On the morning of May 14, Feng Congde and several other students hoisted a four-meter-high, five-meter-wide black cloth banner with the words "Hunger Strike" from a flagpole in front of the Monument to the People's Heroes. Feng recalled in his book "A Tiananmen Journal", "We used black cloth to make this flag to create a state of mourning soldiers. The hunger strike was a helpless and sorrowful act, and black has precisely that solemnity of being 'dignified and grieving'. This also put it in strong contrast to the commonly used red flag, so it was able to further attract the attention of the nation's people."

References: Feng Congde, "A Tiananmen Journal"; Wang Dan, "The Memoirs of Wang Dan — From June 4th to Exile"