12/02/2020
Intersections of Fashion and Activism: Denim and the Civil Rights Movement
5-pocket jeans were popularized by James Dean in the 1950s as a symbol of teenage rebellion, and were soon considered acceptable among the general public; but it wasn’t until the 1970s that denim came to be the ubiquitous material it is today. For this, we owe large credit to SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)—a crucial player in the Civil Rights Movement.
Denim is a simple, durable, and unassuming material, but it wasn’t always that way; in fact, the fabric has a dark history in slavery. Enslaved peoples were often dressed in denim, not only for its durability and low price, but also for use as a visual marker to distinguish slaves from the white plantation owners dressed in linens and lace. Furthermore, the creation of indigo dye--the pigment used to give denim its blue color—released toxic fumes during the chemical process, and most slaves making the color would die from only a few years of exposure. Post-Civil War, laborers continued to dress in denim—especially Black sharecroppers in the South.
It was this history that SNCC chose to reference by making denim their unofficial uniform. In the words of denim designer and historian Miko Underwood, wearing denim “served to connect with and advocate for the Southern Black sharecroppers. In adopting the clothing of Black laborers, instead of the attire worn by the Black middle class, SNCC was consciously reevaluating the politics of respectability.”
In this way, SNCC was not only honoring the lives of Black slaves and sharecroppers, but using their dress in juxtaposition with that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, whose use of middle class dress portrayed an attitude of assimilation and resignation to respectability politics that many activists didn’t agree with.
MLK, SNCC, and The Black Panthers—the third’s uniform of black clothing, leather jackets, dark sunglasses, and black berets firmly projecting their message of strength and Black power—all illustrated their respective ideologies through their clothing.
If you’re reading this, we hope you’ve voted. Fashion is powerful, but your vote is more so.
