Black History Month Quotes & Celebration Ideas for Your Business or School

Since 1976, Black History Month has been observed in the United States during the month of February. Each year, millions of people celebrate the month as a time to reflect on black heritage, achievements, and important figures. Gearing up for your school’s Black History Month event, or looking for custom apparel to inspire your group? You’ve come to the right place!

Looking for a way to recognize and celebrate Black History Month, creating custom t-shirts seemed like the obvious fit at Custom Ink—and it wasn’t long before a team of store Inkers launched a fundraiser to involve others and give back to their communities. We took some time to speak about the fundraiser with Andrew Harker, the Stores Regional Manager in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The design for the Celebrating Black History Month 2022 fundraiser features the names of Black women who have had an impact on U.S. culture and history.

CI: How did you decide to do a fundraiser?

AH: This whole story really starts with our Inkers looking for ways to share our values and what we stand for within our local communities. The fundraiser idea came after thanks to Inkers and customers hearing about it and wanting to be a part of the amazing designs our teams and artists came up with. Like a lot of great ideas, this really came about because of conversations and sharing of ideas!

CI: What inspired you?

AH: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! I was at another retailer and saw the team there wearing shirts that supported a national cause awareness month. I immediately thought, ’Why aren’t we doing this?’ It would be such a win for our Inkers to show their support for causes we feel strongly about, and customers would see our values AND get ideas that would inspire them as well!

CI: What does it benefit?

AH: This fundraiser supports Advancement Project National Office, an organization Custom Ink has aligned with and supported company-wide. Their objective is to promote racial equity and build a foundation so that everyone may thrive, and I think that’s something Inkers connect with at a fundamental level.

CI: In what ways did the t-shirts help when organizing the cause? Did the t-shirts draw others to your cause?

AH: Going back to the beginning, again, this was a very collaborative and organic venture. From the original idea, Inkers came up with the idea for Stores team members within each region to create designs to celebrate Black History Month, and then the teams voted on the designs. From there, one shirt in each region was created for team members to wear in February. Somewhere along the way, the idea came up to create a fundraiser utilizing these designs, but since there were two designs used, would they have competing fundraisers? That didn’t feel right, and someone had the great idea to have our talented artists combine both designs into one and share that with other Inkers, our customers, and our families as a fundraiser. I think the combination of both designs to form this final product couldn’t be more appropriate for us in celebrating and promoting our diversity and belonging initiatives.

Inker Tionna Cotman from the Annapolis, Maryland store designed the winning piece for the Northeast region.

CI: Where did you get the design? What was the process of having our Design Services team merge the art like?

AH: The two designs were created by our very own Inkers Jay Holton and Tionna Cotman.  Tionna’s design received some assistance from Design Services, and the final combined design was also created by Design Services. Our artists are so talented and make the process easy for us and our customers!

Inker Jay Holton from the Allen, Texas store created the winning design for the Western region.

CI: What did your team think about having custom gear from this fundraiser?

AH: The team couldn’t be more excited about this. It’s been amazing for me to see so many people involved in creating designs (all of which were fantastic), helping to get this organized, and just running with it. There is nothing more exciting to me than seeing an engaged team and what they are capable of doing!

CI: What do you hope that this fundraiser can achieve?

AH: I hope this fundraiser and shirt design can start conversations and help us connect with the communities we’re in while raising funds for a noble cause. As a channel, I think it is vital for us to lead in Diversity and Inclusion and reflect the communities we’re a part of. We cannot succeed in our mission to become a trusted, sought-after partner within the community without building long-term relationships in the surrounding areas of our stores. This fundraiser is only a small part of us working towards that objective.

CI: Is there anything else you’d like to share?

AH: I would just like to thank again all the Inkers involved in this process. Our front-line team is truly the one who makes things happen within the organization. I really look forward to doing this again in the future to celebrate more national cause awareness months!

Spotlight on Outdoor Afro

When we saw Outdoor Afro’s Black History Month shirts we knew you needed to see them too! The national not-for-profit that inspires Black connections and leadership in nature knew that they could make a statement with custom shirts and they were right.

The team came to Custom Ink to make their t-shirt series that bears the phrase “I’m Black and I ____” filling in different outdoor activities. “Creating an ‘I’m Black and I _____’ series has always been something that founder and CEO, Rue Mapp, wanted to do. So, go ahead and dispel those, “Black people don’t [insert outdoor activity here] and declare your love for your Blackness AND love of the outdoors!” They also have a shirt that celebrates historically Black beaches Idlewild, Sag Harbor, American Beach, and The Inkwell.

