Three artists—Faith Ringgold, Jean Toche, and Jon Hendricks—organized "The People's Flag Show" at Judson Memorial Church in New York's Greenwich Village in November 1970, protesting the Vietnam War and challenging US flag desecration laws. The exhibition featured around 150 artists via open call, including Yvonne Rainer, Kate Millett, and the Guerrilla Art Action Group. On November 13, 1970, Ringgold, Toche, and Hendricks were arrested and fined $100 for flag desecration; their case was later dismissed with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. Now, 55 years later, Judson Commons—the church's nonprofit arts arm—is mounting a new version of the exhibition, again via open call, featuring over 60 artists and a week of programming in the Judson Gym.
This anniversary exhibition matters because it revives a landmark moment of art as political protest and free-speech activism, connecting the original show's defiance of flag desecration laws during the Vietnam War to contemporary debates over freedom of expression and national symbols. The original "People's Flag Show" tested legal limits and resulted in the arrest of its curators, known as the Judson Three, cementing its place in art history. By restaging the show with a new generation of artists, Judson Commons underscores the enduring relevance of art as a tool for dissent and the ongoing struggle over the meaning of the American flag.