This robe belonged to Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney (1926-2018), author and leading civil rights advocate in Seattle, Washington. He served as pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, one of the largest and oldest Black churches in the Pacific Northwest, from 1958 to 1998 and again from 2005 to 2008. As a highly visible public figure, McKinney was conscious of the meaning behind his clothing and intentionally forged his identity as an African American leader in Seattle. This robe was made by Henri O'Bryant, a Black designer who started a uniform and church vestment company in Los Angeles in the 1940s. In the 1980s there was a national movement among Black Baptist congregations to buy their church clothing exclusively from O’Bryant—to support his business and provide jobs for young people in South Central L.A.