As part of their Black history celebration, the team highlighted Black historical figures and locations that are known for their involvement with outdoor recreation throughout the month. Their list includes mountaineer Charles Madison Crenshaw, the first Black man to summit Denali; Will ‘Akuna’ Robinson, the first Black man to hike the Triple Crown; and Florida’s first Black resort, American Beach.

We reached out to Yanira Castro, Communications Director for Outdoor Afro, to learn more about the organization and its own history. She told us, “Outdoor Afro was founded by Rue Mapp as a kitchen table blog about her outdoor activities out of her Oakland home. She had a love for the outdoors through her parents, who had left the Jim Crow South in the 1940s and built a rural paradise north of Oakland.”

Custom performance tank
Photo: Courtesy of Outdoor Afro

“The blog came about after she noticed that she didn’t always see a lot of other Black  Americans enjoying the outdoors or see many representations of that in advertising. When interest in the blog began to pick up, she put out a call for more Black leaders to begin guiding outdoor trips and people responded.”

The organization sells custom gear from Custom Ink through their website because it can help them engage and inspire their audience. “Custom gear helps us to promote who we are and what we do. It allows people to share their love of Outdoor Afro.”

Photo: Courtesy of Outdoor Afro

“We have bought a number of products from Custom Ink including totes, beanies, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. We chose products based on what our community was asking for and products that are useful in the outdoors and ways to show people’s love of Outdoor Afro. Our latest campaign is about declaring your love for your Blackness and for nature.”

They also know that choosing the right products for their audience is important. That’s why they offer custom athletic tanks, water bottles, face masks, and hoodies in addition to t-shirts, all perfect for the outdoors.

Product shown: Bella + Canvas Ultra Soft Pullover HoodiePhoto credit: Tiffany Womack

Their logo, a silhouette of a person’s head with a tree growing in it, is simple and eye-catching. “Our logo was designed by artist Jeremy Collins in 2015. Founder and CEO Rue Mapp and Jeremy were KEEN ambassadors together. On a retreat, he convinced Rue that the old logo (which was a character of her) was not representing the breadth of what Outdoor Afro was about! She was skeptical, but the version Jeremy came up with was incredible and very close to what we use today.” The rest of their design vision is led by their CEO, along with input from their 82 volunteer leaders.

We asked what advice she’d give to someone else in her field who is thinking about getting custom gear and Yanira said:

“Understand what your community wants, just not want you want. Find a great partner who understands your needs and is willing to become a partner to you, like Custom Ink! Set up your promotion, distribution, and fulfillment options, There are so many ways to go about this, so explore all your options. Additionally, make sure you have a customer service mechanism in place.”

“At the end of the day, Outdoor Afro is a love story. And we are so happy that the community that we have built over the past 11 years has grown to more than 40K people that we connect to the outdoors on a consistent basis.”

Celebrate Black History Month by purchasing one of Outdoor Afro’s shirts or head over to our site to create your own custom celebration gear. Get a design boost with our Black History Month template library.

Spotlight on Because of Them We Can

Since its inception, Because of Them We Can has evolved into a movement to celebrate Black history and excellence all year long. Here is its story.

In January 2013, photographer and mother of two Eunique Jones Gibson sat in her kitchen watching her son, Chase, shadowboxing. It was the eve of Black History Month and close to the one year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death, and she says, “as a mother with two Black sons I was wrestling with feelings of hope and fear.” As she watched Chase, she stopped seeing him as her son and started to visualize him as a little Muhammad Ali. “I thought of how he didn’t even know who Ali was,” she remembers, “and boom, the idea was born.”

Gibson envisioned a photography series that would celebrate Black history and focus on educating and exciting young people. She would outfit children like prominent Black leaders, photograph them, and pair those photos with quotes. The tagline would be a phrase across the bottom of every image: the words “Because of him we can” or “Because of her we can.” That campaign, depicting 28 history-makers, including Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, filmmaker Spike Lee, and of course, Muhammad Ali would launch that February to immediate success. Within six months, Gibson was able to leave her job to run the organization full time.

At the advice of her trademark attorney, Gibson simplified the message to “Because Of Them We Can” and began working on ideas for how to expand the impact of the concept beyond the initial photography campaign. She wanted to both get the word out and raise money, so she turned to the Custom Ink Fundraising platform to make the organization’s first t-shirts. “If you have a message that you want to share or amplify, a t-shirt is a great way to do it,” she says.

