Supreme’s Spring 2022 collection features photos of Malcom X and the March on Washington
All profits from the collection go to a Black culture research library
For its Spring 2022 collection, Supreme is collaborating with the archives of postwar American photographer Roy DeCarava and donating all the profits to a Black culture research library.
Born in Harlem in 1919, DeCarava’s work included shots of his neighborhood and jazz musicians like Billie Holiday. The Museum of Modern Art purchased three of his photos in 1950, when he was 30 years old, and today they have 20 pieces by him in their collection. DeCarava died in 2009.
The Roy DeCarava/Supreme Collection focuses on DeCarava’s photos documenting the Civil Rights movement, with sweatshirts and tees that show his 1964 photo of Malcom X, and tees that show his “Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, D.C., 1963,” from the March on Washington.
All profits from the collection go to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a New York Public Library research library in Harlem that uses the tagline “Where every month is Black History Month.”
Supreme has shown Malcom X on its clothes before, in a 2003 airbrush tee and a 2015 hoodie. The Roy DeCarava/Supreme Collection goes on sale on Thursday in the U.S.