I was 13 years old, in a parking lot on the South Side of Chicago, selling roses when my mom bought me my first Levi’s® Trucker Jacket being resold out of a trunk. It was love at first sight. I did everything in that jacket, with the hope that it would collect the memories that I might have otherwise forgotten. I went on to wear this jacket to my first march for labor rights, on Mayday. What was most impactful to me that day was how many Trucker Jackets I saw around me, all designed with different political commitments and dreams for the world. I felt a deep sense of belonging. That by having my own Trucker, I had joined a league of extraordinary freedom fighters committed to changing the world. I was now a part of a culture committed to collective transformation. There, I began the journey of collecting patches and buttons that would visually tell the story of my political identity — what I was committed to fighting for, and my vision for the futures of oppressed people.
This was followed by the heartbreak of losing that jacket at a protest. I would go on to lose many more, always when the time was right. When it was time to transform and start anew. I lost my favorite one at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. I remember losing my Trucker in Ferguson, while organizing when Mike Brown was killed. I had another one confiscated in Baltimore during a curfew sweep when Freddie Gray was killed. For a century, movements have used denim as a uniform and a canvas of resistance. When you jump into your favorite pair of jeans or throw on your favorite Trucker Jacket, you’re connecting yourself to the visual lineage of nearly every major political resistance in the history of this country and beyond.
Inherently, denim is interwoven within Black culture. Enslaved African peoples and their descendants created this beautiful fabric rooted in their experiences, and skill sets adapted from the continent, and culture, like the batik dyeing process of the Osogbo people. Denim originally functioned as “workwear” by Black enslaved people and was considered “unfit” for anyone else to wear. However, during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, denim became more than just a symbol of the working class, transforming into a tool of worker resistance…