T-shirt featuring Black Lives Matter graphic: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A t-shirt featuring a graphic on the front that reads "Black / Lives / Matter / In America 2014" over the image of a bullet hole in glass. The back displays several slogans associated with the Black Lives Matter movement: "BlackLivesMatter / In America," "I / CAN'T / BREATHE," "HANDS / UP, DON'T / SHOOT," and "No / Justice / No / Peace." The "Hands up, don't shoot" lettering makes up the torso of a silhouetted figure with hands in the air. Beneath the slogans are the names of African Americans who were killed while unarmed: "MICHAEL BROWN / ERIC GARNER / TAMIR RICE / AKAI GURLEY / TRAYVON MARTIN / AND OTHERS..."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2014
• Created by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Michael Brown Jr., 1996 - 2014
• Subject of: Trayvon Martin, American, 1995 - 2012
• Subject of: Tamir Rice, 2002 - 2014
• Subject of: Eric Garner, 1970 - 2014
• Subject of: Akai Gurley, 1986 - 2014
• Type: T-shirts
• Medium: cotton (textile)
• Dimensions: H x W: 35 × 29 in. (88.9 × 73.7 cm)
• Place collected: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Children
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Justice
• Topic: Local and regional
• Topic: Men
• Object number: 2015.136.3
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Harriet G. McCombs
• 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: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.