It started out in the 1980s with Van Zan Frater - a Texan who moved to LA. Driving around in South Central, he got out to use a payphone. A dozen teenagers from a street gang approached him, one struck him and knocked him to the ground. As he felt a gun held to his head, cocked, with the members encouraging the teenager to take Van Zan's life, he acted.
He turned around, looked back at the boy with the gun eye-to-eye and said "Jesus is my homeboy and don't you know that Jesus is your homeboy too?"
The boy withdrew the gun from Van Zan's head and he left relatively unharmed. After talking to his friends about this incredible story, they encouraged him to spread the word. They created a silk screen print of this famous image, which was lost in 1994.During the Rodney King riots, the printing store was broken into and the design was thought lost. This was not the case. Years later, when two men in the fashion trade found the prints at an odds and ends store, they fell in love with it and started printing the tees themselves.
Van Zan saw the shirts pop up in People and connected with those two and the rest is history.
Purchase your homeboy shirts here: www.jesusismyhomeboy.com
