Denim: What We’ve Worn and What We Have Represented

The history and significance of denim as a fashion staple and trend in the forms of jeans and jackets is the focus of this week’s blog post. The search terms utilized were:

8 stories matching “Levis”

10 stories matching “Young Lords” 

21 stories matching “denim”

1739 stories matching “jeans”

84 stories matching “blue jeans”

10 stories matching “Young Lords” 

21 stories matching “denim”

7 stories matching “Calvin Klein” + “jeans” in transcript

16 stories matching “Tommy Hilfiger' in stories

The Honorable John Allen (1943 - ) was appointed Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit Superior Court judge in 1993. Giving historical context located in Columbus, Georgia he says, “A few families, very few…. Columbus was the largest manufacturer of denim, you know jeans, when I came here in '77' [1977], and, and remained so for several years. So, a couple of very large textile mills-- probably most of the land in the city was owned by three families who developed a lot of the subdivisions that exist here. It's a very wealthy town. We have quite a few millionaires per capita here than in a lot of other places--old money.”[1]

Denim overalls and jeans for some had class distinctions and associations. Mark Stansbury (1942 - ), a host for over fifty years on WDIA Radio in Memphis, Tennessee shares, “If you were in Mrs. Cawthorn's class, you didn't come to class with brogans and blue jeans on. She made you wear a shirt and a tie because that's what she was training you for, to be a teacher. And she wanted you to, you know, dress. And then a lot of times they would come and wouldn't be dressed properly, but they would go and get a tie from somewhere and put a tie on you know 'cause Ms. Cawthorn didn't stand for that bull.”[2] Civil rights leader Reverend Clay Evans (1925-2019), who founded the Fellowship Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois in 1958 before co-founding Operation PUSH with Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1965, and later releasing eleven gospel albums.“I don't know. I know I wasn't there very long. You see, it was difficult also... Now, this is a joke on the side... that I came from Brownsville, Tennessee wearing overalls and any kind of shoes. I was glad to get out of that predicament. Now, [HM Reverend] Jesse [Jackson, Sr.] and them wanted me to wear some overalls. I'm glad to have a suit, man. I wore overalls long enough, and high-top shoes, and all of that kind of thing. So, to get me to dress back into that, was a problem. I'd help anybody out, but I prayed to the Lord to help me to pull off them tennis shoes. (Laughter). And he did, and he did.”[3] Ricardo Patton (1958 - ), the head coach of the University of Colorado basketball team shares of poverty and jeans: “No, we had very little means. My grandmother did the best she could. My father, even though he bragged about the amount of money he made, he, he didn't do anything to, to assist his mother in, in raising his kids, and so that was always a sore spot with me. But my grandmother didn't have very much to give us growing up. And I remember most holidays, particularly Christmases, getting a pair of jeans, and jeans weren't the style back then, and they certainly weren't Jordache or any of the, the stylish jeans that the kids wear today. But that's about all we got growing up. And I remember going to… my friend who lived next door's home and just seeing a bed full of clothes or a floor full of toys and, and just feeling like, boy, you know, we don't have anything. And so it was a--those were always tough for me growing up, the holidays, because I couldn't look forward to, to anything. And, and for a long time, even in my adult years, my early adult years, I found myself being sad or, or down a little bit during those times, and then I realized, you know, what it was about. And I, I finally realized it once I had kids of my own and so.”[4] Willye B. White (1939 - 2007 ), who at sixteen earned a silver medal in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, becoming the first American woman to ever medal in the long jump adds: “Oh, sure, oh, yes. Oh, yes. I mean these are Southerners. I mean, you , you didn't wear pants, you dressed. You took your Sunday manners--when you left home, you took your Sunday manners. You didn't wear blue jeans and, and, and overalls and things like that. And when you--when you went out, you may not have had the, the boy may not have had but one shirt or, or one pair of pants, but they were starched and ironed. And when you went out, you were making a statement because during segregation--the beauty of segregation is that you had a, you had a community and everybody worked together. And you represented your people, your community, your school, your church. And it was important that you were able to go anywhere in the world and stand next to kings and queens and presidents because you knew how to act. You were taught how to eat correctly and, and how to be polite. Listen--you were to listen and you were to be seen and not heard. And so those were just Southern customs.”[5]

