Lastly, the clothesline display is to educate society and promote awareness about the extent of violent crimes against women.
[2] Artist Rachel Carey-Harper came up with the idea of hanging color-coded t-shirts on a clothesline in a public place to gain recognition of the issue after hearing that while 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam War, there were 51,000 women killed around the same time by men who claimed to love them.
She brought the concept and design to a group of women on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which started The Clothesline Project in 1990.
Many of the women had personally experienced violence, and Carey-Harper wanted to find an unprecedented, creative way of educating others on this matter.
[3] The earliest project displayed 31 shirts in Hyannis, Massachusetts as part of the annual "Take Back the Night" March and Rally in October 1990.
[7] Organizing a project requires a lot of dedication and a strong desire to educate others of the effect of violence against women.