the many radicals who congregated there because of the numerous animals she cared for.

“As far back as I can remember, the origin of my revolt against the powerful was my horror at the tortures inflicted on animals. I used to wish animals could get revenge, that the dog could bite the man who was mercilessly beating him, that the horse bleeding under the whip could throw off the man tormenting him.

I was accused of allowing my concern for animals to outweigh the problems of humans at the Perronnet barricade at Neuilly during the Commune, when I ran to help a cat in peril. The unfortunate beast was crouched in a corner that was being scoured by shells, and it was crying out.

The more ferocious a man is toward animals, the more that man cringes before the people who dominate him.”

After her release, Michel decided to wear all black for the rest of her life, both to symbolize the mourning of her murdered comrades and the repression of the free society they had created.

Long live the memory of Louise Michel! Long live anarchy!

(Picture of the statue of Michel in Parc de La Planchette, Paris, child and the kitten she saved by her side)