Clothing Release Inspired by Andy Payne

Andy Hartley Payne (November 16, 1907 – December 1977) was the winner of the Trans-American Footrace staged in 1928. Put together by the route 66 Association and sly promoter, Charles Pyle. The race was over 3,000 miles across the country. However, despite how grueling it was many reporters did not take the competition too seriously and fondly dubbed it the 'Bunion Race'.

That didn’t dissuade Andy Payne though with a $25,000 cash prize at stake he had an opportunity to save his family farm and provide for his family. Throughout high school it was reported Andy Payne practiced by running to school 5 miles from his family farm.

Payne, a member of the Cherokee tribe, grew up in Foyil, Oklahoma which was one of the check point towns along the route of the race. His father was a friend of Will Rogers and had worked on the ranch of the latter's family during his youth.

The footrace was organized to promote U.S. Route 66 which had recently been built as a simple, well-paved route across the country, and dubbed "the main street of America".

When the race started there were over 275 runners but by the third day over half dropped out. However, Andy Payne kept pushing forward at a formidable pace. He ran the 3,423.5 mile (5,509.6 km) route from Los Angeles to New York City, much of it along U.S. Route 66, in 573 hours, 4 minutes, 34 seconds, (23 days) averaging 6 miles per hour over an 84 day staged run.

Andy Payne was elected clerk to the supreme court in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and was reelected 5 times afterwards. {PBS documentary on the Great American Race of 1928}

He died in December 1977 at the age of 70.

This particular design pays homage to Andy Hartley Payne who had the courage and perseverance to endure when others could not.

Native Mount Rushmore Design:

Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865).[2] The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres

Mount Rushmore is controversial among Native Americans because the United States seized the area from the Lakota tribe after the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Treaty of Fort Laramie from 1868 had previously granted the Black Hills to the Lakota in perpetuity. Originally known to the Lakota Sioux as "The Six Grandfathers",[9] the mountain was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885.

Members of the American Indian Movement led an occupation of the monument in 1971, naming it "Mount Crazy Horse". Among the participants were young activists, grandparents, children and Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer, who planted a prayer staff atop the mountain. Lame Deer said the staff formed a symbolic shroud over the presidents' faces "which shall remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled."[47]

In 2004, the first Native American superintendent of the park, Gerard Baker, was appointed. Baker has stated that he will open up more "avenues of interpretation", and that the four presidents are "only one avenue and only one focus."[48]

The Crazy Horse Memorial is being constructed elsewhere in the Black Hills to commemorate the famous Native American leader as a response to Mount Rushmore. It is intended to be larger than Mount Rushmore and has the support of Lakota chiefs; the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation has rejected offers of federal funds. However, this memorial is likewise the subject of controversy, even within the Native American community.

As you might imagine, the Mount Rushmore shirt plays on the controversy.