Earrings featuring a portrait of Assata Shakur: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The earrings are on a cardboard tag. It has a pale cheetah print background. There is a pink circle in the middle with a pink border with a 3-D effect. There are smaller grey and white circles going around the pink circle. The word [fab] is printed inside the pink circle with black ink and there is a hole at the top of the tag. Underneath the circle there is a "fab" website. Below, in a white background it reads [visit lovemyfab @] with logos for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

The earrings have gold fish hook backs. The earrings are a large rectangle with a sepia portrait of Assata Shakur. She is holding a sign with the numbers [97379]. The word [POLICE] is partially showing behind the numbers. The images has a clear plastic cover over it.

The backs of the earrings are a bronze metallic color. There are floral designs made out of a soft black material. The back of the tag has the pale cheetah pattern with the outline of a pink heart. There is text about the earrings inside of the heart. There is also a white circle at the bottom with a black outline and a handwritten red [10] inside.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2015
• Manufactured by: Fab Boutique, American
• Subject of: Assata Olugbala Shakur, American, born 1947
• Subject of: Million Man March, American, founded 1995
• Type: earrings
• Type: portraits
• Medium: ink on cardboard and metal with paper, plastic laminate, metallic paint, and velvet
• Dimensions: H x W (Earrings): 3 1/8 × 1 3/8 in. (7.9 × 3.5 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (Overall including packaging): 4 1/8 × 3 in. (10.5 × 7.6 cm)
• Place collected: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Race relations
• Topic: Social reform
• Topic: U.S. History, 2001-
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2015.251.14.10abc
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.