OXFORD WHITE BUCKS | AN AMERICAN CLASSIC | FEAT. LEROI JONES & THE KID IN WHITE BUCK SHOES


OXFORD/DERBY | WHITE BUCKS
Source: 1957 Time Capsule


I saw white bucks being worn. And I’d read (again, Esquire?) that that’s what college kids were wearing. And also that they wore them dirty. Dirty? That was weird. But I bought a pair. And a couple of corny people remarked on the white shoes how dumb they were. (They bought them a year or so later and wore them until they really were dumb!). 

One Negro, B.P., a yellow stuck-up nee-grow from way back actually took the lead in kicking dirt on the shoes. He thought it would make me mad. What made me mad was the idea that this turkey would kick dirt on my shoes. But the result was what I really desired. At least I knew that was supposed to be hip, so I didn’t really mind. In fact I treated it like they were just doing work for me, saving me the work, of having to dirty them myself. 

I even ran around the track with them after school at track practice to show the stupid buggers that I wanted them dirty. And what was so satisfying was that these very dudes was the kind of stiff five-and-ten-cent Ivy Leaguer types who a few years later would have to have them a pair of such shoes.

AMIRI BARAKA
From THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LEROI JONES (Lawrence Hill Books, 1984)


1957 | Pat Boone
Pat's Big Hits (London Records)

1957 | Pat Boone
PAT 7" EP (London/DOT)

1959 | Pat Boone signs his shoes for charity
Photo by Ralph Morse
Source: LIFE

PARENTAL ADVISORY
Pat Boone?? Won't happen again and Henry Rollins said it better anyway:

Humor without malice is like a Pat Boone record on eleven.

[from: Smile, You're Travelling - 2.13.61, 2000]


1959 | Pat Boone's shoes | 
Photo by Ralph Morse | Source: LIFE |


 

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