• Celebrity
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Black Beauty Awards 2022
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Sponsors Recognition Page 2022
    • Latest News
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2022 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • Wellness House
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK WOMEN COME FIRST

Every day we're serving Black women deeply. Come get a plate of goodness! Sign up for daily content and exclusive offers you'll love!

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and that you have read our Privacy Policy
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
      • Paint The Polls Black
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Black Beauty Awards 2022
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Sponsors Recognition Page 2022
    • Latest News
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2022 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • Wellness House
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Home · Black History Month

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride

With recent events, including but not limited to the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, it's easy to get bogged down with heavy emotions. Remind yourself of your worth, magnificence and magic with these uplifting t-shirts celebrating our culture and the icons that moved it forward.
By Mekeisha Madden Toby and Dominiq · Updated October 27, 2020
01
The Very Black Project

Created in 2014, by Artist-Educator André D. Singleton & Artistic Director Justin Fulton, the Very Black Project is a movement of self-love. The project aims to encourage relatable and inclusive dialogues that promote healing, self-love and recognition of the vastness of the black experience throughout the diaspora. You can grab a Very Black t-shirt here.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
02
Blck Store

The Blck Foundation’s mission is to bring awareness to issues that people of color face while offering a creative way to uplift voices. Through their “wear your support” campaign they raise money to fund the movement. You can support their efforts here.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
03
Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks (1913-2005): Refusing to give up her seat in the White section of the bus started the Montgomery Bus Boycott and made Rosa Parks one of the most iconic women in history. This Etsy Shop top reads “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Etsy.com
04
Angela Davis

At 72, Davis continues to fight for civil, women’s and prisoner’s rights. She is more than a symbol of the struggle because she’s still fighting the struggle. The author, social activist and professor is fluent in French and has degrees from Brandeis University, the University of California San Diego and Humboldt University. You can buy this Angela Davis T-shirt on BlackNProud.net in various sizes for $30.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
BlackNProud
05
Fannie Lou Hammer

Fannie Lou Hammer (1917-1977): Educate passersby on this civil and voting rights activist who coined the phrase “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” ForHarriet.com has a simple and crisply designed gray T-shirt for $25 that reads “Fight Like Fannie Lou.”

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
ForHarriet.com
06
Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931): This journalist, teacher, editor and activist was born enslaved but after emancipation, found freedom and advancement through education and public speaking. There are several styles of Ida B. Wells tees to choose from but this red one for $34.99 on PrepSportsWear.com is especially fetching.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
PrepSportsWear.com
07
Lena Horne

Lena Horne (1917-2010): This gorgeous singer, dancer, civil rights activist and mother made the leap from the Cotton Club to Hollywood and never looked back. She broke down barriers with grace and strength and taught generations of black women about their inner and outer beauty. Go to BelleRebelBoutique.com for this easy and breezy $12 Lena in glasses T-shirt.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
BelleRebelBoutique.com
08
Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (1897-1993): This American contralto broke down racial barriers with her voice and her talent. When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Anderson perform in front of an integrated audience at Constitution Hall in 1939, she found a better alternative. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt allowed Anderson to instead sing in front 75,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The $23 on Etsy.com doesn’t say all that, but it’s pretty awesome all the same.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Etsy.com
09
Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913): These shirts with a message run about $30 and come in all sorts of styles on sites like CafePress.com and Zazzle.com celebrating this champion of the Underground Railroad, who was also a Union spy.

There’s the popular “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more, if only they knew they were slaves.” Another good choice is Tubman’s quote on the feeling of freedom after being enslaved. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven.”

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Cafe Press
10
The Color Purple

The Color Purple (1982): Written by Alice Walker, this story of sisterhood, love and life has become a staple in the Black community. Later adapted into a film and musical, The Color Purple has featured superstars from Oprah and Whoopi Goldberg to Jennifer Hudson and Danielle Brooks. Out of Print Clothing reimagines iconic books as T-shirts. Other famous Black titles like Their Eyes Were Watching God and Invisible Man are available here.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
11
Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955): Give fashionable and overdue props to this trailblazing civil rights leader and government official who founded Bethune-Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women. Sites like Granger.pixels.com offer nifty $22 T-shirts commemorating the legendary educator.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Granger.pixels.com
12
Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (1928-2014): Angelou is a renowned author, poet, singer, dancer and activist. Her first of several autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a literary masterpiece and her poems “Phenomenal Woman” and “Still I Rise” are poetic anthems. POP ATL commemorates her contribution to history with a shirt for $22.00.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
POP ATL
13
Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Known her activism in abolitionist and women’s rights, Truth led a triumphant life and delivered the dynamic speech “Aint I a Woman?” at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. This graphic tee is $21.85 from Zazzle.com.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Zazzle.com
14
Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005): Born in Brooklyn, Chisholm went on to lead a dynamic political career while serving as an educator and author. Chisholm made history in 1972 when she became only the first woman, but the first Black woman to launch a presidential campaign. Cafe Press offers the “Unbought and Unbossed” t-shirt for $29.99.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Cafe Press
15
Because of Them

Black History’s most iconic figures can be celebrated with the “Because of Them We Can” t-shirt. Saluting everyone from Martin to Malcolm and Rosa to Betty, becauseofthemwecan.com offers the signature shirt for $15.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
BecauseOfThemWeCan
16
I Love My Roots

Hair is the crowning glory of all Black women and the “I Love My Roots” t-shirt from an Etsy Shop appropriately celebrated that along with the countless historic figures that make the month of February such a special one to commemorate.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Etsy.com
17
Black Power Salute

During the 1968 Olympics sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos each placed a black-glove one hand and raised their fist. The symbol become a salute to Black power and will forever be a political demonstration of strength and pride. This Etsy Shop offers it for $25.99.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Etsy.com
18
Nina Simone

Nina Simone (1933-2003): The pianist and singer was more than just that, she was also a civil rights activist and journalist who used her voice in music and beyond to fight for justice. For %17.99, this Etsy shop offers a great graphic tee to salute Simone’s legacy.

Upapologetically Black: 18 T-Shirts To Help You Wear Your Pride
Etsy.com
COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now