For as long as structured institutions of authority have existed, there has been resistance. The relationship between authority and dissent is fueled by the tension that exists between those in power and those that power is exacted upon. Protest is a powerful tool for the masses and has consistently proven to be key in a free and true democratic society. The United States of America utilized protest to establish independence in 1776, and continued the tradition into the twentieth century. Protest is as American as apple pie.

            The tireless work of protestors from across the nation during the latter half of the twentieth century brought massive change to the United States, on both the social and legislative levels. These movements have utilized many forms of art and media to achieve their ultimate goals, one of which was the use of T-shirts as a billboard and a call to action. Politics Through T-Shirts: A History of Protest examines a timeline of protest and political expression in the United States through a seemingly simple garment: the T-shirt.

            For such a humble garment, the T-shirt has proven to be incredibly complex. In the context of the protest T-shirt, it’s development can be traced through two streams. The grassroots movement stream, which utilized the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) nature of the original protest T-shirt, and the consumerist stream, which produced politically motivated T-shirts for mass consumption. The streams intersect multiple times throughout the chronology of the protest T-shirt. Within them, multiple themes can be drawn. These themes include but are not limited to; gender, race, sexual orientation, music, fashion, celebrity, and the cross cultural relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Each of these themes is revisited many times throughout, creating a complicated web of interaction and influence bound together by cotton and silk screening. Politics Through T-Shirts is not meant to determine the most effective protest movements, but highlight those that sought this particular medium to strengthen their cause. It is a small piece of a much bigger picture.

            The T-shirts, graphics and multi-media materials gathered have been collected from print sources, digitized collections of museums and archives across the United States, and the digitized archives of news publications. It has been an exercise in digital curation when physical curation is not possible due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. Perhaps in the future a physical display of these materials will be possible.

            As the viewer will see, the journey of the protest T-shirt begins before ink is put to canvas. It is a story that originates in the Industrial Revolution, building and growing throughout the decades, before its first appearance in the late 1960s. It is worth noting, that the most important movement of the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement, is not directly relevant to the development of T-shirts, but to the development of social movements to follow. While the viewer will not see any T-shirt directly related to the Civil Rights Movement, it’s influence is felt throughout.

            Inevitably, the consumerist stream that made the T-shirt a staple in wardrobes across the United States, and the world, overtook its grassroots counterpart. By the late 1990s, market saturation and capitalist opportunities introduced a level of irony that left the future of the protest T-shirt in a state of flux. But despite these uncertainties, the T-shirt still exists today as a tool of communication and an artform of protest.