On August 13, 1920, the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League created the Red, Black and Green flag as a response to the song "Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon" by Heelan and Helf. That song along with "Coon, Coon, Coon" and "All Coons Look Alike to Me" were identified by H.L. Mencken as being the songs which firmly established the derogatory term "coon" in the American vocabulary. Originally in the 1830s, the term had been associated with the Whig Party. The Whigs used a raccoon as its emblem, but also had a more tolerant attitude towards blacks than the other political factions. The latter opinion is likely what transformed the term "coon" from mere political slang into a racial slur.