It started of a as a symbol of unity and sign to black soldiers during the Vietnam war that they had each others back. LaMont Hamilton a photographer and visual artist from Chicago began a series of photographs called Five on the Black Hand Side that traces the origins of the black handshake known as the dap. Historically, the dap was a symbol among African American men that expresses unity, strength, defiance, or resistance and a complex language for communicating information. Read more information on the history of the dap and to find out why it was banned in the army here.
