Leandrew Robinson, 25, president of the online store Ragamuffin Clothing, has been selling consciously inspired tees since he and two college buddies launched their line to coincide with the 2004 presidential election. It was their attempt to encourage the African-American students at University of California, Berkeley, to get more involved and remind them of the sacrifices of the civil rights era that ensured their current right to vote. “We immediately saw how we could use fashion as an avenue to generate change,” says Robinson.
Today, Ragamuffin Clothing offers a total of 22 different designs, including a $20 T-shirt with Senator Obama’s smiling image next to the famed Langston Hughes poem, “I, Too, Sing America.” It’s in keeping with the Ragamuffin mission, linking the past to the present. “Obama has captivated so many people to be part of change,” says Robinson, who has committed 10 percent of his profits to the Obama campaign in addition to volunteering at the Obama campaign office in Oakland. “I pretty much gave up on America because I started to feel like it didn’t represent me, but Obama speaks for the people. In turn, the people are committing themselves to being positive and a part of a larger change.”
Get Ragamuffin Clothing’s “I, Too, Sing America” T-shirt featuring a photo of Barack Obama along with Langston Hughes’s famous poem of the same name at Ragamuffinclothing.com