True Pride of our Past Drives the Future

DID YOU KNOW? During the civil rights movement respectability and dignity was paramount, and so was fashion among black people in marginalized communities [women with dresses, and proper shoes and men in suits and they all wore hard shoes]. Everyone was dressed to promote dignity.” Fashion continues to be a tool for marginalized communities. From the civil rights movement to the Black Panther era to Black Lives Matter, fashion has played a key role in conveying the message of protest. This sense of being elegantly dressed was part of the black experience inside and outside of protests and movements. In the 1960's the Civil Rights protest movement, including the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the Women’s liberation movement, clothing became an important visual tactic for creating cohesion between the protest demonstrators to more effectively create and frame protes