Her initial design idea was simply to use the same name and typeset she’d used in the photos, and it worked well. The shirt was bold, and it got attention. While that fundraiser was small, it was a success. She says having a great t-shirt was instrumental in how well the campaign did. “It was a big deal because we were able to create brand advocates in the people who were excited about the movement. They began wearing the t-shirts and sharing the message.”

The original design from the photo series and Gibson’s first fundraiser shirt using a version of that design.

That fundraiser not only proved that the idea had more potential, but it also gave Gibson a chance to see what worked and what didn’t. While the shirts were popular and looked good, she felt they could be even better with an official logo.

“As a marketer by trade, I knew that having a strong logo was extremely important. I wanted something simple yet bold.” It also needed to look just as good on a t-shirt or a hoodie as it would on her photos, website, and social media.

It didn’t take her long to design the logo. She sorted through hundreds of fonts until she found the one that felt right. “I sort of just played around with different fonts against a black square until I landed on something that I thought was simple and clean.” Then, she ran it by her husband, a graphic designer. “Once he approved, I knew I was good to go.”

Eunique Jones Gibson wearing her logo t-shirt and the logo she designed

For the next run of t-shirts, she would use the new logo and add the first names of some of the influential Black leaders who had inspired her. She felt like it helped convey what ‘Because of Them We Can’ meant. She says, “People would see the [original] shirt and ask, ‘Because of them we can, what? And who’s them?’ So, I thought that adding names of some of the trailblazers we were referencing would help onlookers understand exactly what we meant. And it worked.”

Gibson and Because of Them We Can have been covered by BET, Ebony, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and many more. As the brand grew into a broader platform for education, Gibson began looking for a way to scale the message and to create something bigger that could impact the next generation of leaders. “Whenever I visited a school, teachers constantly told me that they needed more resources from us to teach Black history in an innovative way.”

This drove her to create a subscription box designed for both classrooms and individual kids. Subscribers receive a box every month full of content, apparel items, props, and activities, all centered around Black excellence and history. She says, “each box represents a child who is learning Black history beyond February. And because Black history is American history, we think it’s an important goal.”

The Because of Them We Can monthly subscription box contains educational items celebrating Black history and excellence.

If you’re inspired by Eunique Jones Gibson’s story, try these tips to start your own t-shirt fundraiser which, through Custom Ink’s Fundraising platform, is as simple as designing a shirt and choosing a cause. The platform takes care of providing a fundraising page along with the inventory, collecting donations, printing, and shipping. Here are five simple steps to get you going.

1. Pick a great cause and a name for it. Gibson’s advice: “I think the biggest thing to remember, whenever you create, is that people aren’t in your head. Make something that is easy to comprehend and understand within three seconds of looking at it.”
2. Choose a bold color combination. Gibson’s advice: “I wanted something that would pop and could stand alone, whether it was a watermark on an image or a design on a t-shirt. Black and white seemed like the perfect fit to thrive in any creative situation.”
3. Make your design. Upload an image or create one in our Design Lab. Gibson’s advice: “Make it simple but bold. Ask yourself if you could see a popular celebrity wearing it on a t-shirt or garment proudly. Fine tune and tweak it until your answer is yes.”
4. Set up the fundraiser. Make sure you write a compelling story. Let them know why they should support your cause. Gibson’s advice: “Know why you’re doing it before you venture out to do it. Your why will help you when you want to give up or throw in the towel.”
5. Tell everyone you know. Send emails, put it on social, tell your neighbors, and most importantly, wear your shirt. Gibson’s advice: “Make sure you build a strong village of supporters who can help you get on or stay on the right path.”

26 Black History Month Quotes

For ideas to inspire your own custom t-shirt or event, check out our Black History Month quotes below.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington

“When they go low, we go high.” – Michelle Obama

“I have a dream.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed.” – African Proverb

“Yes, we can.” – Barack Obama

“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” – Coretta Scott King

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

“No matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep your head up, and handle it.” – Tupac

“Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by color.” – Unknown

“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Don’t try to lessen yourself for the world; let the world catch up to you.” – Beyoncé

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

“Whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.” – Serena Williams

“Our nation is a rainbow – red, yellow, brown, black, and white – and we’re all precious in God’s sight.” – Jesse Jackson

“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” –The Help

“The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” – Wilma Rudolph

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou

“Each person must live their life as a model for others.” – Rosa Parks

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama

“We can push ourselves further. We always have more to give.” – Simone Biles

“In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” – T’Challa, Black Panther

“Every day, you have the power to choose our better history — by opening your hearts and minds, by speaking up for what you know is right.” – Michelle Obama

“Be happy in your own skin.” – Octavia Spencer