The text hits you straight across: I AM BLACK HISTORY, laid out in three rows of blocky slab-serif letters. Red on top, yellow in the middle, green at the bottom. Right in the centre of the word sits the Africa continent, solid black, slotting perfectly where the O should be. Its a clean visual idea and it lands without needing anything else around it.
Four colours total, the Pan-African flag palette plus black, and the stitching leans on flat tatami fill inside each letter. The Africa silhouette is one dense black fill with no outline fuss. I kept the spacing tight so the whole design reads as a single unit, even at the 3.5-inch size. Wilcom pulled the satin column edging on the letterforms clean, so the edges hold sharp whether youre going small or running the full 7.49-inch wide on a back panel.
I first made this for a diaspora cultural festival where they needed staff shirts that said something real without being a paragraph. The organiser wanted the Africa shape in there specifically. And since that run I get messages from community groups, youth programme co-ordinators and church mums ordering it for february events and juneteenth celebrations. Its become one of those versatile pieces that works all year once you pull it off the calendar context.
Stitch on black, charcoal or navy cotton and those flag colours sing. Skip pale or white fabric here, the colours read fine but lose that high-contrast punch that makes this design worth it. Use a tearaway stabiliser on woven cotton shirts, switch to cutaway if youre running it on a fleece hoodie or sweatshirt material. The 26k stitch count on the biggest size is pretty managable but keep your hoop tension firm so the Africa fill doesnt drift.
What people are using this design for
A starting point. The design works for plenty more than just this list, this is what folks have stitched it onto most.
- Black history month community event shirtsStitch the 6-inch size on a black cotton crew neck for a black history month programme tee that organisers can hand out.
- Diaspora cultural festival volunteer uniformsPop the largest 7.49-inch across a staff hoodie back panel for a diaspora festival so the text carries across the crowd.
- Youth empowerment programme tote bagsEmbroider the 4-inch version on a charcoal canvas tote for youth members of a community empowerment group.
- February celebration hoodies and sweatshirtsRun it on a navy sweatshirt for february celebrations and the red-yellow-green palette pops without extra decoration.
- Juneteenth gathering crew teesSew the medium size on a dark cotton tee for a juneteenth gathering when you want something that reads as a statement.
- Church and congregation event apparelUse the smaller 3.5-inch on a chest pocket for congregation event shirts where a subtle placement works better.
- Pan-African student organisation merchStitch onto canvas tote bags for a pan-african student group to carry books and hand out at campus fairs.
- Canvas tote bags for community librariesEmbroider on a dark linen tote for a community library programme and pair it with a simple event name below in chain stitch.
Dimensions
5 sizes included. Stitch counts shown for the largest colorway.
| Size (in) | Stitches |
|---|---|
| 3.50 × 2.14 in | 7,783 |
| 4.50 × 2.76 in | 11,310 |
| 5.49 × 3.37 in | 15,896 |
| 6.49 × 3.98 in | 21,055 |
| 7.49 × 4.60 in | 26,773 |
Files & Formats
Eight machine formats included in one zip. Whichever your machine reads, its in the pack.
Plus a color chart for thread matching. See full format guide.
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About the artist
Reyazul Masud Riham, hand-drawing every design on this site
Every design on Re Embroidery is hand-digitized by one person. Each file gets sketched, color-matched, and stitch-tested on real fabric before it earns a place in the shop. No team. No auto-conversion from images. Just slow, deliberate work, sometimes three or four days per design.
That's the joy I work for.
The hard part is finding my designs re-uploaded and resold elsewhere. So when you buy from Re Embroidery, you're paying one real person for the file you're about to download. That matters.