Major general Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers (1947 - ) served forty-six years in the United States Air Force and was the longest-serving airman in Air Force history when he retired in 2012 shared: “So I had a cousin, two cousins; one that had graduated and enlisted in the Air Force, and I had another cousin that had graduated and enlisted in the Army. And I used to see both of them come back home after they went into the respective services, and they would have money, and had cars, and nice clothes; and I said, "Man, there must be something about that military stuff that's pretty good. These guys seem to be doing very well." So that's kind of what interested me in the military, having grown up like I'd grown up. And I didn't do--we didn't talk any about the social welfare, and clothing, and how it's provided for me, what they were able to provide for me as I went to school, but I'd like to share a couple of things with you. It was poverty. I remember during the school year before school started, my grandparents [Shade Lane Roberts and Lucy Rhodes Roberts] would, usually they go take me shopping to buy school clothes. And school clothes would consist of two or three pairs of blue jeans, and two or three shirts, and a pair of brogan shoes. And that's what I wore all year to school. Now, I was, you know, the typical kid. I liked to shoot marbles and play kids' games. And we get into the school year two or three months, and the knees of those blue jeans would start to get a little, a little gray. They would not be blue any longer. And we get about halfway through the school year and holes would start to show. And my grandmother's solution to that was, you remember the iron-on blue jean patches? She would get those iron-on blue jean patches, and she'd iron them on the knees; and I would go shoot marbles, get them dirty, and wash them, and she'd put them back on.”[6]

Robert Stull (1967 - ) worked for every major publisher in the comic book industry. He used denim as a creative outlet, “…cause I did graffiti on everything, jeans, baseball hats. The real popular thing back then in the '80s [1980s] was to do 'em on denim jackets, cause the way the jackets are, are constructed, you have a panel in the back that kind of goes in, in like a upside down triangle. And it's, it's, it's like a canvas. You prime it, you put your gesso on there, and it's a canvas. So that's what kids did in New York City, you know. And then, you know, you have this, this walking piece of art that you can sort of display every time you put your jacket on.”[7]

Credit: Jamel Shabazz

Another theme was wanting to fit in. Terri A. Sewell (1965 - ) who was the first African American woman to serve in the Alabama delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives shares, “I can remember that my mother dressed me in these little preppy outfits that had your initials going down them. And the kids on the Eastside [Selma, Alabama], they didn't dress like that. So, they had really cool jeans that had little rips in them and I'm. So, I went to the Goodwill store and I bought a pair of jeans and a jeans jacket. And my mother would drop my off early because she had to go and open the library at the high school [Selma High School, Selma, Alabama]. So, I would rush to my locker and I would quickly change clothes in the, in the bathroom. And I, to my cool leather… I mean my cool jean jacket and my really cool Levi jeans. And I was, I wanted to be cool. So, what I didn't remember was that half the teachers in, the junior high school, my mom, you know, all of them knew my mom and daddy [Andrew Sewell]. And many of them were AKAs [Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.], my mother's sorority. And so, when my, when Miss Bryant [ph.] saw me in the same outfit for the third week in a row, she stopped me in the hall and said, "Now I know Nancy [Nancy Gardner Sewell] didn't put you in that same outfit every day. I know you have something else." I said, "Please don't tell her, please don't tell her. They don't like me, they call me names." And Miss Bryant, I'll never forget what she said to me, she said, "You have to be yourself. You have to be who you are, and if you're, you're happy with who you are and confident in who you are, they will be confident in who you, you know, they'll start liking you." I said, "No it doesn't work like that. They call me names," (laughter). And so, she said, "Now Terri [HistoryMaker Terri A. Sewell], you know, the way you're going about it is not the right way." But, it was really interesting to me that psychologically I wanted be liked, more than I wanted to have good grades. Now, I made straight A's, but it didn't matter to me, that I wasn't listed in the straight A honor roll in the newspaper. To be listed in the straight A honor roll in the newspaper you had to have good grades in conduct and in academics.”[8] Jill Nelson (1952 - ) who wrote for The Washington Post Magazine, Village Voice and Essence, shared about her daughter, “ You know, it's funny because I--you know, but you--you defer your own gratification, you know, for your kid. I mean I can remember my daughter having--being young, like maybe six or seven [years old], and the big thing was Calvin Klein jeans and she had to have these green corduroy Calvin Klein jeans. And I can remember, you know, her skinny little self in the store turning around to look at her butt. (Makes face) Look how far we've come with that. But you know, realizing that you--I wasn't gonna get the shoes I wanted because she needed the jeans; or she needed the Adidas, or she needed the Reeboks. But I think that happens no matter how much money you have, you know. You--your kids come first. So maybe, you know, it's not going to Spain and sending your daughter to French camp or whatever it is, but you're gonna do it.”[9]

