Ted Landsmark was attacked with an American flag 50 years in the past. What does the flag imply to him now?

In April 1976, a  29-year-old Black lawyer named Ted Landsmark was dashing via Boston’s City Hall on the way in which to a gathering. Landsmark was pushed to the bottom, stomped on, had his nostril damaged, and a white man brandishing a flagpole with an American flag on it lunged at him.

It was throughout a protest over court-ordered busing to combine Boston’s colleges. Landsmark had marched in Civil Rights protests in Alabama, however stated he by no means imagined he’d be attacked in Boston. The incident was captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning {photograph} by Stanley Forman, referred to as “The Soiling of Old Glory.”

“ That moment was indelibly embedded in my consciousness and really structured the identity that I’ve had in Boston for the last half century,” Landsmark stated.

It’s been 50 years since he was attacked, and Landsmark is now 80 years previous. He’s a professor of public coverage and concrete affairs at Northeastern University. For years, Landsmark stated he didn’t have a duplicate of Forman’s {photograph} as a result of the picture was copyrighted, and the copyright holder was reluctant to present it to him. But now, he has a framed copy in his workplace on campus.

“ I have students who are studying policy who have never seen the photograph,” Landsmark stated, “and who are stunned and appalled that that kind of racist event could have taken place in Boston, which now feels so different than it did then.”

Landsmark stated the assault occurred so quick, he didn’t have a lot time to consider it. But, remembering the recommendation of Civil Rights Movement activists he spoke with, he knew that it was his second to say one thing he thought may very well be “healing.”

“I  pointed out that I wasn’t angry with the young people, because I felt that they had been driven to that moment by a number of vicious, racist elected officials,” he stated. “I directed any of my anger towards those elected officials who had gotten the kids really riled up and who weren’t trying to resolve the issue of education in Boston but were much more interested in their own political careers.”

When Landsmark went to the police station after he was attacked, he noticed Forman’s {photograph} for the primary time. He stated he knew it could develop into iconic.

“ It wasn’t until a couple of days later that I really saw how widely distributed the photograph had been,” Landsmark stated, “and how it was stereotyping what was going on in Boston in a way that put me at the center of some very horrendous political activity and very racist activity.”

The American flag has been used as a weapon in different cases since 1976. During the riot on the Capitol constructing on Jan. 6, 2021, protesters used flag poles to assault cops making an attempt to protect the constructing.

Landsmark stated when the flag was used in opposition to him as a weapon, he stated his mom couldn’t even take a look at it for years.

“ I also know that the flag stands for democratic aspirations and inclusion,” he stated. “If we look at it in that way, the flag and the photograph can be a statement of not so much what we hope the country will become, but what we aspire to avoid.”

Since he was attacked 50 years in the past, Landsmark stated he began amassing American flags. He stated he particularly likes to search for flag iconography in Navajo weavings and folks artwork from the South. He sees the flag as a logo of hope, unification and optimism.

“ The flag does not belong to the radical right or to racists or to people who would try to use it to divide the country,” Landsmark stated. “The flag really belongs to all of us, and when you see it being flown around the world as a symbol of hope and aspiration, you can’t help but feel that, if we embrace it for its best values, the country will come together and heal itself. What the photograph does is to emphasize how much work remains to be done.”

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Robin Young produced this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Grace Griffin produced it for the online.

This section aired on July 3, 2026.