Pinback Button, “Sounds Like Bull Shit to Me”

Late 20th century

This pinback button’s design is as plain as its message, “sounds like Bull Shit to me.” On a white background, four lines of lettering alternate between red and black. The button belonged to Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), a journalist whose piercing questions called out racial and gender discrimination, among other inequities. Known as the First Lady of the Black Press, Payne moved from her native Chicago to Washington, DC in 1952 to cover national and international news for the preeminent African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender. She collected political buttons over the course of her pioneering career.