Jackson Free Press

Community activist and four-time Democratic National Convention delegate Kelly Jacobs recently received the honor of having one of 10 dresses she made in support of President Barack Obama put on display at the New York Historical Society Museum. Ever since John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004, Jacobs has made numerous political dresses, including ones that feature campaign material and portraits of political figures such as Kerry, Obama and current Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Jacobs has 10 Obama dresses and seven Hillary Clinton dresses, among her other political dresses.


Jacobs, 57, currently lives in Hernando but has also lived in Germany, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Nevada. When she was young, she moved because of her father's job as a private government contractor for the U.S. Department of Education, and when she was older, she traveled for her own love of traveling. Jacobs met and married her husband, Paul, while living in California. The couple has three children: son Chase, 26, and Graham, 27, and Paul's daughter and Jacobs' stepdaughter, Jennifer, 35.



It was through her children that Jacobs eventually ended up being involved in politics. While her sons were attending school in Hernando, Jacobs became involved with the Parent Teachers Association and attended school-board meetings. At one of these meetings, a school-board member asked school administrators to ban "Goosebumps" and "Babysitter's Club" books from the school, on the grounds that "'Goosebumps' causes boys to become violent and 'Babysitter's Club' causes girls to get pregnant," Jacobs told the Jackson Free Press. When the school actually banned the books, Jacobs organized protests.



"I got articles printed in local papers about what the school was doing and held meetings with other parents who were as outraged about what the school was doing as I was, and eventually, the issue made it onto TV news," Jacobs said. "Later, parents started contacting me about other issues in the Hernando and Desoto school systems, and I found myself becoming a children's advocate just through answering my phone (and then helping them)."

She got involved in racism, sexism and disability issues in the school, and ended up filing more than 50 complaints with the Federal Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, which she said eventually resulted in the Desoto school system being investigated and found guilty of discrimination, along with two other local schools.



Jacobs' school activism served as an entry point to political activism. In 2004, she made her first political dress to support John Kerry, fashioning it out of three large plastic "Vote Kerry" yard signs, which she wore while campaigning. She made her first fabric dress to support President Obama out of two flags bearing his campaign's "Hope" message. She uses a website called spoonflower.com, which allows users to design their own custom fabrics. She uses the work of Pete Souza, the official photographer for President Obama, for many of her projects. Jacobs doesn't sell the dresses for profit and only uses them for campaigning.



"It's easy to find all kinds of clothing with things like flags on it, but I wanted to go beyond that to make a statement," Jacobs said. "Democrats love the president, but you just can't find a lot of merchandise supporting him these days, especially around here in Mississippi. I take special care not to obscure the picture of the person displayed on any of the clothing I make, because that's what draws people's attention and makes them like these items so much—being able to see the image and the message it tells."

Her green Barack and Michelle Obama dress, which she wore on the Monday of this year's DNC, appeared on the Vogue and CNN Instagrams, and the dress that is going to the museum appeared on the front page of the New York Times on July 28.