In November 2008, the United States elected Barack Obama to the White House. A few days beforehand, the photographer Eunique Jones Gibson had just given birth to her first son. His younger brother arrived a few months before the first black American president began his second term as head of the world’s most powerful country.
Inspired by her two little boys, Gibson reflected on the promising—and, finally, possible—future for the young black Americans thanks to the struggles of so many activists. During Black History Month 2013, Gibson launched the series Because of Them, We Can on social networks. Each portrait in the series takes the same approach: a child made up like Angela Davis or Malcolm X poses for the camera, a quotation in white against the black background. After a month, the project had become so popular that Gibson decided to quit her job and shoot 365 portraits for the campaign.
Besides the obvious figures from the decades-long fight like Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers and Rosa Parks, Gibson includes athletes like Arthur Ashe, writers like Toni Morrison, and even entertainers like Béyoncé, who sang the national anthem for Obama’s second inauguration. The mini Queen Bey has the same doe eyes and wears the same hoop earrings, as big as her face is chubby.
In March 2014, Gibson expanded her project for Women’s History Month. A little girl sports Frida Kahlo’s monobrow, while another, donning the pearls of the first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has clearly had a recent visit from the tooth fairy.
This simple project that started on the internet now has a whole line of products available, from a book and calendar to a “Because of Them, We Can” t-shirt.