Credit: John Lyon

The Honorable Reverend Walter Fauntroy (1933 - ) represented the citizens of District of Columbia in the U.S. Congress. Highlighting the tensions between SNCC and the SCLC he adds, “There was a little tension between us that reflected itself in them calling SCLC Slick and themselves Snick. They called us Slick because we dressed in shirts and ties, you know, and were edumacated (laughter), and they were with the people (laughter). So they're, they're uniform was, was blue jeans and the like, and--but it was just a--now that I look back about it, it was, it was, it was fun.”[10]

Source: Semantic Scholar

Ambassador update: I got to present in College Government early so instead of presenting on April 24th, I presented this past Monday on April 10th. I have attached some of the notes the Secretary Treasurer took during my college government presentation! I am still waiting to hear back from the Wellesley Poetry collective, Poetry Out Loud.

[1] The Honorable John Allen (The HistoryMakers A2002.012), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 11, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 6, John Allen documents the transformation of Columbus, Georgia from a textile town

[2] Mark Stansbury (The HistoryMakers A2014.037), interviewed by Larry Crowe, April 25, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 2, Mark Stansbury remembers his influences at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee

[3] Reverend Clay Evans (The HistoryMakers A1993.001), interviewed by Larry Crowe, January 30, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 6, story 7, Reverend Clay Evans describes working on the Poor People's Campaign in 1968 in Washington D.C.

[4] Ricardo Patton (The HistoryMakers A2002.118), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 18, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 10, Ricardo Patton describes growing up in poverty

[5] Willye B. White (The HistoryMakers A2002.112), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 2, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 7, Willye White illustrates Southern manners

[6] Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers (The HistoryMakers A2012.148), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 28, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 3, Alfred Flowers discusses his graduation from high school and interest in joining the military

[7] Robert Stull (The HistoryMakers A2005.029), interviewed by Robert Hayden, January 28, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Robert Stull details his interest in graffiti art

[8] The Honorable Terri A. Sewell (The HistoryMakers A2017.096), interviewed by Denise Gines, May 5, 2017, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, The Honorable Terri A. Sewell recalls trying to fit in at Westside Junior High School in Selma, Alabama

[9]Jill Nelson (The HistoryMakers A2016.085), interviewed by Harriette Cole, November 11, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 8, Jill Nelson talks about supporting her daughter

[10] The Honorable Reverend Walter Fauntroy (The HistoryMakers A2003.016), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, January 23, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 4, Walter Fauntroy talks about the tensions in the SCLC with HistoryMakers like John Lewis and Marion Barry and the subsequent formation of SNCC