The flag was first flown after the lynching of A. L. McCamy in Dalton, Georgia, in 1936, and was stopped from flying in 1938 after the NAACP's landlord threatened them with eviction if they continued the practice.

[2][3][a] The flag continued to be flown at NAACP's headquarters at 69 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan the day after news of a lynching reached the organization.

It was displayed at the library's Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington DC as part of a 2015 exhibition entitled The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom.

[4] Scott said that the work, which he entitled simply A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday, was intended to provoke public dialogue and act as a sign of hope that people can learn from history.

[4] It was a last minute addition to the gallery's For Freedoms exhibition, held in the wake of the July 2016 shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

[6] Shainman said at the time that "given the horrific events of the past week, we were compelled to take a stand amidst initial feelings of helplessness and grief.

[12] Scott brought the work to New York on July 7, to hang it himself but en route noticed a demonstration against the police shootings in Union Square and decided to fly the flag there.