Ben Rapalee ’06 has watched the message—“Stop Genocide in Sudan”—on his group’s T-shirts spread across the nation. The shirts have turned up in Newsweek, Teen magazine, rallies across the country and on famous people such as U.S. Senator Barack Obama.

“It just turns up everywhere,” says Rapalee. “T-shirts are an incredibly powerful way to spread a message.”

When the T-shirts were first designed in fall 2004 by Keara Duggan (CMC ’05), head of the five-college Peace and Justice Coalition, they were hand-printed at a cost of $3 per T-shirt and sold for $10, with profits going to the International Rescue Committee for the people in Sudan.

In early 2005, several student groups from The Claremont Colleges merged to form Students Against Genocide and expand the effort with a Web site that served as a middleman between a T-shirt company—sweatshop-free of course—and organizations that wanted to buy the shirts to sell for fundraisers. “We were really actively seeking to do something that was efficient,” says Rapalee. Individuals and organizations buy the shirts for $6.15-$8.20, based on quantity, and typically sell them for $10 to $12. With sales taking off in spring 2006, the group has sold more than 28,000 T-shirts in nearly every state, the United Kingdom and a number of Canadian provinces, says Rapalee. That adds up to donations of somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 for organizations lending support to the people of Sudan, he estimates.

“From an advertising-marketing perspective … our organization is basically a T-shirt business,” says Rapalee, who works for a management consulting firm in Los Angeles. “It would be great to get a billboard in Times Square or something, but we could never afford to do that. So our approach is to let the message spread itself—through other people who choose to put on a T-shirt.”

Students Against Genocide is committed to raising awareness and encouraging a more effective response to the genocide in Darfur, a western region of the war-torn African nation of Sudan, where government-sponsored militias have killed more than 400,000 and displaced more than 2.5 million civilians. Students across the United States have come together in protest, garnering attention on campuses that brings back memories of the South African apartheid divestment movement of the 1980s.

“Though many would like to think of them as a relic of the past, human rights atrocities continue unabated,” says Danny Cahir (CMC ’05), one of the founders of Students Against Genocide. “We hoped to play whatever role we could in awakening the world from its collective slumber. I truly believe that the international community has a will to help; the only question is whether this will is stronger than the desire to wear rose-tinted glasses.”

Cahir was touched by the issue in large part due to Claremont McKenna College Professor John Roth ’62, director of the Center for the Study of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights. “Anyone who had a class with him could not help but be inspired,” says Cahir.

“People really do care about issues like this, but many of them don’t have the time or inclination to go out and do more traditional forms of activism, like letter-writing, organizing events, attending rallies, etc.,” says Rapalee. “But putting on a T-shirt—anyone can do that. … It helps educate people. It’s a good rallying tool, and it’s making a contribution to the people of Darfur. … It’s an easy and effective way to help.”

Nora Petty ’07, who ran the Genocide Awareness Committee, which is now part of Students Against Genocide, was in Vermont this summer and saw the T-shirt in the Burlington Free Press on organizers of a Darfur rally. Two high school students organized the “Vermont Speaks Up” rally that attracted 300 people; they had sold more than 2,000 T-shirts before the rally with profits going to the World Food Program. “When I arrived in Burlington for the rally, I was so excited to see bunches of people on the street wearing the shirts,” says Petty. “They said at (their) school, it’s almost impossible to go into any classroom without seeing someone wearing the shirt.”

“… When we originally started selling the T-shirts on the 5-Cs, I don’t think any of us thought they would travel so far. … It amazes me that with the use of the Internet, student activists can communicate and share resources across the country. The ‘Stop Genocide in Sudan’ T-shirts have acted as a symbol of solidarity and a tool for education. When I wear my shirt at home, I expect to talk to at least a handful of people about Darfur.”

To purchase a T-shirt or to find out more about Students Against Genocide, visit the Web site: www.studentsagainstgenocide.org.